Vibrant Spring Wedding at Mimosa Wines

Riley was supposed to be delivering the weather and surf report. Instead, he got down on one knee and proposed to Georgia live on community radio, with both their families listening in. Honestly, we can’t think of a better way to interrupt the usual programming! Years after mutual friends first introduced the pair in Cronulla, their story had taken them to Byron Bay and eventually to the beautiful Far South Coast, where they celebrated with a wonderfully colourful wedding at Mimosa Wines. Matt Viesis Weddings captured all the fun and fabulous details!

Mutual friends from their hometown in Cronulla brought Riley and Georgia together, and thank goodness for that! “Years later, Riley was living up in Byron Bay, and I moved up. We met up at Mooball Pub for a beer and then Riley basically moved into my room and never left. So it was game over, haha,” Georgia shared.

Georgia’s dad was the CEO of a local community radio station where both Riley and she were no strangers to guest hosting alongside him. Riley took this habitual task as the perfect opportunity to surprise Georgia! “I had an idea of proposing live on air with both of our families present. I was supposed to say the weather/ surf report, but instead I got on one knee and proposed live on air,” Riley explained.

“We had John Veage, a well-established photographer who worked for the leader of our local newspaper, taking photos of us under the cover of the radio’s 40th anniversary. We ended up in the newspaper with a full-page spread!”

Georgia’s incredible dress was designed and created by the talented Olivia Deur in Paddington. “The dress was not really a traditional style dress, as I didn’t want a traditional white bridal dress. I saw a version of this dress worn on Alex Preisz and fell in love! With Olivia, we created my dress a little differently, with some green detailing around the top. I had the most incredible experience throughout all my dress fittings with Olivia; she really became like family throughout the process,” Georgia shared.

Her wedding party was made up of her best friends, all wearing these beautiful Damson Madder shirred dresses.

Recommended by Georgia’s cousin, Riley fell in love with the designer Umi Nori and knew he wanted his suit from them. “They are very non-traditional, with some Japanese influence. I chose a bolo tie with Australian wattle encased inside, as that is one of my favourite native flowers,” he explained.

Each of Riley’s Groomsmen wore classic black tuxedos that beautifully complemented his own look. Honourable mention to Riley’s dad, Paul, who also served as his Best Man in the wedding party!

Mimosa Wines in Bermagui was the perfect venue for Riley and Georgia. With their deep love and connection to the Far South Coast and Sapphire Coast of New South Wales, there was nowhere else they’d want to get married. “Having lived down in Merimbula and Mystery Bay, we both grew a strong love for the land, the people and the sea.”

After Georgia’s wedding party and their beautiful border collie Zeph walked down the aisle, it was finally her turn. With her dad on arm and her friend Ruby Phillips and her partner Gory Wright covering “I Won’t Let You Down” by Josh O’Keefe, it was finally time for the best part of the day! “My favourite moment was how very nervous I was about the whole lead-up to the ceremony, as I’m a nervous speaker, but as soon as Georgia walked down the aisle and midway said hello to everyone, the attendees laughed and cheered, and my nerves flew out the window,” Riley shared.

Ready to get the party started, Riley and Georgia didn’t want the ceremony to go on for too long. However, they weren’t going to rush anything, as Georgia’s dad was also their celebrant, and they wanted to live in the moment while it lasted. “The ceremony was absolutely gorgeous. We had a beautiful pond behind us as we said our vows alongside kangaroos, ducks and our very cheeky border collie, Zeph. Also, Georgia’s dad being the celebrant after giving her away was a very special bonus.”

For Georgia, the best part of their whole vibrant day was walking back up the aisle after saying I do to the love of her life and being surrounded by all their people. “The moment of walking back down the aisle after being wed and talking to everyone post-ceremony, and then the moment of just the bridal parties together taking photos and having a few drinks and laughs, was the best moment!!”

Flowers from Grandiflora in Potts Point graced every part of Riley and Georgia’s day, all thanks to the incredible Saskia! “They were absolutely incredible at organising exactly what we were after. We had mostly paper daisies, as they are one of Georgia’s favourite flowers, even better because we’ve dried all our wedding flowers out and we have them all over our house as a lovely memory,” Riley explained.

Matt Viesis Weddings captured everything Georgia and Riley on the day, and we can’t think of anyone else who could’ve caught the vibrant energy as well as he did! “Well well well our amazing photographer!!! One of our closest friends, Matt Vieses!! We honestly could not have done this day without V as our photographer. The professionalism and personal care he took on our special day meant the absolute world to us! We are so grateful to be able to look back on these photos and know that one of our best mates took them!” They shared.

“Oh, and also our videographer!!! Nick Hollman!! Nick is also one of our great friends and such an incredible artist.”

There were so many wonderful moments and details throughout Georgia and Riley’s day that we wouldn’t be surprised if they couldn’t pick out a few key ones. But luckily for us, they could!

“1 – The inclusion of close family and friends being part of our ceremony and special day.

2 – Being able to have our little fluffy child Zeph walk down the aisle.

3 – Being able to host everyone in our favourite part of the world and to show them why it’s such a special place for us and holds a deep place in our hearts.

4 – Georgia’s Dad being able to give her away and also to be the celebrant.

5 – Having attendees flying/driving all over the world / Australia just to come celebrate

6 – We styled everything ourselves; we also had Georgia’s aunties hustling the night before, making all the floral arrangements for the tables! The best piece of advice Riley and Georgia want to leave for couples doing it their own way would be this: “Take the day slow, take it all in, take in every moment and conversation as they go by way too quickly!”

Made up on the spot, a little dorky and uncoordinated is the only way Riley and Georgia could have seen their first dance go, and boy, did they have fun doing it! “We chose the song “Chandelier of Stars” by John Williamson. Riley and I have listened to John Williamson a lot throughout our travels in Australia, and we actually got so lucky to see him play live in Geelong only 2 weeks before our wedding. The day we chose for our wedding was special, as it was Georgia’s late grandmother’s birthday, but we also found out our wedding day was also John Williamson’s birthday. So it made it even more special,” they shared.