After about a year of nervous and awkward chatting online, we started to hang out after school and a fairly serious crush emerged. I was pretty besotted with him! Ben asked me if I’d like to be official and I was so overwhelmed that I replied “maybe”. However it was a short-lived maybe, and it wasn’t long before we started dating!
Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…
Ash – Ben is an engineer working in Project Management and I am a Clinical Psychologist currently in the final stretch of finishing my PhD. Our work takes up a lot of time however, we are also very-much homebodies, and revolve most of our time around our dog, Oscar (who was probably star of the show at our wedding). Our weekends (when we weren’t wedding planning) usually consist of coffee, gardening, cooking (Ben’s a great chef), spending time at the beach or working on our house.
How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?
Ash – Ben and I met in high school. We’re classic high-school sweethearts. We met pretty young, I was 14 and Ben was 16 when we first started talking via msn (throw back!). After about a year of nervous and awkward chatting online, we started to hang out after school and a fairly serious crush emerged. I was pretty besotted with him! Ben asked me if I’d like to be official and I was so overwhelmed that I replied “maybe”. However it was a short-lived maybe, and it wasn’t long before we started dating!
When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?
Ben – Ash and I had been together for a long time before we got engaged and so we’ve had the unique experience of growing up together. So while there wasn’t really one ‘moment’, we had a lot of experiences where our love strengthened and deepened. We’ve been through a lot together and we’d had a particularly challenging year in 2016, Ash had a pretty major horse riding accident and my dad passed away suddenly following a shock cancer diagnosis. As tough as this year was, we went from two kids in love to a partnership.
Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding…
Ash –We took our time to enjoy being engaged before we jumped into wedding planning. We loved the Blue Mountains, often visiting for weekends away and hiking trips. We’d looked at just about every venue in the region when a family member said they’d spent a weekend at a beautiful property in the Megalong Valley. After we visited Dryridge Estate and bonded with owners Emma and Simon over our Groodles, we knew we’d found the place! We really wanted a venue where we could spend a few days with our family and friends, really soaking up the celebrations. We had a welcome reception the night prior to the wedding and it was so much fun to enjoy the property and spend quality time with family and friends before the big day.
Dryridge Estate has a view of the beautiful Blue Mountains escarpment that speaks for itself. We wanted our vision and vibe to honour the gorgeous scenery. I spent a lot of time pouring over real weddings in magazines and online (of course TJ!) and sought inspiration from Italian-style celebrations. We wanted classic colours – whites, greens and neutrals. I knew I wanted to cover the roof of the marquee with fairy lights and the tables with lots and lots of candles. Ben and his brother spent hours hanging all the fairy lights. It was a mammoth effort but they looked absolutely incredible on the night.
What was one element you were happy to splurge on?
Ash – Our approach was to invest in the things that made our day exactly what we dreamed of and to ensure that our guests had an amazing time celebrating with us. We wanted them to walk away feeling well fed and well hydrated, with sore feet because they could not stop dancing. We knew we had a stunning venue, great people ready to party – the rest took care of itself. So, food, wine and entertainment were our big ticket items. We cannot praise these vendors enough – they were incredible and everyone spoke so highly of them!
Ben – Beer! And wine! And pizza! Because Dryridge Estate is at the end of a windy and steep road, we wanted our guests to be able to fully relax (and enjoy the bar), so we booked several buses which picked up and safely returned all our guests. That was a really worthwhile investment.
Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?
Ash – I wasn’t quite sure what I was after, so it took me a while to find my wedding dress. After looking at a few stores, I took my mum and grandmother back to a boutique in Double Bay, where we put together my dress – a corseted Mikado off-shoulder bodice with silk circle skirt, and a detachable tulle over-skirt.
After our wedding was cancelled and moved to September, I was concerned about the weather being too cold for the dress (the Blue Mountains gets to a top of 2deg same nights!). I booked an appointment with Lillian Khallouf, who I’ve admired for years to discuss some ideas. I spoke with Lillian about my idea of a long-sleeved, boat-neck bodice, with a heart shaped cut-out on the back. We started working on the design, which was such a fun and creative experience! Just before picking up the bodice from Lillian, she asked if I had any sentimental pieces of jewellery we could add to the back as a little touch. I found a necklace Ben had bought for me for our first Valentine’s Day, which we were able to attach last minute! After our September date was post-poned, I was left with two dress options! I couldn’t pick a favourite so decided to wear the off-shoulder for the ceremony and long-sleeved for the reception – I was so thankful to be able to wear both pieces!
Ben – I was originally going to wear the same linen suit as the groomsmen. Though with all the extra time we had with the two postponements I was having second thoughts about wanting to wear something more classic and different to the boys. A week out from our wedding day Ash and I went shopping to pick up some final wedding items where I saw the black jacket, and I was immediately drawn to it – and it was a perfect fit.
Ceremony + Reception Location: Dryridge Estate, @dryridgeestate / Photographer: Lucie, @lucieblakephotography / Videographer: Erive Films, @erivefilms / Celebrant: Personal friend / Entertainment: We Are Soho, @sohoplays / Styling: DIY by the bride / Planner: Your Day By Chloe, @yourdaybychloe / Hire: Event Hire Services / Flora: Floral Anarchy, @floralanarchy / Catering + Beverages: The Airstream Social, @the_airstream_social; The Italian Job Catering, @theitalianjobcateringco / Cake: Mother of the bride / Stationery: DIY by the bride / Gifting: Wishing well / Guest transport: Near and Far Coaches / Bride’s Ceremony Attire: Custom off-shoulder bodice with pink tulle skirt by Babushka Ballerina, @babushkaballerina / Bride’s Reception Attire: Custom bodice and silk skirt by Lillian Khallouf, @lilliankhallouf / Groom’s Attire: Suit Jacket by Joe Black, @joeblackofficial; Pants by Saba, @sabastyle / Watch: Breitling, @breitling / Ring/s: Ellis Jewellers, @ellisjewellers / Bride’s Shoes: Aquazurra, @aquazzura / Groom’s Shoes: Aquila, @aquila_est1958 / Makeup + Hair: Veronika Moreira, @veronikamoreira_beauty / Bride: Van Cleef & Arpels Collection Rose Rouge / Groom: Givenchy / Bridesmaids’ Attire: Bec & Bridge, @becandbridge / Groomsmen’s Attire: Peter Jackson, @peterjacksonau
