Eclectic Coronation Hall Wedding

Katie & Ben

The relaxed country vibe of Katie and Ben’s eclectic Coronation Hall wedding, captured by Vivid Photography with the golden light and open air vistas is beautiful with its freshness and charm.

Katie starts us off with the story of how they met. “We met through mutual friends Ash and Renee, who are now married themselves. We crossed paths from time to time at parties however, never had much more than a passing conversation. Until one day I decided to drop my entire life and move to the UK in no more than a week. Renee threw me a small farewell and in saving Ash from being over run by females Ben came along. Ben and I just clicked and after everyone went to bed we spent hours upon hours sitting on the deck just talking and unfolding our lives to one another. The next I boarded a plane and moved overseas for nine months. We got in touch while I was away and our friendship started to evolve from a distance.”

The bride chose an Anna Campbell gown from The Babushka Ballerina, telling, “I knew what I wanted in a bridal gown, the hardest part was finding it. I started off looking in the ‘standard’ retail stores with no luck, except for ruling out and confirming what I didn’t want. I started looking for more boutique stores with something a little different. I was searching for a classic, simple and sophisticated dress with a vintage feel with a lot of lace. Something timeless.

It also had to tick a few extra boxes: I had to feel comfortable in all day, be able to wear a bra, move freely, breath, be farm friendly and above all else be “dippable”! Ben’s one request for the dress was that it had to be “dippable” and if you saw the kiss or his dance moves you would know why!!”

“We had a stunning string quartet, Sweethearts Music, who set the mood beautifully for the ceremony. We chose the classic ‘Canon in D written by Pachelbel’ for the bridal entry. My sister also walked down the aisle to this piece. Sweethearts, played mesmerizing arrangements whilst guests arrived, during the ceremony and for champagne mingling and congratulations – we had a 130 guests to hug!”

The couple married on a private property overlooking Somerset Dam, Katie explaining, “We were lucky enough to stumble upon this little piece of paradise by pure chance. We had come to view Coronation Hall and just happened speak with the lady who ran the hall at the time about how perfect it was however, we just needed to find a ceremony location large enough for our 150 guests. On the off chance she gave us the number of her friend who owned a working cattle property down the road in Kilcoy.

We were so excited about the prospect and everything seemed like it would have just clicked into place. We had often talked about getting married on a farm. We got in touch with the couple and organised a time to meet them and discuss the possibility. In the end they offered their farm to us in exchange for a few days work around the property. We looked around the expanse of land and picked a ceremony location that captured the stunning Somerset Dam views. They are such a lovely, kind hearted couple who really went above and beyond to try help us in anyway they could. We are still so appreciative of their generosity and cannot thank them enough!”

Bill Scurry officiated the ceremony, Katie remarking, “The ceremony was a whirlwind of emotions with plenty of tears and laughter. I was brought to tears the moment Ben met me at the end of the aisle, shook my dad’s hand and hugged my mum and I knew I would be in trouble keeping it together.

As expected we both struggled through the tears and read own vows and our secret “special words” to each other, which were reasons that brought us to that moment.”

The kiss was a spectacular dip which Ben had warned me about and had put his request in that the dress had to be “dippable”. Ben’s Aunty read an excerpt from the Bible ‘the letter of Saint Paul to the Romans’ and my Grandfather read a ‘wedding grace’ to conclude and bless the wedding celebration, which was written by my Great Grandad for my Aunty’s wedding. The guests mingled at the farm drinking champagne while we hugged everyone and started our gorgeous photo shoot.

Katie and Ben chose Coronation Hall, Main St, Somerset Dam for their wedding reception, telling, “At the time of searching for a venue we had 150 guests. Our challenge was finding 2 x venues in close proximity large enough to hold that many people. Not to mention a reception venue that doesn’t charge a small fortune per a head. It was so hard to come by and so we had to think outside the square.

We started looking into hall hire as we saw it as an opportunity to save money with flexibility in providing our own catering and alcohol. However, most of all we wanted a venue where we could party into the evening without being kicked out at 10pm. We envisioned the reception to be a party, a grand celebration. We stumbled upon Coronation Hall, Somerset and as soon as we set eyes on it we knew it was the one. It oozed its own character and captured us perfectly. We have always loved the country and the outdoors so we felt the location was a perfect reflection of us. Coronation Hall was wonderful, it is run by a small group in the local community under the banner of the council. It was so flexible in relation to rules, catering and costs. However, it had challenges with co-ordination having no phone reception and little power – we thankfully brought a generator. It was a lot of work to bring it together as it is simply only a hall and you have to provide, plan and think of absolutely everything!

The weekend itself ended up being a massive three day event of loading trucks at 5am Friday, setting up every single decoration, furniture, meeting suppliers, bar set up and so much more. The wedding itself Saturday and then packing it all down and cleaning Sunday. We were so overwhelmed by all our friends and family who pitched in and pulled it all together for us we couldn’t of done it without them!”

Katie tells, “Ben chose the first dance, Ed Sheeran, “Thinking Out Loud”. We didn’t take any dance lessons or have a choreographed piece to wow our guests. Ben can lead a women around a dance floor thanks to his past salsa days, so I trusted him and followed his lead as he twirled me around the floor, we just had fun with it in the moment. However, the dance floor was already well underway before we took the floor and we had to practically drag people off the dance floor the first dance.”