Brooke and Ben got married at beautiful WedShed venue, Dryridge Estate, a fabulous boutique vineyard nestled deep in Megalong Valley, offering a range of options for weddings of all styles and sizes and accommodation to match.
Check out the day below, captured by Ann Marie Photography.
Did you write your own vows? If so, what made you decide to do that?
We’re both quite sentimental so we choose to write our own vows as we felt it meant a lot more coming from the heart.
What was it about your wedding venue that made you choose it?
If you’ve ever been to Dryridge Estate you’ll know why! From the road it’s hidden, but once you’re on the property it’s as though the whole escarpment has opened up to you. The view is breathtaking (especially when the sun sets) and the atmosphere of that spot in the Megalong Valley is one that immediately puts you at ease and in touch with nature, which is exactly what we’d wanted for our wedding day.
Now that you’re married, what’s your best piece of wedding planning advice you can share?
I think it’s easy to let wedding fever consume you, where you subconsciously spend every waking minute focusing on all the little details that you think your guests will notice, but most often don’t. Think about what you remember when you’re invited to a wedding – it’s rarely the type of stationery on which your invites are printed, the glasses from which you’re drinking or the colour of the napkins with which you’ve wiped your mouth! What we find memorable (apart from the speeches!), is the beauty and atmosphere of a venue, the quality of food & alcohol, and the style of the wedding (including colour scheme of wedding/bridal party/flowers). Once you’ve identified your 3-4 priorities for the wedding day, focus your energy on getting those to the standard you’d like, and decisions about everything else – the ‘less important’ things to you – won’t seem to matter so much!
If you had your time again, is there anything you’d do differently?
We loved our weekend, as we stayed two nights at the venue (the night before and the night of), but if we had our time again we would have spent a third night at Dryridge (after the wedding), just to enjoy (and prolong!) the wonderful atmosphere of that wedding weekend.
Finish these sentences: My partner is…
Exactly the type of person I’d hoped for!
The best thing we did at our wedding was…
Having a Friday pub catch up the night before the wedding was great because it gave us a chance to catch up with the guests who were in the Blue Mountains already (should we not get much of a chance to speak with them at the wedding) and it allowed guests who hadn’t yet met a chance to get to know each other so they’d be familiar the following night.
A happy byproduct of this was that it almost felt like a mini wedding, in that it acclimatised us to seeing a whole lot of family members and friends in the one place, which definitely reduced the nerves the following day (instead of seeing everyone for the first time as I walked down the aisle)! The Alexandra Hotel in Leura was where we went – we didn’t have to book it, and they have a gorgeous beer garden out the back which can seat a lot of guests. (They have amazing food, too, and I will say that I’m yet to try a better Chicken Schnitzel)!
We splurged on…
Quality photographers and videographers, which to us was paramount because there’s no point in putting all that time and effort into a day and not have it captured it in a quality way. Can I just say that Ann Marie is like no other person (or photographer) you will ever meet. If it meant we got to work with her and Adrian again, we would renew our wedding vows annually! Ann Marie was more than just our beautiful photographer who went above and beyond for us in the lead up to, on, and after our wedding. She always radiates such warmth and sincerity that you can’t help but feel at ease around her, and for us, this was so important in a photographer. Her sincerity, meticulousness, keen eye for amazing shots and professionalism were truly out of this world.
We saved on…
Flooring for the marquee. Our dedicated fathers drove up during the week to lay astroturf in the marquee so we didn’t have to hire plywood flooring. The astroturf, I believe, still remains at Dryridge! It lent the marquee a more ‘garden style’ vibe than if we had hired floorboard, which would have probably echoed and been a distraction, not to mention not looking as aesthetically pleasing as we’d have liked. Thanks, Dads!
CREDITS:
Photography Ann Marie Photography // Videography Anchored Cinema // Florals Blue Mountains Floral Designs // Venue Dryridge Estate // Catering Hangree Catering // Cake Love at First Slice // Bride shoes Siren // Earrings Wayne Cooper // Bracelet Swarovski // Bridesmaids Dresses Sheike // Grooms and Groomsmen Suits Joe Black // Ties and Bowties Wolf Kanat // Rings Bronwyn Carabez // Hair Euphoria Hair // Makeup Danielle Hampton // Celebrant Gaynor Cobby // Bus Near or Far Bus and Coach Hire.
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