BIANKA & ANGUS' SOUTH COAST WEDDING

Photography by The Heart and the Sea

Bianka wears our Valentina gown

Wedding Date: 31st October 2020

What was your wedding venue and why did you choose there?
Having newly moved down to the Illawarra from Sydney, and with Angus’ family living on the South Coast, we knew we wanted to focus our wedding plans around the South coast region. Balwey Vale Estate immediately captured our hearts; a beautiful new winery close to the beach that celebrated our love of the ocean, the bush, and wine. It had also been pretty heavily impacted by the fires over new year’s eve, and the new owners had sadly had to cancel several of their very first weddings booked there. Most importantly – it was dog friendly!

Unfortunately, this was just the start of cancellations and we soon found ourselves making the hard decision to delay our bigger celebration due to Covid19 and have an intimate, family only wedding this year. We had two deal breakers, the first that my closest extended family live in New Zealand and wouldn’t be able to attend, and the second that we wanted a dance floor. However, we also knew that we didn’t want to put our lives on hold for something so unpredictable, and we remained excited to get married this year no matter what. We felt quite lucky in making this decision, as Angus’ parents live in a gorgeous home overlooking the ocean in Berrara. They bought the property the year Angus was born, and his dad as an architect designed their new house when they moved down permanently from Sydney a couple years ago. Angus describes this as his family’s ‘spiritual home,’ and his sister was also married there a few years ago. Bawley Vale Estate were incredible in encouraging us to make back up plans, and we are so excited to still have a delayed party there with our original guest list in 2021 on our first anniversary. We plan to hold a screening of our wedding video for all our guests. 

Did you have a wedding theme/style?
Our wedding style was organic and relaxed. October is my favourite month, and I wanted our wedding to celebrate the hope and freshness of spring. I have a close friend Jacqueline Tougher who is building up her experience in event planning, and she really helped me create a warm and natural style through a mood and colour board.

Our florals were an ode to the natives that Angus bought me for my engagement bouquet. We also included tulips for a few sentimental reasons – they are my favourite flower, which is shared by Angus’ grandma who volunteered annually at Floriade in Canberra. He took me there for my birthday in our first year together, and also got a tattoo of tulips a couple months before the wedding in tribute to us both. We had a particularly wet and wild lead up to our wedding (including the morning of!), and Sophie our florist did a miraculous job hunting down notoriously fussy tulips.

How did you and your now Husband meet? 
Angus and I are a modern day testament to the power of a dating app. We actually crossed paths in person as we both attended the same gym, but it was good ol’ tinder that sealed the deal. We then kept running into each other, as we tended to naturally frequent the same bars, gigs and beaches.

What is your proposal story?
Angus proposed to me in WA during a trip for a good friend’s wedding. We were in Margaret River and he cleverly combined a few of my favourite things – a good sleep-in, native flowers, and coffee! He told me he was going out early for a sunrise photography session, but then secretly scouted the bush and hand-picked me a stunning bouquet of native flowers. He woke me up in bed with the bouquet, a fresh coffee and my dream ring. We celebrated by hitting up the local winery trail. Unbeknownst to Angus at the time, our engagement date is also my parent’s wedding anniversary.

How did you hear about Prea James Bridal?
I came across Prea James online while looking for modern bridal designers. I was gushing over her designs when I realised she was a Wollongong local and her studio was a quick walk from my work. This felt like an immediate sign, as I couldn’t believe my luck in finding her modern, whimsical, and architectural gowns so close to home. 

From where did you purchase your gown?
I purchased my gown directly from Prea’s studio, as one of my close friends was serendipitously here from London pre-lockdown when there was an available appointment. I was so taken when I realised it was Prea herself helping us explore her designs and zipping me up! I had been to one bridal boutique before, and the experience with Prea really shone as she humbly and graciously showed us her collection. Her personality was so warm and infectious, and her values aligned completely with my own. It was really encouraging being able to see the gowns being made there in the studio while we tried on the samples, and hearing about where they source their fabrics. 

What do you love most about the gown? 
Valentina was a gown that I had admired in photos but didn’t expect it to be the one for me. I’m quite slight and thought I wanted a fairly simple gown, as some of the more ambitious dresses tended to drown me. I was surprised to find that as soon as I put the Valentina gown on, I fell in love. I loved the grace of the bishop sleeve, the modern cut outs, and thought the hand beading was so intricate and intriguing. I still deliberated for a few more weeks as I hadn’t pictured myself in sleeves and had a more modest budget, but I couldn’t get the Valentina out of my head. Prea welcomed me back for a second fitting and I knew nothing else would make me feel as magical.  The best part about our changed plans is that I now get to wear Valentina TWICE - not many brides get to do this and I feel so happy about it.

Are there any special details about your wedding that you would like to share?
One of the most precious parts of our wedding was having a close family friend as our celebrant. Angus describes Sue as a second mum, so it was really beautiful having her guide the ceremony and including her and her husband into our celebrations. By chance, we ended up with a lot of these connections. Our florist was recommended by Angus’ florist cousin who was unable to do our wedding due to border closures, and it turns out Sophie who runs Muscari is also the niece of Gus’ previous boss. I bought my hair pins from Home of La Perle, and later found out this is a small business owned by the cousin of one of my very close friends. This is the beauty of staying local; most details for our wedding day and outfits were locally sourced from the Illawarra/South Coast or Sydney. With the amount of money invested in a wedding, we wanted to feel good knowing that it went into our local region that had been so impacted by bushfires and then covid19, while also easing our social and environmental impact. 

I had two beautiful ‘rituals’ as such that I incorporated into the wedding day. The first was having breakfast with a group of my friends who were in the area for our originally planned wedding. As we decided to focus on immediate family for our ceremony this year and then celebrate all together with our extended friends and family next year, it was amazing to spend time with some of my favourite people in the morning. The second ritual was that I wrote myself a letter back when we first got engaged to read the morning of the wedding. There aren’t a lot of moments to be alone on your wedding day, so this was a quick grounding opportunity that refreshed me back into my own thoughts, values and feeling of excitement – it was a particularly healthy dose of perspective when I was caught up worrying about the weather! 

Lastly, we can’t understate how special it was holding our wedding at the family home – something I wouldn’t change for the world. We were able to include some beautiful pieces of heirloom furniture throughout the day, and of course it also meant we could still include our beautiful pup Oliver in all the festivities. We are so grateful to my now in-laws for always being such gracious hosts, and will cherish that memory every time we go for a visit. 

Were there any details that you made yourselves?
I started sewing in earnest during lockdown, and was able to hand make a couple items for the wedding. I sewed my niece’s flower girl dress, my dog Oliver’s bow tie in velvet to match the groom, and the linen loungewear set that I wore while getting ready (which also featured some dramatic sleeves!), as well as linen shorts for Angus to wear in the morning.  

Finally, Do you have any words of wisdom for couples planning their big day?
My guiding philosophy was to make careful, considered choices about our vendors. I spent a lot of time exploring vendors whose natural style and philosophy aligned with our own, purposely choosing people who I clicked with on a personal level. This meant that I could trust their choices and style direction, without sweating the details. This was ultimately a lifesaver. Holding a wedding through a pandemic is new for us all, and I appreciate how hard it has been for the wedding industry, as well as other bridal parties. However, every one of our vendors was accommodating, thoughtful, reassuring and flexible.  I would strongly encourage others to focus on who you work with as the priority over specific details.  

On a practical note, making a separate ‘bridal’ Instagram really helped my brain. Using this account to follow wedding pages and save ideas meant that I could control when I dipped into wedding headspace. The targeted marketing explodes as soon as you whisper wedding out loud, and can trick you into caring about things that you otherwise might not have. This was particularly helpful during lockdown when everything felt quite stuck and it was a bummer not being able to plan anything. It was helpful in making the conscious choice to focus on the perspective this year offered us; the most important thing was our commitment to one another despite the unpredictability of life, and the health and happiness of our loved ones. 

Wedding Vendors

Photographer & Videographer: The Heart and the Sea
Jade and Nath are such a brilliant duo – let the photo evidence speak for itself! We will also cherish the video and can’t wait to use it to screen our day for our guests next year. 

Hair & Makeup: Powderpuff Makeup and Hair By Chelsea Taylor
Both these women are pros at their job and SO soothing to be around amidst the nerves of the wedding day. 

Florist: Sophie Rothwell from Muscari
Sophie is an absolute gem, we are so grateful to have her in charge of our florals. I think we have received more compliments for the flowers than any other part of our wedding – for good reason! She is so talented, artistic, organic and best of all, really lovely to work with. 

Cake: Saga Enmore/Andy Bowdy Pastry
One of our favourite cafes from when we lived in Newtown. Our cake (Hendra) was DELICIOUS. It’s stunning to look at and without the ‘premium’ that comes from a specifically designed wedding cake. 

Caterer: Citrus Catering
Jonny and his team are incredible. He is a brilliant chef and very easy-going. Their menu matched our tastes exactly, so the hardest part was making the choices. Jonny was very accommodating in helping me to design the menu, and the staff were such good fun to be around through the night. We can’t wait to eat it all again next year. 

Hire/Prop furniture hire:

Wed Event Creators (arbor)

Shoalhaven Party Hire (table, chairs and wet-weather marquee)

Both these companies were incredibly accommodating and helpful. Wed Event Creators were extremely flexible around timing of pick-ups, and Shoalhaven Party Hire saved my nerves with a last minute wet weather marquee which I booked 2 days before the wedding when the weather forecast turned torrential. Luckily we didn’t need it in the end but it was a lifesaver.

Accessories:

Earrings: Holly Ryan Jewellery
Beautifully modern, artistic designs and sustainably minded – all made to order, with initiatives around reducing waste and encouraging recycling pieces. I wore the ‘Gold Dew Drops.’ 

Hair pins: Home of La Perle and their Etsy Page
Such a breath of fresh air for modern, organic bridal pins. Beautiful quality too! 

Shoes: Chaos and Harmony
I can’t stress how comfortable these shoes were. I wore the blush velvet Evermore high heel and it was like walking on air. I am not a natural high heel walker but managed with ease to traverse grass, sand, slippery ocean rocks and concrete without a single issue. I also didn’t need to break them in, they were soft and supple from first wear. 

Groom & Groomsmen’s Suits: MJ Bale

Band/DJ: The vintage Stylus (2021) 
We didn’t get to use these guys this year but can’t wait for our dance floor in 2021, and they were extremely supportive around accommodating our changed date.