Real Wedding - Nick & Laura, Balnarring VIC

October 23, 2019 In Blue, Bohemian, Real Weddings, Victoria By Jo Betz

Real Wedding – Nick & Laura, Balnarring VIC

Post engagement, Nick and Laura could not wait a minute longer to get planning their dream day.

After visiting various locations, as soon as they drove into Barn & Co they fell in love and knew this was the spot where they would seal the deal in spectacular fashion.

Drawing on the barn’s raw beauty they dotted their styling with green foliage and white florals, giving the space a seamless yet sensational look.

While Laura was sure she would be an emotional wreck walking down the aisle, she instead beamed, knowing she was about to celebrate a once in a lifetime moment with the love of her life, Nick.

Sunset photos were an absolute dream moment with Tribe talent Kyra Boyer capturing all the magic.

In Laura’s words…

The meeting.

We met on Schoolies 10 years ago in Torquay through a mutual friend! On our first date, Nick took me to The Rock’s in Mornington and he paid with $100 note, at 18 that was a big deal! We walked through Mornington Park and watched the Fireworks over the bay afterwards. We instantly fell head over heels for each other and spent a lot of our summer holidays adventuring together.

The ‘one’.

The first night we spent at schoolies I knew Nick was something special, he said after our first date he knew that his plans to return home to America to go to college were going to change. Even though we were young when we met everything about our relationship was so easy. We have spent most of our adult life together and have grown up as individuals, together.

The proposal.

Nick had been planning the proposal for a long time, months before he popped the question he asked for my Dad’s permission and then took my Dad to the jewellers where they designed my engagement ring together.

Nick popped the question on my birthday in September 2017. He told me to keep the whole day free and gave me no clues about what we were doing other than to pack bathers! It’s not unusual for Nick to go to so much effort for my birthday so I didn’t think too much into it. We went to our favourite brekkie spot and I invited my best friend, Leah (we share the same birthday!), neither of us could understand why Nick was acting so weird, he wouldn’t eat and was looking at his watch every two seconds!

After our breakfast, Nick blindfolded me and drove me to the beach where we had our one-month anniversary eight years prior. I can never say why but as soon as I was blindfolded I started thinking of all the possible things we could be doing in September that needed bathers! My only conclusion was swimming with the sharks (you can’t even do that on the Peninsula, so it doesn’t even make sense!). When we pulled up to the beach, Nick carried me onto the sand and removed the blindfold.

Despite all his planning and Dad’s work on the day to re-create our first date with a picnic, champagne and “Marry Me” written in rose petals on the sand, the first thing I saw was my Nan hiding in the bushes.
The first thing I said to Nick was, Nan can’t swim with the sharks she’s 90! I quickly realised when Nick started saying all these beautiful things about our future that we weren’t there to swim with the sharks, he got down on one knee and popped the question.

Later that night we had my birthday dinner with all the family and surprised everyone with the exciting news. Nick had asked to dad to record the proposal, so that night the whole family and a few very close friends sat around the TV to watch the proposal. We started playing the video though very quickly realise that Dad had videoed the proposal on selfie mode! Everyone was in hysterics and it just topped off the most perfect day.

The proposal.

I was so excited to start planning our big day! Nick is from America and his whole family live there so in the beginning deciding where we were going to get married was a huge decision. We initially thought Hawaii but after working out budgets and conversion that was ruled out quickly!

We hunted around the Yarra Valley but we couldn’t find a place that we both loved. We decided to go for a drive around our local Mornington Peninsula wineries, we drove into Barn & Co and we fell in love with it!

We got married 18 months after our engagement so we had plenty of time to work out the little things but made sure we booked in our big suppliers early. Which took so much stress out of it knowing that we had the best team for our big day.

We were really organised throughout the whole process, as I mentioned Nick loves lists which drove me crazy but it made everything on the day work out perfectly on the day.

Style inspiration.

We love rustic-style anything and when we found Barn & Co we knew we could draw on the barn’s raw beauty to achieve that goal plus green and white florals and foliage worked perfectly.

The dress.

I wasn’t set on any particular style of dress, when my bridesmaids, mum and I went to Grace Loves Lace the Emauella was the first dress I tried and on, it was completely different to what I ever thought I would wear but loved that about the dress and it was a perfect fit.

Favourite moments.

Walking down the aisle was amazing, I thought I would be an emotional wreck but from the second I woke up I was just so excited and seeing Nick’s face was the best, so much better than I could have ever dreamed.
We also loved having the time out for our sunset photos, it was so good to have that time together and appreciate the day together and soak up all the love.

Meaning of marriage.

Being there for one another, knowing that no matter what life throws at us we will tackle it together. Always encouraging each other to be better versions of ourselves and face life’s adventures together.

Wedding soundtrack.

Aisle: Butterfly Kisses by Bob Carlisle (my dad used to sing me this song every night growing up)

Recessional: Shout by Human Nature

Reception entry: Bridal Party – September by Earth, Wind & Fire. Bride and groom – Slice of Heaven by Dave Dobbyn

First dance: Home by Luca Fogale

Last song: Everything by Michael Buble

Funny stories (or near disasters).

We had both written messages on each others shoes to read on the day, Nick forgot to read his until I reminded him after our sunset photos!

The day was so perfect! We are always up for a laugh and something that made everyone laugh was one of my bridesmaids, Jess! Before walking down the aisle we had all said to each other if anyone falls just laugh it off! As we were about to walk Dad was saying some lovely things to all of us and we were all getting emotional, Jess was the first one to walk and as we were trying to pull ourselves together we heard a huge scream. The poor thing had fallen down the step we had to walk over. She was such a trooper and managed to pick herself straight back up and walked down the aisle with a smile!

Planning surprises.

It was really humbling for both of us, how excited everybody around us was about our big day. We wanted our families involved as much as possible. My sister and sister in-law were bridesmaids, Nick’s brother was his best man, two of my brothers were MC’s and did the most incredible job, my oldest brother was our ring bearer and we had our two Nans as our witnesses. It was so special to have them included in the day and something we will cherish forever.

It was the most perfect day, from start to finish there is not a thing we would change.

Words of wisdom.

Do what you want, what is perfect for the two of you. Our day was perfect because we made it our own. We listened to everyone’s advice and trust me, everyone gives you there two cents worth, but we took what we wanted from it. We couldn’t decide who would go first saying the vows so we did paper, scissors, rock at the ceremony to decide, having our day perfect for us and how we wanted and what we planned made it so special.

We took on the mind set that on the day if something went wrong, it just wasn’t meant to be. Luckily everything was perfect for us for us but leading up to it we didn’t waste time on worrying about weather and things you can’t control on the day. Just enjoy every second of it.