Kathryn & Dean's Non-Traditional Forest Wedding

Kathryn and Dean met in Year 7, started dating in Year 12, and twelve years later, Dean proposed on a cruise ship balcony with a custom salt-and-pepper diamond ring. They married at Kinglake Forest Adventure Camp, a former school camp turned wedding venue, in a ceremony tucked into the trees, followed by a full weekend with their wedding party. Their day was beautifully captured by photographer Hayley Hickman and videographer Dean Atherton. This is Kathryn’s story, in her own words.

We met sometime in Year 7 and, although we started as friends, in our later high school years this changed to ‘friends who sometimes kissed at parties’ until we officially started dating in year 12 when he asked me if I “wanted to try a relationship”.

Over the years we grew up, bought our first house together, started adopting fur-babies, and then suddenly it had been nearly 12 years. This is when we got engaged. Dean got down on one knee on a balcony while on a cruise. He pulled out the most stunning custom-made salt-and-pepper diamond engagement ring that I had zero clue about. We then jumped straight into wedding planning so we could get married just over one year later.

When we started planning our wedding, we wanted to tick off the venue first. There were a few things that guided our dream-venue search:

Having enough on-site accommodation for all of our guests
A flexible end time
Food we actually liked
Oh, and “I always thought it would be cool to have a ceremony in the middle of a forest?!”

Instantly, this made the search pretty tricky. I spent an endless amount of time Google-searching, but nothing quite hit the mark. We looked at one venue that was stunning but didn’t quite hit the mark for the amount of accommodation or a whimsical forest. Then, we somehow came across a venue in Kinglake West called Forest Weddings.

In homage to our meet cute, it was actually Kinglake Forest Adventures – a school camp turned wedding venue with enough accommodation for 120 guests. At our tour, we instantly fell in love. The warmth of the our guide Michelle; the windy path leading through a forest into a clearing with built-in bench seats for the ceremony; a huge festoon-light-strung open hangar for a reception suitable for all weather conditions; DIY-hybrid with plenty of decor in storage for us to choose from; the ability to book for the night before so we could spend the night with our wedding party and not travel anywhere on the day; and enough cabins and group bunk-bed rooms so we could spread out our 65ish guests; a separate newlywed suite; space for food trucks.

Bizarrely, soon after we booked one of their last available March dates, they announced they were closing the books for any future wedding bookings, with ours taking place in their final months. It was like it was waiting for us!

We booked the venue for the night before for our wedding party and us, too. It turned the one day into a full weekend and meant we didn’t have to travel the day of. It also meant I could have the bunk bed sleepover of my dreams with my bridal party the night before.

And, for those asking what came after the venue booking? For us, it was somehow my DRESS! I knew I didn’t want a traditional wedding dress, but was open to whatever that would look like. Suddenly, after spending the day with a friend, I found myself popping into a Zimmermann store by myself. After frantically messaging photos to my sisters and mum and sweating just a little bit (a lot), I left with a 100% silk two-piece brown set that was straight off the rack. It was the only outfit I tried on and it was still a year out, but I knew it would be the one with a few minor tweaks that I had done closer to the day by Mel Rose Couture.

The trickiest thing was keeping it a secret for a whole year. Though, I ended up blabbing to my would-be wedding party, a few close friends, my eyebrow lady and a random early-20s boy working in a surf shop.

From then, we ticked off wedding vendors with a few simple rules in mind:

The day was about us two and what we loved
If the tradition didn’t feel like us, it could go in the bin.

We didn’t have a strict colour palette, but knew we wanted to inject some colour and fun, and just anything that felt like us. Same went for the vibe; the forest was a vibe in itself, and we just wanted everything to be an extension of us.

The only time I started panicking around a clash in vibes, was Dean’s suit appointment at YSG Tailors. I convinced Dean to let me come to the first few appointments and just not the fittings so it could still be a surprise. The panic occurred at the second appointment, when it came to finalising his choices of fabric, buttons, cut and everything in between. We went in knowing he wanted a green suit. Dean’s Best Man, Daniel notoriously loves black. They started enthusiastically talking about a contrasting black lapel. With my earthy, whimsical brown dress flashing behind me eyes, I butted in and said that I didn’t think black was the vibe. The co-founder Ryan, an absolute legend, instantly caught on to my hesitation and instructed the boys to go outside. He looked at me and said, “Show me your dress.” I pulled up my phone and he knew exactly what was up and started pulling out a whole pile of new fabric options that still nailed Dean’s green suit brief without being too stark against my dress. Still keeping my choice a secret, he called the boys back in and took control of showing them their new options. Honestly, it still impresses me to this day. Dean finished off his outfit with RM Williams boots and bowtie from OTAA.

Once we locked down Dean’s suit, we then moved onto the rest of the wedding party. Dean had 5 groomsmen, and we decided to save some money by buying their outfits off-the-rack. As it was difficult to find a complementary green pant, we landed on a textured white shirt (the same one as Dean’s), neutral-taupe pants, and a muted green tie from OTAA. We told them to wear any brown boots or shoes they already had.

On the other hand, I had a wedding party of 6. My three sisters, and three of my best friends (one being a bridesman). For us, it was more about who we wanted to be by our side rather than rules around numbers, even parties, and rules around genders. My bridesman, Lochie wore the same shirt and pants as the groomsmen, with a different floral bow tie. We asked my dad, a semi-retired cobbler and leather worker, to handmake belts for all the boys with their initials too, which was a really special touch.

For the 5 bridesmaids, I just gave them a mood board on vibes and colour palettes, and let them pick a dress that they felt comfortable in, plus any neutral shoes they already owned. Many have a fear of wearing the same dress as others to an event, so why should a bridal party be any different? My shoes were a pale pink pair from Loeffler Randall.

We both absolutely love Japanese food, more so since our travels to Japan. When we stumbled upon the food truck Kimu Korean Japanese Eatery, we knew we had found our food vendor. The founder, Teha grew up in Kyoto (one of our favourite places) and also used to be a chef at Vue de Monde (a bougie restaurant we dined at once after yearning to try it for so many years), so it felt like the stars had aligned.

Our love of Japan also tied into Dean’s wedding band. Dean has always wanted a Kintsukuroi wedding band. This historical technique is seen in pottery, where a broken piece is put back together by gold. Father-son duo at Mr Fisch, who also custom-made my stunning engagement and wedding band, are one of the only jewellers who can do this. It’s a piece of art.

We were super gobsmacked at the first and last wedding expo we visited, after speaking to a florist with a $5K minimum. I strategically searched for a Kinglake-local florist without a minimum spend, which is how I found Sasha from Mountain Daisy Florist. I sent her a list and photos of all the different (and colourful) flowers I loved, and she absolutely nailed it. To keep costs down, we went pretty minimal. Bridal bouquet (the most beautiful I have ever seen), arbour, buttonholes for Dean and his groomsmen, and a small amount of greenery along the lights surrounding the dance floor. We also had corsages made for our mums and buttonholes for our dads, plus smaller versions for our two older flower kids. Our younger flower girls held flower wands, handmade by my sister Rachel, instead of tossing petals. My wedding party all carried a single flower down the aisle, which were tied with ribbons.

Our venue staff offered to set up flowers for the reception, plus said they would move the arbour flowers too. So, we picked our own reception and wedding party flowers at a flower farm a few days before the wedding, which was super affordable and made for a cute relaxing date before the big day.

I could rave about every single one of our vendors, which is such a wonderful feeling. From my incredible hair and makeup team, Sian Monique Makeup and Ellie Marie Hair Studio, to celebrant Zach Bruton the perfect “just a regular guy you could have a beer with” celebrant, to Taylor Piggott who sung us down the aisle to the dreamiest acoustic version of Stargazing by Miles Smith, to Boss Bar Hire and their delicious cocktail kegs, and last but but definitely not least our photographer Hayley Hickman and videographerDean Atherton who couldn’t have done a better job at capturing our day (plus were an absolute pleasure to hang out with). I could go on forever to talk about each one of them.

My advice for couples planning their wedding is simple but often lost in the chaos of wedding planning. Don’t forget that the day is about you as a couple, what you like, and who you want to spend the day with. You don’t have to follow any trends or traditions that don’t feel right. Oh, and when you’re finalising your guest list, think about the following. Have you seen or spoken to them in the past year? Have you met them more than a few times? Would you invite them over for dinner tomorrow? If you got stuck with them at the bar for half an hour during the reception, how would you feel? What if you locked eyes with them while you walked down the aisle?

A few other non-traditional things we did:

both my mum and dad got ready with us – as a girl-dad of four girls, it didn’t feel right for my dad to not be there
we didn’t have matching ‘getting ready’ outfits
our reception entrance song was “Down with the Sickness” by Disturbed
we had tables but no seating chart, but we did have room charts for the school camp style accommodation
both my parents walked me down the aisle
we skipped any official dances
we had no wedding cars (though I did take a golf buggy to the ceremony site, which wasn’t seen by the guests!)
we had a Krispy Kreme doughnut tower for dessert, plus a mini bento cake (from Galvinchi Desserts) that Dean and I ate with forks
we spent half an hour after our ceremony in the forest to soak up the beautiful space before we split for photos and the reception
a content creator for just the few hours while we had different photos taken, so we could see the set up before it got too messy
Dean and his groomsmen wore funny socks with swear words
we invited everyone (not just unwed females) onto the dance floor to do a bouquet toss, which was hilarious (especially because I threw the first onto the roof by accident)