L U C Y + S H A Y D E N

{ Celia Galpin Photography}

"Call it magic, call it true. Call it magic, when I'm with you." A live rendition of Coldplay's serenade filled the air as Lucy walked down the aisle to meet her future husband Shayden. The couple married in a relaxed "Wedstival" on the father-of-the-bride's property in the Byron hinterland. The boho-luxe styling included burgundy peonies, a giant teepee, Persian rugs and food stalls.

F R O M T H E B R I D E

We met at Sydney's Ivy Pool Bar. At the time my best friend was dating a friend of Shayden's so they both introduced us.

We knew it was love...

The first full weekend we spent together it felt pretty real, we went on about 3 dates in one weekend and immediately felt very comfortable around each other. I had never really felt like that with anyone so I definitely knew something was right!

The proposal...

We got engaged on the 27th of May 2015 in Seminyak, Bali. He proposed by the pool at our resort in front of a bunch of people. The whole thing was caught on video, he was wearing blue budgie smugglers... it was hilarious! He was supposed to propose a few days later on our anniversary, he had the whole thing planned at a private dinner on a private wharf but I started getting suspicious as he was acting very secretly throughout the lead up and I started getting cranky so he ran up to our room, grabbed the ring and popped the question then and there! His sneaky behaviour immediately made sense!

The photographer...

Our wedding photographer was Celia Galpin from Celia Galpin Photography based in Byron Bay. We chose her because she was a Byron Bay local and our wedding planner, Jane Magnus, highly recommended her. We wanted to keep all our suppliers local to the area of Byron Bay, after sussing out her work which was all very natural we knew her style would suit our special day!

T H E W E D D I N G

Our dream wedding...

The theme for our special day was "whimsical, magical fairytale" which was brought to life with the assistance of our amazing wedding planner, Jane Magnus, from Byron Bay Luxury Weddings. We developed a great relationship and bond from start to finish with Jane which really allowed us to bring our vision to life!

Our "special song" as a couple is Magic by Coldplay and we knew we wanted that as our aisle song for the ceremony so the theme built from there. I wanted lots of greenery, endless fairy lights under the stars and beautiful burgundy and white peonies (my favourite flowers).

For the ceremony I wanted strings to be playing with a vocalists so we hired Byron Bay Strings and Ineka Hanepen as a vocalist to sing 'Magic' by Coldplay and a few other favourites. It was perfect... not a dry eye!

Ceremony location...

The ceremony was held on my dad's property 'Amileka' in Federal in the Byron Bay Hinterland NSW, which has won several property awards including best property Australia in 2009 and a 2008 award from the Australian Institute of Architects NSW. It's about a 20-25 minute scenic drive from the town centre in Byron Bay. It is just over 25 acres of beautiful lush hinterland and we chose to have the ceremony located under the beautiful, giant tree on the property.

Reception venue...

The reception was a cocktail/festival styled reception which followed straight after the ceremony on the property, we had a giant tent from Sperry Tents Australia and a giant Teepee. We decided to step away from the traditional sit down reception and have food stalls set up around the property which was put on by Hungry Like The Wolf Byron Bay. This allowed our guests to move around and choose from a wide selection of beautiful, locally supplied fresh produce.

Pre-wedding celebrations...

As the wedding was located up in Byron and majority of our guests were Sydney-siders, most guests decided to make a week/weekend out of it. There were lots of afternoon sessions in the sun at the Beach Hotel in Byron Bay and days by the beach leading up to the big day!

The bridal party...

We each had eight groomsmen and bridesmaids, a very large bridal party! Three of my bridesmaids were my three younger sisters and the remaining five were my best friends from school! Shayden, my husband, had three of his brothers and five of his best mates from his childhood.

The bridesmaids wore...

My bridesmaids wore beautiful Shona Joy cocktail gowns in nude.

The groomsmen wore...

The groomsmen wore navy blue pants and vests from M.J Bale with matching burgundy bow ties.

The groom wore...

My groom wore a beautiful navy blue M.J Bale tux with a black lapel on the jacket with a navy blue bow Hugo Boss bow tie.

The dress...

My wedding gown was made up of two separate pieces as i just couldn't find the perfect dress anywhere and ran out of time to get one made up! I ended up going for a princess/fairytale type gown so i chose the beautiful 'Millie skirt' designed by Made With Love Bridal, which was a dramatic layered tulle skirt and paired it with a gorgeous satin, strapless, corset style bustier from The Babushka Ballerina in Woollahra Sydney..all in ivory!

My beautiful veil was hand made by my mother in law. She made me two, a long one for the ceremony and a shorter one for the reception.

I wore a pair of rose gold stilettos but ended up taking them off straight after the ceremony and frolicked around the wedding in bare feet!

The flowers...

My choice of flowers for my bouquet was a cascading bouquet with a mix of white roses, burgundy peonies and lots of greenery!

My bridesmaid bouquets were smaller with white roses with lots of greenery. Our gorgeous flowers were supplied by Estelle from The French Petal.

Reception décor...

My big dream for the wedding was to decorate the giant tree where we had the ceremony by surrounding the massive trunk with beautiful burgundy and white peonies and roses and again lots of lush greenery. There is also a tree swing hanging from the branches so we had that covered in beautiful matching flowers as well.

We had amazing flood lamps coming out of the ground going up into the tree lighting up the branches. We had fairy lights all over the venue linking the sperry tent to the house and the outdoor dance floor under the stars.

I wanted the style and colours to be very earthy and "whimsical" with a little bit of Byron Bay "boho chic/luxe" so we had a gorgeous giant teepee with colourful boho scatter cushions and Persian rugs inside.

Instead of a traditional dining plan, we had scattered tables and chairs with giant pillows and Persian rugs for people to sit underneath the stars/sperry tent. We wanted our guests to experience a 'festival' type vibe and have the flexibility of sitting where they wanted which also allowed everyone to mingle throughout the evening.

Jacqui Riley from Divine Cakes made our naked cake. It was decorated with flowers on top that matched my bouquet.

On the menu...

We had a cocktail reception.

We had a giant seafood paella with fresh local prawns, squid, mussels chicken and salumi chorizo, a selection of sliders, a fresh prawn and oyster bar, baby green leaf salad with coopershoot tomatoes, Byron Bay mozzarella and basil, lamb, chicken and vegetarian skewers straight off the bbq, a bruschetta bar, a late night cheese platter bar, fish and chip parcels, mini cupcakes and cake.

Memorable moments...

The dance floor was amazing! Everyone got involved. We had former Sneaky Sound System DJ, Damien Hesse as our amazing DJ for the night who took care of our never ending dance floor throughout the evening.

The most memorable moments of the day that people are still talking about is when the groom broke down into absolute tears when I arrived in the car with my dad (he never cries) and also the wedding car which was my dad's beautiful navy blue vintage Mercedes convertible.

Wedding Soundtrack

Magic- Coldplay (aisle song)

Have I Told You Lately How Much I Love You - Van Morrison (bride and groom wedding dance)

Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison (father-daughter dance)

Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Marvin Gaye

Sky Full Of Stars - Coldplay

M A R R I E D L I F E

The honeymoon....

We honeymooned in Boracay, The Philippines.

Future plans...

We are excited to announce that we are already expecting our first baby in June, a little baby girl! So we are well and truly on our way to building our beautiful little family by the sea! We hope to continue travelling the world with our little girl and future children and gradually start investing in property so we can flip houses as my husband is a builder!

In 40 years you hope to...

Still be happily married and in love and still have a lots of energy and be our usual cheeky, crazy selves! I hope that we still laugh every day! I hope to have a few children and be living in our dream home that we build together by the sea, wherever that may be!

W E D D I N G W I S D O M

The engagement...

Don't rush into setting a date, it's such a special and unique time... enjoy it! There is no rush.

If I had my time again I would probably have a longer engagement just so I could enjoy the "engaged" loved up feeling a bit more. I almost feel like I rushed it all a bit and would definitely like more time to embrace it all.

Planning...

Keep things to yourself, too many external opinions can be overwhelming and damaging!

GET A WEDDING PLANNER!!! Cannot stress this enough!! My planner Jane Magnus from Byron Bay Luxury Weddings did EVERYTHING for me, all it took here and there were a few phone calls and emails for me to approve things. She thought of things I never would have thought of. She was a whiz!

Pinterest is fab too!

Oh and after the wedding, unfollow all wedding inspo pages etc...wedding regret is the WORST feeling in the world.

On the day...

Stop, breathe and take it all on...Before you walk down that aisle just stop and take a look at your surroundings...its so rare that you will have all the people you love in the one area for the one event at the same time. It's so special so really enjoy every minute because it's true what they say, the day goes REALLY quickly...literally,

Make sure you allow yourself time to actually SIT DOWN and EAT something! I had to hide from people and photographers just so i could get a minute alone. You'd be surprised how many people want photos with you etc..its crazy!

Marriage...

Although marriage is a partnership, it's so important to ensure that you keep your independence. Never change for anyone else either, it's important to understand the meaning of compromise but always ensure that you are still being true to your own self! I have learnt to stop, think and breathe - this helps with silly arguments! Life is too short!