L A U R A & D Y L A N

11 : 01 : 14

The Meeting...

F R O M T H E B R I D E ...

We met in June 2012 in the South of Spain. I was in my first week of a 4 month European summer holiday. The day after I landed in London, I met up with a girlfriend at a café where we decided we should do a spontaneous trip to Spain & Portugal. We left 2 days later....

Dylan was on a 2 week break from his job in Afghanistan where he was contracted to work for 12months as an Intelligence Analyst for the United States government. After 6 months of hard work, he decided on Spain for his R&R as his best friend was living there at the time. We met completely by chance in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week at a little bar on the beach with only a handful of people coming and going on such a quiet day.

Love...

Dylan and I were immediately attracted to each other's energy, however it was definitely our shared enthusiasm for spontaneous adventure that really brought us together. Dylan was on his own at the time that we met, his friend was busy for a few days, so he had decided that a few days staying at a 5 star hotel right on the Spanish coast was the perfect treat after 6 months living at Kandahar air base in Afghanistan... This was until I convinced him that it was a better idea to leave his nice hotel, round up his friend and spend the next week traveling to Morocco and Portugal with my friend and I... And this was exactly what we did! Mind you it wasn't very difficult to convince him.

Wedding Theme...

After our 2 weeks of adventure, we were forced to ask ourselves the infamous travelers question... Was this just a holiday romance? We discussed this openly and honestly with one another and we soon realised - nope this was real, very real! And worth pursuing. Despite both of us having been in long term relationships in the past, neither of us had ever felt this depth of love before. As mushy as this may sound, we had found 'the one'. Dylan went back and finished his contract in Afghanistan, I finished my trip, and in short - here we are!

Wedding Ceremony Venue...

I have always dreamt of having 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' garden wedding. I wanted to create an intimate, romantic, magical feeling for us and for our guests. And it was EXACTLY as I had imagined it to be.

Wedding Reception Venue...

We had our ceremony at St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, which was a magnificent experience.

Wedding Planning...

For our reception we rented a private property on Scotland Island, called Bangalla (www.bangalla.com.au). Our reception was quite unique. We had our guests arrive directly at Bangalla's private wharf by a chartered boat. After climbing about 50 sandstone steps up to the house, the guests walked directly in to the garden where the jazz band was playing, canapés & cold drinks were being served & a photo booth setup was ready to play with. The bridal party arrived from our photo location for some mingling and refreshments, after which we all sat down for a 3 course a la carte meal completely under the stars. The weather was perfect. A flawless 'midsummer night'.

Wedding Decorations...

The property [Bangalla] is exclusively for holiday rentals... However, given the intimate garden style wedding reception that we wanted - a little vision, a ton of research and A LOT of planning - we managed to pull off a huge logistical challenge of taking absolutely every thing we needed over to the island on a barge just a day prior to the wedding. Including (but not limited to) tables & chairs, 20 cases of beer & 20 cases of wine/ champagne, all our styling props & bucket loads of flowers. Oh and every thing we needed for 10 people to stay at the property for 4 days. The biggest challenge was if we forgot some thing, we had to get a boat back to the mainland to then drive home or to the shop.

I am an interior designer and I have my own business styling homes and events so naturally, I hand made all the styling props and details! From our wedding invitations, to the poles that held up the festoon lights hanging above the tables... My favorite DIY project was my personalised sign for Dylan that hung in one of the trees in the garden

The Dress...

I had no actual "colour scheme" as such, it was more just summer garden/country style flowers. The backdrop was enough, however, my bridesmaids wore fresh coral colored dresses so I incorporated coral dahlias in our bouquets and table flowers.

On the Menu...

An ivory silk & French corded lace gown from Personalised Weddings Couture at Earlwood.

Wedding Cake...

The entrée highlight was the crispy pork & wonton salad with asian herb, cucumber & palm sugar dressing. The main meal highlight was the Moroccan lamb on a spiced bed of risoni with a minted yoghurt dressing and the desert highlight was most definitely the chocolate fondant with home made summer berry sorbet on a bed of chocolate biscuit crumb.

Wedding Favours...

It was a classic chocolate mud cake. Decorated with hand made, edible, ivy vine leaves and little wooden bunting saying 'Mr & Mrs Steele'.

Wedding Song...

All the guests were given a little succulent plant each to take home, with a personalised message on the tag that read, 'Thank you for sharing our special day with us. Continue to grow the love. Laura & Dylan xx'.

Special Memories...

At Last (Eva Cassidy's version) performed live by a female soloist.

Honeymoon...

A moment I will never forget was arriving to Bangalla by boat, climbing the 50 sandstone steps to enter the incredible garden where I saw that my whole vision had come to life! After months of planning and facing all the logistical challenges, such as bringing everything across to the island on a barge just the day prior - it was such a rewarding feeling to walk in and see all our guests (especially our international guests) mingling, drinking champagne, enjoying the music and absorbing the energy of the surroundings... To add to this euphoric feeling, it was my wedding day! - so this was truly a very memorable moment.

We went to Dubai and then on to the Maldives.

Photography Hilary Cam Photography Ceremony Venue St. Mary's Cathedral Reception Venue Bangalla Estate (private property), Scotland Island Catering The Hospitality Establishment Bride's Dress Personalised Weddings Couture Bride's Hairpiece The Styling Branch Bridesmaid Dresses Melissa Kritsotakis Makeup Hilary Ho Hair Stefania Libertino Wedding Rings & Bride's Jewellery Cerrone Groom's Suit Roger David Stationery, Styling, Floral Arrangements & Cake Topper The Styling Branch (bride's own business) Entertainment A jazz duo - Female soloist & guitarist

MW x