Real Wedding – Rachel & Tom, Gnarwarre VIC
Sometimes, the perfect venue finds you. For Rachel and Tom, Rosemont Homestead’s blend of natural beauty, historic elegance and lush garden surrounds sparked an instant connection.
The perfect canvas for their vision of timeless romance with a contemporary edge, Rachel and Tom’s dream day was seamlessly brought to life by an indomitable team of talented vendors led by Laura of Weddings of Desire.
Beginning with a perfectly polished, elegantly personal and gorgeously delivered ceremony by stellar celebrant Natalie Drum and soundtracked by the musical talent of Tobi Tobi, this celebration is the epitome of refined signature style and transcendent warmth. Seen through the lens of Erin Neale, it is a true treat for the senses.
Between Rachel’s custom Pallas gown (following in her sisters’ stylish footsteps) and golden hour portraits in the garden, every moment felt both elevated and effortlessly them. Here’s how this nature-loving pair transformed a working horse stud into their dream celebration setting.
The meeting.
We met about four years ago. Our first date was a coffee and walk around the Tan (Botanical Gardens) in South Yarra.
The one.
We knew pretty early in our relationship, as it just felt right. We have a lot of important things in common like our love for our families, spending time in nature and our deep affection for animals. We both try and be kind people.
Rachel: From the start of our relationship, Tom has made me feel special in his own way, helped me to be grateful for the small things and to see a life of adventure with him. Some of my best memories with him include our multi-day hikes in New Zealand’s South Island Fiordlands, the Victorian Alps and along the Victorian Coast Line.
Tom: I knew early on that Rachel was the one. Not only is she beautiful and very intelligent, but her kindness and compassion are some of the key things that brought us together and will keep us together. She helps me to be calm and positive.
The proposal.
We were visiting Western Australia to spend some time with my family and had travelled down south to my family’s beach house in Albany for a few days. Tom organised a picnic for dinner to watch the sunset in the nearby national park on some cliffs overlooking the Southern Ocean. It was a gorgeous, calm evening, so it was an incredible view. Tom was wearing a jacket on a warm evening, which I thought was a bit odd, and was also unusually quiet throughout dinner.
After dinner, Tom took out a letter he had written and read it to me (he has written me letters on other big occasions like the first time he told me he loved me). Tom then told me he had spoken to my Dad earlier that day and got down on one knee and proposed! It was such a beautiful and special moment and I was very happy that he decided to propose in Western Australia and in the town where my Dad grew up.
Planning process.
Tom and I started the planning process about two years before our wedding (as we wanted to take our time, enjoy the experience and not feel rushed). My Mum was also an incredible support for us throughout the process (I can’t thank her enough for her help).
The first thing we did was agree on what was important to both of us. We wanted our day to be classic, timeless, elegant and romantic. We both love being in nature (so we were drawn to an outdoor garden setting) and wanted a more intimate occasion (so we opted for 80 guests, which felt special but still enough for a great atmosphere). Music was very important to us (we wanted a nostalgic vibe with live musicians where possible), as well as a creative vegetarian menu (as we are plant-based).
While we did look at some venues in inner Melbourne, the Yarra Valley and Red Hill to get a sense of what we liked, we were open to a private property.
When we met Laura from Weddings of Desire (who planned, styled and was on-the-day coordination for our wedding) and she showed us Rosemont Homestead, we instantly fell in love! Rosemont was everything we were looking for. It is not only incredibly beautiful with its exquisite gardens and its sprawling historical bluestone homestead, it just feels so peaceful, calm and special when you are there. I come from a horse family as well so I just felt at home at Rosemont (it is also a horse stud). Located in the Surf Coast Shire, it was also great to be able to encourage our guests to have a weekend away in Torquay (including a number of our guests who were travelling from WA (including my family) and overseas).
In terms of planning and styling, we were incredibly grateful to have Laura guiding us through the process. Laura was just amazing to work with. Not only is she extremely experienced, having planned and styled countless stunning weddings, but she is also friendly, approachable and truly invested in each wedding she plans.
Choosing our suppliers was incredibly easy with Laura’s assistance. The majority of our suppliers Laura works with regularly and came highly recommended so having options to pick from made it very easy for us. We locked in a number of key suppliers (e.g. celebrant, photographer, videographer) in 2023 and our glam, florist, styling, hire / décor, etc, in 2024. We did meet with each of our suppliers to ensure we got on well. I’ve shared some words about each below because we truly had an A-team, and we would highly recommend each and every one of them!
In terms of styling, together with Laura, we put together a vision board of inspiration images and then worked through each styling decision in line with our vision (everything from marquee style to candles). There are a lot of decisions to make for a private property wedding, but it was amazing to have a blank canvas to work with, and we were very happy with how all of our choices came together on the day!
Style inspiration.
We both wanted our wedding to be classic, timeless, elegant and romantic. We didn’t really try to follow trends – we made decisions based on what we liked and what we felt would stand the test of time when we look back on our wedding in years to come. Rosemont is also so stunning by itself so we really wanted to make sure we built on and enhanced Rosemont’s beauty on the day with our style choices (not detract from it).
Inspiration via real weddings and articles from Ivory Tribe were incredibly useful! We also drew a lot of inspiration from Laura and our suppliers’ previous work on Instagram to help articulate what we were looking for as well as Pinterest.
The main thing for us is that we had complete trust in our suppliers, and while we described our vision and shared examples of what we liked as best we could, we did try to give our suppliers creative license to deliver on our aesthetic how they thought would work best within our budget. They are the experts, after all, and we couldn’t have been happier with the result!
The ceremony.
We couldn’t have been happier with how our ceremony went. It was held in one part of the gardens against a permanent arbour with existing wisteria, buxus and roses. We wanted our guests to go on a journey around the property on our day, so they then walked around to the orchard for canapes in the shade of a gorgeous big fig tree and then around to the front of the house for our reception in the marquee.
Our ceremony felt so special and heartfelt for a number of reasons:
- Natalie Drum (our celebrant) was simply exquisite (there is no other way to put it) – she was a dream to work with from start to finish. She wrote and told our story so beautifully on the day and conducted our ceremony with so much elegance, grace and poise. Nat also helped us write our vows (which were a highlight of the day), and her guidance and feedback were invaluable.
- We wanted our families to play an important part in our ceremony. Not only were my sisters and Tom’s brother in our bridal party, but my two nieces Eva and Briar were our flower girls and my nephew Jack and Tom’s nephew Sebastian were our ring bearers (they all stood dutifully – we were very proud). Our mothers were also our witnesses, and it was very special to have them watch our marriage become official and light a candle for each of us.
- Nat from Wild Flos also created the dream setting for us with her florals – a lush garden oasis filled mainly with white roses (with a pop of quicksand), which complimented Rosemont’s existing beauty so well without being overdone.
- Walking through Rosemont’s beautiful hedges and down the aisle with my Dad to the sounds of Renee and Jamie of Tobi Tobi is something I will never forget. Renee’s voice is truly magical against her guitar and Jamie’s cello, and it was difficult to hold back tears when they played our aisle song, Iris. Tobi Tobi also played during our canapes and were just phenomenal (they really nailed our nostalgia brief covering so many amazing classics).
The outfits.
I wore a custom Pallas Couture bespoke gown as my first dress (with a custom Pallas veil with pearl detailing).
There was no other choice than Pallas for me with their exquisite designs and craftsmanship. Both my sisters were also married in Pallas gowns nine and eleven years ago and it just felt very special to follow in their footsteps. It was an amazing 12-month process in the Sydney boutique with Joy and her wonderful team, who helped me choose the elements of my dress – from the shape to the French lace to the pearl lines. It was just incredible to watch my dress and veil slowly come to life, and I was very happy I was able to share the process with my Mum (I will treasure our time with Pallas and trips to Sydney together to create my dress).
My second dress was a Chosen by Kyha dress called Freddie, which I changed into very late in the evening for our first dance and the dance floor. I loved the optionality of the Freddie dress in terms of the length of the draping – I felt very confident, fun and free (but still wedding-appropriate), so it was a great dance floor choice.
In terms of accessories, I wanted to keep my jewelry very simple (opting for drop pearl earrings and my engagement ring / wedding band only) given the detail on my dress and veil. Amina Muaddi shoes were the obvious choice for me as they are both glamorous, but the distinctive pyramid heel is a great option for a property where I needed to walk on grass, etc. I opted for the Gilda silver slippers for my first dress (as I didn’t want anything too heavy with the softness of my dress) and the Gilda embellished white pointed mules for my second dress.
Tom was a lot more straightforward – he was given guidance to get himself and all of his groomsmen into classic black tuxedos (and to differentiate himself slightly), and off he went.
Favourite moments.
The whole day was truly spectacular. We deliberately spent the day side by side as much as possible which we would highly recommend – we felt so happy and connected throughout the whole day.
In terms of favourite moments:
Tom: seeing Rachel at the end of the aisle (she was hidden and emerged through the beautiful hedges at Rosemont) and our first dance together.
Rachel: seeing Tom at the end of the aisle, hearing his vows, which were so beautifully written and our first dance as husband and wife.
Meaning of marriage.
We had already built a life together and committed to each other in so many ways by the time we got married. So, to us, marriage was another symbol of our commitment to each other, and our wedding day was an opportunity to celebrate our love with our family and closest friends.
Wedding soundtrack.
Aisle: Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls (covered by Tobi Tobi)
Signing: Two Strong Hearts by John Farnham (covered by Tobi Tobi); Never Tear Us Apart by INXS (covered by Tobi Tobi)
Recessional: Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles (covered by Tobi Tobi)
Reception entrance: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! by ABBA
First dance: I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing by Aerosmith (covered by Blame Jones)
Father-daughter dance: Days Like This by Van Morrison
Mother-son dance: What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong
Final song of the night: Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi
Funny stories (or near disasters).
Not really – we were very lucky and grateful that the planning process and the day went so smoothly with Laura’s help.
We did, unfortunately, have groomsmen come down with COVID in the days before the wedding and wasn’t able to attend. Luckily, one of Tom’s amazing friends was more than happy to step in, and we are forever grateful to him – he brought incredible energy to the bridal party, and we couldn’t thank him enough!
There was also one funny moment the day before Tom proposed, though. He went for a bike ride along the coast in Albany, found a bench and began to write the letter he intended to use to guide his proposal. As he looked out at the coast and held the ring up to the light for some inspiration, a passerby said “Don’t do it”! Luckily, Tom was unfettered by the warnings!
Planning surprises.
Before we found the incredible Rosemont, we did look at a couple of fixed venues in Melbourne, the Yarra Valley and Red Hill. We were surprised by the lack of flexibility at some of the venues around a vegetarian menu (we weren’t thrilled at the idea of having heads of cauliflower served as our main)! This was one of the reasons that we ended up having our wedding on a private property where we could organize our own catering.
Honestly, it was the best decision! We are so incredibly grateful to Mill and her amazing team at Smith & Co for carefully crafting the most amazing 5-course vegetarian menu for us! The Smith & Co food was first-class and we received so many compliments from our guests. We were so thrilled that we were able to impress our guests with a fresh and creative vegetarian menu, and Smith & Co were just an absolute delight to deal with!
Words of wisdom.
There can be pressure to move straight into planning after getting engaged so the advice I would give is to take your time if you can and just enjoy the special time with your fiancé. Tom and I were engaged for a year before we started planning, and we booked Rosemont two years out. That is obviously a long timeline by typical standards, but it really took the pressure off and also meant that we often had our choice of suppliers.
Your suppliers are everything (both in terms of delivering on your vision and also ensuring a stress-free process and day), so choose carefully. On the day, I really felt that our suppliers went above and beyond for us and were truly invested in us having a magical day. We are forever grateful to our amazing A-team and I would highly recommend every one of them.
On the day, just let go and try not to stress, spend as much time together as possible and just take it all in. Tom and I felt so happy and relaxed on the day because we knew we had done all that we could to prepare, and we wanted to be as present as possible with each other. Obviously, having Laura and her incredible team helped us relax and enjoy ourselves, as we knew she had everything under control and would ensure our day ran smoothly.
Inspired by this stunningly sophisticated celebration? Explore more garden weddings in our Outdoor Wedding collection, or connect with our curated selection of premium vendors in our directory.
RACHEL & TOM’S VENDORS
As noted above, we chose most of our suppliers based on options that Laura provided to us. However, we did meet with the majority of them before booking to ensure they were the right fit and I definitely did a lot of Instagram stalking. We truly had an A-team who went above and beyond for us on the day – I would highly recommend each and every one of our suppliers!
Ceremony & reception venue: Rosemont Homestead – see above for comments.
Styling / planning: Laura from Weddings of Desire – see above for comments.
Celebrant: Natalie Drum – see above for comments.
Photography: Erin Neale. Erin is a true gem! We are beyond happy with the stunning images that she captured of our day! Not only is she an incredible, highly experienced photographer (I felt so comfortable just letting her do her thing on the day), but she also brought the most amazing warmth and energy. Tom and I felt so comfortable working with her and are so happy with the result!
Videography: Annette & Dani. Annette & Dani were one of the first suppliers we booked, and we are so happy that we did, as they created such a beautiful and romantic short film of our special moments on the day! They are so creative and our film felt so unique and personal to us. A&D were also so much fun to work with (giving Tom and I lots of encouragement and building our confidence) and worked in seamlessly with our photographer. We couldn’t have been happier with these ladies!
Florist: Wild Flos. Wild Flos’ floral creations for our day were beyond anything we could have hoped for! The florals that Nat and her team created were just exquisite – complimenting the gorgeous Rosemont gardens and surrounds perfectly. Nat is also so lovely and incredible to work with (she listened carefully to our brief and delivered to perfection). We were so glad we had Wild Flos on our team!
Hair: Fran Santa Cruz. Fran is the queen of glam waves that last all day! She also brought amazing energy to our wedding morning preparations! All of the girls’ hair looked phenomenal (Fran and her assistant styled me, four bridesmaids, two flower girls and the mother of the bride), and everyone was so happy with their hair.
Make-up: Tiffany Love. I have known Tiffany for years, so it was really special to have her as my make-up artist on the day! She is incredibly talent, a true perfectionist and has such a big heart! We all felt so glamorous and confident on the day after being glammed by Tiff – she is truly a special lady!
First dress: Custom Pallas Couture Bespoke – see above for comments.
Second dress: Chosen by Kyha Freddie dress – see above for comments.
Veil / headwear: Custom Pallas Couture bespoke veil – see above for comments.
Shoes: Aminda Muaddi Gilda slipper mules (silver), Aminda Muaddi Gilder embellished pointed mules (white)
Rings: Larsen Jewellery (bride wedding band and engagement ring), Michaell Hill (groom wedding band).
Bridesmaid’s dresses: One Fell Swoop. Nina and One Fell Swoop were a no-brainer for me and were just incredible to work with end to end! Not only are their designs beautiful and feminine but they take an immense amount of pride in their process. The bridesmaids wore custom black Elara dresses (we altered the neckline and length), and the Matron of Honour wore the Gaia dress. The bridesmaids had a couple of fittings in the Perth boutique (my bridesmaids are based in WA) to ensure they walked out feeling their absolute best, and I couldn’t have been happier with the result! I have no doubt the girls will wear their dresses again and again.
Flower girl dresses: Gio Bespoke. Jo and Gio Bespoke were an absolute dream to work with! Finding flower girl dresses that were age-appropriate and elegant (my nieces were 10 and 6yo) was proving very challenging until I found Jo and the stunning designs in her Essendon boutique. Our flower girls wore the hand-beaded Lola dress, and they felt so beautiful and special in their dresses! Jo was also very accommodating in terms of allowing for growth spurts – she put two sizes aside for each girl five months out and then we chose and hemmed the right size dress (based on their measurements) closer to the wedding. I would choose Jo every time!
Catering: Smith and Co Foods – see above for comments
Bar: Dan Murphy Events
Favours (live illustrator): Natalie Rompotis. Rather than traditional wedding favours, we opted to have a live illustrator at our wedding to draw our guests, and then they could take their artwork home. Not only was Natalie such a pleasure to deal with, she is incredibly talented – our guests were all raving about their artwork! Natalie also took the time to perfect the artwork for Tom and I and also each of my sister’s families after the wedding and mail it to us – our artwork was stunning (she captured the detail on my dress so beautifully) and is something we will all treasure!
Cake: Something About Cake. Fiona was a dream to deal with from our very first consultation – so professional and easy to work with! Not only was our cake simply stunning (and exactly what we wanted), but it also tasted incredible, and we had so many guests comment on how delicious it was!
Stationery / Signage: Ivory & Stone. Ivory & Stone designed and produced all of our custom wedding stationery, from our invitations to our vow books to our on-the-day stationery and signage. It is hard to express how truly amazing Bec is! Her work is so timeless and elegant (printed on an antique letterpress), is so personal to each couple she works with, and she puts so much thought, time and care into everything she does. We received so many compliments from our guests on her work and I would choose Bec again and again – an absolute dream!
Entertainment (ceremony and canapes): Tobi Tobi – see above for comments.
Entertainment (reception): Unplugged Entertainment (DJ Timmy Mac, Andrew Loadman, Jarrod Sax). The guys from Unplugged Entertainment were just phenomenal – truly first class! DJ Timmy Mac absolutely nailed our nostalgia / retro brief, playing lots of throwbacks (80s, 90s), and Andrew and Jarrod brought so much energy and really got the dance floor going! These guys are true musicians, and you can tell they really love what they do (which came through on the night in their incredible performance). We received so many compliments from our guests on the entertainment and had an amazing time as well!
Transport: CDC Victoria (bus transport for guests)
Décor: Table Art Hire (linen and candles). Our linen and napkins on the day looked beautiful and were of amazing quality. We also loved our brass, vintage inspired candle sticks with tapered candles from Table Art!
Social Event Hire (table settings). Social Event Hire has such an incredible selection of plates, glassware and cutlery – it was lots of fun selecting our table settings for the big day.
Hire: Tent Society. Tent Society was incredible! Everything we hired from Tent Society (which was basically everything!) was in amazing condition and looked brand new – from the marquee to the lounge furniture to the chairs and cushions, dancefloor, etc. We were so happy with Tent Society.
Honeymoon: The Deck House (Wye River). We are planning more international travel in 2025 so opted for a few nights down the Great Ocean Road at the Deck House in Wye River to relax after the wedding. And let me tell you – the Deck House did not disappoint! What a stunning property with an incredible view. We will definitely be back!
Other (Guest book): The Guest Book Collective. We ordered a custom large Polaroid guest book from the Guest Book Collective, and Jem and Shane did not disappoint! Not only did it fit our aesthetic perfectly, they went over and above for us – even commissioning an illustrator to draw a sketch of Rosemont, which was printed on the back of our book. Our guests loved taking photos and writing messages in our book, and it also looks great on our coffee table post-wedding.
Other (Nails): Soak Bar. These ladies are nail queens! Not only are their salons stunning, they truly are the best in the business. We booked a private event at the South Yarra salon and it was the perfect way to get the bridal party’s nails ready for the big day. They were also so patient with our flower girls and made them feel so special – I couldn’t recommend them more.
Other (Tan): Tan & Beauty Lounge. Janet and Tan & Beauty Lounge tanned our bridal party, and our tans came out beautifully. They really are the bridal tan specialists – so experienced and have such an amazing attention to detail!
Other (Champagne Tower): Miss Fizz. We loved our champagne tower by Miss Fizz!
