Sara + Casey by Tahnee Jade Photography - Together Journal

The moment I heard one of our special songs, Arctic Monkeys – I Wanna Be Yours, the penny dropped, and I realised what was about to happen!

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

S.M. – We met at work, I initially thought Casey was good-looking but that he rated himself! New roles meant that our desks were located opposite each other when I soon realised he was actually really charming, funny and thoughtful!

C.M. – I saw her walk past me in the office, and I thought, “Wow, who is she, I need to find out who she is – she is incredible!”

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

S.M – We spent every moment we could together in the first few months and, well, forever since then, but there was a moment around 2 weeks into our first dating when we were slow dancing in my apartment after a few bottles of red to Graceland by Paul Simon, and he told me he loved me after a kiss, at that point I thought I need to spend the rest of my life with him and I knew he felt the same.

C.M. – After our first kiss.

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

S.M. – We loved to go to the Lui Bar in Melbourne for cocktails whilst we were dating, Casey surprised me here with a secluded balcony proposal, I had no idea it was coming, we had been together for 1.5 years. I was 20 weeks pregnant, and my parents were visiting from the UK. The moment I heard one of our special songs, Arctic Monkeys – I Wanna Be Yours, the penny dropped, and I realised what was about to happen! He had a beautiful bouquet of red roses and surprised me by inviting our parents to lunch at Vue De Monde afterwards to celebrate! It was so special, an absolute dream!

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding…

S.M. – Since visiting Jackalope for a surprise anniversary trip from Casey and for our babymoon, we dreamt about getting married there. When the time was right, we looked nowhere else and decided it could only be Jackalope! So, for our mood and style, we worked around the vibe at Jackalope. A contemporary and luxe kind of feel was what we wanted to go for, but still very dialled back and simple, as the venue speaks for itself.

What was one element you were happy to splurge on?

S.M. – Sharing it with our friends and family was important to us, we wanted to make sure we got time with our bridal party, who all live in different parts of the world and so we spent the night before having a special dinner to celebrate and take it all in! The whole weekend felt like a splurge, and we loved every second of it. We wanted it to be one big fun party, the most memorable and special one we would ever have in our lives, and it was exactly what we dreamed it would be and more! Plus, my dress was pretty epic, and I did feel very guilty about that!

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

S.M. – There is a funny photo of me kneeling on the floor in my dress, replacing my daughter’s nappy that had fallen off!

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

S.M. – Casey and the groomsmen were in Tuxes, it suited the venue and was always what I had dreamed he would wear. I had tossed up between two dresses, both completely different, but ultimately chose the Berta 21-114 gown because it made me feel so special, was like no other bridal dress I had seen before and really suited our theme too. I then decided that Black bridesmaids’ dresses with ivory flower girls would match perfectly with our theme and the venue. We had a lot of fun dressing the flower girls who were our daughters and niece, as well as our nephew – our gorgeous page boy. I found accessories for their Monsoon UK outfits on Etsy. Went with cute bunny ears as we were married on the Easter weekend. The page boy had the cutest wooden bowtie and leather suspenders.

What were you looking for in a photographer?

With all our suppliers at the wedding, we wanted to keep it local and find someone from the peninsula. I researched through all local photographers and kept coming back to Tahnee’s profile because I loved the feel of the photos; they always looked less poised, more fun and natural, and that’s what we wanted. Nothing cheesy, just all the details and more candids. We were soooo happy we made the right decision!

What is/are your favourite image(s), and why?

This is too hard to choose, they are all superb and better than we could have imagined.

I love the photo of Casey that I call the James Bond one. He’s holding a bottle of whiskey and looking dead at the camera with a serious face. It’s my phone background!

The photos of the neon lights going through the hotel corridor with us in the background are also lovely as something we can put on the wall that’s not too ‘romantic’ – more interesting.

We also love the photos of us dancing; really captured the vibe at the time, and we were having a lot of fun. Love that our daughters were captured joining in with us!

Lastly, the wine cellar photos are great because we love wine and would like to make them a feature on the wall somewhere.

Why did you choose Jackalope as a venue, and how was your experience?

Casey surprised me on our 1^st year anniversary with an overnight stay, we returned for our babymoon and dreamed of getting married there. Casey surprised me again for my birthday and booked lunch there with a meeting with the wedding planner, and we booked a date on that day! We didn’t look anywhere else.

They were brilliant, the whole experience was easy, they took care of everything and made you feel relaxed and special. The food and drinks were, of course, perfect, and the staff were lovely and professional. Our guests felt relaxed, and all said how much they loved the wedding and their stay overnight there.

Any other comments to add about any great experiences with your vendors?

Tahnee, Danielle, our marriage celebrant and Kate, our florist, were all so lovely on the day and all worked really well together, you can tell they love their jobs. Danielle had put a lot of effort into writing a wonderful piece for us. She had a lovely, genuine way with her, and everyone commented on how good she was. Tahnee was extremely patient with us, having a 3-year-old makes for added fun, and she helped to work around our timings well, she also made the effort at the end to ask me if I wanted any more photos with anyone in case I felt like she had missed anything. Kate came back the next day and tied up all the leftover flowers into little bouquets for our guests to take home with them – this was such a lovely touch, and the guests loved taking a little bunch home! Nicole at Peninsula Cake Art was also a pleasure to deal with, she was super organised with admin, absolutely nailed the brief and just made everything feel very easy!