Heather and Oliver’s Free Spirited Australian Wedding By Mavis Jean Photography

Happy Monday and welcome to another jam-packed week on the Blog, I hope you had a great weekend and are now rested and revitalised for the week ahead! We are stating the week with this totally gorgeous wedding from New South Wales. Heather and Oliver wanted to make the most of the beautiful area that they lived in, so invited their wedding guests to celebrate their wedding in Oliver’s parents garden. The results are this totally laid back, free spirited wedding with a bohemian vibe. It is so lovely to see a wedding totally about just that, the marriage of two people completely in love. Little fuss just love, friends and family….perfect! Big thanks to Alice from Mavis Jean Photography for the beautiful images.

‘It was a simple day drenched in sunshine and happiness, and built from the ground up by friends and family. Everyone came in the spirit of the party – ready to have a laugh and a drink, sit on the grass and dance the night away’

Heather and Oliver were married on 31st October 2015 at The Groom’s parents’ house in Coorabell, in the northern NSW hinterland. ‘We had been living overseas, and a lot of our friends and family were scattered around the globe and Australia, so we didn’t feel that any particular place would be more convenient for everyone – which meant that we could really choose to be where our hearts were. We wanted to be outside, among the trees and in the sunshine, not in a hired hall. I (Heather) grew up on the north coast of NSW and Ollie’s family moved there a few years ago. His parents’ garden was the perfect, happy, simple place for us. We had a total of 110 guests and the wedding took a total of 10 months to plan.’

How they met
We’d been together for 6 ½ years by the time we got married. Heather went to uni with Ollie’s best friend from primary school, and for some reason, even though all our friends had become close over time, it took us five years to meet: Ollie finally moved from Canberra to Sydney and needed a part time job, and I helped him get one at the bookshop where I worked. Let’s say our literary tastes were compatible.

The Proposal
Living in Bangladesh, it was hard to find the right romantic place or moment to propose. Ollie had had the ring designed and made by one of Heather’s best friends over a year beforehand, and then safely delivered by a mate of his, and was waiting for an opportunity to propose. One night, as we were almost out the door on a way to a friend’s wedding, dressed up in a suit and sari, the power grid for the whole country was shut down and the city was plunged into darkness. The friend’s wedding was postponed for an hour to start the generators, and we lit candles, grabbed a drink and danced to the music from our phones in all our finery. Ollie seized the moment and produced a little antique crystal box, containing the handmade ring. Heather was so shocked she still can’t remember exactly what he said, but it definitely made her very happy.
Ollie likes to joke that not many people can say their partner shut down the power to a whole country to propose.

How did you allocate your budget
We wanted to keep the whole thing very low-key, but make sure that everyone was having fun. So the major expenses were in booze and food (we had a truckload to make sure we didn’t run out) and on the buses we hired to get our guests to and from the property and then back into town.

Where did you splurge and where did you save
We had originally planned to cater ourselves, but quickly realised that we just had too many people. So our ‘big splurge’, which was actually very reasonably priced, was on food, drink and a couple of servers to help. It was definitely worth it.
We were able to save a lot by having the incredible support of family, friends and the local community. We borrowed a marquee from a neighbour, borrowed hay bales from a nearby farm for seating, and the local fire brigade helped us bring the buses in safely. The music, photography, rings and flowers were all provided by friends, some of them discounted, some given, wonderfully, for free. We were very lucky.

How did you choose your photographer
We were trying to involve as many friends and family in the wedding as we could, and we were just incredibly lucky that Ali is a very dear and old school friend of mine. Ali has always had an eye for beautiful, honest, natural images, and that was what we wanted. She was professional but incredibly fun to hang out with – she didn’t ask us to stand formally or be anything other than ourselves, and we were thrilled by how the pictures capture the way the day really felt.

The Dress
I have always had a deep love of Edwardian dresses, and a wedding felt like I finally had an opportunity to indulge my dream. I spent many hours trawling the internet for the right size, and eventually found the right on eBay – an American tea dress, circa 1907.
My shoes were custom made by Teysha, a social enterprise based in Guatemala which supports local women to keep their embroidery craft alive by making beautiful boots.
I also wore a flower crown by The Flower Era, a gold earring and ear cuff by Avigail Adam (via Etsy), copper bracelet from Aranya, Bangladesh.

The Suit and Bridesmaids
Ollie didn’t wear a suit – just some new high-street chinos and a special floral shirt that he had made for him in Bangladesh.
There was no formal bridal party – we just asked everyone to wear something they could sit on the grass and dance in.

Theme or Colour Scheme
We didn’t have a theme or colour scheme, but we were guided by wanting everything to focus on being relaxed and fun – for us, the purpose of getting married was to bring our community of wonderful people, both friends and family, together to celebrate and be joyful in the sunshine. The area we both call home – the north coast of New South Wales – was itself an inspiration, full of lush tropical greens, colourful flowers and grass that feels great under your feet. Heather’s love of the organic shapes and imagery of the Edwardian/Art Nouveau period was the other big influence. There was also a touch of South Asia in there, with Indian and Bangladeshi prints and textiles.

Flowers
Apart from the flowers that were already growing in the garden, our wonderful florist came up with a combination based on the Edwardian influence of my dress, and used White trailing Clematis, Eucalypt, Julia roses, foxgloves, bearded iris, elderflower and vibernum snow balls.

Decoration
We left most of it up to the natural beauty of the garden, but added home-made wine bottle vases, fairy lights and a eucalypt garland made by our florist, which we hung ver the dancefloor.

Food
We hired Crusta Woodfired to provide pizza from their travelling pizza oven, which we had tried at the Mullumbimby markets and loved. The salads, garlic breads and pizzas they made were incredibly tasty, and totally suited the informal atmosphere.

Wedding Cake
A big, flowery lemon cake from Rebellyous Cakes in Byron Bay.

Entertainment
Our friend and musician James Pender played guitar and sang before, during and after the ceremony, a friend made us an amazing playlist for the afternoon chilling and milling, then we had our own for the dancing.

The Stationery
DIY!

Personal or Handmade Touches
I’m glad we wrote our own vows – they were full of little funny, celebratory and tolerant things about each other’s bad habits and best features.
The glassware was all bought from Opshops around Sydney and Coffs Harbour, and we tried to get as much coloured glass as possible. The oranges, purples and blues glinted in the sunshine, and everyone took their glass home as a souvenir.
The major DIY project was all the work that went into the garden, from building stairs to hanging fairy lights, but a close second was making wine bottle vases which we attached to wooden stakes and placed around the garden.

Special Moments
We were pretty laid back about the ceremony and hadn’t bothered having a rehearsal. We had planned to ask both our Mums to be the witnesses on the register but as we finished our vows and went to sign ourselves, we realised we’d totally forgotten to ask them. The beautiful thing was that as soon as we walked to the table, all our parents instinctively came up to us to hug us, so they were right there and ready to go. It felt like such a joyful, happy family moment.
My other favourite memory was when our wonderful celebrant, Kirsty Liang, asked the guests to say their own vows, to support our marriage, and enjoy the day. With everyone repeating her words, the opportunity to get them to say something ridiculous was just too good. The joke broke up the ceremony perfectly and set the tone for the fun of the rest of the afternoon.
That and the dancing. There were so many good moves and so much joy on our dancefloor.

Advice to other couples
I’m really glad that we put aside a very short amount of time for ‘official’ photos – we got everything we wanted, without leaving the party for several hours. It gave us so much more time to spend with the people we care about.

Biggest surprise
The Flower Dog, who had been lovingly washed and blow-dried and was looking very dapper, despite having been to the groom’s parents’ house several times, decided that this was the day she would launch herself into the large, deep pond. Within minutes of arriving, she was filthy and wet, and had to be rescued by a very helpful friend, who risked her beautiful dress and heels. Tess the dog repaid her by shaking pond water all over half the guests. Lucky she’s so cute that she got away with it.

Supplier Shout Outs

• Photography – www.mavisjean.com
• Sound hire – www.byronhire.com.au
• Entertainment – www.jamespender.portfoliobox.me
• Celebrant – www.kirstyellalaing.com
• Rings – www.sarahmareemills.com
• Transport – Blanches Buses

For more information on Mavis Jean’s work please go to:

www.mavisjean.com / I:mavisjeanphotography / FACEBOOK

Based in Melbourne, Australia. At Mavis Jean our style is very candid and documentary-like. I shoot all my weddings alongside my husband Greggles. We very much believe our job as wedding photographers is to capture the authentic, beautiful moments as they happen – not to create staged ones