Our Wedding | The Party

Read about the wedding morning here and the wedding ceremony here, if you like! All photos by our brilliant photographer Jo Crawford.

The Wedding Reception

We arrived back at the house after getting married and headed to the tent for drinks for the wedding party. This part was all planned to be outside for a couple of hours, but due to the rain at least we made full use of the marquee and I was so happy with how it all looked in there!

We served up two cocktails to start with – the ‘London’ and the ‘Melbourne’, the two cities we are from and our two homes. This part of the day is probably the most blurred for me, because I was on such a high from the ceremony and didn’t really know what to do with myself! I kept dotting from group to group, trying to chat to everyone! It was such a happy time though, catching up with all our guests. Our caterers were amazing at getting everyone drinks and canapés and walking through the rain to the fridge outside. I loved seeing people from different parts of our lives chatting away together. My wonderful husband also surprised me with a live acoustic band!! I saw them setting up and was so confused, I was about to go over and tell them that they were at the wrong wedding before Alex told me. Hannah had the most gorgeous voice and it was lovely relaxing music.

Jo was so great at watching the weather outside, pulling Alex and I out for some photos in the field whenever the rain wasn’t so heavy as she knew we really wanted some outdoor ones. My dress got filthy (the worst the dry cleaner had ever seen apparently!) but I really didn’t care as it was totally worth it. It was actually 2 weeks before my granny was selling her house since her own parents bought it nearly a century ago, so it was really special to have photographs and celebrations in this beautiful spot.

The Speeches

We had the speeches before the meal so that the speakers could relax sooner! My dad, Alex’s mum and his best man Cam gave beautiful speeches. Alex’s speech was especially emotional, I don’t think there was a dry eye! He passed on advice from his grandparents who were not able to make the massive journey over from Australia.

The Meal

We had a lovely, casual meal as it fitted well with the style of the day. The sharing plates worked really well as it made everyone interact, passing the salads and meat around. My super mum made two delicious salads and the caterers did a great job with the hog roast and serving up the other salads and sides. We didn’t have a ‘top table’ but sat by our families and I loved getting a chance to sit down, sip some prosecco and chat about the day with them.

For pudding we had 2 wedding cakes (carrot cake and gluten free chocolate cake) plus homemade brownies, raspberry friands, lemon cake, fresh berries, and loads of cheese! It was a feast and a perfect for people to keep nibbling at while they were on the dancefloor.

First Dance

I was so nervous about doing a first dance and wasn’t too keen on doing one, but it was a natural way to start the dancing. It was fine in the end and I loved seeing everyone flooding on halfway through the song and slow dancing in couples!

Finally the rain stopped, our tiki torches around the field were lit as it started to get dark, and we had a big bonfire. It was a perfect place to sit/stand and chat with a drink whilst having a break from dancing. The main reason we didn’t want to get married at a ‘venue’ was so that we could party as much as we liked, and we definitely made the most of it! I will spare the photos from later on in the night after Jo left (and a lot of alcohol had been consumed!) but the party was so much fun. We ran out of glasses so everyone was drinking from wine bottles, Alex and I crowd surfed over our guests, people took in turns ‘manning’ the bar, the playlist was hijacked and a lot of cheese was played – I wouldn’t change a thing about it.

Waking up in our beautiful bell tent as a Mrs…