One of the best things about doing CVB (apart from looking at endless beautiful wedding dresses) is sharing, all be it in a very small way, in one of the happiest days of a couple’s lives. Poring over images of the perfectly captured emotions of the day – the nerves, excitement, relief!, smiles, tears, joy, cheers, never fails to move me. Any wedding that unites two people in love is special and beautiful, sometimes though a wedding comes along that stands out, that pulls you in, that has a magic that truly makes you feel a part of it and this Daylesford wedding is one of those weddings……

Packed full of delightful rustic and DIY details, with a stunning and unique venue (a little piece of Italy in Australia!), exquisite photography by the ridiculously brilliant Jonathan Ong and just wait until you hear the super surprise the couple had for their guests 🙂

Jonathan says he knew immediately, when LJ first emailed him, that her wedding was a wedding he wanted to be part of. “She wrote in her email how she related to my manifesto and agreed about the importance of process over outcome. I didn’t care where or what kind of wedding it was, I just knew that I’ve always loved to collaborate with like-minded people.”

LJ & Tom were married February this year in an exquisite, organic and sustainable wedding at the incredible Lavandula Swiss Italian Farm Daylesford, under a 200 year old walnut tree! Can you imagine anything more romantic than that?

More on Raspberry later! 🙂

LJ designed her own beautiful dress with the help of a local dress maker called Kylie Easton. “Kylie helped me create a dress that was flattering and also comfortable and elegant; the dress was made of silk charmeuse with an empire waist, sweetheart neckline and silk Georgette sleeves. The diamond shaped crystal embellishment under the bust was bought from Tessuti Fabrics.”

The groom’s attire of charcoal trousers and waistcoat, blue pinstriped shirt with striped blue tie, all from Tarocash, was finished to perfection with a vintage typewriter letter ‘T’ tie clip from Etsy, which LJ gave to Tom on the wedding day.

“My father walked me around the lavender field (it was a fantastic 2 minute walk and we giggled the whole way around). I walked down the aisle to a song by a Japanese composer called Ryuichi Sakamoto. The song is called ‘seven samurai’ and was a nod to my Japanese heritage.”

The weather was perfect the whole day, after the ceremony guests mingled and enjoyed lavender champagne and lavender lemonade! (How yummy does lavender champagne sound?) And it wasn’t just the happy couple they were toasting as LJ and Tom had an extra special announcement to make after their ceremony “We are expecting our first baby (nicknamed ‘Raspberry’) in August this year – I was exactly 3 months pregnant at the wedding! It was so wonderful to share our news with everyone we love.”

Many of the decorations were made by LJ and Tom “I love all things handmade and we loved the process of making the decorations together.” BHLDN crinkle fans were put on each chair at the ceremony and they created their own gum tree branch chandeliers for the reception area. “We found fallen gum tree branches and collected jam jars for a year. We poured our own bees wax tea lights from QueenB and put them in the jars. We suspended the chandeliers between the ash grove trees above each table.”

“We had a romantic outdoor reception dinner under the ash groves in front of the Trattoria restaurant at Lavandula . Our guests sat on long bench tables and feasted on wood fired meats and local produce.”

Instead of a first dance, LJ and Tom sang a ‘first song’. “We really can’t dance to save ourselves!, so we did a duet of Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, which has significance to us. And it looks as though they had such fun doing it!

Instead of a traditional wedding cake the couple had a home made lavender scone tower (how good do they look?? all they need is some good old clotted cream!) made by Jarrat Volke head chef at the Trattoria. “We used a letterpress card as the cake topper that said ‘We go together like copy and paste’ (Tom is a programmer/web designer so it has meaning to us) 🙂 “

“We then danced the night away with live music by the Baker Boys.”

“Jon did such an amazing job telling the story of our day, he really captured the emotion of it all. We are over the moon that he was our photographer, not only because of his immense talent but because he is such a lovely human being! It was like having a really good friend around.”

The first of Jon’s weddings I featured on CVB (which I just noticed I also titled dreamy…. but then Jon’s photos definitely have a dreamlike quality!) was named by one top UK Wedding Blog as possibly one of the best Weddings of 2012…. I think they may feel they were a little previous when they see this one! Thanks Jonathan for allowing me to share your incredible photos on CVB.

LJ good luck with the imminent arrival of Raspberry, he or she is one lucky baby to be born into so much love! And thank-you for sharing all the glorious details of your wonderful wedding and for all of your kind words!

Amy

x

Photographer – Jonathan Ong

Venue – Lavandula Swiss Italian Farm Daylesford

Bride’s Dress – designed by LJ and created by Kylie Easton

Flowers – Jane Louise

Confetti – Rose Petals from Tonia Todam

Event Management – Grassroots Productions sustainable event management

Entertainment – Baker Boys Band