Real Wedding – Brett & Teagan, Daylesford VIC

August 22, 2021 In Bohemian, Country, Latest Posts, Outdoor, Peach, Real Weddings, Rustic, Victoria By Ivory Tribe

Real Wedding – Brett & Teagan, Daylesford VIC

For a couple who grew up in regional Victoria, love exploring the bushlands and indulging in gorgeous wines, choosing a venue in delightful Daylesford was a dream deal. The Burrow provided a beautiful backdrop against which to theme their day, modern boho styling with a touch of rustic warmth.

Teagan created many of the sweetly styled details herself, creating a day filled with personal moments in a stylishly relaxed soiree. Starting with the ceremony, framed in wild textural fronds and soft vanilla blooms draped from sculptural ivory vases, the styling was second only to the feel-good vibes. Celebrant superstar Megan Thompson brought the laughs, happy tears, and uber-cool vibes, while musical legends Paper Hearts underscored emotion with perfect harmony.

The winning touch? A confetti canon to perfectly punctuate these two sweet souls being pronounced husband and wife. That is how you do it!

Scroll on see this wed-day wonder-fest from beginning to end.

The meeting.

We first met in the workplace in 2017. Our very first encounter was one Brett will never let me live down.

Brett was having his induction of the organisation’s different sites, and when Brett was introduced to me, I barely gave him anything. A few months passed, and I thought I would strike up an email conversation to get to know the new guy and make him feel more welcome. The banter continued for a month or two, and I eventually agreed to catch up for an after-work drink with Brett. The rest is history.

The ‘one’.

Brett wasn’t my usual type of guy, but I recall saying to a work colleague, long before we started communicating on a personal basis, “there’s just something about him”. And there certainly was.

I knew I’d found the one when I realised I could count on Brett, and he loved and adored me just the way I was. My fur baby Archie means the absolute world to me, so when Brett started to become extremely fond of Archie, I knew he was a keeper.

The proposal.

Brett popped the question on my birthday during COVID lockdown in April 2020. Due to the lockdown, we could only travel within 5km of our homes for ‘exercise’. Luckily, we lived within the radius (slightly over) of Mt Alexander, where we had always spoken about taking our dog Archie to explore.

Brett and I had always joked that when Brett popped the question, he couldn’t do it without Archie – so naturally, Archie was there. Brett had snuck the ring on Archies collar when getting out of the car. And after finally finding a nice spot to take in the view, Brett got down on one knee, with Archie by his side.

Planning process.

The beginning of the wedding planning was really easy as we’d already decided on a wedding venue (the only venue we looked at and fell in love with), and I knew what vendors I wanted to be a part of the big day. I was lucky enough that the vendors on the top of my list were all available on the date we had locked in. How cruisy was this, I thought!

The rest of the planning process was somewhat smooth, considering I was planning a wedding during COVID. Weekends were spent searching for ideas and putting together my DIY wedding projects.

Obviously, planning a wedding in 2020 wasn’t ideal, and it meant there were many ups and downs each time we went into lockdown. Along with creating backup plans and adapting to constantly changing rules, along with the uncertainty of if it would be able to go ahead. This took a little bit of a toll on me, and there was a period where I stopped doing anything related to the wedding as I’d lost motivation. But considering the hard situation we were in, I kept being resilient.

I planned the entire wedding myself, so the final couple of months before the wedding were very busy putting together the finer details and bringing it all together. It was really exciting to see everything I’d done all come together, and it started to feel real!

In the end, we were so extremely lucky that COVID didn’t disrupt our wedding, and we got to get married in front of so many!

Style inspiration.

When we visited The Burrow for a tour, it was everything I wanted and envisaged. The Burrow suited us as we both grew up in Regional Victoria and enjoy exploring the bushlands and wineries. We both loved the idea of a winery on a bush setting and the big indoor venue with high ceilings, polished concrete floors and glass doors looking out to the beautiful views; it was perfect.

I wanted a modern, rustic, boho style wedding. Styled with natives, eucalyptus, and touches of textural and dried elements and the venue fitted this style perfectly.

For the ceremony backdrop, I wanted something different to an arbour and wanted to make the most of the beautiful bush backdrop at The Burrow. In my search for inspiration, I had come across some recent weddings that also didn’t use arbours and instead had flowers around them on the ground in vases. I knew this is what I wanted. I spent hours trying to find the perfect boho vases, and after numerous trips to Melbourne, I finally found the perfect set. My florist did an absolutely amazing job styling the vases and the venue, and it really set the style and tone of the wedding.

Instagram was my go-to for online inspiration, and I followed a lot of wedding vendors and wedding blogs and directories such as Ivory Tribe and Hello May. I loved looking at real weddings, scrolling through photos and checking out the Instagram pages of the tagged suppliers.

The ceremony.

Our ceremony was very lighthearted, relaxed and there was lots of laughter. We didn’t have a bridal party, so it was just ourselves and the celebrant. It was perfect!

There were three main highlights of the ceremony.

The first highlight was walking down the aisle with my father, and closely in front was my brother and mother walking my two-year-old niece. We hadn’t done a practice run, and just as I stepped out to walk down the aisle, my niece decided it was the perfect time to sit on the ground and through petals. So, we all ended up walking down the aisle together.

The second highlight was Brett incorporating the Collingwood and Melbourne Football theme songs into his vows. He had his parents and other footy fans in stitches (Brett is a mad Football and Collingwood fan).

My third highlight was getting our celebrant to pull the trigger on the confetti cannon as she pronounced us husband and wife. The photos are spectacular.

The look.

Long before Brett and I were even engaged, I’d find myself looking up wedding dresses to see what kind of style I liked. I gravitated to dresses that had some sort of geometric pattern rather than a traditional lace dress.

When I was wedding dress shopping for Brett’s sister, we were at One Day Bridal (now KYHA studios), and I jokingly pulled out a dress that jumped out at me and said, “this is my wedding dress.”

Months had passed, and a dress popped up on my Instagram, and I thought to myself, “oh, I like that dress! Where is it from?” I then realised we had visited that bridal shop for Brett’s sister, and it was the dress I had jokingly said was my wedding dress. I instantly saved it to my phone.

When it came time to go dress shopping, I had to wait until the lockdown had finished. Finally, we could go shopping, and due to limited group numbers, we decided to try some dresses at a local bridal shop to get an idea as to what style suited me. I didn’t like anything, and all I could think about was ‘that dress.’

Two weeks later, Mum and I went to Melbourne to try on ‘The London’ at One Day Bridal (now KYHA Studios). As soon as I tried it on, I knew it was ‘the one’, but I wanted to sleep on it as it was a big decision. The next day I put in the order, and I couldn’t believe how easy it was to find the perfect dress. And I still am so in love with it!

Finding Brett’s outfit was really easy. We went to Melbourne to visit MJ Bale to try on some suits and picked out a nice navy suit on the spot. The hardest part was choosing what colour tie would go with my dress and suit Brett. I purchased numerous ties online and ended up going with a traditional navy tie.

The outfits worked really well together.

Favourite moments.

Our first look has to be the favourite moment of the day for both of us. It was so special to have an intimate first look between just the two of us without hundreds of eyes on us. What made it even more special was seeing Brett tear up for the first time. It was a pure reaction and one I probably wouldn’t have seen if there were over 100 people watching.

We decided to do the first look at our Air BnB as the gardens there were gorgeous. This gave us the opportunity to get some photos together, and most importantly, it gave us the opportunity to get some photos with Archie. Archie also had our rings around his bow tie, and it gave Archie the opportunity to give Brett the rings as the ring bearer. We would have loved Archie to have been at the wedding and walk down the aisle, but we decided having him at the wedding was going to be too difficult.

Meaning of marriage.

Marriage is a partnership and a lifelong commitment to love, support and be there for one another. It is having a best friend to navigate life’s journeys and to grow and build with each other.

Wedding soundtrack.

Aisle: Marry Me by Train (Performed by Paper Hearts – Duo)

Recessional: Better Together by Jack Johnson (Performed by Paper Hearts – Duo)

Reception entry: Go Bang by PNAU

Funny stories or near disasters.

Is it really a wedding without any funny stories or near disasters!?

There were a few near disasters in the lead-up, including receiving my altered dress from the dress alterations only two days before the wedding. That could have been disastrous!

On the day, I had two major near disasters.

The first was when the bustle on my dress popped five minutes before Brett arrived for our first look! I asked my friend to yank my dress down after going to the ladies’ room, and she gave it a real good yank (from the bustle), and we both heard a POP! We had no idea where the sound had come from, but both of our hearts sunk.

We soon realised it was the button under my dress holding the bustle in place. Lucky my photographer was there for the rescue and had a fair idea how bustles worked. I was also lucky for the emergency sewing kit I had on the day. So here we were, myself, the photographer and my two friends frantically trying to sew the button back on the dress to hold the train up, and next thing there is a knock at the door – it was Brett!

Thankfully I kept my calm, and the girls fixed my dress, and we didn’t keep Brett waiting too long.

I think this then set us up for the next near disaster.

We lost track of time and suddenly realised we were late for the wedding, so out the door we frantically ran. We eventually all got in the car and were ready to drive off, and then I realised I forgot something – my amazing bouquet! If you’ve ever tried to find something under pressure, you’ll know it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It took my two girlfriends and my dad to try and find my handbag to get the keys. Eventually, we arrived at the wedding 20 minutes (fashionably) late.

Planning surprises.

I planned my entire wedding myself and even did my own DIY projects wherever I could. The planning took up a lot more time and energy than I anticipated, but surprisingly I enjoyed it. I was happy with everything and felt an accomplishment in doing it myself.

I designed and made the table risers for the shared sit-down dinner as well as all the invites and menus, and I was surprised how well they turned out and how much money I saved doing what I could myself.

Words of wisdom.

Focus on the elements of the wedding that mean the most to you, and if there are certain things you don’t want to include or aren’t phased on, then don’t include them. For instance, we didn’t want to waste money on fancy wedding cars, so we didn’t. I turned up to my ceremony in my Mazda 3 with a white ribbon on the bonnet and my dad as the driver. It was just as good.

Don’t stick to traditions if you don’t want to. It’s your day, so do things your way and do things that you’re comfortable in doing. From the start, we opted to not have a bridal party, and it was the best decision we made. I still had two girlfriends with me the night before, and we got our hair and makeup done on the day, but when we got to the wedding, they could go and enjoy themselves without having to do all the bridesmaids’ duties.

When making decisions, you will find you will change your mind a million times and go around in circles, but 90% of the time your final decision is likely your initial decision.

If possible, investigate vendors that have either worked at the venue before or worked together at other weddings. You’d be surprised how much easier it makes the planning as they already have a world of knowledge as to what works well at the venue and what doesn’t, they know the ins and outs, and as a bonus, if the vendors know each other it can make the flow of the day so smooth.

Considering a country wedding that is more chic than cowboy? Check out Rikki-Lee and Jordan’s epic outback celebration – it is one to wow!

BRETT & TEGAN’S VENDORS

I use the vendor suggestion list supplied by The Burrow and checked out other vendors that had previously been at The Burrow by scrolling through The Burrow’s Instagram. I wanted the day to be as stress-free as possible and wanted to use vendors that had worked at The Burrow previously and had worked together before. Everyone was so incredible to work with, and they made the day that extra bit special! I highly recommend all the vendors below if you are getting married in Central Victoria/Macedon Ranges.

Ceremony & reception venue: The Burrow

Celebrant: Megan Thompson

Photography: Smith & Archer

Florist: Wildly Flora (formerly Wootton & Nicholls)

Hair: The Lounge Hair & Beauty Daylesford

Makeup: Kristie Hedington Hair/Makeup

The dress: KYHA Studios (formerly One Day Bridal)

Veil: Kim Alpha Bridal Gowns

Shoes: Bared Footwear

Rings: Stearns Showcase Jewellers

Suit: MJ Bale

Tie: Connor