Sarah + Philip by Lauren Campbell - Together Journal

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love, what is unique about you and your relationship:

We are both designers, living in a little old cottage in Gundaroo with our cat Jimmy, and dog Olive.

We met at uni, when we were both living in Sydney, we were actually neighbours at the time so we got to know each other gradually while catching the bus to class each day (I saw Phil for the first time on the bus on the first day of classes, and thought to myself, he looks like the “design-y type” I bet he goes to my school, and boom – there he was in my class, AND we were reading the same novel at the time). We bonded over our shared love of music, food, weird comedy, books, love for our families and our interest in art & design. He was also a broke student living away from family, so I would make sure to cook extra portions of dinner and bring him some from time to time. Our romantic relationship grew off the back of a solid friendship, we were a bit nervous to jump in and ‘risk the friendship’ but in the end couldn’t help ourselves, much to the delight of our uni friends! 7 years later I guess it worked out pretty well for us – haha!

Tell us about your special day, was there a specific theme or style? Tell us a little about the setting, the styling and some of your favourite details:

DIY, relaxed, colourful, summery, best-party-ever! We had always known we wanted to get married in Phil’s parents backyard just outside of Canberra, Phil grew up there, it’s such a fun & beautiful space and has a great outlook onto the Molonglo river. I spent the months prior to the wedding going to the Raffan Kelaher auction house in Annandale and getting kitchy furniture for insane bargains ($2 chairs, $10 for 10 vintage suitcases, stuff like that). It started out of necessity to keep it as low-budget as possible but became an obsession, so much fun. We held our ceremony under the shade of the pines (luckily as it was a 38 degree day), and had a nice flat area set up with a marquee, festoon lights and dj. We reused all the same furniture for the ceremony & reception, so after all the official business we made everyone move a chair/cushion/rug over to the reception space in a rough picnic style setup. We made pom-pom and scrap fabric garlands to hang around the place, little personalised felt flags for the kids, hand painted menu signage and hung cute and embarrassing family photos underneath the trees for people to enjoy.

Tell us about your main outfits:

A summer backyard wedding called for something pretty relaxed, so I wore the Yeo two piece from Grace Loves Lace. A little embarrassed to admit, but I actually found it the night we got engaged and thought, “this is the one for me”. Phil and the boys had full 3 piece suits from ASOS ready to go, but the forecast was for 38 degrees, so they ditched them the day before, went to the Canberra centre and got themselves some lovely linen shorts which was possibly the best decision of the entire wedding. They looked like a row of schoolboys up there which makes us laugh so much, we love it.

What were some of the most memorable/unique moments from the day:

We knew from the beginning we wanted to have a completely personalised ceremony, have really yum food, great photos to look back on and as little structure as possible so we could enjoy our friends and family who had travelled from all over the world to celebrate with us.

Our incredible celebrant, Debra Summer, inspired us to really work to honour the Ngunawal country, each other and all our our loved ones during our ceremony. I get goosebumps re-reading the transcript of our ceremony she gifted us. My beloved Grannie-Annie organised with Debra to read a bush poem which was a lovely surprise too.

The legends at Woodbrook catered the most delicious buffet dinner, there was this tangy, spicy, BBQ corn dish that was sooooo good, my friends and I have tried to replicate it many times since. They also made our delightful cheese wheel cake, topped with dahlias and little wooden mice groom and bride which has been the topper of many friends wedding cakes over the years.

We have wedding photographer friends who worked with Lauren for their wedding the year before and her photos blew us away.. it was a no-brainer to book her as well and we couldn’t be happier with the results, they capture the fun, the landscape, the heat and the general relaxed vibe of the day perfectly. Lauren was a chilled out dream to work with!

We also organised a bucket of paddle pops/bubble-o-bills/golden gaytimes and other classic aussie ice-creams as dessert for later in the night when we were all sweaty from busting all the classic cringey dance moves. It went down a treat.

Any advice for other couples planning to spend the rest of their lives together:

Life doesn’t really change much after getting married.. haha! Make an effort to compliment each other on random things, and try to make yourselves laugh together every day. Don’t let the pursuit of life’s big joys get in the way of the small day-to-day ones.

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