Today marks 6 months since Ben and I said ‘I do’. I realised I never shared the story of our elopement (or the many, many photo’s) and so I thought now would be the perfect time. So, here goes… (photo’s and all the finer details listed below).
When Ben and I first got engaged in September 2017, we were just one day into a 5 week holiday across multiple countries and continents. Ben wanted us to just enjoy the exciting time and be in the moment and requested we not start planning any sort of wedding for at least a week! That lasted about 2 days.
Fast forward through our trip and within a month of being home everything was booked and the date was set for a wedding of 40 guests at The Convent in the beautiful Hunter Valley in NSW, Australia. Exactly 3 weeks after sending out our invitations to a wedding that grew to 60 people, Ben and I had a ‘now or never’ moment and decided to cancel our bigger wedding and take the plunge and elope. Neither of us wanted a big wedding from the beginning, and though 60 may not seem like a large number to some, we just came to the realisation that we really wanted to get married in an exciting location with our best friends and immediate family (and the excitement of a secret escape).
We had already booked our honeymoon for Byron Bay and so I literally googled ‘Elope Byron Bay’ into google and low and behold I found ELOPE. I sent an email to Emily Fuglsang (our gorgeous wedding planner) explaining our circumstances and that we were wanting to plan an intimate elopement (or micro wedding as some call it these days) in 3 months and she responded immediately with a list of venues, vendor’s and available dates.
Within a week, we posted out cancellation notices to all those who were invited to our previous wedding (sorry again) and had booked our elopement for us and 16 guests. We even managed to bring our date forward a whole month!
The whole planning process with Emily was incredible, she provided a thorough list of trusted vendor’s including venues, catering, photographers, florists, makeup artists, musicians etc. I would pick a vendor from the list and she would liaise with them directly to book them in and communicate our vision. The communication was consistent and clear and having already planned a wedding by myself only a few months prior, having Emily’s assistance was priceless and it took ALL the stress away.
Two days before the big day, we packed our car and drove seven hours up to Byron and checked into our Airbnb. My family arrived shortly after and our friends arrived the next day. It was such a beautiful experience having everyone in the one place but also in a new and exciting location!
The night before we got married we organised for everyone to meet for drinks and tapas at The Mez Club as an official launch to the festivities. After our welcome celebrations, myself and my bridesmaids had a slumber party and slept on site at the cottage (and froze all night after unknowingly leaving a window open). The morning of, the boys all got together for an early morning surf and a coffee, while us girls just slowly got ready throughout the day – it was pure bliss.
We got married on the wraparound balcony of the cottage at byronviewfarm overlooking Byron Bay and the hinterland. Our day ran smoothly, without a hitch – it was literally everything we could have dreamt of and more! Even when the weather didn’t go in our favour, our day coordinator Sarah was able to switch to plan B and set up our wet weather ceremony option in a matter of minutes.
When we first got engaged so many people told us of the stress and regrets they had planning their wedding. We have absolutely no regrets and only beautiful memories of the best day yet!
List of vendor’s:
Planning and coordination – Elope Byron Bay
Venue – byronviewfarm
Flowers – The French Petal
Styling – The Wedding Shed
Food – Fig Tree Restaurant
Drinks – The Cellar
Photographer – Amelia Fullarton
Videographer – Rabbit and the Bear
Cake – Sweet Obsessions
Bride Wears:
Dress – Mariana Hardwick from Hope X Page
Shoes – Christian Louboutin
Veil – Borrowed from Sister-in-law
Headpiece – Agnes Hart
Earrings – Monica Vinader
Rings – Grew & Co
Hair & Makeup – Done by self
Jacket – Maurie & Eve
Necklace – Sarah & Sebastian
Clutch – The Daily Edited
Bridesmaids wear:
Dress – Shona Joy
Earrings – Samantha Wills
Groom wears:
Suit, Shirt & Tie – ASOS
Belt – Hugo Boss
Shoes – Politix
Socks – Happy Socks
Ring – Konstantino
Cufflinks – The Iconic
Comments