Romantic Gracelands Central Coast Wedding

Anna & Andrew

Boho lovers rejoice because today’s wedding is just the blend you need of beautiful, relaxed boho styling, sweet as pie family moments and beautiful details. It’s all set on the stunning Central Coast, at super cool venue Gracelands and Brendan Woods? He’s the talent behind the camera making sure that today we can bring you every single story.

“We’re both quite relaxed people and wanted the day to reflect us,” explain the newlyweds. “We took inspiration from a few themes but we were never fixed to anything in particular. We just wanted it to be a fun and casual day but also something special and meaningful for us.

Oh and wait until you see Anna’s bridesmaids because we’re officially signing them on, in their mismatched white frocks as worthy for The Bridesmaid Issue!

We’re going to time travel way back to 2009 to meet these two, at university! Anna fills us in on how they came to be. “We met at university back in 2009. We lived together on campus and after a few (quiet) nights at the uni bar we became a bit more than friends. Nine and a half years later we tied the knot.”

The festivities kicked off with custom designed invitations by Better Together Paper Co. Anna explaining, “Nicole from Better Together Paper did a great job on all of our stationery. She did a bespoke illustration of our venue and the set-up we had – I still love it!”

The bride found fitting in dress shopping around a baby difficult, luckily the feminine style of Grace Loves Lace had her sorted in no time! She shares, “Wedding dress shopping was definitely a bit different to what I expected… I first started looking for a dress around the time I was three months pregnant! In hindsight it probably wasn’t the best idea and I quickly put it on hold until after I’d had my daughter.

I liked the feminine but relaxed style of a lot of the Grace Loves Lace dresses so I booked a flight to QLD with my soon to be husband and my 6-week-old daughter. It was a successful trip and I shortlisted 3 options. I flew back again three weeks later, this time with my mum and daughter, and made my final selection – the Florence set (a skirt and top). It was comfortable, breastfeeding-friendly and probably one of the more flattering options for a post-partum body!”

Anna and Andrew chose Central Coast venue Gracelands for their big day, Anna explaining “Gracelands was recommended by my sister who lives on the Central Coast and when we first visited the venue we both knew it was exactly what we’d been looking for – relaxed, intimate (not too small or too big) and beautifully styled.

The staff were also so helpful and supportive, which made the entire planning process seamless.”

Anna chose “Bloom” by The Paper Kites for her walk down the aisle. Guests were armed with confetti, selected themselves from the couple’s own handmade DIY confetti bar.

Anna and Andrew had their heart set on an outdoor ceremony, Gracelands well and truly delivered with a ceremony officiated by Marry Us Sally. Anna explains, “We wanted an outside wedding with a garden party feel. Graceland’s backwall, with the garden panelling, really helped with this.

We didn’t want the ceremony to just be a formality. We wanted it to be personal and meaningful for us, but also enjoyable for our friends and family. Our celebrant, Sally, made sure of this. Sally spent so much time getting to know us and learning about our family and what the day meant to us.

Despite all of the planning though, our favourite moment during the ceremony was when our daughter, Lucca, interrupted the ceremony and came up there with us to share in the amazing moment.”

After picking out a look for the groomsmen, Andrew rather liked it for himself. He chose pieces by Asos, Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts, Academy Brand, OTAA, & Aquila for the day.

Anna and Andrew both note the inclusion of daughter Lucca as their favourite part of the day, Andrew remembering, “For me a favourite moment of the day came shortly after the ceremony when Anna needed to feed Lucca. Although not really a break (especially for Anna), it was a moment that allowed us to just stop and take it in. It was also perfect because, although far from traditional, it was a reminder of how incredible it was to have Lucca there on one of the best days or our lives.”

Anna and Andrew worked with two florists on the day – Ashleigh Goodfellow and A Wild Romance. Anna sharing, “My work wife, Ashleigh Goodfellow, dabbles in floristry and in the year leading up to our wedding I saw the flowers she did for other weddings. I knew straight away that she was the one I’d ask to do our flowers. It was so special to have a close friend involved in our day that way.

I really wanted an unstructured look to my bouquet with natural tones and different textures. Ash did the bouquets, button holes, flower girl crowns and wands, the arbour and table flowers.

I also had Jessica, from a Wild Romance, do our floral hair pieces which were incredible. I dried mine and still have it.”

Anna’s bridesmaids donned pieces in white from Shona Joy, Kookai, Sheike and Ryder. “I chose my two sisters, Lisa and Kati and two of my closest friends from school, Lou and Bec,” she notes.

“We went with Brendan Woods and could not have been happier,” tell the newlyweds of their chosen wedding photographer. “Brendan was the photographer at my sister’s wedding back in 2014. He was so relaxed and down to earth and this was exactly the feeling we wanted for our day. It made our decision very easy as we didn’t have to research different photographers.”

Anna shares “I was on maternity leave while wedding planning so when Lucca slept, I would slowly get through our to-do list! I love a good list and spreadsheet so that definitely helped to keep us on track.”

Andrew handmade wooden crates, which acted as a stand for guests to take their own polaroid photos and share them.

For their first dance the newlyweds chose “Better Together” by Jack Johnson. “Neither of us is remotely close to being dancers – no matter how matter how many drinks we’ve had beforehand,” laughs Anna. “To try and avoid complete embarrassment we spent hours learning enough steps to get us through to the first chorus when everyone else would be invited to join in. Unfortunately, when the time came, we couldn’t hear the intro so we spent the first few seconds looking at each other, then back and forth to the band. Eventually, we got moving and made it through without tripping over ourselves too much.

Although a bit nerve-racking, our first dance was a lot of fun and another special moment a part of an amazing day.”

“I love music, so I really wanted to make sure we had an amazing live act,” tells Andrew of the couple’s decision to hire Howard Shearman. “I first heard Howard when I stumbled on his YouTube channel. Howard uses a lot of loop recordings and electronics and really doesn’t sound like your typical wedding singer. I was really excited to find out he performs at weddings, and he (and Alex on percussion) were perfect.”