Heidi and Richard

Heidi and Richard held their boho inspired celebration in their backyard. Living right near Cedar Creek Falls meant their backyard was pretty gorgeous in the first place and lent itself to the calm and nature inspired feel that Heidi and Richard wanted for their wedding day.

Heidi tells of how they met. “We met at a college party back when we were both at University. After our first meeting Richard and his friend cooked up an elaborate plan to get me to their college ball, sitting at their table and yes you guessed it…right next to Richard.”

Photographs are by Tanya of Love Bytes who has captured the softness and relaxed nature of Heidi and Richard’s day so beautifully.

Heidi explains the reasons the the style of the day. She says “I have never been one to fantasize about my wedding day but I did always know that I wanted something personal, small and not to ‘weddingy’. I am quite passionate about sustainability and everything retro and antique so that is where I started and the ideas grew from there. Nearly everything you see is either a family heirloom or was hand picked over months from various different op shops and peoples living rooms. Having a DIY theme and a newborn baby also created many opportunities for people to lend a hand. The memory of how much our friends and family helped make this wedding happen will be with us always. When I looked around at the guests and at everything we had achieved by the end of that day it wasn’t just our wedding but everyone owned a little part of the day. To know we are so loved and have so many special people in our lives definitely made it for us.”

Amanda wore a gown from Ultra Suite  and shoes from Whittmans (where the scarf tie was replaced with ribbon). Heidi says ” We have lots of beautiful stories but I am going to have to go with a funny one.

At around 10am I receive a phone call from my Mum asking what time the ceremony started, to which I replied 2pm. She then went on to say that my sister in law was sure the invite said 2:30pm and that maybe I should check. I then had to turn the study upside down looking for a spare invite which much to my amusement had the ceremony starting at 2:30pm. I then had to ring Richard to notify him that we the start time wrong and to tell the celebrant that she would have to wait around an extra half an hour. We both had a good laugh which I think was great for those pre-wedding nerves. At least we were early!”

Emma from Bossy Hair Windsor (0401916236) did the girls hair while Carla from Project Bombshell styled the makeup.

Heidi and Richard chose Andy Williams Park in Yugar for their wedding ceremony.  ” Once we decided to get married we agreed that where we got married and hold the reception needed to be somewhere that felt special to us. We both grew up in the country and love being surrounded by nature so when we went out to Yugar one afternoon to ‘get away from it all’ we decided it would do the job perfectly. We also wanted to be able to include the 4th member of our family ‘Layla’ and this place was dog friendly. ”

Heidi walked down the aisle to Bon Iver’s “Perth”. She recalls ” This decision I left entirely up to Richard. It was a beautiful surprise and funnily enough the song was on the one CD I chose to play while I was getting ready that morning! ”

Heidi and Richard were married by Margaret McLeod.

The bridesmaids wore gowns created by Jaye from Fabled and True. Richard and his groomsmen were outfitted by Always Habit.

Heidi remarks “My vision for the wedding wasn’t always the easiest concept to get your head around but Richard just trusted me and chipped away at the massive ‘to do list’. I feel extremely lucky that I can say the wedding was a team effort where we both put in as much as each other.  ”

Of their photographer, Heidi says “She is absolutely awesome! Tanya has photographed many important events for us now and I continue to be blown away at how she manages to just ‘get it’, who we are and what we love. Apart from requesting at least one nice family photo I left the rest up to her so as you can see she has some amazing ideas.  She is also a pro at creating a comfortable environment where you don’t feel like you have to pose. Which was really important for me as I am not too fond of things being staged and fake.

The only instructions we had to take was ‘just keep doing what you’re doing’. Loved the whole experience and am now having the tough job of choosing which photos to put up on the walls.” The couple’s son Archer was very much present on the wedding day.

After photographs, the couple and their guests returned to their own backyard for the reception. “Even though I have never been much of a ‘wedding dreamer’ I always pictured myself getting married at my childhood farm. We no longer have this property so having the reception in the backyard of our first family home was a wonderful alternative”. Heidi and Richard had their dinner catered by their favourite local Thai restaurant Siam Garden The Gap .

They chose a rainbow wedding cake from Cake on Bleu. Heidi and Richard kept their guest list small explaining, “We were really strict with the guest list which was really hard but having a smaller more intimate group of people was key to the atmosphere of our wedding. It is also great to be able to say that we absolutely enjoyed every person on that list. ”

The reception decorations were handmade. Heidi says “This was a DIY wedding so nearly everything you see was made by ourselves, family and friends. The napkins were sewn by my Mum, the candle jars were collected by friends and washed by myself and best friend with our then 4 month old babies on our laps, beautiful wooden signs were made by my Pop and painted the day before the wedding by myself. Those are only a couple of examples but I don’t want to go on and on!”

Heidi says “I feel so proud at what a small impact our wedding had on the environment. It also made it that much more special to look around and know that you either made that, recycled it or adopted it. Very little was new and if it was, it was hired. ”

Heidi and Richard decided to have a “familymoon” instead of the traditional honeymoon. Heidi explains, “We invited all our guests to Coolum the week after the wedding. This was where we had booked our ‘familymoon’. It was a fantastic idea as it really reduced the stress of having to spend quality time with everyone on the day of the wedding. ”

Congratulations Heidi and Richard! Thank you for sharing your wedding day with us! Thank you also to Tanya of Love Bytes for sharing today’s images!