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Kerryn & Randall

I love the modern touches in today’s colourful barn wedding. Bold, graphic prints combined with fun touches (a cinema room, mini alcohol recovery kits, a dessert bar) and the newlyweds chose Dan Luke Photography to capture it all.

Kerryn tells the story of how she met her husband. “We met at a work Christmas Party. We work together, but when I first started, Randall was on holidays, so I sat next to his empty desk for a couple of weeks hearing all about this “Randall Woo”. When we were finally introduced at the Christmas Party, I was expecting to meet a tiny Asian man and so did not believe them and stated “You’re not Randall Woo”, he laughed and said well who am I then? Whilst we instantly hit it off and got along, it was not for another couple of years before our friendship turned in to something more and we started dating.”

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Jes O’Brien Make-up styled the makeup for the girls while Candice Lee Bridal took care of their hair. Kerryn notes “I cannot speak more highly of Jes and what she did for myself, bridesmaids and the two mums! Like I said to Jes after my trial – she made me feel real life photoshopped!! Not only is she a brilliant make-up artist but she is just a downright beautiful person. She made me feel instantly comfortable and relaxed. I actually miss chatting to her now the wedding is over.”

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Kerryn wore a gown by Grace Loves Lace. Her two bridesmaids wore different gowns from Carla Zampatti and Manning Cartell . The floral arrangements on the day were styled by Lovely Rita Design.

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The couple chose a first look, which while initially done for their families turned out to be a highlight of their day. Kerryn explains, “At first we planned the first look really to keep the families happy by getting some “set photos”. But it turned in to so much more than this. It was pretty much the only moment on the day (until it was over) where Randall and I were alone and could just spend a couple of minutes taking it all in. I will never forget how Randall looked at me when he first saw me, and again Dan captured this moment perfectly.”

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Kerryn notes, “The most frustrating thing leading up to our wedding day was everyone telling us that OUR wedding day should be all about ME. I found that absurd. Our wedding day was going to be all about our friends and family as well as Randall and I. It is not often in life that you get to have all your favourite people in the one spot and we were going to take complete advantage of that and spend as much time with them as possible.”

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Randall and Kerryn chose Tocal Homestead for their wedding, telling, “The venue to us was very important. We knew we wanted to get married in the Newcastle/Hunter region as Newcastle is our home. But we wanted something that would suit our needs (that is the freedom and flexibility to do what we really wanted).

Tocal was perfect for this as not only is it one of the most BEAUTIFUL venues we have ever seen but it is basically one big blank canvas – we were allowed to bring our own alcohol, pick our caterers and do all our own decorations. We were not limited in any way, and the end-product was outstanding – horses, sheep, chooks and all!”

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Kerryn chose Easy Silence, Dixie Chicks for her walk down the aisle.

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Kim Oakhill, Uniquely Yours Civil Ceremonies performed the marriage ceremony, Kerryn remembering, “We would have to say a huge thanks to Kim Oakhill our celebrant. Kim was absolutely brilliant! Both Randall and I have been to so many weddings where the celebrants/priests/pastors don’t appear to know anything about the couple and it feels so disconnected. So whilst we wanted our ceremony to be quite short and simple, we knew we wanted it to still be personal. Kim was perfect for this! She made every effort to get to know us so that she could make our ceremony as personal as possible. And she achieved this! It was very us, and by the end of it Kim felt like a close friend we had known for ages.”

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The Wedding Designer styled and coordinated the wedding day, the bride remembering, “The Wedding Designer team deserves all the credit for how amazingly beautiful our wedding was! As we stated before we initially we considered doing all the decorations ourselves – boy are we glad we didn’t! We found the Wedding Designer online and after our first meeting we were hooked! We went with their Lucky Dip Package, which meant that we would show up on the day and not have any idea of how it would be set-up.

We had a meeting to get to know each other, filled out a bit of a questionnaire and sent a few emails re logistics and hey presto – we arrived to the most AMAZINGLY decorated venue ever! The level of detail was just incredible, in fact there were some things we didn’t even see they had done until we were looking through photos later! Honestly, I cannot recommend Jess and her team highly enough. It was so stunningly beautiful!! Just thinking of the set-up and what was done for us by The Wedding Designer team is making me emotional!”

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Kerryn remembers, “Our wedding was a perfect representation of us as a couple – relaxed, beautiful, fun and full of love for each other as well as our amazing friends and families.”

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Kerryn remembers, “The only things we DIY’d were the favors – (T2 Tea breakfast tea bags with Tim Tams in boxes as well as the alcohol recovery kits). I have never sewed before in my life and it took me three solid days to sew all the little canvas bags for the recovery kits. Oh and Randall’s Mum, Sue baked the wedding cake – our favourite – carrot cake!”

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Of their photographer, Kerryn notes, “How can we explain Dan from Dan Luke Photography? Not only is he an incredibly brilliant photographer who captured every single moment of the day – he is also a brilliant person! Unfortunately due to our work and living arrangements, we were not able to meet Dan in person before the wedding, but from the moment he arrived we felt instantly at ease with him and he soon felt more like part of the family than our photographer.

Randall and I were very clear that we wanted our photos of the day to be completely candid and natural. We also knew we didn’t want to do the set photo time after the ceremony – we wanted as much time with our friends and family as possible. But we also knew we needed some family photos (to keep all the relatives happy), so this is how we came up with the first look photos and the pre-wedding family photos.

Dan was brilliant – he took all of about 5 minutes to capture the set photos and then the rest of the day/night was all completely candid – which is EXACTLY what we wanted! We joke that Dan is like a photography ninja – whenever there was a moment happening between us or our friends/on the dance floor/catching that sneaky tear of Randall’s Dad – Dan the ninja was there to capture it! We absolutely loved having Dan at our wedding and we think the photos speak for themselves as to how brilliant he is! ”

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“Unfortunately we couldn’t be everywhere at all times, but it feels like Dan was. Dan captured special moments between our parents, my sister and her best friend, some of our crazy friend’s moments, my Nan, and probably one of the most special moments he captured was some of our friends opening letters we had left them.

In particular between four of our gay friends. I always knew I would never be throwing my bouquet (again the whole centre of attention thing, and I have always HATED being made to go up to try and catch the bouquet at other people’s wedding), but I knew I didn’t just want to hold onto it. One very important aspect for both Randall and I were to let our gay friends know how much we cannot wait until they get to experience a day like we were lucky enough to experience.

So we decided to split my bouquet in half and leave it for two couples that are some of our best friends and also happen to be gay. On the letter we said, we hope this bouquet does what it is meant to do and that they are the next ones to be married. Unfortunately, we were not there when they read their letters – but Dan was, so we got to be there in spirit afterwards…”

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Kerryn remembers, “I loved Randall’s speech – for those that know Randall, he is a man of VERY few words, so I was intrigued as to what he would say in his speech. Even more intrigued when he asked me the day before to help him write it.. But he ended up with an incredibly heartwarming, funny and very Randall speech.”

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The dance floor led with tunes by XYDJ  remains one of Kerryn’s favourite memories. “I don’t think either of us has ever had so much fun on a dance floor together! Some of the best moments of the night happened on the dance floor, from our impromptu first dance, to the impromptu daddy daughter dance (where my Dad completely surprised me with his moves). There were times where it felt like our whole wedding was on the dance floor having a brilliant time and we wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”

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Of their first dance, which didn’t really exist, Kerryn tells, “Randall and I both hate being the centre of attention and never ever really dance together. So the thought of doing a first dance at our wedding didn’t feel appropriate as we both would have felt incredibly awkward. Having said this, it ended up happening naturally later on in the night, I can’t even remember what the song was, but I remember how natural the moment felt and how happy we were.”

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Kerryn notes, “We have so many funny stories> Just thinking back now is making me smile. Funny tiny moments, including Randall’s Dad dancing with a moose head on his head (a prop from the photo booth), our friend Macca doing an uncanny impersonation of someone playing the bagpipes during John Farnham’s “You’re the Voice”, our friends doing egg and spoon races with rum balls from the dessert bar and watching our photos playing with my oldest childhood friend and the two of us reminiscing from when we were five until now.”

Congratulations on your marriage Kerryn and Randall! Thank you for sharing your day with us! Thank you also to Dan Luke Photography for sharing today’s wedding!