Our Hydangea and Apple Garden Themed Wedding - The details

Yesterday was my Husband and Mine 5th wedding Anniversary. I can honestly say that I love that man even more today than I did the day we were married. When we got married he was my best friend and true love. He is still those things, but now he is also the father of my children. Watching him become a father has been such a joy.

I am a very spoilt woman. My Husband does the lions share of the housework in my home. He does the laundry, vaccums, stacks the dishwasher. He is also the one who cleans the baby bottles and fills them ready for the day. He makes my Daughter's lunch for Pre School and often does the bed/bath routine. I am thankful that I have such a wonderful man in my life. He is not prone to huge romantic demonstrations of love. I have received 3 pieces of jewelry from him in the 8 years we have been together, one of them being my engagement ring. However, I don't need those things because he shows me he loves me every day through the small gestures. He make me the perfect cup of tea or coffee and he tucks the sheets around me if he gets out of bed before me. We do not have a romantic love, but it is a deep, true love. I think I prefer that over all the flowers and jewelry in the world.

In a purely indulgent move i'm going to share the details of our wedding over 2 posts. This post will look at all the details - dress, flowers, venue. The next post will look at just the ceremony and reception. Tis ris really just a chance for me to indulge in my photos and the day all over again.

Our Wedding day is definitely one of the happiest of my life. I loved every aspect of wedding planning. I was married long before Pinterest (a fact that I now lament, oh.. the things i could have done with that little resource), but I used websites such as stylemepretty.com and wedding magazines to plan my day.

My wedding planning started with my dress. I had my eye on a particular dress for a number of years. I had come across the designer by accident when I was still in high school and was searching for my formal dress. It was far beyond my budget at the time, but I vowed that when I got married I would buy a dress of this designer. She specialised in making coloured dresses, and often used Japanese or Indian fabrics for an added twist.

Within weeks of being engaged I book an appointment and went to look at my dream dress. To make sure It was the right one Lisa Merton, the designer, had me try on a few of her other samples first. Then she put on the dress I wanted. Even in the too small size I tried on we could see it was the perfect dress.

Once I had my dress everything else went from there. I had my bridal headpiece custom designed from an etsy seller Twigs and Honey. She has actually gone on to become very popular and now has her own website and her designs are stocked in some major stores in America.

 I found my perfect venue, where I would be married in the gardens then have the reception in the same venue. It was open, had lots of natural light and was a 'blank slate'.

 I had decided on a garden themed wedding, with a soft colour palette of blue and green. I was very determined NOT to have any pink or red in my wedding.

My flowers and table centerpieces were the genius work of a talented florist, who happens to be a close friend and the wife of our Best Man. I did not pick out any designs or inspiration for flowers. I knew she was amazing and could come up with something better than I could imagine. My one request was to do something different, something that she would want to put in her portfolio. I was not let down. She came up with the idea of using hydrangeas and apples. Using fruit in the place of flowers was a new concept at the time, but I had faith she would make it work.





On the day our venue was filled with flowers, and the tables had vintage looking lanterns that I had found at Homeart.

My bouquet was also amazing, filled with Juila Roses, Apples, Hydrangeas and Mulberries.

I am a bit of a hobby cake decorator, so I had a firm idea of what I wanted for my cake. I did surprise myself though, as I always thought I would choose a fancier cake, with sugar flowers. However, I kept finding I was inspired by a lot of Faye Cahill cakes. We had cake included in our wedding package so I requested a cake with a rough, buttercream finish. The cake ended up being more than I had imagined. It tasted amazing too, with the flavours Cherry Ripe, Marbled Caramel and Chocolate and Banana Mud.

I had a few other personal touches in the wedding to make it personalised for us.

I had a photo of each of our Grandfathers. They had played important roles in each of our lives, but sadly had both passed away before we our marriage. We wanted them included in our day so we had a framed picture of them at the wedding. I also walked down the aisle to a recording of my Grandfather singing a Latin hymn, as he was an amateur Opera singer when he was younger.





For our place cards we had a wishbone attached. There is a story with these, as the wishbones had been collected by my Father for a number of years. When my Parents were married they had wishbones at their wedding, and my Dad recalled having to eat numerous chicken meals before had in order to collect enough wishbones. So he started collecting them when we (my siblings and I) were little so we would have some when we were married. I must admit, my Sister and I were less keen to use real chicken bones in our own wedding, but who can say no to tradition!




My pride and joy at our wedding was the biscuit buffet! Sadly, I only have one photo of ne of the jars. I had 4 large jars filled with biscuits, Chocolate Chip, White Chocolate Macadamia, ANZAC and Maltese Almond. ALl except for the Almond were baked by me - I made over 500 biscuits in the lead up to our wedding!

So there are all the little details! I really love everything from our wedding, and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. There is nothing I would change.

Tomorrow I will share details of our ceremony and reception, with lots more photos to share!