Maxine and Jason

I don’t think anything could be more romantic than a wedding lit by candlelight in a cave. It’s not something you see every day but for Maxine and Justine? It was the perfect way to get married. I loved the romance of today’s wedding and the funky shoes? Well they helped too!

Maxine and Justin met met almost 9 years ago, in high school and started dating a few months later. They rest, as they say is history!

Photos today are by Angelica Peady Photography. Angelica has a way of capturing the unique, the unusual and the special in a really different way – her photography style suits her couples so!

Maxine’s friend style her hair, with the help of her hairdresser. “Although, our brilliant hairdresser, Linda from Wilde for Hair, could not be there on the day, she designed  my hairstyle, which was perfectly recreated by a close friend.”

Much of the wedding was designed and made by Maxine and Justin. “We planned the wedding ourselves, sourced the venues and designed the cake and bouquet. We were aiming for a non-traditional secular wedding and had a lot of help from our friends and family who put together our invitations, created our cake, helped with the bouquet, organised transport, did the bride’s hair and makeup and prepared all the food. One of our friends even made  adorably tiny outfits for our unusual wedding toppers.” Maxine wore a gown from Nelder Jones (02) 93315118  and held a button bouquet made by herself and two dear friends. Along with her groom Jason, the bride wore Converse sneakers.

The couple traveled in a beautiful white vintage car from Blue Ribbon Wedding Cars. “Our driver, Neil, was a completely unexpected treasure.”

Maxine and Jason walked down the aisle together. “We planned to walk in to the ‘Mario Cart Love-Song’ by Sam Hart (did I mention that we are nerds?) but plans changed. Instead, we climbed the ‘aisle’ to the sound of whispers, giggles and cheers as our friends and family held candles (the only source light due to the black outs).”

Maxine and Justin chose an intimate celebration. “The whole day was very intimate,  with around 35 our our closest friends and immediate family.”

The candlelit ceremony was a highlight of the day for Maxine. “The candle lit walk up the ‘aisle’ will always stand out as special moment. Our improvised vows were wonderfully spontaneous (much like the entire wedding). Two readings were chosen, which reflected our personalities and interests and were read by two of our closest friends: an excerpt from Carl Sagan’s ‘Pale Blue Dot’ and a post modern retelling of ‘The Princess and the Pea’.”

“Nothing went to plan! We were running late, the venue was washed out, most of the ceremony was candlelit due to blackouts and we had to stay at Jenolan Caves for longer than planned as the exit road was closed due to storm damage.

Our friends and family took it all in their stride as did all the professionals that made our day such a success. The staff at Jenolan Caves led the guests through a series of tunnels to a smaller, beautiful cave and provided candles for everyone to hold when the lights went out. Our driver Neil patiently held two so that our wonderfully calm celebrant could see. Angie and Ben provided extra lighting with a spot light that they had fortunately bought along. Everyone was laughing and generally having a great time.

The whole ceremony had an cosy, relaxed feeling and it will certainly be a day that we will always remember!”

The couple’s celebrant was Tina McCormack “Our celebrant, Tina McCormack, was so lovely and really gave us space to be ourselves.

There were so many little details that reflected Maxine and Jason “Each other, impromptu vows, dinosaur wedding toppers, too many nerdy references to catalogue and our amazing friends and family.”

Post wedding, the couple held a relaxed celebration. “We had a very relaxed get together after the wedding at the Hatter’s Hideout, a beautiful property in the Blue Mountains. Mark, the owner, is one of friendliest people we have ever met and was the best host we could have asked for. The cake was designed by the incredibly geeky Bride and Groom, lovingly baked and put together by our friend and amazing pastry chef, Michelle Bones.”

“We had great fun listening to our friends trying to ‘decode’ the symbols on our cake. (Each image on the cupcakes was representative of something we both love). They were even more delighted to find out that the monochrome icing hid a rainbow coloured icing!”

Congratulations Maxine and Jason for your marriage! Thank you for allowing us to share it today on Polka Dot Bride! Thank you also to Angelica Peady for today’s photographs!

Photographs by Angelica Peady