Ivory Tribe
November 7, 2018 In Burgundy, Country, Most Popular, Outdoor, Real Weddings ByNatalie Drum
REAL WEDDING – ALYCE & JOHN, CURLEWIS VIC
Alyce grew up in country Victoria, and always knew that a marquee wedding that embraced the great outdoors, was high on her list of wedding day priorities. So they set about finding the perfect place for their marquee magic and Baie Wines was the perfect setting for their glorious I do’s.
In an elegant affair that embraced the natural beach side surrounds of the property, and resonated with Alyce and John’s own laid back style – after a decade of walking side by side, their wedding was the dream start to married life.
With Georgia Verrells behind the lens, and Tribe talent Apertura Studios working their cinematographic magic, this beautiful day will leave you feeling loved up and inspired.
In Alyce’s words…
The meeting.
John and I met in 2008 in Melbourne one Saturday night as mutual friends introduced us. The night after we met he invited me to watch one of his friends play in an AFL grand final match and from then on we were inseparable and have been ever since! We have always wanted to be in each other’s company and this hasn’t changed after almost 10 years of being together.
The ‘one’.
The first day John and I spent together, as silly as it sounds, I knew he was the one. He come to pick him up to take me to watch a close friend play in a football final, at the game he introduced me to friends and people who he knew who were also there and wasn’t embarrassed to be with me. He held my hand when walking through busy crowds and at the time John was 19 years old and I, a few years older. I thought wow this person has shown me respect and nurturing in one day of being with him – this is who I want to spend every day with for the rest of my life!
The proposal.
We had been travelling in Africa for two weeks. I remember when we were being driven to the airport by John’s parents to leave and John become quite frustrated when his mother put something into the front pocket of his backpack. I remember saying at the time, ‘relax we’re going on holidays’ and thought nothing of it again.
After two weeks travelling through Uganda and Zambia, on September 18, 2016, we got up early and went to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. We walked along the edge of the falls taking in it’s absolute beauty! We sat at the edge of the falls on a rock and as I looked over I noticed John’s hand shaking as he opened the front pocked of his backpack. Out of the same pocket his mother had tried to open in the car weeks before, he pulled out a pair of his work socks and a ring box from the socks. John said that he loved me very very much and asked me if I would marry him. I’ll never forget that moment, he’d picked a grey diamond (I’d always wanted a grey diamond) that he had made into an engagement ring, excitedly I gave him a big hug and a kiss and taking it all in we walked along the falls. After a few moments we realised I actually hadn’t answered him! We both laughed and I said it was a very big YES!!!!!!
Style inspiration.
I (Alyce) grew up in country Victoria and had always wanted to have a marquee wedding, although a marquee wedding near the beach. After moving to Melbourne in 2007 and meeting John who had grown up in Melbourne I remember saying this to John years ago, that I wanted to have a marquee wedding near the beach and to be able to create and plan the entire thing. John’s reply at the time was ‘how on earth are we going to find that in Melbourne’. Where there’s a will there is a way! After getting back from Africa and still having jet lag and unable to sleep, I was looking at venues online and come across Baie Wines. Their website showcased marquee weddings and a blurb written about being able to bring in your own suppliers and vendors. That was it! We went and looked at the property and that was our first and only inspection for wedding locations, it was locked in! We loved it’s simplicity, the laid back nature and just how beautifully understated the property is! Not to mention the absolute beautiful nature of the property owners!!
We also have a love for timber and wood so knew that we wanted to use wine barrels that resonated with the character of the property and setting, wooden flooring within the marquee and dance floor and timber trestle tables, stools and chairs.
The dress.
My dress was made by Grace Loves Lace. I visited their studio in Burleigh Heads with some of my bridesmaids and tried on their dresses. I tried on their Camille dress and fell in love with the rose pattern in the lace and how incredibly comfy the dress was, it just slipped on over my head! They had never made the dress with a nude lining so I made the decision to order the dress with that particular lining with the thought that by having the nude lining it would accentuate the lace pattern and had my fingers and toes crossed. I didn’t see the dress until it was made and posted to me two months before the wedding and it was perfect, I loved it!! It was very me – I didn’t want structure, sequins or anything tight that I couldn’t walk or dance in.
Favourite moments.
Two of our absolute favourite moments were when it was suggested to us to take a walk together while we were getting our photos done to have a few minutes of just being together in amongst all of the busy-ness and celebrating. We took a few minutes to really talk and acknowledge how great we both looked to each other and to say how much we loved one another in our space, all while taking in the beautiful view of the Bellarine Peninsula.
The second favourite moment was dancing together to our song ‘wake me up’ by Avici on the dance floor. This song it what we called our ‘Europe song’ from the time we spent backpacking in 2013 and it was so much fun to dance together with our friends and family underneath the fairy lights!
Meaning of marriage.
Marriage means committing to be being the equal partner to your best friend for the rest of your lives together. It means continually being there to encourage one another and being each other’s biggest supporters, it means not only celebrating each other’s wins but also working together with mutual respect to push through the challenges that every couple will inevitably face. It also symbolises to us, the start of a new chapter together where we feel even more connected to each other than we did before getting married and carrying forward our journey wherever that takes us. We vowed to always be furthering each other and developing ourselves, achieving goals we set, travelling the world, starting our family and having an absolute ball of fun while doing so!
Funny stories (or near disasters).
I forgot to add one of John’s aunty and uncles onto the seating chart – whoops! So it was lucky that another couple didn’t turn up and disaster was averted!
Planning surprises.
I actually realise now that by planning the entire day ourselves and coordinating having everything bought in for our wedding day – essentially we created our own reception venue. By having it in a marquee and bringing in everything from candles to the water carafes, we realise just how much extra mental energy that put on us. In hindsight, we could have asked Shannon from Peppa and Peach to come in and take over a few weeks leading up to the wedding, however at the time I didn’t think there would be so much involved and that took me by surprise.
Words of wisdom.
Make decisions for your special day based on what you want to do, have, include, not include. You hope that you do this once so make sure it is entirely what you want for yourself.
Be open and honest with each other when planning your day and make it fun – we loved going to have a tasting with our caterer and made an afternoon of it.
Get help when you need it. If you’re not someone who enjoys organising or finds it difficult to make decisions, get in the help. There are so many wonderful suppliers and vendors who are eager to help.
On your wedding day, take time for yourselves, be as much as possible, present in everything that is happening around you.
Alyce and John chose one of our favourite venues to make their dream day come to life – see more on beautiful Baie here.
ALYCE & JOHN’S TRIBE
Location: Baie Wines, Curlewis – The Kuc family who own and run Baie Wines not only manage an incredibly stunning property but they are the most down to earth, friendly, kind hearted family we could have asked for. To have our wedding at their property was effortless, they went above and beyond to help us with anything and whatever we asked wasn’t a hassle. Their property and business is a credit to the Kuc’s!
Celebrant/Officiant: Candice Souness – Candice is one of our closest friends who around 12 months ago studied to become a celebrant. There was no question in our mind that we want to have Candice marry us! She is a beautifully kind soul and she has a huge passion for weddings and marriage, which is evident when you’re working with her. Candice helped us to write our vows and create our ceremony just the way we wanted it to be.
Photography: Georgia Verrells – We loved having Georgia as part of our day! We got to meet with Georgia once before our wedding and she was able to take what we had spoken about in our meeting and capture it in our photos. Georgia’s bubbly personality made it a fun experience and engaged not only John and I, but our whole bridal party and we have beautiful photos to look back on from our day! Georgia reached out to videographer before our wedding and met with him and they worked so well together on the day.
Videography: Apertura Studios – Sasha, what can we say! Everything we had hoped for in our wedding video, Sasha captured and included in it!! We knew that we wanted a videographer that used drones to capture the property from great angles and the view of the water and this is exactly what we got. He was so laidlack and took everything we said on board and was able to put together our video that included snippets of every single element of our wedding. Sasha has a huge passion for what he does and this really shows in his work.
Styling: Us – with some great ideas from Peppa and Peach who also supplied Valerie Caravan Bar, other décor and who coordinated our wedding day.
Florist: She’s a Wildflower – Alice’s (Florist) beautifully calm nature made it so easy for us to trust that we could show her our ideas and she would be able to put it all together in our bouquets, hanging installations, table florals and ceremony flowers! The floral work she created was unstructured and the flowers in each piece were more than we could have hoped for!! Alice bought us an idea of using floral arrangements around wine barrels instead of a traditional arbour and this idea came without any photos. We trusted Alice and the result was an incredible! To walk down the aisle and see the floral work she had together put a huge smile on my face, they were absolutely stunning and a credit to Alice and her keen eye for detail to bring it all together. Hands down the best service we could have asked for within our wedding.
Hair and make-up: Studio2 Make Up
The Dress: Grace Loves Lace – I can’t recommend the dresses from Grace Loves Lace enough! When we visited their showroom around 12 months before our wedding, the girls were so helpful and from then on because I had to order my dress and correspond by phone, they helped make everything so easy! They posted my dress down to me in Melbourne around two months before the wedding in a big beautiful box and I was wrapped! The stunning lace had been handmade to my measurements and it was so made so perfectly and comfortable!! I loved it and so did John, which was equally as important to me.
Shoes: The Iconic
Rings: Private jeweller
Bridesmaid’s dresses: Pilgrim
Groomsmen’s suits: Harvey Spectre
Bow ties / ties: Rodger David
Catering: Going Gourmet – Going Gourmet served canapés outside of the marquee to guests while Jack and Jordan played live music. A lot of our guests commented on how nice the canapés were which was great for us to hear! During the reception, everyone was seated on long trestles and we had shared plates of food served to the tables. Going Gourmet did a fantastic job of being able to cook the food outside the marquee under a smaller marquee and serve this to 162 people! Guests enjoyed being able to choose what they wanted to eat and how much.
Bar: Valerie Caravan Bar – We used Peppa and Peach’s Valerie Bar for our wedding and it was beautiful! The caravan bar had only just finished being refurbished and built before our day and we loved it! Peppa and Peach created the bar with beautiful marble tiles and wood throughout, it was the perfect bar to have that fitted in with our day – guests also loved being able to walk over and grab a drink from her. We could add flowers and candles to decorate that tied in with the beautiful hanging lights in the bar as well.
Cake / Cake topper: JY Cake Designs – We asked JY Cake Designs to make us a mixed berry cheesecake for our wedding, which is our ultimate favourite cake, and she was able to do this for us! Unfortunately though John and I didn’t get to try and of the cake, it was cut up and served our on wooden boards to guests, however all of our guests who tried it said the cheesecake was delicious!!
Stationery / Signage: The Sundae Creative – Danielle from The Sundae Creative helped us to design our save the dates, wedding invitations, bar menu, seating chart, guest menus and welcome sign. Nothing was ever to hard for Danielle and anything we asked she was able to create or change. She was able to include details on the back of our wedding invitations for guests which made it easier not having to have extra cards printed.
Entertainment: Jack and Jordan (Rutherford Entertainment) – These guys are unbelieveable!!! We saw a snippet of them singing on Vimeo and booked them in straight away! They sang a song that we gave them and learnt it for us for me to walk down the aisle ‘it feels like home’ and they sounded incredible! All of our guests complimented them, wanted to book them in for their events and the guys were so nice to chat to John and I after they finished playing and before leaving the reception.
Transport: TripleR Cars
Décor: We bought most of it ourselves (tea lights, candles, vases, little fairy lights, signs) – a few bits and pieces like vases we used from Peppa and Peach or She’s a Wildflower. The outdoor lounge set belonged to Peppa and Peach.
Hire: Peppa and Peach – We hired a number of items through these guys – Valerie caravan bar (as mentioned above), outdoor lounge set, festoon lights, display tables. Peppa and Peach also coordinated our wedding day. They arrived the day before to do the bump in and help set up the lighting and caravan bar, coordinated the day and were there for the bump out the day after the wedding so that we didn’t have to be. Shannon was such a help leading up to the wedding, I could throw around ideas with her about the lighting or positioning of tables and she was fantastic and so easy going the entire time of the wedding.
Furniture: Elderberry Event Hire – We hired all of our chairs and trestle tables through Elderberry for our guests and within the marquee and also wine barrels with umbrellas for the area outside of the marquee. Orla was so incredibly helpful and kind, we got to meet her and her husband on the day before the wedding when they were dropping off the furniture and they’re such generous couples that were happy to help us in any way. Elderberry also hires out other fantastic items and we would highly recommend them to anyone!!
Linen: Table Art – We hired our tablecloths, table runners and napkins through Table Art. Their team was so friendly and helpful to us! We were able to pick the linen up days before the wedding and then drop them back. It was a hard choice with all of the beautiful colours that they have!!
Honeymoon: Bali
