As the owners of Spring Grove Dairy in Kangaroo Valley, NSW, Kylie and Warwick may be biased in their love for the place but that doesn’t mean their wedding was any less magical. Think stunning, 360 degree views, a lovingly restored rustic country cottage and a tonne of DIY, all expertly captured by CloudFace Photography.

We took five with Kylie to find out a bit more about how they pulled it all off.

Tell us about how you met and the proposal?

It’s all a bit boring really – we met at a mutual friend’s BBQ. Warwick proposed during a game of hangman! He used the word ‘suspense’, saying “the suspense is killing me – will you marry me?” and presented me with the ring. Awww!

What do you do for work?

I’m a registered nurse specialising in cardiac nursing. I also help with the office work for our concreting business in Townsville which Warwick runs. We also have ‘Spring Grove Dairy’… so I do the book work/liaise with the manager for that too.

What DIY projects did you do accomplish for the wedding?

We did lots of stuff, we made over 500 hearts on sticks for the aisle! I made bunting. My stepmother made the huge hessian curtains. I made the gold sequinned table runners. We designed the invitations ourselves with the help of a family friend and had them printed locally in Townsville, QLD. We made an easel/door for the seating plan. We made all of the wooden boxes that were centrepieces on the tables.

I scoured shops/Etsy/eBay for enamel cups that were used to hold flowers and succulents. We hand stamped goose feathers for each of the guests and had individual name badges for everyone with and amusing nickname/piece of info for an icebreaker.

Our friend made the fire drums that had wedding rings/love hearts etc in them. He also made a special one for Warwick that looked just a like a XXXX can, Warwick’s drink of choice. We made ‘cootie catchers’ with various questions/answers about each of us….blah, blah.

What was your theme/inspiration/vibe for your wedding?

We wanted a casual, relaxed and inclusive ceremony and reception. Our friends had travelled a long way (most from QLD) so we wanted to spend as much time as possible with them.

We had a three day ‘wedstival’, going to the The Friendly Inn (in KV) on the Friday night, wedding on Saturday and then a breakfast/get-together on the Sunday.

We love to fish so we wanted that included somehow without it being hideous so we had pics of each of us with various fish we’ve caught on each table – so instead of table numbers we had ‘Barramundi’, ‘Bass’, ‘Mangrove Jack’ etc..

What traditions did you involve during your big day?

We’d both been married before so we didn’t want a traditional gushy ceremony, so we kept it pretty relaxed with amusing stories/anecdotes.

Warwick stood waiting for me and I arrived in his grandmother’s restored 1968 Holden with my two daughters and son (who walked me down the aisle). Warwick’s son’s gave my girls bunches of flowers and the girls gave his sons HUGE confetti bombs! My son was MC. As we didn’t have bridal attendants as such, Warwick’s siblings were asked to bring the rings up, my sister did a reading and the friend’s that introduced us were our witnesses.

Warwick and I sat at a table on our own during the reception with a couple of extra chairs so that people could come up and talk to us. As we come from two different parts of the country we each had friends that knew little about each of us so instead of traditional speeches we had one of Warwick’s friends talk about him, one of my friends talk about me and then my niece read a poem written by my brother-in-law that was about both of us.

I think the only tradition was that we went and spent our wedding night together but we actually didn’t get there until 5am!

What advice would you give to other couples leading up to their big day?

Organise, organise, organise beforehand. Trust your vendors, they’ve done it all before! Relax and enjoy the day. If you have friends that are travelling, provide them with lots of info on the area and accommodation etc. Provide babysitting! Also provide buses for transport to and from your venue.

What does marriage mean to you?

Sharing in the ups and downs and working together to help each other reach our individual goals. Boring I know!

What was your favourite moment on your wedding day?

My favourite moment was when I saw Warwick wipe a tear away when I walked down the aisle. I also loved/laughed at an awesome poem that my brother-in-law wrote and my niece read (bit of heckling from the crowd as it was a QLD vs NSW thing!).

Warwick says his favourite moment was seeing me walk down the aisle… awww, he knows how to butter me up!

Tell us any funny stories that surrounded your wedding?

The funniest part of the night was when we got back to our accommodation. Despite my sister having already undone the thousands of buttons on my dress, Warwick couldn’t get the zip undone! He battled with it for 10 minutes by which time I was getting frantic and just wanted to get it off. Eventually he had to be forceful and ripped the zip open!

How did you find your venue and was the process difficult for you?

Pretty easy considering we own it! It was difficult given the distance (we live in QLD) but we wanted to show off all of our hard work to our friends and family who live in QLD and had never been there and seen it before.

We had lived at Spring Grove Dairy and had done lots of work to it so that we could live there but our circumstances changed and we’d moved up north. Now we are very happy that others love it as much as we do and we get so excited when there is a wedding there.

Ceremony song?

Bette Midler’s – The Rose (sung by Emma Jene).

First dance song?

INXS – Never Tear Us Apart.

CREDITS Photos Cloudface Photography // Flowers Botanic Art // Ceremony and reception Spring Grove Dairy // Catering Rabbit and Co Caterers // Styling Special Event Planners // Bridal gown Accapella Bridal // Grooms suit Tarocash // Rings Jewellery By Design and Brent & Jess // Grooms shoes YD // Brides shoes Wittner // Cake – Alison Lawson Cakes // Hair Pure Hair and Beauty // Makeup Pip Giraldi Makeup Artist // Music Emma Jene and  Peter McWhirter // Celebrant Rebecca Celebrant // Videography Inkster Productions // Nanny South Coast Nannies.

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