Get ready for all the festival vibes! When Alana and Thomas met while backpacking through South America, sparks flew over a hilarious movie night in a Chilean hostel, and fate kept bringing them back together time and time again. Fast forward to their fun festival wedding at Forest Weddings in Victoria, and these two lovebirds were ready to party! With colourful florals, disco balls, and a reception full of 90s dance hits, Alana and Thomas turned the forest into their personal festival of love and laughter.

While backpacking through South America, Alana and Thomas kept finding each other at the same hostels – and soon found themselves enamoured with one another! “Our first encounter was during a movie night at our hostel in Santiago, Chile. A ridiculous film was on, titled The Shallows (with Blake Lively), and of all the people in the room, we were heckling it and bouncing laughs off each other. Then, a few days later, by chance, we ended up in the same hostel in San Pedro de Atacama in the desert,” Alana explained. “Thomas noticed a pair of leggings hanging out to dry and remembered they were mine. He claims he got quite excited at the prospect of meeting again. We then embarked on a group trip across the salt flats of Bolivia, and the rest is history!”

Eight months after their baby was born, Alana and Thomas had their first night out on the town since becoming parents. What was supposed to be a romantic weekend getaway in the city became a catchup with old friends sipping cocktails all afternoon. “As we crossed over one of the bridges above the Yarra in Melbourne, Thomas suddenly pulled me aside and proposed. A bunch of young, drunk guys came up and congratulated us! It was quite funny.”

Thomas, being the Dutch man he is, wore a classic blue suit with white runners. “They love the formal pants and sneakers combo over there,” Alana shared.

His wedding party was made up of his friends and brother, who all flew in from the Netherlands. All the groomsmen wore an orange bowtie and matching suspenders to symbolise the Netherlands – it is their national colour after all!

Alana hadn’t planned on wearing a traditional white wedding dress – their fun festival wedding was full of colour, and she wanted to match! But she went to an appointment with her Maid of Honour just for fun and LOVED the first one she tried on. “I bought it and made quite a few alterations, like removing the train and shortening it to ankle length. I wore sequinned, colourful, floral ankle boots. My earrings were hot pink, pressed flower earrings from Les Couronnes de Victoire.”

In her wedding party, Alana had her Maid of Honour and five bridesmaids – one of which flew all the way from the Netherlands just to be there! “I wanted them to be bright and colourful, so they all wore different dresses that were a mix of hot pink, orange, lilac and yellow! A few of them were sequined or had some kind of embellishment.”

They made a weekend of their festival wedding, staying at Forest Weddings for three nights to minimise travel – especially when so many of their guests have kids as well. “It’s a beautiful location in Kinglake, Victoria, in the middle of the bush. Mountain ash trees tower over the property, and it is super laid back.”

Alana’s dad walked her down the bush-lined aisle as their friend, Laura de Elvira, played a flamenco guitar rendition of “Chan Chan” by The Buena Vista Social Club. “She’d adapted this version just for us!”

All of these incredible, fun florals were done by the talented florist from Where The Wild Things Grow in Belgrave. “I worked in a cafe prior to the wedding and used to make coffee for the florist. We got to chatting one day, and she offered to do my wedding flowers for me, even though she usually sells plants and their accessories. She procured the most AMAZING florals! They were hot pink, orange, and yellow; which is exactly what I asked for.”

They wanted the ceremony to be short and sweet – but still represent their relationship in how relaxed and colourful it was. “One of our best friends was the celebrant and he did an amazing job. We had originally intended to include readings, but then decided against it at the last minute, instead allowing friends and family time to contribute during the speeches.”

One of Alana’s favourite shots from the day was the champagne pop with the wedding party, with the bursting colours and cheering party. “There’s a shot of the bridal party in the forest, where Thomas is spraying champagne in the air. That has to be the best one,” she shared. “I loved the overall colourfulness of it all. My bridesmaids looked absolutely fantastic and just shone so bright! We both loved walking through the forest with our bridal party after the ceremony and spraying champagne for some great shots.”

Rachael V Photography captured the day alongside this stunning couple, and they couldn’t have been happier with the results! “Rachael was AMAZING. She was so much fun and it just felt like having another friend at the wedding. She made it all even more enjoyable, and I don’t think the day would have been the same without her. Her style was so relaxed, and she kept laughing at me constantly holding a drink in my hand and ruining the shots, haha.”

A lot of the decor for the reception was DIY’d by Alana and Thomas – including these fun disco balls and the colourful strips of fabric that framed the top of the dance floor! “We also re-used all the flowers to keep the colourful vibe going. We had a playlist ready to go once the band finished, and it was a great mix of all our favourite tunes and heavily laden with 90s dance tracks.”

To say thanks for attending, Alana and Thomas created stubby holders with Boozies that had their old adventure tour company’s logo and names as a fun nod to how they met and their life together. “We ran the company together in Georgia, Eastern Europe, for two years before the pandemic caused us to move to Australia. Instead of a guestbook, I bought a whole lot of unused vintage travel postcards from Etsy and had people write messages to us and ‘post’ them in a little mailbox I had set up.”

As their entrance song, “Crazy Little Thing Called Loved” by Queen, played, Alana and Thomas danced their way into the reception with their wedding party. “What was special about our wedding was so many of Thomas’s family and friends flew over just to be at our wedding. It made it all the more fun to have them be there in person.”

Alannah did most of the wedding planning and thrived while doing it! “I love researching and Googling and checking out different vendors. Looking at other weddings and seeing the amazing ideas and creativity that has gone into them was great, and just sharing things with each other about little tidbits we’d like to add to ours.”

A standout vendor for this couple was the team at Forest Weddings and their dedication to making the day as enjoyable as possible! “The staff at the venue were incredible. They went out of their way to make our weekend as fun and stress-free as possible and couldn’t have been more pleasant to deal with. I honestly couldn’t recommend it more.”

The top five things that made their festival wedding so fun were:

“1. The colour and festivity,

2. Going nuts on the dance floor to 90s dance hits and being the last ones standing,

3. Having family and friends fly from the Netherlands to be there (including all of Thomas’s groomsmen and 1 of my bridesmaids),

4. The location of the ceremony – being in the middle of the forest in lush Victorian bushland surroundings was magical,

5. The band – so much fun!”

Their first dance was to “Riverside” by Adelaide band Lowrider. “It was beautiful and the song is one that we grew to love together.”

Thomas’s favourite thing about their wedding was being surrounded by everyone he loved! “All my friends and family from the Netherlands were there to celebrate our love. And partying into the night to 90s dance floor bangers!”

Huge congratulations to this adventurous duo on their colourful, love-filled day! And a big thank you to Rachael V Photography for capturing every joyful moment and letting us share in this incredible story. Cheers to love, laughter, and all the 90s dance hits!