Jason and Chloe

My name is Chloe, and on the 23rd of September 2012, I became the luckiest lady alive! I married my best friend, Jason at 10 o’clock on a brilliant Sunday morning.

My day started at about 5:15 in the morning when I worked my way throughout the house jumping on all my family’s beds to wake them up! The wonderful Kylie-Jane from KJ Artistry did a fantastic job on our makeup, which we had comments on all day, as it stayed perfect, despite the incredible heat. I had two of my friends do all our hair, who also did an amazing job! We are still getting comments on how amazing our hair was.

My wedding dress was incredible! I was so happy with it, even though it was not the style I was after at all! I was originally wanting a slim, simple lace dress. I ended up with a poofy, half lace dress, but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world! It was by ‘Brides by Mancini’, supplied by Spurling Bridal.

For my jewellery, I wore diamond stud earrings that originally belonged to my Grandmother-in-law, and were worn by my mother-in-law on her wedding day. My pearl bracelet was my Mum’s, and my necklace is one of my family’s heirlooms that’s worn be every bride in our family. It was originally given to my great grandmother on my mother’s side instead of an engagement ring.

The bridesmaid’s dresses were made by my incredible Mum. She was such an amazing help with pulling together our wedding – it wouldn’t have worked without her. She made the girls dresses, the hair pieces for the girls, including our flower girl, and a lot of the reception decorations. The girls corsages, the buttonholes, our parents flowers and my bouquet were all styled by a family friend, and she did an incredible job! I had rannuculars, carnations, and sweet peas in my bouquet, and the girls had spray carnations in the corsages.

When planning for the wedding, I decided to do something that I myself had never seen before. I decided to have my bridesmaids walk down the aisle with a wrist corsage, holding a parasol. This turned out to be the best idea as it was quite a sunny day! But seeing it on the day, it was the perfect choice! It added so wonderfully to our ‘Springtime Garden Wedding’ theme.

We chose ‘Secrets on the Lake‘ in Montville as our ceremony venue. George and Aldy are the owners and they have managed to create a piece of heaven! They have beautiful gardens that they created themselves, set by a lake. We chose to have our ceremony in front of the old boathouse, right next to the lake.It was picture perfect and all the staff were just brilliant and so helpful. At the ceremony, we had parasols available that we had purchased online. We also made the order of services ourselves, which were in the shape of paddle fans. These worked a treat as it turned out to be the hottest day in September!

Our photographer was recommended to us by a friend after the original photographer we had booked fell through. This happened 5 weeks before our wedding, and I was FREAKING! Thankfully though, it worked out for the better. Seth used to be a wedding photographer in the States, and thankfully agreed to do our photos. This turned out to be such a blessing as he really captured our day so perfectly and was so fun to have around.

We had our photo’s taken at the same venue our ceremony was held at. We were so so so happy with Seth and the beautiful photo’s he was able to take. They are perfectly us!

Our reception was held at the Mapleton Community Hall. It’s a beautiful 100 year old hall that has seen many a wedding reception in its time. It was the perfect setting to continue celebrating our marriage with our family and friends. We strung up colourful bunting, which was made my new Grandmother-in-law. She worked for weeks to create the many lengths that we needed. Instead of having a bridal table, we had three long tables which we set everyone at. The Bridal Party were in the middle one with our families sitting across from us. This way our bridesmaids and groomsmen could sit with their parters too. I loved having our tables like this – it felt like we were more a part of the celebrating and it was easier to talk with everyone. I also really loved that I was able to be so close with my family during the afternoon.

Running down the length of the tables, we had a light yellow table runner, with a piece of twine running down which had fabric flowers (made by Mum) glued on. This weaved in and out of vintage milk bottles and vases filled with flowers.

As wedding favours we had clear boxes with pink lollies that had our names written in the middle. These were supplied by Candy Addictions. Our place cards were paper cranes folded by the Groom’s brother. These were done in different softly coloured paper to fit in with out theme. Each table was named a different flower, and this was displayed on boards we had made ourselves, propped up on wooden easels at the end of each table.

We had a buffet lunch that was catered by Queensland Spit Roast Catering who did a wonderful job!!

It was the most perfect day ever! I loved waking up, getting ready and going straight down to marry my man. Seeing the look on his face when he turned around and saw me for the first time is something that I’ll never forget. I would highly recommend any new bride to consider having the wedding ceremony in the morning. This way we were able to enjoy the day, and get back to our room while it was still light. My favourite part of the day was sitting on the deck of our cottage, looking out over the lake we had been married at only hours before, eating afternoon tea with my new husband.

Photography by Bride and Groom’s personal friend Seth

Ms Gingham says: What a gorgeous wedding Chloe and Jason had. You can tell that these families are close by the help and support lent on this occasion. Congratulations to you both!

Chloe says: “I love anything crafty, pretty, especially lace and flowers 🙂 “