George + Bonnie by Briars Atlas - Together Journal

Through every space, the flowers were a continuation of our style and included some elements from my family farm.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…

George is a winemaker with Giant Steps in the Yarra Valley & Bonnie is a florist and owner of her business, the Farmer’s daughter floristry & events. As expected, we love food, wine and flowers, as well as our bulldog Rudy. We split our time between our family farm in the Yarra Valley and Melbourne, and we love gardening, travelling to various wine regions and going back to George’s family farm in Tasmania. A good wine by an open fire with our bulldog is our happy place.

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?

George & I met 12 years ago while out celebrating a mutual friend’s birthday. He introduced himself in the taxi on the way to the afterparty, from there it was a Facebook friend request and a lot of carefully constructed text messages followed by an old-fashioned dinner date. George is a great listener (and I love to talk), and although it was a long time ago, that first spark is still very strong. Whatever one of us lacks, the other has in spades.

When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?

We have been together a long time, so it is a little hard to remember the very moment. During COVID-19, George moved interstate to study winemaking. When he first left, we didn’t know how long it would be until we would see each other again; it ended up being five months. In spending that time apart, we were even more assured of how much we love each other’s company and how we are better together. We have built such a loving home and a strong base for whatever the future holds. Our goals and values are so aligned, and we both feel that whatever the future holds, we can tackle it together.

Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…

I knew that Bonnie never wanted an over-the-top proposal in public with grand gestures, so I think it was always going to be low-key and at home. I had decided that building her engagement ring together was probably best (as she is very specific with her style), so I proposed with an heirloom stone from my grandmother/mother, bluetac’d to one of her gold rings. It was perfect, and a special moment for just us to have together.

A few weeks later Bonnie had found the jeweller that she wanted to design her ring and we travelled to Sydney to meet with Olivia Bond. Olivia integrated the special heirloom stone into a custom design just for us, it was a really lovely process to share together.

What was one element you were happy to splurge on?

Picking just one was challenging – and I am not sure we kept it to only one splurge…

The flowers were, of course, very important to us both. I (Bonnie) have created a lot of weddings in my time, but this needed to be something that was more than just flowers. Working alongside Bronte of Blonde Florals was perfect. Bonte and I had worked together before, and while I was very clear on what we wanted, it needed Bronte’s magic to make it what it was. Through every space, the flowers were a continuation of our style and included some elements from my family farm, which was really special, as well as some interesting textual elements such as grapes. As soon as we saw the space at Cutler & Co. I burst into tears – it was perfect and even more than we could have imagined.  

Of course, the flowers were also captured beautifully by our photographer Oli Sansom of Briars Atlas and the images he created we will treasure forever. The photos are the only part of our day that we get to keep forever physically, so it was really important to choose someone whose work we loved and who we felt would capture all the little moments within our day, which Oli did beautifully.

Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?

Thanks to the team at Small Things Co. & Cutler & Co. everything really did run so smoothly. I think the only thing would be that we made the decision not to have any signage at the ceremony – we just didn’t feel like it was needed or aligned with our style for the day. We both entered from a different entrance to our guests, so it wasn’t until our friend shared some photos that we saw the lovely team at Burnley Gardens had popped out a sign to help people find our ceremony space… it was a yellow caution sign holding a printed A4 page with “George & Bonnie” and an arrow written on it. It was very funny and gave us and, as we found out, all our guests a good giggle.

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?

The history of the ceremony dress: Going to choose my dress all happened very quickly. My bridesmaid, Phoebe, was visiting Melbourne from her home in Sydney, and I planned on asking her to be my bridesmaid. I thought it would be fun to also book my first dress appointment for that day so we could share, together with my Mum, the experience of trying on Wedding Dresses for the first time. We visited BlueBell Bridal in Melbourne’s Flinders Lane and tried on a few different styles, with no real plan on what I wanted to wear. Nothing was really giving me butterflies, but we took one final walk around the salon to find something totally different from everything else I tried on, just to see. We found a gown by Caroline Castigliano, a London-based designer. It was edgy, elegant, and timeless. We loved the dress, and then the team at BlueBell Bridal added a veil – and that was it. I knew it was the dress I was meant to marry George in.

George, on the other hand, had a very clear vision of what he wanted to wear. We based the dress code for the wedding around his desire to wear a tuxedo, and we are so glad we did. Everyone really rose to the occasion of a “Black Tie,” and it suited our style and the venue perfectly.  

Lyo at PJohnson Tailors in Windsor looked after George from his first consultation and custom fitting to the pick-up and final fitting the week of the wedding. George’s suit was classic and timeless and will be treasured for many years to come.