Some weddings are so charming that as soon as you see the first few photos you’re already hooked! That is definitely how we felt upon first seeing Amy and Bronson’s wedding in Victoria, Australia. Held at her parents’ property–the charming Providence Gully–this real wedding was intimate and casual yet perfectly whimsical and elegant at the same time. Captured by Oli Sansom Weddings, we’ll let the beautiful bride tell you even more about their special day (and romance!).
See more of our gorgeous real weddings here!
On the Proposal:
“We had been living in the UK for 3 years, traveling, working and generally loving life. We had decided a couple of months before we were due to move back home we would visit Paris one last time. We loved Paris, and being only a 1 hr flight, it was almost too easy! Anyway, We had just spent the night walking the streets eating Nutella crepes when Bronson lead us into a quiet secluded park (little did I know at the time, but it was the park we went to the first time we visited Paris together) and asked me to marry him. After I said an emphatic ‘YES OF COURSE!’ Bronson then asked me if I recognized the ring. I didn’t, and had no idea what he was taking about. So Bronson proceeded to tell me I had actually tried it on many years ago in an antique shop in Sydney. Evidently he had purchased the ring 3 years earlier just before we left to move to the UK! It would seem that this beautiful ring was quite the jet-setter, joining us on pretty much every holiday we took together for the past 3 years. It had been to Prague, Budapest, Germany, Slovenia, Morocco, Spain, Italy, France and probably many more. Turns out Bronson was just looking for that PERFECT moment. He found it in Paris. Eventually.”
On the Venue:
“Because we got married at my parents property, we never really looked into other venues. I always knew I’d get married there, it was just so lovely to (literally) feel at home the whole day.”
On the Inspiration:
“We decided early on to allowed the beautiful location and venue define the aesthetic of our day. With its gorgeous olive grove, pomegranate orchard and fully functioning vegetable garden, the day felt very ‘farm to table’ with a twist of Mediterranean. We were heavily influenced by our travels overseas and incorporated our favorite elements e.g. sitting down at long tables of Spanish tapas, sipping on Italian aperol spritzers in the sun and the scent of Moroccan orange blossom in the air.”
On the DIY Projects:
- Stamping Napkins
- Stamping confetti bags (in fact even making the stamp!)
- Picking, drying and stripping thousands of stems of lavender for confetti
- Creating and hanging ivy and floral chandeliers
- Cutting, sanding and oiling wooden table runners
- Celebration sticks for ribbon cutting ceremony
- My veil hair crown worn for the ceremony.
- Flower crowns for flower girls. Button holes for page boys
- Ceremony backdrop. (Bronson and I made it together the week before the wedding)
- ‘Welcome to our wedding’ sandwich board
- Signs along the road to the ceremony site
- Save the Date video
- ….Theres probably more but I think that’ll do!
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On the Dress:
From the get go I knew that deciding on what I was going to wear would to be the most difficult decision of the whole planning process. For me the combination of working in fashion and, more importantly, being an incredibly indecisive person, it was bound to be a tough process. I started off with the usual dress shopping with girlfriends and my mum. Overall it was a good experience in that I was able to try on various different shape dresses and decide on the one that was most flattering for me. However I didn’t find the actual ‘shopping’ experience particularly welcoming. I found some of the assistants in the dress shops quite pushy. I was shopping for the dress 9 months before the big day and many of them said I was ‘leaving it to the last minute.’ After 2 failed days shopping in both Melbourne and Sydney, trying on 20+ dresses, and hours spent trawling bridal sites online, I still didn’t have that holy grail ‘this is the one’ moment. I wasn’t getting what I wanted in the shops so I went in search for a dressmaker. I remembered a conversation I had with a friend of a friend at a wedding a few months before and she said if I decided I wanted to get my dress made she could give me a recommendation. At the time I thought I’ll never need it and didn’t think I’d end up contacting her. I thought I’d have my ‘the one’ moment… Little did I know.
I eventually contacted her and she gave me the number of a girl who made her dress 5 years earlier. Her name was Yulia. I did a bit of research on her and gave her a call to set up a meeting.
Turns out meeting Yulia was my ‘the one’ moment. Not because of the dress, but because of the person. She was so lovely and welcoming, and helpful. She knew her stuff, but at the same time was so down to earth. She patiently sat and listened to what I wanted, drew it up, gave me her professional opinion on what will work and then when I told her the date of my wedding (now thinking it was very last minute) she said ‘no problem, that’s plenty of time’! I’m convinced she is an angel disguised as a dressmaker!”
On the Wedding Playlist:
“I walked down the aisle to ‘Real Love’ the Regina Spector version. Recessional was ‘Kiss me’ by Sixpence none the richer – both sung beautifully by Renee from Tobi Music. And first dance was ‘Fade into you’ By Mazzy Star and sung by our close friend Nikki.”
RELATED: These are the Most Popular Wedding Songs in Your State
On Her Favorite Moment:
“In the weeks leading up to our big day there was a heat wave, 35 degrees plus every day! Then…. the day before our wedding the heavens opened up, the mercury plummeted, and the rains came. Being in the country and subsequently a very dry summer, there were mixed emotions. One the one hand my parents, although concerned that it may rain on the day of the wedding, were also pretty happy to have some water in the tanks. I, on the other hand, experienced my first (and may I add only) moments of wedding planning stress. The whole day was planned as a summer outdoor wedding so I had to start thinking of plan B’s.
The big day came and was forecast for only 18 deg and overcast with a slight chance of rain, pretty cold for summer in central Victoria! It was even drizzling in the morning. But thankfully it stopped drizzling for the ceremony and when the reception started and we all took our seats, the sun came out from behind the clouds and at that moment we both felt like we were back in Italy, sipping on Aperol Spritz and feasting on antipasto platters, surrounded by friends and family. This was definitely our favorite moment, and I’ll never forget it.”
On Her Advice to Other Brides:
“We love love LOVED having a week off before the big day. Hanging out with family and friends and throwing ourselves whole heartedly into creating our day together to make it feel like our own.
I would also say there comes a point where you both need to realize you can’t do it all on your own, its never going to look like a pinterest board and you have to allow people to help. There will be lots of people that are happy to help out – some you might not even expect. They will be doing things the best way they know how even though it might not be how it was in your head. At the end of the day we loved having our friends and family heavily involved in the day and thank our lucky stars we have such supportive (and may I say talented) people around us.”
Photographer: Oli Sansom Weddings//Musicians: Tobi Music//Officiant: Gaye Jenkins//Equipment Rentals: Kyneton Hire//Specialty Foods: Fat Poppy//Floral Designer: Farmyard Flowers//Cinema and Video: Nathan Kaso Weddings//Event Venue: Providence Gully//
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