Laura & Matt

Today’s wedding is all about the joy. Beautifully captured by Freedom Garvey-Warr, it’s the tiny tots all dressed up, the heirloom details, the nod to the couple’s personal loves – cheese, flowers, good music, family and friends and their love for each other, and it is stories like these that we live to tell.

And while their day was very much about the presence of special people, it was online that Laura and Matt met, both searching on a dating site, before they finally “Clicked”. Many months, travels to see one another and trials and tribulations later, they were an item. Iceland setting the scene for a proposal that was hard to forget. Laura tells “We were in Iceland and we had been out on a road trip all day visiting some of their natural wonders. We were at a waterfall (Skogafoss) taking landscape photos of the waterfall, and there was a guy was on his own who had set up his camera on his tripod and start taking pictures of himself in front of the waterfall. We then went to a different waterfall (seljalandsfoss, a waterfall where its path wraps around behind the waterfall allowing you to walk behind it and look out across the land) on the way back to the hotel and Matt suggested we do the same and set up his tripod and take photos. What I didn’t know was he was about to propose. So Matt set up a time-lapse on his camera and we started doing silly poses for the camera.”

Laura wore a long sleeve gown she found at English boutique  Studio Levana.  She tells “My dress was purchased in England when I went back home to visit family and friends. I had been to a few places in Australia and tried on dresses but didn’t find anything that I liked. I knew I wanted sleeves and lace but that was about it, so I found a small boutique in England and the lady was great. We tried on different styles to see which would suit my body shape and used a process of elimination. From there I found my perfect dress.”

The bride chose Lily Allen’s “Somewhere Only We Know” to play as she walked down the aisle with her father.

Donna McClelland officiated the garden ceremony, Laura remembering “We knew we wanted it outside, we chose a spot in front of the ground’s water fountain which overflows with flowers as the backdrop next to the lake, meaning the guests on their way down walked through the rose garden. We wanted a touch of English to it with all the guests seated beside the bridal party.

We wanted it to be an intimate experience for our guests, keeping it relatively short and keeping it about our journey. We had my cousin Holly do a reading. It was a piece that she and Matt wrote together. A melody of a variety of pieces of writing taken from novels, poetry, songs, and pop culture. Matt insisted we wrote our own vows which we read on the day. Given our mothers weren’t doing speeches we wanted to include them in some way on our special day, so they were the witnesses to our marriage.”

Laura and Matt chose Margaret River’s Robert Oatley Vineyard for their wedding. The bride explains “We often frequent the Margaret River wine region so when it came time to picking a venue we easily decided this should be the location, especially as almost half our guests would be travelling from other countries and we wanted to share this part of Australia with them. We narrowed the choice of locations down to two, Aravina and Robert Oatley. We ultimately chose Robert Oatley for its possible choices of ceremony location and the small and intimate size of its cellar door for our reception.”

Laura remembers “The weather had been perfect all week, all morning and the sun was shining as I arrived at the venue. So much so it was glaring right into the eyes of all the guests seated waiting for me. As I started walking down the aisle big clouds quickly came over and as we were saying our vows it started spitting with rain and then suddenly got heavier. We carried on reading our vows ( I think it distracted me from being so nervous as I couldn’t believe it was raining.) We said our vows and debated carrying on with the ceremony but the rain passed enough for us to finish the ceremony and then have our congratulations. It then started raining extremely hard as we were about to have photos, so we changed the locations of photos from the original plan but meant we got more on-site photos in the end.”

Of their photographer, Laura remarks “After lots of research we were recommended Freedom Garvey and she blew our mind. She is such a loving person inside and out and her energy and enthusiasm made for the best experience. We went for her top package which included an engagement shoot and we had this done a couple of months before the wedding. I would recommend an engagement shoot for any couple. It was such an intimate experience with your partner and it definitely made us feel much more relaxed for the big day.”

Chic Rustique styled up the beautiful floral arrangements for the day, including floral crowns for the bride to wear during the reception, Laura tells “I love a big fresh bouquet and knew I wanted King Protea’s in every bunch for the bridesmaid flowers and also mine. I wanted light pink and purples to compliment the grey of the bridesmaid dresses. Also a lot of foliage, including eucalyptus. We decided to use foliage running down our 3 long guest tables with candles running through.”

There were special heirloom details included. Says the bride “We had our names engraved on the same knife Matt’s mum and dad used on their wedding day and used this to cut the cake. His sister and brother in law’s name were also engraved into it a few years prior, when they got married. This will now be passed down through generations.”

The reception was filled with candlelight, Laura telling “I often have  a candle lit at home, so we brought this to the wedding by having dozens of pillar candles spread across the tables creating a nice intimate lighting.”

Bake the Cake made a stunning three-tier wedding cake, Accompanied by a cheese cake for the groom’s savoury tooth!) Laura remembers “We were extremely happy with all of our vendors and everything they delivered. Obviously, we can’t go past Freedom and her amazing work but also Hannah at Bake the Cake produced an outstanding cake for us. We didn’t want to have anything similar to what other people have been having and we trusted her with her ideas. We had a 3 tier concrete cake with a rose gold sail and rose gold splashes. Hannah said it was her favourite cake of the season she had produced. She also did our cheese tower as well which was spectacular with a little Lego Bride & Groom at the top.”

The newlyweds wanted to make the most of their venue, serving up mini burgers and pulled pork noodle boxes as a supper course and creating an outdoor dance floor. Laura explains “What drew us most to the venue (and the region besides wine) was the beauty of it and wanted as much of the day outside as we could manage, so after the meals and speeches were over and done with we moved everyone back outside where we had a dance floor brought in over a grassed area, with festoon lighting overhead, and fairy lights through the trees.”

The newlyweds took to the dance floor to Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect”, Laura telling “We had picked it long before it was over commercialised but we didn’t want to change to another song as it means something to both of us. We both love Ed Sheeran and we have seen him perform all over the world, from Australia to England to Las Vegas.”

Congratulations on your marriage Laura and Matt! Thank you for sharing the beauty of your day with us! Thank you also to Freedom Garvey-Warr for sharing today’s wedding!