Country Festival Wedding

Jaytika & Fergus

Guest Numbers

150

Length of engagement

9 months

One take away?

Something I wish that I was prepared for was that the day is that it doesn’t constantly feel like rainbows and sunshine and magic. It’s absolutely the most special day of your life, but you might not feel like it on the actual day. You probably haven’t slept for days, while battling nerves and excitement and adrenaline and trying to make the most of it and actually talk to everyone! Please remember it’s okay to just take the day in and understand that how you feel is normal and not to let your expectations of how you “should” feel effect you!

Notes from the lovers

Tell us about your decision to have a festival wedding style reception!

We knew from the very start that there were a few non-negotiables in the way we

wanted our reception to be! We really wanted food trucks and to BYO all of our vendors. We

also wanted a lot of freedom with the space and creative control and to be able to throw a

really big party! The way our venue fell into place was honestly divine timing. A friend of my

Mum’s messaged her a few days before we got engaged to share news that she had just

bought an old church out in the country to renovate into a wedding venue. Her venue ended

up being everything we needed- and more! We loved the freedom of being able to visit the

property a number of times before the actual day, to visualise and plan how it would all look.

Photographer: Alcorn Images

Cinematographer: Cameron John Visuals

Florist: Ruby Lane Co

Celebrant: (friend) Tom Birrell,

Bride’s Accommodation: Ravensbourne Escape

Groom’s Accommodation: Ravensbourne Escape

Ceremony venue: Holy Red Deer Estate

Food Trucks or Carts: Parma Italian Street Food

- Noabirra Grazing

- Esk Fruit Shop Icecream Cart

Cake: Family

Entertainment: Friends - layne + jacob

Bridal gown designer: Alena Lena Bridal

Bridal Boutique & veil: The Veil Collective

Shoes: Midas Shoes

earrings: Ayla and Oak

Hair: Beauty by Beloved

Makeup: Ru Makeup

Bridesmaid dresses: The Daily Sleeper

Bridesmaid shoes: Myer

Suit: Male Manor

Groom Shoes: R.M. Williams

Groomsmen suits: Connor Menswear

tips for the planning process?

Honestly my biggest tip would be to take your time and really soak up being engaged before you jump into it! Have conversations about how much you each want to be responsible for

planning and share with each other which parts of the wedding are most important to you. In moments that you disagree- try really hearing each other out. Enjoy the planning too, have

little lunch dates and make boards of all the things you love and get people involved where

you can/ hand things over to people you trust to help you! Think really hard about your non-

negotiables and make a list of things that don’t matter as much to you, and you can save

costs and stress by taking the importance off of them and handing them over to someone

else to handle!

And don’t forget to reach out to loved ones when you are stressed or overwhelmed, my Mum

was such a beautiful support to me the entire process, I leaned on her a lot and I’m thankful

to have had that support.

your wedding style, the bridesmaids dresses & the green suit!

I was so nervous about how all of the style would look together on

the day- I cried when we got the sneak photos the next morning! I couldn’t believe how perfect everything looked together. My advice would be to trust your gut! Your style will grow and fit together as you plan, and you’ll be so surprised at how beautiful it looks when you finally see it all together! Also, don’t be afraid to go off-tradition, it leads to some of the best and most memorable things/moments of the day.

I definitely had a few (hundred) versions of my wedding planned on Pinterest for years! I saw

a picture of those bridesmaid dresses in white for another wedding and was so inspired! I (obviously)

love florals and colour, so I picked the ones that were my favourite, and all of the girls loved

them which helped a lot! I think I got a lot of the rest of the wedding style inspo from the

dresses to be honest! It was also really important to me to have dresses that would fit and be flattering on many different body types! I didn’t want any of my girls to feel like they needed to lose weight or look a certain way in the dresses! I wanted them to be able to dance and twirl and feel confident and beautiful!

Oh the green suit. We searched every suit shop in South Queensland for that bad boy. We

made calls internationally and considered getting it made from scratch. After feeling pretty

hopeless, we walked into a small non-franchised store in Carindale and asked them, they

said that we were basically looking at a lost cause finding a dark green suit, but they

managed to find one for us in their next season that was about to drop! When they got it in- it barely needed adjustments! It was a miracle!

Must have's for the day?

My saving grace on the day was actually a beautiful friend of mine. She wasn’t in the bridal

party but was around all morning and was like an extension of my brain all day. She kept me

up to date with everything that was happening, made calls that I felt stressed about and

always was there for a tight hug and word of encouragement. There should totally be a

“moral support” role at every wedding!

Other than that, just make sure you eat something in the morning and stay hydrated!

Another must have for us was bringing our coffee machine from home and setting it up

where we got ready- it was potentially the best decision of the entire wedding!