Two extraordinary brides for a sumptuous bohemian Jew-ish Wedding at Broger’s End Kangaroo Valley, Australia

Today’s wedding reaches new heights on the wedding spectrum and I am entirely and whole-heartedly in love with every little bit of it. The attention to detail and the amount of creativity is phenomenal. I hardly know what to talk about first because it’s such a total feast for the eyes, but what I love the most is that Lara and Cass’s union remains as the focal point throughout.

On the other side of the lens for a change, Lara is one of the world’s most renowned creative wedding photographers, and indeed I have featured her work on Smashing The Glass several times. She’s a girl after my own heart wearing not one, not two, but THREE wedding gowns, accessorised by a simply astonishing bouquet by Mikarla Bauer + Jardine Botanics – truly one of the best I’ve ever seen.

So much originality permeates Lara and Cass’s day from choosing to get ready and walk down the aisle together, to all sorts of gorgeous DIY like a ‘Guess Who’ game handmade by Cass using their family members, to an idea that I’ve never seen before: a flower crown station for the guests to accessorise with before the ceremony so that when the couple walked down the aisle they saw all their guests with flowers in their hair. Love love LOVE!

Sheree from She Designs Events blended their two very different loves into one creative theme which works brilliantly even though it combines everything from Country & Western to Vintage Romance! I love the idea of not compromising to one theme but rather merging both your loves.

Our two brides come from different religious backgrounds and chose to incorporate Lara’s Jewish culture with some crazy Jewish Dancing that really set the tone for the evening.  Lara said:

We had the Jewish dancing before entering the reception and it really loosened everyone up! We were being thrown up and down on chairs and tossed in the air and running around in circles and forming conga lines around the fire pit! It was a definite highlight.”

And there are so many… You truly have to savour every one of Dan O’Day‘s astonishing images to take it all in. Oh, and there is a wonderful film by Light Noise Films at the end which you just must watch. What a total treat!

Planning the wedding ourselves

Lara: I think I completely underestimated how time consuming planning an entire wedding from start to finish can be, never mind running a business at the same time.

Cass was great as she really let me take full control of everything but was always there when I needed her to bounce ideas with and make final decisions or to get things done.

We had spread sheets and documentation for everything – its really quite overwhelming how many things / vendors there are to keep track of and all the little details to organise – but well worth all the effort in the end.

on-the-day co-ordination

Bree from White Rabbit Projects came on board a few weeks before the wedding to help with the logistics and on the day coordination. She also drove all our cakes with her from Sydney.

We also had amazing friends that went above and beyond for us that we are forever grateful for. A special mention has to go to my friend Brett Stevenson who really blew us away with everything he did for us including foraging wild cherry blossoms for me at 2am the night before the wedding to use in our ceremony floral installation on top of everything else he did.

And all of our friends and family who were incredible with the set up and pack down of the wedding and loading up their cars with all our wedding supplies to drive from Sydney to Kangaroo Valley – it was a real team effort and we are so thankful for everyone’s amazing assistance to create our perfect dream day.

A wonderful outdoor venue

Being in the industry shooting weddings for as long as I have I had already seen almost every venue New South Wales had to offer. I knew that I wanted somewhere that would give us the freedom to make it our own.

When Cass and I found our venue, Brogers End, everything started to fall into place. The venue was the perfect combination of us and we both instantly fell in love with it. We only viewed one other venue before deciding Broger’s End was the place for us.

Mel from WedShed was also incredible really assisting us along the way as she was managing the venue at the time of our booking – if anyone is looking for a great unique venue in Australia I highly recommend checking our their website.

A theme combining both of our loves

Sheree from She Designs Events was a dream maker – She took our brief and created something beyond our wildest imagination.

Cass is a lover of all things wild west and country western whereas I am a total romantic obsessed with all things lush, vintage and beautiful.

Sheree merged our two loves together and created the most amazing opulent rustic affair. Every little detail was so perfectly styled and her and her team are complete magicians and extremely hard working!

A wedding website

We opted for a wedding website and created one using the incredible Riley & Grey web designs which was so easy to use and was able to be perfectly customised to fit our aesthetics of the day.

Creative details

Tusker and Co designed and printed our beautiful enamel mug name tags and individual guest table menus which we had on the reception table. They also did all the other signage for the day including our dessert table cake labels.

They also hand illustrated our order of events chalkboard which was on display in the canapés area so guests new what was happening throughout the day.

hair + make up

Just days out from the wedding I had a sudden urge to change my hair colour – not only did Bryoni create the most beautiful rich colour for my hair but also styled it perfectly on the wedding day (twice). Bryoni was on call the whole night and did the most amazing job with all the ladies. Bryoni also happens to be my oldest childhood friend so it was extra special to have her do my hair on my wedding day.

Amelia Axton was delightful and kind and created the most beautiful natural and fresh make up looks for us on the day.

Lara’s three dresses

I got to wear three dresses on the day and it was the best decision EVER! I loved each and every dress just as much as the next! 

After months and months of searching for dresses in stores I realised that I had to have something custom made. Coral from Corston Couture and I worked together for months on the design / detail of my ceremony dress. Being a creative Coral and I worked closely together and the dress turned out beautifully and it was such a dream to wear.

Lost in Paris bridal made my short reception dress and my beautiful white long one (I have always loved their beautiful dresses and knew I had to wear one for the wedding) Both dresses were so comfortable to wear and made me feel amazing. I love that the dresses are sustainably made in Australia from salvaged vintage laces and fabrics. Each dress is custom and unique.

Cass’s fabulous outfit

Cass wore a beautiful custom made linen shirt with  floral embroidery details paired with vintage trousers and a suede olive jacket that Cass found only two days before the wedding at a charity store for $15!

accessories

I decided to get a veil made two days before the wedding by my dress designer. It was one of the best decisions I made!

Flower girls, page boys… and the family dog!

I asked my sister (25 years old age) to be our flower girl. She walked down the aisle ahead of us scattering blossom flowers, and then was our ring bearer for the ceremony. It was nice to have her included in our special day as we didn’t want to have a bridal party.

We asked Cass’s four nephews to be our page boys on the day. All being under 5 years of age meant that they didn’t really have any responsibilities but it was just an excuse for me to be able to dress them in all the same clothing which was actually very fun shopping for.

I dressed the boys in khaki Bardot Kids trousers and braces with a checkered red/maroon and white shirt.

Bam Bam our family dog celebrated our whole wedding day with us. He is like our brother so we couldn’t not have him there. Bam Bam wore a beautiful denim jacket which I purchased for him. We also bought him some really cute iron on patches which we were going to iron on but in the chaos of the lead up to the wedding forgot. He still looked adorable.

A very special outdoor ceremony

I stressed for weeks about the weather in the lead up to the day – in the end you just need to accept that the weather is something you cannot control and plan for the best and worst case scenarios.

It rained the entire day of our wedding up until 30 minutes before the ceremony. The rain cleared and it we were surrounded by the most beautiful moody atmosphere – it was just perfect.

I loved the whole ceremony – our parents walking us half way down the aisle and then us walking together down the other half – standing under the stormy clouds reciting our vows to each other

Because the wedding wasn’t legal in Australia and it’s a same sex wedding I didn’t want a traditional chuppah – especially as Cass isn’t Jewish – I just wanted to stand amongst nature and beautiful flowers. The ceremony archway that our florists, Jardine Botanics and Mikarla Bauer created for us,was breathtaking as were the reception flowers.

Although unfortunately gay weddings are not legally recognised in Australia, Jessie Cacchillo conducting an extremely beautiful and heartfelt ceremony for us which had all our family and friends in tears of joy. Jessie wrote the most beautiful ceremony for us, which included a hand fasting ceremony. The ceremony also ended with a big bang of confetti, which was the perfect way to exit the aisle.

When legal is Australia we will be getting Jessie to conduct a legal ceremony for us.

flowers

We were extremely lucky to have two incredible florists combine forces on our wedding day for us. Both Mikarla Bauer and Jardine Botanics  effortlessly pulled off the most incredibly beautiful floral installations, table arrangements and bouquet and boutonniere – we were so over the moon with the flowers.

I especially loved the beautiful flower crown station they set up for our guests to accessorise with before the ceremony, it was amazing walking down the aisle and seeing everyone with flowers in their hair – including our beautiful celebrant Jessie and live singer Andie.

The flowers were lush, wild and full of colour, the girls exceeded our expectations and beyond.

Each arrangement was like a piece of art and everything looked so effortless and perfect.

Entertainment

Adam of The Vintage Stylus was amazing and kept our guests dancing for hours! He even dressed to suit our country theme and styled his DJ booth perfectly to suit our aesthetic. He also found the best jewish hora medley that really got the crowd going!

Live singing

Cass and I actually found Andie Isalie busking in Leura when I was there documenting a wedding a few months earlier – she completely mesmerized us and we were blown away with her talent – we approached her on the day to sing at our wedding and booked her immediately! She entertained the guests on arrival / sang as we walked down the aisle and then later in the evening did a beautiful set while we all ate dessert by the fire. She is such a talent and we were so lucky to find her.

Local Organic Food

Caterina in Kangaroo Valley did our catering and the food was absolutely incredible! Everyone raved about it and it was definitely a big highlight for our guests. We had a beautiful grazing table during canapés follow by a shared feast with all our guests. The food was mainly sourced with local organic produce and full of flavour.

Desserts, cakes, and brownies

Kashaya & Co created the most incredible dessert table complete with nine cakes that got completely demolished by the end of the evening. It reminded me of a scene out of the Marie Antoinette Movie and they all tasted DELICIOUS!

We also ordered the best chocolate brownies you will ever eat from Bev’s Catering (I tasted these brownies at a wedding once and fell in love with them so had to order some for our wedding).

Personalised cake toppers

We had two cake toppers and decorated the other cakes with fresh flowers and fruit. Grain & Co supplied our copper Happily Ever After cake topper, and the topper on our main wedding cake was a vintage cake topper purchased on Etsy which my dad customised by hand painting it for us to look more like us. I then added some final touches such as the exact lace from my wedding dress to match our outfits on the wedding day and then covered it in velvet flowers from my wedding dress.

Taking precautions against the weather!

I religiously checked the weather forecast and in the weeks leading up to our wedding it wasn’t looking good. A few days before our wedding I frantically called Splendid Days who were amazing and last minute were able to travel to Kangaroo Valley and set up two small marquees for us to protect the bar and photo booth from rain as we didn’t have the space allocated for this inside the shed.

On the day of the wedding it rained the entire day until 30 minutes before our ceremony and then it didn’t rain for the rest of the evening – It was peace of mind to know that if it was raining the guests would be sheltered for canapés as would our bar and photo booth. We knew we didn’t want a traditional plastic marquee so we were grateful they were able to come on board so last minute as the marquee blended in beautifully with our venue.

Favours

We ordered dark green enamel speckled mugs for our guests to use for the duration of the wedding and then take home with them. They were a giant hit and really fit in with the rustic country / camping vibe of the wedding.

our fabulous photographer…

Dan and Andrea were incredible on the day of the wedding, effortlessly blending into the crowd and documenting all our special moments so candidly. We absolutely love our photographs.

The mood of them also reflect the weather perfectly. We love that it wasn’t a bright and sunny day.

… and wonderful videographer

Bree and Brooke from Light Noise Films completely blew us away with the most epically beautiful film. Both these girls are so incredibly talented and such a joy to be around!

From the very start of their careers we have always been huge fans of the girls work – they are both super talented and also so easy to be around. We couldn’t have imagined anyone else documenting our wedding videography for us. The girls are so unobtrusive but always around. They never miss a beat. They get it so right every time.

advice for brides and grooms currently planning their wedding

We did a portrait session with our photographer the day prior to our wedding. It was really nice to have to be forced away from the set up of the wedding and have some time to spend with each other and capture some beautiful photographs of the two of us.

I would also highly recommend doing an exit before all your guests depart – in hindsight I would probably have preferred to leave the reception before all our guests on a high note.

BIG piece of advice: get a wedding planner or on-the-day co-ordinator. TRUST ME or delegate a friend to be in charge of everything on the day. You’ll be surprised as to how much needs to be done on the day just in orchestrating everything runs smoothly – I can’t stress the importance of this so that you can sit back, relax and enjoy the wedding.

I am really glad we did a first dance and the cutting of the cake. I am also really glad we did speeches. Although our wedding was more casual it was nice to have some of those traditional formalities.

I am also really glad we choose to get ready together and walk down the aisle together.

The day goes exceptionally quickly so make sure to try savor every moment – have it well documented and try to enjoy yourself, eat the food and cake, drink and dance and get involved.

Photography – Dan O’Day Photography
Videography – Light Noise Films
On the day coordination – White Rabbit Projects
Event Stylist – She Designs Events
Venue – Brogers End
Catering – Caterina in Kangaroo Valley
Florist and flower crowns – Mikarla Bauer + Jardine Botanics
Marquee – Splendid Days
Hair styling – Bryoni Hair
Celebrant – Jessie Cacchillo 
Lara’s Ceremony Dress – Corston Couture custom gown
Lara’s Reception dresses (long and short) custom made by Lost in Paris
Lara’s Shoes – Funkis + RM Williams boots
Lara’s Bouquet Ribbon – Silk and willow
Lara’s Vintage Bracelet – Bygone Beauty Etsy
Cass’s Shirt – Custom Made linen shirt with hand made floral embroidery details by Gosia
Cass’s Trousers and Jacket– Vintage
Cass’s Boots – Kurt Geiger
Page Boys – Bardot Kids
Cake & Desserts – Kashaya & Co
Chocolate Brownies – Bev’s Catering
Cake Toppers – Grain & Co and Etsy
DJ – The Vintage Stylus
Live Singer – Andie Isalie
Photo booth – The Photobooth Guys
Stationery – Tusker and Co
Transport – Fully restored 1965 Chrysler Safari Wagon
Wedding Website – Riley & Grey
(Pssssst Smashing The Glass readers get 50% off Riley & Grey! Just enter the code SMASH to redeem your discount)