Craig and Leah

Craig and I are high school sweethearts. We met at school when I was 15 and Craig was 17. From the day we met I knew we would one day end up married. Then after 12 years together Craig took me and our puppies on a surprise weekend away to a B&B in Kangaroo Valley on the NSW South Coast. We walked to a gorgeous little restaurant for dinner that night and I thought Craig was acting strangely.

As we walked back to the B&B we passed the most quaint community hall with a party in full swing. It looked so stunning with fairy lights and lanterns everywhere. I gushed to Craig “Oh imagine how cute that would be for a wedding!”. He ended up dragging me away and back to the B&B where 20 minutes later I had a gorgeous pear shaped diamond on my finger and a fiance!

My next thought was I know where we can have the wedding…. and so the decision was made. We booked the Kangaroo Valley Community Hall for a year and a day later for our wedding reception. Then the fun started with the planning. Being a wedding florist and stylist, I really wanted something unique. We organised the wedding to be a weekend away with all our friends and family. And most of all it had to be like a big party, of course with gorgeous flowers. We really wanted it to be unlike a “stock standard wedding”.

I loved the country rustic feel of Kangaroo Valley and based our wedding theme around that. The hall offered us a rustic blank canvas where we could do whatever we pleased. It was a huge job co-ordinating all the aspects of the wedding, especially as I wanted to DIY so much of it.

We did a huge amount of details ourselves and everything was very much DIY. We made the bridesmaids dresses, my husband brewed a special beer for the day “Mr and Mrs Battleys Valley Pale Ale”, we made wedding survival kits, decorated the venue, made the invitations, made a lolly and dessert buffet, sewed the table runners and of course I made my own flowers.

The day was absolutely perfect, with not a cloud in the sky. I woke up at 6.30am and ran around the property we had booked screaming “Its my wedding day!”. All the girls relaxed with champagne in the morning while I finished the bouquets and buttonholes and had photographs taken. I was actually ready 40 minutes early and was itching to get to the wedding.

Hair Comb from Cheboom

By the time we got to the wedding my dad had been crying for 40 minutes and I was bursting with excitement! To arrive at the church in our vintage Kombis and see Craig standing at the end of the aisle looking so handsome and happy was the best feeling. I felt so overwhelmed with happiness.

Following the service the guests all made the stroll up the main street for cocktails and canapes while we had our photographs at the gorgeous property we had booked for the weekend.

The only hiccup of the reception was the lead singer of the band, The Escalators had taken ill that morning and was unable to sing. After a few frantic phone calls, it was decided my gorgeous matron of honour Fiona, who is a professional singer would sing all night with the band (who were amazing!). Unbeknownst to us, Fiona had learnt the guitar to serenade Craig and I with a gorgeous song “the wedding song” by Angus and Julia Stone. It was a truly beautiful moment and there was not a dry eye in the reception.

We tried to incorporate as many personal touches to the reception as possible such as a polaroid photobooth by Luxe Event Decor with quirky questions and framed photos of our families weddings. The wedding ended at 1.30am and it really was like a big party. People didn’t want to leave!

Craig and I truly had the most amazing day, everything was perfect and to share it with all our loved ones was magical. We honeymooned in America and Mexico with smiles plastered on our faces, still on such a high from our amazing day!

Photography by H.Dee Photography

Ms Gingham says: Such a gorgeous addition to the rustic theme… the Kombis van! Thanks Craig and Leah for sharing their lovely wedding with us!

Leah says: “I am a wedding florist who also specialises in styling weddings. I own my business leah mitchell floral design as well as a styling and hire business Luxe Event Decor.”

Colours Blush PinkHydrangea BlueVintage Apricot | Inspired Weddings, Inspired Weddings, Weddings | Comments 2

This Sunday I have a shoe crush on these gorgeous T-Bar vintage style heels in the gentlest of Antique golds. Pair them with any length gown for a flattering shoe with heaps of support for your big day. By the way, it looks like I’m not the only one obsessed with gold this week! Ms Polka Dot put together this collection of Gold Wedding Cakes so it looks like we’re really feeling it this week!

Crown Lager Personalised Wedding Bottles / Polished Gold Mini Tie Bar from Soutil / Yummy Cupcakes and Cakes Gold Cake / Modern Vintage Shoes Decades for Modern Vintage ’60s T Strap Pumps / Gold Painted Champagne Flutes from Etsy / Rhinestone Adorned Mini Tulle Veil from Twigs and Honey / Tissue Tassel Garland from Etsy

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To all the mothers to be, mothers of the bride, mothers of the groom, grandmothers and yummy mummies… happy mother’s day. May your day be filled with fluffy slippers, breakfast in bed, cups of tea, boxes of chocolate and peace and quiet!

Ms Gingham x

Image by Ms Gingham

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It’s Polka Dot Sneak Peek time! Which means it’s time to dish the dirt with me and fellow Dotties and share your wedding plans!

Your wedding venue sets the tone for your wedding day- a beach wedding with bures and sand under foot means one thing- destination holiday and cocktails are at hand! An urban city ballroom calls for elegance and a hidden chapel in the rainforest conjures up images of a secret garden. So tell em dear Dotties, where are you getting married? Where are you celebrating? Share the links and photos of your wedding venues!

Polka Dot Sneak Peek, Weddings | Comments 21

James and Lisa-Renee

James and I met while we were both on a working holiday living in London. James is from New Zealand and I’m Australian and after our adventures ended in the UK we decided to move back to my hometown of Adelaide together. Some years later, on a holiday back to New Zealand to visit family and friends, James popped the question at the scenic location of Lake Tekapo. We married on 5^th November 2011 at Longview Vineyard located in the Adelaide Hills. We decided to use our meeting place of London as the basis of our vintage rustic wedding theme which was captured beautifully by our photographer Edwin Niczynski.

My dress was made by Red Pearl Couture. It was scary designing the dress from scratch, what if I didn’t like the end result? Fortunately, the staff were wonderful and the dress was everything I had envisioned for the day. The hair piece was from ETSY and the earrings and bracelet from Miss Martini. I wore an antique emerald ring given to me by my great aunt as my something old, a charm given to my mum by my father on her 21^st birthday as my something borrowed and I attached an opal brooch from my late grandmother to my bouquet as my something blue.

I wanted my bridesmaids to be cohesive but different so they each chose there own dresses from The Dressy Shop all in the same colour and length.

We purchased charcoal suits from Myer for all the boys, James wore a soft lavender tie and the groomsmen wore sage green ties. I also got cuff-links made which had tiny maps of where James and I grew up.

I guess I’m at that age where so many people we know are getting married, it was important to me that I had aspects of our day that were unique to us and not one of the countless things we had seen at weddings before. I ruled out roses and tiger lilies for this very reason and went instead with malacal balm, lisianthus, sweet peas, berries and dodda vine. My florist, In Style Blooms by Mary-Ann, was wonderful she even enlisted the help of her own family to assist with the collection of the 100 odd jars we would need for our table settings.

I walked down the aisle to Adele ‘One and Only’ and we chose ‘Dream a little Dream’ by the Mamas and the Papas as our first dance (neither James nor I are gifted in the fancy footwork department so we needed something easy to shuffle along to). The most personal of all touches was our entrance song, James’ father passed away many years ago but we gave a special nod to him by having one of his quirky favourite songs as our introduction song to the reception, Running Bear by Johnny Preston – the guests went wild laughing and clapping, it really was a brilliant choice.

I’m a big fan of food and a big fan of wine which was a big deciding factor for our choice of wedding venue. We could not fault Longview. Canapes were served by the wonderful staff while the bridal party had photos taken and we also had a musician (Steve Gower) to entertain the guests with a collection of blues, jazz and 50‘s rock n roll music while they waited.

I spent countless hours researching ideas and ways to personalise our day incorporating the whimsical London theme; such as the seating chart I made using iconic London landmarks, the paddle fans which doubled as wedding programs and the poem plates I got as gifts for people who had a special role in our wedding that had an extract from our wedding reading, Oh’ The Places You’ll Go by Dr Seuss. There are so many special details to our day but my favourite was the letter box for our wedding cards with our awesome wedding invitations which were designed by PIIPOD painted on it – it now has pride of place in our home.

For the reception we served beetroot and goats cheese tart followed by salmon or lamb (clearly a kiwi favourite). Dessert was our wedding cake which was a delectable chocolate and caramel marble mud.

Huge thanks goes to our parents for all they did and it truly was so wonderful how many friends and family came from interstate, America, UK, Asia and of course New Zealand. Wanting to stretch out the festivities even further, we decided to arrange a very informal BBQ the following day at The Maccclesfield Pub for all the guests. Although it was a slow start to the lunch, with most guests feeling pretty average from the previous night’s shenanigans, merriment soon prevailed! Ding, ding – round two!

Photography by Edwin Niczynski

Ms Gingham says: There are so many things I like about this wedding. The colour palette, the beautiful invitations, the flowers, Lisa-Renee’s stunning gown… but most of all I LOVE the shot of the girls where the little flower girl is scratching her ankle! So gorgeous!

Lisa-Renee says: “My name is Lisa-Renee and I married my husband James on 5th November 2011 at Longview Vineyard in the beautiful Adelaide Hills. James is from New Zealand and I’m Australian, we met while we were on a working holiday in London; this meeting place was the basis of our vintage rustic wedding theme. The day was perfect in every way “

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