History: We went to the same college but didn’t really know each other.  Whilst we had a number of mutual friends we never actually managed to have a conversation.

 

Fast forward to April 2002, my 18^th birthday at Canberra’s infamous South Pacific Nightclub, (a great venue for meeting people but not necessarily a great venue to find a potential spouse). But that was how it was for us. We’ve been together nearly seven years.

 

Proposal: Sorry everyone, it’s a secret. But let me say I had absolutely no idea. He asked for my father’s permission and it was all absolutely perfect. 

 

Wedding theme: We didn’t have a theme as such. Our colours were musky pink to match the girl’s dresses with silver to match their shoes. Everything from the cake ribbon, to the ribbon around the flower boxes on the tables, to the wishing well, to the chairs was in this colour theme. The room looked terrific.

 

Preparation: We could have been married in a month we were so organised. We knew what we wanted and organised the whole wedding ourselves. We had nil dramas.

 

Some tips:

The internet is great for ideas. Print off photos and take copies to all your appointments.

 

Book early. Canberra books out fast! You don’t want to be going with option 2 because you left it until the last moment.

 

Give people notice. Send out ‘save the date’ magnets.

 

Break up the planning. People can get over wedding planning. We did bits and pieces over the year and a half before our wedding. No stress. No issues.

Ceremony 

Judy Aulich married us in a beautiful ceremony at DeVine Function Centre, Kamberra Winery. The weather leading up to the big day was very gloomy so we had it indoors. We put our own ceremony together with Judy’s help. She was fabulous. We only met with 1 celebrant and that was Judy (we booked her on the spot). A lot of our guests commented our how personal the ceremony was. Judy gave us a lot of options and tailored the whole ceremony to suit us. Andrew and I, with most of our 130+ guests cried through it. She was professional, intelligent, articulate, thorough and reliable.

 

Gown

I absolutely adore my dress. The ladies at Nouveau Riche were brilliant. The day I found my dress I was worried I wasn’t going to have a ‘this dress is the 1’ moment. The ladies there asked me what I visualised. Using my thoughts and their experience the first dress they suggested was it. I found my gown over a year before the wedding. The ladies ordered it in (My size exactly, I didn’t need to have alterations) and held it in their store until the week of the wedding. I made a slight change to the bust which they took care of. BRILLIANT! I would high recommend going there.

 

Reception venue

When we booked with DeVine they had only just started doing weddings. Jenny and the DeVine team were reliable, organised and prompt with their replies to our questions and requests. The day of the wedding as we pulled up to DeVine, Jenny greeted me with a smile and a hug. (She is married and knows exactly what you want, why you want it and how to do it) They did a marvelous job. The room was perfectly laid out to plan. Every glass, flower, gift, fairy light, candle etc was in its place.

 

After the ceremony (which DeVine took care of) our guests mentioned they loved the rose petals down the aisle (which DeVine also took care of), the view (overlooking a pond and the race course, we had run of the whole venue.) and the drinks that were being handed around the room before the ceremony started. (We didn’t even know they had organised that).

 

After our photos DeVine had organised some canapés and drinks (which our guests had been enjoying while we were off posing and smiling) to be put aside for the bridal party’s return in a separate room.

 

The reception went off without a glitch. The wine and food were superb. There were no long waits for drinks, the staff were friendly and polite (and even ended up in several photos from the disposable camera’s we had on each table). When taxi’s were hard to come by after the reception finished DeVine kept serving drinks until all the guests could go. We would highly recommend this venue.

 

Flowers 

When you have a bridal party of 14 flower costs can rack up. Manuka Flowers were not only one of the cheaper options they had a good range. Sue did exactly what we wanted. The flowers were magnificent. It was the little touches that I loved. The ribbon around the girl’s flowers matched their shoes. The ribbon around the flower boxes on each table at the reception was the same as the wedding invitations.

 

Hair and make up

We had a friend do our makeup. This is the second wedding I have been in where Katie has done our makeup. It lasted all night and didn’t look overdone. She is wonderful.

 

Our hair was done by Matisse. These ladies were so good I didn’t even need a hair trial. In fact, on the day of the wedding I changed mind at the last minute and they pulled off exactly what I wanted. Again, when you have 7 ladies getting their hair done at the same time it can be crazy but we were all out in 2 hours. (Really cheap too)

 

Cake

Our cake was so yummy! Cake of your Dreams is recommended by EVERYONE in the ACT area and they did not disappoint. Looked lovely and tasted lovely. We ditched the desert and served our cake with berry sauce and cream.

 

Photography

We had a family friend do our photos for us. Alanna is a qualified photographer and has her own business. She got us to do lists of who we wanted photos with, what we wanted photos of and managed to fit it all in (even though we were running behind time) The photos turned out better than we ever thought they could. They stayed the whole day/night with us. We will always appreciate the extraordinary job they did. The photos are stunning.

 

Music

We had a Sweethearts Music Trio (Trios - Flute, Violin and Cello) play the typical wedding music. The ladies played before we arrived to keep the guests occupied and really set the mood.

 

3D entertainment did the music for the reception. After seeing him at a friends wedding we understood why he’s in such high demand. He did a great job. The dance floor was not empty once!