It seems as if Sammy knew Adrian was the one for her almost instantly. I mean, when the daughter of a dentist meets a man with perfectly white teeth, it’s bound to be love at first bite… I mean sight.

‍

Tell us how you met?

Our love story began at our friends, Michael and Gillian’s wedding in 2014. As luck would have it, after meeting at the start of the night we ended up sitting at the same table for the reception. As the night progressed we continued chatting, dancing, drinking and chatting some more. We were so intrigued by one another that we went on our first date a few days later. Samantha says of this time: “Initially I was really attracted to Adrian because of his height and weirdly enough his straight white teeth, I am definitely the daughter of a dentist! Once I got to know him I was attracted to his personality, warmth, sense of humour and easy going nature.” Adrian remembers his first encounter with Samantha like this: “I quickly realised that Sammy was such an amazing person, so interesting, so fun to be around and she was a great dancer.  She also looked stunning in a beautiful green dress. She was definitely someone I wanted to spend more time around and get to know better!”

‍

‍

Tell us a few things you love about one another?

Adrian reflects on his beautiful bride and says: “I love how Sammy is a strong and independent woman who is intelligent and has a great sense of fun and purpose. She is simply wonderful to be around. I love how we enjoy being together, how she is slightly crazy (in a good way) and how she has this ability to make everyone feel amazing. During our time together, I have truly loved every minute with her. Sammy has made my life immeasurably better in every single way so it seemed only natural to spend the rest of our lives together.”

From Sammy's first meeting with Adrian, she knew he was going to be someone special to her. She says, “I love everything about Adrian! When I am around him I feel so comfortable, loved and happy, we can completely be ourselves with each other.  Adrian has this ability to make the best out of every situation, whether we are lost in Patagonia or planning a wedding during a pandemic he always manages to find the positive in a situation and will always make everything seem better. I love how Adrian nurtures his relationships and how strong his connection with his family and friends is.  I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for us.”

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

How would you best describe your wedding in a few words?

Incredible! It was the best day of our lives and so wonderful to celebrate our love with our closest family and friends.

‍

‍

How and why did you choose your reception and ceremony location?

As soon as we saw Cadella Park we instantly fell in love. The venue was perfect for what we wanted, an outdoor ceremony and a rustic vibe. Over the years we have spent quite a bit of time in the Macedon Ranges and always loved our time here.  It’s such an incredibly beautiful part of the world with such amazing food and wine (which is so important to us) it seemed only natural to try and find a place around here for our wedding.  We have also always loved the weddings that we have been to that have involved a weekend away and therefore Kyneton worked perfectly.  We always liked the idea of having a wedding in a big beautiful barn so we fell in love with Cadella Park as soon as we saw it.

Was your wedding in your local area or did you have a destination wedding?

‍
Kyneton – 1 hour out of Melbourne. We wanted to make a weekend of celebrations so had drinks on Friday night at a local pub and then a recovery brunch at the botanical gardens in Kyneton.

‍

What was the most important element for you to have in your wedding?

‍
A big celebration of the love we share with our closest family and friends – also a great dance floor.

Did you have a large or a small wedding? What were the deciding factors in this?

‍

We had 114 guests, this was cut down as some guests from overseas couldn’t make it but it was the perfect amount. We were able to chat with everyone and celebrate such a happy occasion all together.

How did you choose what to wear?

‍
I went to a few different bridal stores but as soon I went to KWH and tried on the Bobby gown and instantly fell in love and thought it was perfect. I made a few alterations which made the dress feel really unique and absolutely loved the finished product!
‍

Being a lawyer Adrian often wears suits to work and has always had beautiful suits made by P. Johnson so was the perfect place to get his wedding suit. The navy suit was perfect for the day and paired with Peggy Finn bow tie it looked lovely!

‍

Tell me all about the proposal?

‍
Adrian organised a weekend away for my birthday. We headed down to a small cabin in Glenaire – in between Johanna and Apollo Bay.  Adrian had heard there was a stunning walking track along the beach called the great ocean road walking track and that there was a spot that you could jump onto the track just near where we were staying.  He picked up the ring (that he had helped to design) on the Friday just before heading down and planned to go for a walk along the track on the Saturday and pop the question at some point on the walk.  When we got to the track however it was crazy windy and started to rain (the walk was likely to take around 4 hours or so, so it didn’t seem like a great start).  While trying to work out possible contingencies we decided to start the walk and see how we went and I kept my eyes open for a nice spot to ask the question.  Adrian says it felt like the ring was burning a hole in the backpack and had to make sure that Sammy didn’t go near the backpack.  “I’ll get the water and the rain jackets etc”. A couple of hours in and the rain had stopped and the wind died down.  After a while the sun come out as we turned a corner and had this incredible view over Johanna beach (the one from the save the date emails).  Once we had taken a few steps down towards the beach he called out my name and when I turned around he was down on one knee with the ring out in front. I instantly started crying and of course said yes! It was the most perfect setting as we both love bush walking and the beach – and it was so romantic to have just us two enjoying time together. We decided to tell our families in person so spent the weekend just us to celebrating together and then surprised our families with the news on our way home.

‍

What style helped to shape your reception and where did you get your inspiration?

‍
We really wanted a relaxing wedding where our guests could kick back and enjoy the day just as much as we were. We took a lot of inspiration from Pinterest and Etsy but also made sure everything about the day reflected us as a couple

Did you write your own vows?

‍
Yes! And we are so glad we did, our ceremony was one of our favourite parts of the day. It was amazing for our celebrant to share our story and everything she said reflected us so well as a couple. It was so beautiful for us both to hear each others vows for the first time on the day and it was so wonderful to show our friends and family as well as each other all the little things we love about each other.

Did you include any special elements into your ceremony?

‍
We think writing our own wedding vows and saying them in front of everyone was a pretty special part of our ceremony! We both thought it was important to have a special shoutout to our parents who have very long happy marriages and have set an incredible example to us both about what marriage is all about and what we need to do to have a happy and successful marriage. We also made mention of how special is was to have Adrian's grandfather at the ceremony.

‍

How did you choose your suppliers? Who were the stand out suppliers on the day?

‍
Prunella – our flowers were just so beautiful and even more amazing than either of us would have ever expected. I will always remember walking down the aisle to Adrian and seeing our guests and the beautiful arbor with an amazing floral arrangement.
Spoonful – our caterer! Could not recommend them highly enough, we had so many compliments on the food and all the guests loved it.
And of course Charis White Celebrant, our ceremony was one of our favourite parts of the day! It was so personal and heartfelt and amazing to say our vows in front of our closest friends and family.

Why did you decide to marry?

‍
Because we love each other and wanted to make a big commitment to each other in front of all our family and friends! Weddings have always been special to us.  Having met at a wedding and always had so much fun at every wedding we have ever been to it felt like the obvious thing to do.  We loved the idea of celebrating our love in front of all of the people that matter to us and putting on a big party for everyone.  Especially after the year that was 2020, it’s time for a big post pandemic party!

‍

What was an absolute stand out on your wedding day?

‍
The entire day – it was just so perfect and we had the best time.

‍

What advice would you offer to future brides?

‍
Planning a wedding can be stressful but if you plan it together it can be a really exciting and fun time and you can design a wedding that reflects you both as a couple! Make sure you surround yourself with great vendors who will be so helpful and easy to work with to eliminate any unnecessary stress. One thing we tried to do was focus on how we wanted the day to feel and how we wanted to feel and have our guests feel, rather than how we wanted the day to look. Then from there the decisions felt easier as they were from the heart rather than aesthetic decisions. Ultimately, the most important thing is that you are getting married to the person you love and celebrating that love with your closest family and friends so definitely don’t sweat the small stuff.

‍

What supplier did you book first and why?

‍
Cadella Park – we booked the venue first as this is what sets the vibe for the day. Secondly we booked She Takes Pictures He Makes Films cause their work is just divine and I had been obsessed with their photos and videos for quite some time!

‍

Is there anything you would change about your wedding day?

‍
Absolutely nothing – it was incredible! Can we do it again?

‍

How much did you budget for your wedding and did you stick to the budget?

‍
We didn’t really budget as didn’t want to skimp on the important things but we had a rough goal of $60,000 which we managed to stay around.

‍

What was the most stressful part of the wedding planning process?

‍
As much as we don’t want to bring up the lockdowns again (PTSD!!) but planning a wedding during a pandemic and lockdowns! However we planned all throughout which was the silver lining of the pandemic – most time to research and chat about what we wanted for the day. But in the end we skated through all the restrictions and feel like the luckiest couple ever.

‍

Were there any funny moments in the day?

‍
So many funny moments. Lots of stolen kisses during our ceremony before actually being announced as a married couple.
Our MCs run sheet catching on fire as he made the first announcements.
My hair clip falling out during our first dance and Adrian being super suave and picking it up during one of our dance moves.
All of the speeches, they were so heartfelt and loving but also had very funny moments we have shared with each other.
At our recovery BBQ the next day we learnt some funny drunken moments but we will leave those stories secret… for now!

Did you both equally plan the wedding together or did one person have more input?

‍
We both planned it, we were lucky to have lots of time together over the planning period to chat about what we wanted to how we wanted the day to feel. We really wanted to make the day reflect us as a couple and think that helped with the planning to really make choices that we wanted and ensure everything suited us.

‍

How did Covid affect your planning?

‍
COVID didn’t really affect our planning too much as we were so lucky! We did have discussions with all our vendors about postponing but didn’t have to use that option.

‍

Did you have to plan your wedding multiple times?

‍
No, only once! We locked in our wedding date in Feb 2020 which was roughly one week prior to the world changing forever! After originally being a bit disappointed there were no November 2020 dates available we luckily chose 27th Feb 2021. This was such a blessing which meant we were able to skate through restrictions and have the wedding of our dreams. We managed to get our hens and bucks night in the week before the 5 day Victorian lockdown and then the Queensland border opened up the morning of our wedding so 7 guests from Qld were able to fly down for the celebration!

‍

Did anything go wrong on the day of your wedding?

‍
A few things went wrong but they were so minor and we were just so happy we could have a wedding and get married that it didn’t matter in the slightest – we were just so happy with the day!

‍

What are your hopes for your married life?

‍
Keep travelling the world together, start a family together, create our own family home and keep smiling and having fun.  We love spending time with together and just can’t wait for that to continue and for our love to continue to grow as a married couple. Simply journeying through life together will be incredible!

‍

Is there anything else you would like to include?

Adrian and I have the most wonderful life together and we always have so much fun whatever we are doing. From jumping off crazy rope swings in Costa Rica, climbing mountains in Patagonia, riding camels in the Sahara, going for a walk to get a coffee together or sitting down and watching the sunset from one of the hills near our home in Brunswick East, every single moment together is truly wonderful. We are so looking forward to a lifetime of adventures, love and experiencing life together.

‍

‍

‍

‍

VENDORS:

Photographer: Lucy – shetakespictureshemakesfilms

Videographer: Alistair – shetakespictureshemakesfilms

Venue: Cadella Park

Celebrant: Charis White

Wedding dress: Karen Willis Holmes

Suits: P Johnson

Flowers: Prunella

Cake: Brides mum - Jenny

Stationery: N/A

Jewellery: Amelie George Bridal

DJ: Hey Jack

Hair: LoveCo

Make-up: LoveCo

Food or alcohol Caravan’s: N/A

Dog minding services: N/A

Emcee: Adam Hewitt (Brides BIL)

Rings:

Shoes: Magosisters

‍