Wedding planning is probably a little like giving birth, in the way that everyone has a different experience, but most experience stress, pain and happiness in the journey. Meanwhile, everyone else has a story or opinion! After our engagement it was clear we had two options: to elope, or throw ourselves into the deep end and create the wedding of our dreams, without listening to everyone’s opinion. We chose the second.

From the day we decided that this wedding was going to be ours, and simply about our love, things became a whole lot easier. I refused to listen when people told me I was crazy to make every decoration myself by hand, including all of the floral decorations. I didn’t take my bridesmaids and family along to bridal wear stores, instead, I spent hours drawing my dream design, walked into my designer of choice, Elizabeth De Varga and had my dress made, bespoke, without one single person’s opinion but my own. While some of this might seem lonely to those who enjoy big group acknowledgement, my husband and I wanted our whole wedding experience to reflect who we are… independent, unique, and total soulmates with our own special brand of love.

Knowing where to begin was a little daunting. I started collecting silk flowers as this was where I thought I best begin. Focusing on high quality hydrangeas and peonies, I soon came up with the colour theme: baby pinks, blues, greens and white. The country elegance of these colours reflected the vintage/shabby chic feel we wanted for our day. Our theme included a focus on shabby chic patchwork material. My fiance Sammy soon gave up the garage to my growing collection of blooms, as I began working on the 2.5 meter floral banner that would hang from the lace canopy we hired from Lovebird Weddings. To help me added the dripping crystals to the banner, I had roped in my 9 year old son together with my husband to be, who were holding each end of the banner. As we giggled and laughed trying to hold the silly thing up, I knew our wedding memories were going to be much more than a single day’s worth.

I collected milk vases from the USA. Tiny mason jars which Sammy hung with wire and I filled with matching blooms. I created hanging decorations for the aisle to hang from our tiffany chairs, and ordered mismatched chair cushions for the outdoor ceremony. We bought two vintage urns and created large bouquets for each of them. With hanging matching crystals from the mini mason jars, our wedding started to take shape.

For the ceremony, we chose to have love story pages rolled into cones to fill with rose petals for guests to shower us with. We also bought tiny bubble tubes, and I tied tiny bows to each with ribbon. We chose to write our entire ceremony and chose readings that reflected our special and sacred love. It was important to both of us to include my Indigenous heritage, so we had a traditional water blessing which Elder Aunty Joan Hendriks agreed to perform.

In the program, the Indigenous history and area information was included for all our guests, including the Glass House Mountains, in their sacredness to my culture.

We chose to collect 8 birdcages and fill these with flowers, and place these on top of patchwork stars at the reception for table centrepieces, matched with crystal candelabras.

We chose handwritten calligraphy for the place cards, and we hole punched  and threaded a ribbon through each, tying a tiny brass key to each one.

For our bridal table, we purchased a length of beaded bridal lace, which would act as our table runner.

Preparations were well underway, except my dress, which was started 8 weeks out from the wedding. After ordering our invites, with hand calligraphy for each envelope, we assembled and sent them off with excitement and joy. It was all really becoming real! We started to purchase our bridesmaid and groomsmen gifts around this time, which included Pandora charms, MOR gift sets and personalised hip flasks. I booked Pru Edwards for the girls makeup, but chose to do my own makeup.

Of course the planning didn’t stop here! Next week in part 2 I’ll talk about more of my planning process to hopefully provide some more ideas and inspiration.

All photographs by Jodie Greck Photography

Ms Gingham says: My favourite element of this wedding so far is that lovely floral banner! To think that Jessica hand made that! My hat is coming off as we speak!

Jessica says: “I am a recently married 26 year old! I love vintage weddings, garden parties and shabby chic designs.”