Real Wedding - Melissa & Jamie, Macedon VIC

June 6, 2018 In Real Weddings By Natalie Drum

Real Wedding – Melissa & Jamie, Macedon VIC

While a looming forecast of rain on their wedding day saw Melissa and Jamie change venues late in the piece, it all came together beautifully.

A simple, yet sophisticated wedding gown, saw Melissa wow her guests as she made her way down the aisle where they then exchanged heart-felt vows.

The luxe, country vibe of this celebration suited these long-time lovers to a tee. Complete with pizza trucks, garden games and even a romantic, outdoor first dance – it’s truly gorgeous, and it’s been captured perfectly by Marnie Hawson.

In their words…

The meeting.

We met at University Games, representing our uni in mixed netball. Right from the start we got along so well and our relationship progressed easily (as cliche’ as that sounds). That was 12 years ago, time flies when you’re having fun! We have had some incredible experiences together over that time, living overseas and travelling a lot together, the greatest test to a relationship!

‘The one”.

We both knew pretty early on we had found the one, it was never really a question. Great relationships are built on friendship and trust.

The proposal.

We here holidaying in Taupo, New Zealand, over Christmas. On a lovely chilled out day we went for a big walk to a waterfall in the morning, and found the perfect spot on the lake for a lazy late lunch, swim and sun-bake. It was pretty busy with lots of families there which unnerved Jamie so we went for a bit of a drive, but later decided to head back to that same beautiful spot to cook up their BBQ dinner. I remember saying to Jamie after dinner as we were relaxing on the grass with a drink in hand, how perfect and relaxing the day had been, it was Christmas Day done right! Little did I know, the day was going to get even better.

The sun was setting and was creating the most beautiful colours on the still water of the lake. There were only a couple of people around. Jamie convinced me to go stand on the jetty and he would take some photos and then he joined me there. He said he had another little Christmas present for me, and pulled out a ring box-sized present wrapped in paper. At this point I cottoned on to what was inside but it was all a bit of a blur. Obviously Jamie had hidden the box in his bag all day, and had been rumbling around in there. So as I opened the box, the ring had come out of the slit it was supposed to be sitting in and popped out as soon as I opened up the box. We both stood frozen as we watched the ring bounce along the jetty and land just centimetres short of the edge! We couldn’t quite believe our luck and Jamie wasn’t surprised as I’m a little accident prone!

The process.

Once we found and secured our vendors and venue, we were able to relax for awhile. I had most things planned pretty early, as I like to be organised. The rest including the dress, bridesmaid dresses and suits were easy to decide on. We just went with our first choice and stick to it. We are both quite relaxed people and wanted to make our day as relaxed and stress free as possible, which definitely helped in the planning. We were also conscious of just having our close friends and family with us on our big day, so we had a small busy list.

Style inspiration.

After following the various blogs etc on Instagram, I discovered I liked a rustic, country vibe. We wanted a really relaxed wedding with a pizza truck, garden games and a caravan bar.

The dress.

I had always loved Grace Loves Lace dresses, and had my eye on their ‘Alexandria’ dress for a while. My twin sister and I having very similar tastes also travelled up to the Gold Coast together and each came away with our perfect dresses. Like us, they were very similar but also different.

I loved the handmaid lace detail, slim fit with sweeping low back and high neckline with a long train that you can bustle up for dancing. It was simple yet sophisticated, and so perfect. I really didn’t want to take it off at the end of the night!

Favourite moments.

When we decided to have our first dance outside between the barn and homestead. The fountain and festoon lights created such an intimate setting which was completed with our guests lighting sparklers. It was a magical end to an incredible day!

Meaning of marriage.

Being truly there for each other for all of the ups and downs of life; as a best friend, adversary and lover.

Wedding soundtrack.

Aisle: Chateau by Angus & Julia Stone

Reception: Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen

First dance: You got the Love by Florence and The Machine

Funny stories (or near disasters).

We had planned to have our ceremony and reception in the beautiful grounds of Cameron Lodge, Mt Macedon. It had a gorgeous little cottage that we were going to get ready in and walk out from there. However, after nervously watching the weather forecast all week and discovering that our wet weather option marquee was no longer an option, we decided to make a last minute call to change venues.

Ann, the lovely owner of Cameron Lodge also had another property just down the road, which had a barn and homestead that were perfect for our day, and which Ann very generously offered to us. We hadn’t seen the property but decided to go with it after seeing it for ourselves on the Friday, literally the day before our wedding. The weather forecast kept changing, but at this time it was predicting 5-10mm of rain. Friday was a little more frantic than we had planned, as we ran around making sure we could fit into the barn if the heavens opened during our ceremony, and also had to inform all of our vendors and guests of the change of venue.

Saturday morning the heavens definitely opened, as we witnessed heavy thunderstorms and rain. We weren’t stressed about it though, as we knew we had a back-up in the case of rain during our ceremony, which would have also been intimate and beautiful. Isn’t it good luck to rain on your wedding day anyway? Not to mention stormy photos are beautiful! We also had our beautiful friends and family around us to keep us calm all day as we got ready. Macedon ended up having 35mm of rain that day, the most for the state!

As the day progressed, the storms cleared and we had lovely sunshine for our ceremony. You wouldn’t have known that an hour or two before we had torrential rain and thunderstorms!

Planning surprises.

All those last minute jobs that pop up or that you can only do in the last coupe of weeks are so time-consuming. I can’t even remember what they were now, but argh!

Words of wisdom.

Think about who you want to have around you in the lead up to your big day, and choose people who you know will have your back. We planned to have a dinner with our close friends and bridal party on the Friday night, which ended up being one of our most special memories of the weekend. We felt so loved and supported that night, it was such an intimate evening.

Last words.

We had been told by so many people to make sure you take a moment or two to take it all in, as the day goes so fast. It certainly flew for us too, and it’s true that you hardly eat or drink a thing, but it is still the best day of your life!