I have dreamed about my wedding day since I was a little girl. That probably sounds like a cliche, but it’s true. I always had the vision of an outdoor, picnic-style wedding with only our closest family and friends; nothing fancy or pretentious, just casual and fun loving. The only problem with this vision was that I didn’t know anyone with a property or land nearby. Amazingly for us, our God had bigger plans to see through this vision. A few months before Christo and I got engaged, Christo’s parents had moved to a property called Obadiah, a camp run by a bunch of Christian families just south of Port Macquarie. One look at the place, with its green grass, tall trees, the huge lake and such potential for an amazing wedding venue, we started planing.
Our very first move was ring up and book James Day to be our photographer. This was very, very high on our priority list as Christo had idolised him for quite some time and we knew “we must have him.” We picked James because he really has a way at capturing the day for how it is. We love the way his photos always look natural; nothing staged or pretentious. We really wanted to remember the day for how is was.
We didn’t have a huge budget, and sought not to lose focus on the amazing commitment we were making. One of the best things about budgeting was that together Christo’s dad, my dad and some friends impressivly built our whole entire ceremony location from all recycled timbers and logs from around the area. They created our vision to a tee! To fulfil my vision of vintage touches to go with our rustic location, I went a little nuts, finding the majority of the props and decor from op shops, garage sales, etsy, and antique stores. We also hired the tables and chairs from a local hire company called The Salvaged Picnic. These guys helped us out so much with providing exactly what we needed to suit the look we were going for. Our florist was Sarah J Hudson a local girl who does amazing work; she is the best in Port Macquarie, and may I say she went above and beyond to help me create my vision. I wore the beautiful dress called Ariel from Grace Loves Lace, and Christo’s suit was M J Bale. The Bridesmaids dresses were found from a local store and the groomsmen’s outfits were Scotch and Soda and Forage bow ties. The make-up artist was Hayley Dwyer her business is Le Rouge Makeup.
Christo and I are so warmed by the fact that our wedding day was really a time where no one got stressed or anxious. Love just really shone through with everyone working together to help create the most beautiful day which was nothing short of perfection.
