Simon and Stephanie

Simon and I were together for exactly 6 years and 6 months when we got married. We met on September 2nd 2006 and our wedding was on 2nd March, 2013. We met when I was working at the Woolshed on Hindley in Adelaide, Simon was the farm boy who picked me up over the bar! He rang me the next day at 8am and we both knew pretty soon that this would be the person we would spend the rest of our life with.

Before meeting Simon I had never really dreamed of what my wedding would look like which was lucky, as Simon definitely had a lot of wedding dreams. We always knew our wedding would be based around our life on the farm together. Our wedding was full of lots of DIY elements. I made the bouquets and buttonholes using wheat from our farm. We had framed wedding photos of our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents along the aisles in the church. Together with my mum and bridesmaids, we made honey jar bonbonniere with honey from our farm, put together the invites, and made paper confetti cones using old music and farm magazines. On the day we used both wheat and rose petals for confetti. We spent the engagement period collecting old jars, and my parents cut up and stencil printed hessian table runners. The day before the wedding, I drove around the farm getting cuttings of  various bush plants, and on the way to set up the reception venue we stopped with my bridesmaids on the side of the road to get some beautiful gumtree blossoms which involved standing on top of one of our cars!

My dress was a Pronovias that I found at Jenny and Jerry’s Bridal. I needed to have it altered and after some initial hesitation, my dressmaker did a fantastic job of creating my dream dress. We ordered the bridesmaids dresses through lightinthebox. It was daunting buying online, but after some minor alterations they ended up being perfect on the day. The colour suited the wedding perfectly, and I loved that each girl was able to choose a style which suited them. The boys wore outfits from R.M.Williams which suited the relaxed, country atmosphere of the day. My bridesmaids and I got ready in beautiful dressing gowns from Plum Pretty Sugar.

We did all of the setup for our reception the day before the wedding, with the help of our bridal party, friends and families. Surprisingly it was a relatively relaxed and enjoyable day and finished in time for myself and my bridesmaids to spend the afternoon having manicures and pedicures, together with some well-deserved bubbles, thanks to Scandal in the Clare Valley. Bungaree Station in the Clare Valley was the only reception venue we looked at, and we knew it was perfect for us. As well as having a beautiful working woolshed, there was also had accommodation available, so many of our family and friends were able to stay.

Our wedding day itself was absolutely amazing. I loved all 23 hours of it, as I was up at 6am for hair and make up, and Simon and I didn’t go to bed until about 5am on the wedding night!

Our ceremony was held at St Stephen’s, Geranium Plains, a tiny church surrounded by Simon’s farm. It was incredibly meaningful to get married in the church which Simon and his family have attended for generations. One of the best moments of the day was entering the church to see Simon with our dog, Buster, lying at his feet.

Simon tells the story that “Buster had initially faced the alter with the groomsmen, turning to lie facing down the aisle as the bus arrived. As the bridesmaids began walking down the aisle, Buster inched slightly further down as if he couldn’t wait to see Steph”. I walked down the aisle to Never Let You Go, by Evermore, a song we had chosen when we just started dating.

Simon was very involved in his wedding ideas, and luckily I was a relaxed bride who went along for the ride, literally. We left the ceremony in a tractor with each bridal party couple following behind on 4 more tractors. Our photographer was a school friend of Simon’s, which was great as she was willing to put up with the boys’ antics!

I was lucky enough to have a gorgeous friend willing to make our wedding cake. She took my ideas of a “ruffle” cake and made a beautiful and yummy cake that all our guests raved about.

Our wedding was an amazing celebration surrounded by our family and friends. After the first dance, we both spent the night doing what we love best – Simon talked to everyone, and I partied on the dancefloor. Walking back to our room at 5am we realised that the only thing we missed on the day was not having a photo with our dogs, and we both agreed it was absolutely the best day of our lives!

Photography by Renae Sauer

Ms Gingham says: A lovely, joyous celebration where you can just feel the love beaming out at you. Thanks to Stephanie for sharing her wedding with us today!

Stephanie says: “I am a 26 year old, once city girl, now farmer’s wife. We have definitely had a “farmer wants a wife” type relationship – as I grew up in Adelaide with no experience of country life. After living in the country for the last 4 years, and finally marrying my farmer this year, I could never imagine living anywhere else. Our wedding was an amazing day, which everyone described to be 100% “us”!”