Oh Jackie and Craig you really do know how to throw an awesome wedding don't you.

A party full of delicious handpicked blooms and floral bow tied ushers and lace shoes and actual wedding cake shaped piñatas. Well actually it's just the one piñata but it's so immense and so humongous that there very well could be more of them and we mean that in a totally good way!

Jackie's Claire Pettibone gown is bound to induce a case of mass envy amongst our Rock My Wedding community too with its delicate capped sleeves and embroidered back detailing which she pairs so elegantly with the most wonderfully dainty headpiece. I think I actually need that headpiece in my life it is that beautiful.

Lastly the 'guest' DJ slots idea is pretty blinking fantastic too and I think more weddings should employ the idea. I'll leave Jackie to tell you more about it!

PIN THE GALLERY

Jackie The Bride:I'd never really put much thought in to what would happen after we got engaged. We both decided that the wedding wouldn't happen 'for a couple of years' and then left it at that.

Unfortunately my dress had other ideas and found me in the first six months of our engagement after an enthusiastically premature visit to Blackburn Bridal Couture to 'investigate' Claire Pettibone dresses after a cheeky bit of googling. Inevitably I fell in love with one (Mystere), even more so as my father was able to give it his seal of approval on his brief visit to London from Australia.

My jewellery was a random collection that Craig had given me for previous anniversaries throughout the years. My head piece I found on Etsy at the last minute from a seller Lo Boheme who were spectacular in getting it to me on time.

My shoes were from Harriet Wilde, they were so lovely and comfortable which ended up being absolutely crucial as I had injured my knee in a skiing accident only weeks out from the wedding and was adamant that I was still going to spend the entire night on the dance floor.

We had a florist make the bouquets as my flower-arranging skills don't extend beyond strategically placing a few in some pretty vases. I gave her a very vague idea of what I was after (something a little pink-ish, romantic yet fun) and I think she captured that perfectly. Don't ask me to describe the actual flowers that were involved, I really have no idea what we wound up with.

We decided on a 'vintage-ish' theme for the day, basically just to give us some direction when styling the reception. We wanted to do this as cheaply as possible so made all of our decorations at the reception venue. The wedding stationery should all be credited to Craig who purchased custom-made rubber stamps and created our save the dates and invitations.

For our place cards we printed guests' names on the recycled cardboard and slid them in to corks from locally grown wines. I spent months trawling vintage shops and fairs to collect a myriad of glass jars for the floral arrangements that were put together from flowers sourced wholesale from Flemington Flower market in Sydney. Our menus and programs were printed on to recycled paper and fastened with twine and dried rosemary into vintage books I'd collected in England. Our aisle runners in the chapel were candle lanterns from Ikea filled with moss and random left over flowers from the table arrangements.

Craig and I are both originally from Sydney, Australia so decided that it would be best to tie the knot in front of all our friends and family. We were both pretty set on having our wedding in the Hunter Valley wine country in NSW as the countryside there is simply spectacular - not to mention the weather being more climatic for large men in suits.
We wanted our ceremony and reception in separate venues so decided on Pepper's Creek Chapel for the ceremony with its beautiful outlook over the vineyards and Mindaribba House for the reception.

Mindaribba House was simply enchanting and more than enough aesthetically to make our day look incredible, not to mention the added bonus of no curfew so the party could continue as long as we wanted. There was also a large rooster wandering about eating the bouquets. Hilarious.

Our photographer was the spectacular Joseph Fordham who did an absolutely wonderful job, capturing every moment and never once mentioning his jet lag (we flew him over from the UK to shoot our wedding) even though I'm sure he was running on very minimal sleep after arriving 2 days before.

Neither of us is overly enthusiastic about cake, up until a few months out from our wedding I was convinced that you had to blow out candles and make a wish. After finding out that wasn't true I was deflated so decided to have a cake piñata instead. My little sister is super handy with her glue gun so we both dedicated several afternoons to creating the largest wedding cake piñata I've ever seen. Members of the bridal party on the night each had a whack; it was filled with Easter eggs when it broke as they were something edible that would remain so after falling on a floor covered in rooster poo.

For our entertainment we had 'guest' DJ slots where we asked friends of ours to compile half hour play lists before the big day. When it was their turn to 'dj' they had to wear an Indian headdress purely so that everyone in the room knew who was accountable for either the terrible or amazing music. It worked amazingly and lead to many people dubbing it one of the best dance floors they've ever experienced. We even wrote up fake bios on their Dj'ing careers and put them in the FAQ section of the guide book.

The bridesmaid dresses were all chosen by them individually and purchased from random shops in Sydney. My only stipulation was that they all had to be different shades of white with a lace aspect to them but they could all be different dresses because each of them has a completely different body shape.

Another random aspect of the day was the amazing pulled pork rolls our lovely caterer Bev provided at the end of the night. After a whole day partying, they were exactly what we needed!!

Photography by Joseph Fordham
Ceremony Venue Pepper's Creek Chapel, Australia | Reception Venue Mindaribba House, Australia | Dress Claire Pettibone | Boutique Blackburn Bridal | Shoes Harriet Wilde | Florist Floreat Floral | Headpiece Lo Boheme | Catering Bevs Cakes.

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