Paige & Chris

When we get a story landing on our desks where the bride kicks off the tale with “It was important that our day was exactly about who we were,” we know it’s going to be completely up our alley. And for Paige and Chris, the country setting of their day, their boho inspired touches, the rolling green hills and their four-legged friend Maddi acting as ring bearer, was the culmination of not just months of planning, but a love story that began back in 2012. Paige heading out for drinks with her sister, where she met her future husband.

The two from that moment on were inseparable and today, coupled with beautiful images by Lucy Sheedy Photography we get to share their beautiful, personal wedding day.

But first? Let’s ask Paige to share exactly how Chris popped the big question. “Chris had told me his grandparents were travelling up from Geraldton to spend the day with us. Chris had organised for us to have lunch together and then after decided it would be nice to spend the afternoon on the Rockingham foreshore having some drinks. It was such a beautiful day, therefore, the beach and restaurants were full of people. After we had arrived we walked along the foreshore and stopped to decide where to go to first. As we were discussing where to go I had noticed Chris’s pop was filming us and at that moment I thought it was strange but didn’t think too much into it. Soon after Chris’s nan came up to me and told me to look up into the sky. It was then I saw a little plane and behind it was a banner which said: “ Will you be my Mrs Agnew”? At that moment I thought to myself this couldn’t be me as I looked around to see if anyone else was getting engaged! It wasn’t until I saw Chris down on one knee with a ring and say “Let’s do this babe” I knew that it was us. There were people screaming and cheering us all over the beach, it was a pretty amazing moment and one I will never forget.”

Paige wore a lace gown designed by Grace Loves Lace. She remembers “I was visiting QLD for a short time from WA and while I was there it felt like the perfect opportunity to go wedding dress looking! I still remember the first time I saw the Alexandra dress online, I knew it was a dress I had to try on, it was beautiful and it was the style of dress that I had been searching for. They say you just know it’s the right dress when you first put it on, I knew straight away that the Alexandra dress was the one I wanted to wear on my wedding day, paired with the beautiful chiffon Gabriela veil.”

After much searching, Paige and Chris decided to get married on the bride’s family farm. The most beautiful country setting, tells Paige. “Chris and I had looked at a beautiful venue in Maleny on the Sunshine Coast but decided to keep looking at other options and not decide on the first place we saw. We knew we wanted our wedding to be on a property so that’s exactly what we were looking for. My parents lived on a property at Blenheim in the Lockyer Valley, QLD. It was somewhere we could see ourselves getting married, it was exactly what we wanted. We decided that this was where we wanted to be married. Our decision to get married on my parent’s property was simply because it was a sentimental, special place that Chris and I both loved.”

The bride walked down the aisle to the acoustic version of Sam Smith’s “Latch”.

The ring bearer was one very special guest – the newlywed’s furry friend, Maddi. Paige explains “Chris and I decided that wherever we were going to get married it was so important to the both of us that we had our little dog Maddi with us on our day. So the week before the wedding we flew her over to QLD from WA. Our little Maddi was a part of our ceremony, she brought to us on her flower collar our wedding bands. It was the most heartwarming moment, a memory that we will forever cherish. She totally stole the show and everyone else’s hearts as well.”

“The ceremony would have to be my favourite part of the day” shares Paige. “It just all came together so beautifully. The arbour, the stools that my dad had made, our lovely little signing table and chairs, the festoon lights strung above us and the most picturesque view over the mountains was perfect. It was simple and turned out even better than what we had imagined it to be.”

The Little Flower Stall created lush, boho-inspired bouquets, in Paige’s words “I chose to only use flowers in our bouquets. They were made up with native flowers including the beautiful king protea and different foliage. Our incredible arbour was made up with many different types of foliage, this was also used as our centre runners for our tables. I wanted everything to be wild, big and unstructured.”

Of their photographer, Paige can’t speak highly enough of Lucy Sheedy, telling “We met Lucy in person 3 months before our wedding for our engagement session and we knew then we couldn’t have chosen a better person best suited to us! Everything about the way Lucy worked was so natural and she made us all feel so comfortable and at ease on our day! We both feel so lucky to have met Lucy and to have had her capture our special day.”

Having the wedding at home led to much preparation for the bride’s family, who worked hard to make sure everything was as wonderful as it could be. The bride remembering “The property has been a massive DIY project as 18 years ago mum and dad bought an old school building which was my old classroom from Laidley North School and moved it to Blenheim. Dad has worked on it since then building the verandah, pergola area, shed and cubby house where the boys got dressed. The arbour where we got married has been in place 17 years waiting for a permanent fence to connect to it however it hadn’t been finished so it was perfect as the temporary fence was pulled out to an uninterrupted beautiful view of the rolling hills and mountains. Recently dad had painted the house and added a new roof and not to mention the sloping ground at the front of the house in which we brought truckloads of soil in to be levelled to create the perfect flat site for the tipis. Dad also built our ceremony stools out of an old water bed frame and rustic bar from old fence palings. Family and friends were still working the morning of the wedding to ensure that our day was magical.”

The wedding style was boho and rustic, but most importantly, it was about family. Paige explains “From the beginning, we had always known exactly what we wanted our wedding day to be. We wanted a relaxed bohemian style celebration with our closest friends and family members. It was important to us that our wedding was exactly about who we were. We chose our wedding to be a celebration of our love and future together with those who were closest to us. It was a fun-filled, romantic, intimate day.”

Guests took home traditional sugared almonds wedding favours, Paige explaining “Chris has an Italian background so we really wanted to incorporate that a little into our day. We chose to give our guests the traditional sugar-coated almond bonbonniere as the sugar-coated almonds were originated in Italy. Five sugar coated almonds are traditionally given to guests representing health, wealth, happiness, fertility and long life.”

Paige and Chris danced their first dance together as a married couple to the acoustic version of Lauv’s “I Like Me Better”.

A big congratulations to you both Paige and Chris! Thank you for sharing your beautiful day with us. Thank you also to Lucy Sheedy Photography for sharing today’s beautiful images.