‘Farmyard Disco Pet Nat Chic’ became our guiding principle, theme and dress code.
Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…
We’re just two best friends who live in a little house next to the forest in Margaret River, WA. We both work for the same not-for-profit, focusing on land restoration through tree planting, in a small office where we sit next to each other. When we’re at home, we’re usually gardening or cooking, and when we’re out, we’re usually visiting wineries, trail running or hiking through the forest, hanging out with friends at the beach or adventuring overseas. You might be sensing some themes – we spend a lot of time around trees, and we spend even more time with each other. We live a pretty quiet little life, with lots of music, wine, friends and time outside. We love it!
How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?
We first met through mutual friends – one of those sort of intertwined, slightly messy scenarios. The first real time we spent with each other was actually on holiday almost ten years ago, in Europe, with a group of friends. We enjoyed spending time with each other and had lots of fun, but we were both in relationships, and it didn’t even cross our minds that we might end up dating. But from that trip, we stayed close and progressively got closer and closer until a point where we realised every time we hung out, we simply felt like there wasn’t ever enough time together. And then, somewhere along the way, we realised we thought the other one was hot! As Helena puts it, it ended up being like a rom-com where you’re yelling at the main character to ‘date the best friend!’. (I can’t believe I just wrote that.)
When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?
Probably around the time that we realised we were attracted to each other… all the pieces sort of fell into place, and we both have moments where we went ‘oh god, I’m in love with them’. A wild few months ensued, as we were both living in different states. I had a plan to ‘find myself’ on a cross-USA bike trip, where Helena would meet me in my post-found self-state at the end and then move to Melbourne to study (possibly with ulterior motives) and try dating. Unfortunately, coronavirus had other plans – the borders shut, I flew to Melbourne on a whim, and moved in with Helena as a ‘short-term’ solution (I don’t want to go too hard too early, you know?); we spent the world’s longest lockdown together, and since then, we’ve barely spent a day apart. As we’d been friends for so long, we needed to have some pretty big conversations up front to ensure we weren’t going to ruin the friendship and that this was for the long haul. Luckily, we share many of the same values and found ourselves on the same page for all the big topics, which kind of meant it was a no brainer that this would be THE relationship for us. Who doesn’t want to spend the rest of their life with their best friend?
Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…
There sure was! Samuel had designed a bespoke engagement ring from HLSK, a jeweller we visited when we lived in Melbourne. A work trip to a farm in New South Wales happened to have a stopover in Melbourne on the way back, which presented an opportunity to pick up the ring. Given we don’t spend much/ any time apart, Samuel had left Helena notes hidden around the house, with one for her to find for every day Samuel was away. Each note described one of Samuel’s favourite memories together. When Samuel got back, we spent the early evening making pasta, drinking wine, and sitting down to watch a movie. Samuel got up, left the room, and came back, saying he’d forgotten a note for the last night. He read from the note how he had all these special memories, but the most special of all were the really small, innocuous ones, like making dinner together because he’d never found so much happiness in little activities. In the end, he got down off the couch and onto one knee. He said he wanted to add another little memory, pulled out a ring, and asked Helena to marry him. Helena had somehow not followed what Samuel thought was a pretty obvious conversation trajectory and told Samuel to f*** off and then lay flat on the couch, hyperventilating for an hour or so through tears before saying yes.
What was one element you were happy to splurge on?
We both really enjoy yummy wines and are lucky enough to live in a wine region, so this was an aspect that was important to us. Right from the start of planning, we had one of our favourite wineries earmarked because of their funky experimentation and use of different varietals. When we were still working out what our wedding was going to look and feel like, we knew we wanted it to be unique and fun but didn’t quite know how. One day, we went for a walk and found ourselves coming up with a theme that would help us tie everything together but also ground us in the fun, slightly different vibe that we envisaged. ‘Farmyard Disco Pet Nat Chic’ became our guiding principle, theme and dress code – based upon the rural location, our love of pet nat, a snazzy sparkly disco aesthetic and ‘chic’ to tie these unhinged elements together. This gave us an opportunity to reach out to the amazing team at LS Merchants to secure some of their insanely good ‘Foold’s Gold’ pet nat to serve on arrival. Our guests loved the choice (even those who tend not to enjoy “trendy” wines), and we didn’t have a single bottle left. It’s a good thing we had plenty of white, orange and red as a backup to keep everyone hydrated throughout the night.
Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?
With us coordinating and creating most of the wedding, we had SO much potential for things to go wrong! Luckily, it was a superb day in the southwest and miraculously, everything went off without a hitch. Samuel tends to be a nervous boy, so I’d say it came down to his meticulous planning (even the night before when he couldn’t sleep at 3 am working out the best dancefloor playlist flow – nailed it, reach out for the playlist link). However, to add some pizzazz to the boys’ outfits and live up to the theme, they decided to paint their nails with glitter polish. With most of them never wearing nail polish before, they underestimated the drying time and thickness requirements… Picture 6 shirtless blokes rushing around in a flap (literally – it dries quicker) 15 minutes before the wedding was due to start trying to iron suits and put on white shirts whilst flailing their hands about and aggressively blowing to try to dry them faster. Samuel was a flustered (but looking 10/10) groom when he arrived at the ceremony spot, with his timeline slightly thrown out due to soggy but chic nails.
Meanwhile, the girls were very relaxed, starting the day with a yoga class. Without a makeup artist we could all do our makeup together like the old days, drinking mimosas and taking turns having our hair done.
Once the ceremony began, both Samuel and I simply handed over the reins to the universe to see how the rest of the day would pan out. It ended up being the most farmyard-iest, pet nattiest, disco-best, chicest day of all time – and surpassed every expectation. We still can’t believe how incredible of a day it was, and we have our family and friends to thank for making it so special.
Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?
As with the rest of the wedding, we really wanted our outfits to align with our natural style while adding a little bit of jazziness. We both went through the usual process of finding styles/brands we liked through social media, Pinterest, and magazines before trying things on. Samuel was lucky to find his ideal suit pretty quickly at MJ Bale (‘clean cut but edgy’ was the brief niche, but it worked). I tried on many beautiful dresses, and none of them quite felt like me. One evening, Samuel was out for a run, and I was scrolling socials when Lola Varma announced an archive sale, and there it was! An older style that happened to be exactly my size, I thought it was meant to be, so I impulse purchased it. It was perfect when it arrived (it only needed hemming!), and I received so many compliments about how well it fit with our theme on the day.
When it came to adding a little bit of something, we both decided we wanted to wear really fun shoes. Samuel found these chunky loafers, and I found the perfect heels, which were glittery rose gold. They gave our outfits that disco-chic feel.
Finally, on a sentimental note, my maternal grandmother passed away when my mum was only young, and both of my aunties shared some beautiful broaches of hers that other women in the family had worn on their wedding days. One was a small diamond-encrusted lizard, and the other was a pearl butterfly, which both were beautiful additions to the ribbon around my bouquet.
CEREMONY LOCATION Margaret River – Wooditjup Bilya WA, Australia RECEPTION LOCATION Cowaramup District Hall – Hall Rd, Cowaramup WA, Australia PHOTOGRAPHER Greta Wolzak, @gretawolzakweddings FLORIST DIYed by the mother of the groom; Flowers sourced from Yelverton Protea Farm, @yelvertonproteafarm CELEBRANT Close Friend CATERING The Melt Method/Uncle Sam’s Smoke Shack, @themeltmethod CAKE Made by the bride WINES – LS Merchants, @ls.merchants HIRE YEH Events, @yehevents SIGNAGE DIYed RINGS HLSK, @hlsk BRIDE’S RING Custom made in rose gold BRIDAL DRESS ILY Gown – Lola Varma, @lola.varma BRIDE’S SHOE Camellia Pleated Heel – Loeffler Randall, @loefflerrandall BRIDE’S ACCESSORIES Blusher veil with flowers – Amelie George Bridal, @ameliegeorgebridal MAKEUP By the Bride HAIR Tia Douglas – Margaret River Take 2 Hair Studio, @tia_dougie SUIT Bracciano Suit – MJ Bale, @mjbale GROOM’S SHOE The Lulie Patent – Nōskin, @noskin.co GROOM’S ACCESSORIES Sunnies – Epokhe, @epokhe; Buttonhole – DIY
