Kimberley and Jayson

A Sunset wedding is my idea of utter romance. There’s that moment where it isn’t quite day and it isn’t quite night that is beautifully magical, and today’s newlyweds Kimberley and Jayson certainly made the most of their sunset wedding day!

Kimberly kicks us off with not only their love story but the story of how they managed to pull off their wedding as a surprise. “Every love story is beautiful but ours is my favourite, (though quite a common scenario!) We were introduced by a mutual friend (my boss) when I wanted to learn how to surf. She took the opportunity to play match makers but insisted it wasn’t a ‘blind date’. So Jay picked me up and took me to Manly to learn, and the surf was pretty tough for a learner but he was impressed by my tenacity and  refusal to get out of the water, so took me to lunch and then took me out on a ‘proper’ date the next week.

It was a secret surprise wedding. We had been traveling for 6 months around the world, and Jay proposed in January. Whilst we were away we sent emails to our families asking them to pick a date for an ‘engagement’ dinner so that the 2 families could meet and we could talk about the wedding.

Our families arrived throughout the week of the wedding, and we arranged for a casual family dinner with all the kids at a local pub on the Friday. After dinner, I thanked everyone for coming and announced that we were so happy they could all be there because we were actually getting married the next day! It was a very chaotic moment – lots of hugging, congratulations and smiles, and champagne!”

Milk & Honey Photography captured the beautiful, romantic twilight wedding.

Kimberley remembers, “It was a very relaxed wedding day, no stress, Jay and I got ready together, but also spent part of the day with our families.” Collette Dinnigan designed the bride’s black and white wedding gown.

Butterfly Philosophy styled the flowers, Kimberley recalling, “I organised Elaine from Butterfly Philosophy to do the flowers about 3 weeks before the wedding and she was great, and her flowers were gorgeous, and I luckily got Matthew for the photos about 3 ½ weeks before the day. Milk & Honey Photography are local to us in Rozelle. We loved their professionalism and how friendly and warm Matthew was with everyone on the day.”

Sawmiller Reserve McMahons Pt was chosen for the ceremony. Kimberley explaining, “We used to live in McMahons Pt when we first moved in together. First in a sandstone workman’s cottage and then into an apartment overlooking Berry’s Bay a few streets away. We used to be very fit and run around McMahons Pt, and Kirribilli and so spent a lot of time puffing around the winding streets, parks and waterfronts of the area, and because they were so beautiful it took away a lot of the pain from running, or at least made it more bearable.

The apartment was right next to Sawmiller Reserve, so we spent a lot of the warmer months (and colder ones come to think of it) lazing in the sun, having cheese and wine picnics, reading the paper on the small grassed area at the end of the wooden jetty, so we thought it was a lovely place to tie the knot.”

“When the time for the ceremony arrived, I was sitting in the car parked about a block away from the reserve because we couldn’t find a park. So then I had to hoist my dress up and hike through the streets then down to the reserve, where there were some very friendly dogs running around and I was a bit worried that were going to like the look of my dress, luckily they allowed themselves to be caught before things went too far! I got lots of looks from people walking their dogs that afternoon.”

“I was really worried about the timing of sunset, the weather and the timing of the wedding, thinking we weren’t going to have enough light, so I bought 12 large vintage style lanterns to light for the ceremony, but it all worked out perfectly on the day, and the weather was stunning.”

“I walked down alone to ‘You can count on me’ by Bruno Mars, it was really hard to pick a song, as we have lots of meaningful songs, but ultimately we wanted an upbeat sort of one, to reflect how happy we were, and when I arrived my whole family joined in to ‘give me away’, which was great.”

Robyn Pattison married the couple.

“The whole event was lovely, with the candle lanterns glowing as the sun set behind us, turning the sky pink and orange over the water, and our family spread out in front. It was a really special moment, and I was really happy we’d written our own vows whilst we were away on our 6 month adventure. We’d actually written them whilst we were in Ecuador, where it was unusually cold so we were sitting around a fire place drinking Argentinean red wine, thawing out after a particularly horrific horseback experience through the Andes during thunderstorms, so that memory alone was special (and also may have accounted for the more funny of the promises!)”

” Jay wanted a ‘wedding watch’ rather than a ring, but we really didn’t have enough time to find one that he loved, so I got a hospital band from work, and decorated it as an IOU wedding band which I fastened on his wrist in place of the ring ceremony.”

“The ceremony was very lovely and intimate, but still casual, which was good for my crazy nieces and nephews who really enjoyed their time rolling around on the grass, singing and dancing and generally just enjoying themselves just as much as we did, and in the end I forgot to give everyone the flower cups and the bubble guns so we remembered when it was dark – the kids still thought they were pretty good, and we found out that the bubble guns work really well as torches.”

Celebrations followed at Arcadia room at Flying Fish, Pyrmont filled with guest favors of hand stamped antique silver spoons stamped with the couple’s favourite song lyrics, vintage china and plenty of drinks, canapes and a beautiful wedding dinner.

Congratulations Kimberley and Jayson! Thank you so much for sharing your day with us! Thank you also to Milk & Honey Photography for sharing today’s wedding with us!