Real Wedding - Tayla & Zacob, Strathmerton VIC

June 15, 2022 In Black and White, Bohemian, Country, Green, Outdoor, Real Weddings, Uncategorized, Victoria, Wedding Venues Australia, Wedding Venues Victoria By Kathryn Brandt

Real Wedding – Tayla & Zacob, Strathmerton VIC

Tayla and Zacob’s planning process was years in the making. From Bali to Byron before settling on Cactus Country in Strathmerton, they too were a pair up against the pandemic. Not knowing when and where they could finally get married, once they were in the clear, they were quite set on simply eloping with just themselves, their celebrant Anita Heard, their photographer Liz Barnes and videographer John Kurt.

Made all the more easier by enlisting the help of seasoned wedding planner Modern Love Style Co. Tayla wore a divine Kyha Studio dress, with layers of delicious tulle whilst Zacob sported one crisp, black jacquard print suit. The juxtaposition against the arid, rusty sand and tall green cactuses towering into clear blue skies was for lack of a better word, stunning.

We love just how intimate and meaningful this celebration was and how they made it so damn stylish at the same time.

The meeting.

We met in the summer of 2016 through mutual friends. I wasn’t very fond of Zacob when we first met then later that year we began talking and getting to know each other. After a couple of weeks of talking, we hung out and then the following day I went to South America for a month but we spoke every single day I was away, then the day I arrived back in Melbourne Zacob wanted me to attend his friends birthday celebrations with him and since that day we haven’t spent longer then I would say three days apart.

The ‘one’.

I think I knew Zacob was the one when I took him home to my parents’ house in Gippsland to spend Christmas with my family and he fit in so seamlessly.

The proposal.

For our second year anniversary, we planned a weekend away in Daylesford. The first night we were there Zacob tossed and turned all night then his alarm went off at 4am and I had no idea what was going on. He told me to get dressed and we hopped in the car which is when he said we were going for a ride in a hot air balloon, something we had both said we wanted to do for a long time. As the sun was rising and we were floating over Daylesford, Zacob got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was perfect & I was so surprised. Luckily, I said yes or it would have been an awkward rest of the trip in the hot air balloon.

Planning process.

Our wedding planning started off great! We both love Bali and knew that was where we wanted to get married. In March of 2019 I was 23 weeks pregnant with our first son Inca, we decided to go on a little baby moon to Bali and whilst we were there we would go and look at wedding venues, we knew we wanted a big private villa & ended up finding a beautiful villa about 20 minutes out of Canggu. We had everything locked in; photographer, videographer, hair & make up etc… then of course along came Covid. Long story short, we postponed our July 2020 wedding to December, that date loomed and we decided that we would move our entire wedding to Byron Bay and have it in October of 2021. That date rolled around and we yet again had to postpone to December of 2021 as the stress of not knowing it could go ahead or not heightened and so we made the decision to cancel our wedding completely and elope. Within a few days I had found a wedding planner and a venue.

Style inspiration.

I chose Cactus Country because I thought it was really unique, I hadn’t seen any wedding photos with cactus’ so thought it would make our photos really different from your typical wedding photos.

I think every night after deciding we would elope I went into a rabbit hole of wedding IG pages & Pinterest boards.

After I found Cactus Country I had a look at their tagged photos and found Modern Love Style Co had previously planned a couple of weddings there, I contacted them and they did everything for me.

The ceremony.

Our ceremony was just Zacob, myself and our celebrant (of course our photographer Liz & videographer John were there too, but they were so good at their job that it was like they weren’t even there). It felt very intimate and special reading our vows to each other like no one else in the entire world mattered at that point because it was just Zacob & I.

Favourite moments.

My favorite moment of the day would have to have been listening to Zacob read his vows, I know he spent a long time writing them.

Meaning of marriage.

Marriage to me is a lifelong commitment to choosing your partner every single day, even on the days you can’t stand them.

Funny stories or near disasters.

When my Mum was zipping the top of my wedding dress up, the zipper broke and it couldn’t be fixed, luckily we had a plain white corset in my suit case that came to the rescue and matched my skirt perfectly,

Words of wisdom.

Just elope, it so much easier haha.