Sophie + Meg by All My Wednesdays - Together Journal

We love decorating and styling, so we really wanted our day to be a true reflection of who we are.

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

Meg is a high school outdoor education and PE teacher and Sophie is a communications professional working in local government. We’ve been together for almost 8 years, having met soon after Sophie moved to Melbourne from Brisbane in 2017, and we’ve been inseparable ever since! We’re both easy going, love a good time and try not to take life too seriously, but we’re also competitive, hard working and keep each other accountable. Things we love to do together include: spending time with our mates, watching and playing sport (Meg is particularly good at pretty much everything, but especially basketball and AFL), exploring Victoria, getting lost in op-shops and vintage stores, going to markets, travelling (we’ve visited Bali and Vietnam together, and are heading to Europe for a belated honeymoon later this year), and home renovation and styling. We’re currently renovating our dream home by the beach – down towards the Mornington Peninsula. Our number 1 love though is our 5-year-old cavoodle, Scout. He is our whole world and we love him to pieces! Essentially – if it’s not dog friendly – we’re not going!

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

We’re a tinder success story! We’re not 100% sure how our algorithms crossed because at the time, we lived almost an hour away from each other, but thank goodness they did. We got chatting after we matched and met for our first date the next week. Meg organised the classic dinner and drive in movie. According to Meg, first impressions of Sophie were: she was stunning and straight away I knew she was intelligent, kind, funny, spontaneous and always up for a good time. According to Sophie, first impressions of Meg were: “I felt instantly comfortable and at ease with Me. She was warm, gorgeous, and I couldn’t’ wait to get to know her more”.

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

Both of us agree – almost instantly. It has always felt right, we balance each other in all the right ways and have a lot of similar interests. Neither of us has ever questioned that we were going to spend the rest of our lives together. In terms of who made it official, our engagement story is a good one! Our friends would constantly ask us “who is going to propose first”? After being asked for the 1,000^th time, we got talking about it in the car ride home from a friend’s birthday. Meg said “Why does there have to be so much pressure on one person? Why can’t we just decide we want to get married together?” and Sophie replied “We can, should we?” – and we did! Sophie had already been looking into rings to pop the question, and this was the start of our plan. We decided to keep it a secret, design our engagement rings together, and announce to all our friends and family at our joint 30^th birthday a few months later that we were engaged. The sound in the room when we shared our news with all our loved ones is something we’ll never forget.

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood and style of your wedding. (theme, key styling elements, florals, colour palettes etc.).

We knew we wanted our big day to feel warm, relaxed and fun. Traditional isn’t really us… so we knew early on that we wanted to be bold and make sure the day reflected our personality. We wanted to feel authentically ourselves and comfortable, and we think our outfits really achieved that. Each were uniquely us. We love decorating and styling, so we really wanted our day to be a true reflection of who we are. And it absolutely came together that way in every way possible. Our main colour palette was a mix of oranges, greens and whites. Our florals were unique and we were blown away when we walked down the aisle and saw them. We added pops of pink and burgundy to our signage and menus for a point of difference. Meg is a Canva wizard so she designed all of our stationary, signage etc. Even the weather helped bring our vision to life. There were bushfires far away in the Grampians that day, and although devastating the impacts, the smoke haze made for the most incredible coloured sky in the afternoon, from this golden gaze, to a orange, pink and purple sunset. It felt really magical.

What styling and visual elements worked best for you? (could be things, the florals, particular hire products or your marquee etc., something the stylist created or simply just the scenic beauty of your location or the existing design of your venue).

One of the most important things for us was that the whole day felt like it flowed really beautifully and naturally. When we first went to The Farm Yarra Valley for lunch with some friends, we instantly felt the venue was right for us. We made use of every different area – The Barn for our ceremony, the lawn for canapes and lawn games, the smokehouse for our margarita bar, the vineyard for our portraits, the farmhouse for our sit-down dinner and dancefloor, and outside on the deck for speeches at sunset. This was exactly what we wanted and we’ve had lots of comments from friends and family since about the flow and vibe of the day. It really felt like every element worked together perfectly and we feel so grateful for that.

What did you enjoy most about the planning process and do you have any tips for couples starting their wedding planning journey?

The most rewarding part of the planning process was seeing it pay off on the day. We put in a lot of thought and effort into each detail, so to see it all come together on the day was amazing. We both have different strengths and we really played to those in the planning process. Sophie is the planner, so she managed most of the logistical side of things (budget, communicating with vendors, runsheet etc). Meg is the creative, so she designed all of our signage and stationary and led the way on how our day looked. That’s probably our biggest tip to couples starting out. Know your strengths and help each other out by playing to those – you’re a team. Planning a wedding is a lot of work and can be stressful at times – but always remind yourselves that at the end of the day it is absolutely going to be worth it. Pick what’s most important to you (your non-negotiables) and stay true to those – then be open to being flexible about everything else.

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

We knew what was most important to us was investing in the venue, food and entertainment, and we didn’t necessarily want to invest a lot into outfits. What we ended up finding was on-budget and suited us both perfectly. Sophie is tall and knew she wanted to wear a set of some kind – whether that was a top and skirt or pants. She found her set online and knew instantly it was the one. It was actually a bit of a saga as it took longer to arrive than expected, but when it finally arrived she couldn’t have been happier with it. She felt entirely herself in her outfit, which was really important to her. Meg wanted a mini dress and went through 3 or 4 dresses before landing on her dress from Solace London (purchased through The Iconic). Her experience was a bit of a saga too – with an issue when it went to be altered. The issue was eventually resolved though and it worked out better in the end, because she could make some extra changes like having the detachable cuff (much better for the dancefloor!) The 2 outfits together really complimented each other. We both felt so comfortable and ourselves on the day.

What was one, or two elements that were most important to you both that you were happy to spend a little more on? (food, photography, florals, the venue, your outfits?).

Our top priorities were venue – we wanted a venue with amazing food, drinks and service and we absolutely got that. We felt SO looked after at The Farm, the staff were truly incredible, there was so much beautiful food for everyone, and it was genuinely just perfect. We also wanted winery vibes, but still wanted it to be easy and accessible for our guests in Melbourne. The Farm ticked every box. The next most important thing to us was probably entertainment. We feel like music is such an important factor to the vibe. Jess and Lawson were amazing and were such a big part of setting the mood for the day. Our amazing celebrant Precious was the first booking we made for our wedding. She married Sophie’s cousin about 5 years prior. We knew she would bring the vibes – and that she did. So much so that we also asked her to MC. And of course photography/videography. As soon as we met with Mardy from All My Wednesdays, we knew she was the one. She was super easygoing, her style is incredibly natural and candid which is what we wanted, and it absolutely paid off. She captured our day so perfectly.

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

It was 35 degrees and strong winds! All week we were watching the forecasted temperature go up and up… We were worried at first but then we thought you know what? We’ll take 35 degrees and blue skies over rain/cold any day. And it ended up being so perfect. Our ceremony was at 5pm which was the exact time a cool change came through, the winds started to die down, and it ended up being the most perfect evening.