Stunning Adelaide Wedding by Emma Sharkey

Why hello there!! So sorry for the extra long hiatus, but it really was much needed!! And I can tell you it was oh so wonderful!! In fact the hubby is still off this week so I'm a wee way off having routine back into my day!! We haven't been away, we've been enjoying a mini staycation, getting things done around the house, plenty in the garden and generally just lots of relaxing and hanging our together (and with Charlie of course!). Although I must say that unless I physically remove myself from the house, the temptation just to 'do a bit of work' is always lurking! But I've been pretty good at staying away I think. I've been taking the time to set myself up for the next few months so that I'm super dooper organised!! I have big intentions of being more in control of the business this year and not letting myself get so busy that it all gets a bit overwhelming, which it certainly does at times. My intentions are good at least :-). So I hope you've all had a lovely break... I've missed y'all that's for sure!! It's a weird thing when you disconnect from blogging for a bit, it's like there's friends out there you haven't seen in a while! I have lots of pretty features lined up for the week, and with any luck the new look blog will be live before too long as well... oh and then there's the first Magnolia Rouge magazine!!! And I can tell you it's looking so pretty!!

Anyway enough about me... first up for the year I have a seriously gorgeous South Australian wedding from Emma Sharkey. The gorgeous bride, Kelly, is a stylist so naturally their wedding was in very safe hands! They chose to have a 'planting ceremony' which I just love... read more about it from the bride herself below.

My dream wedding vision was to be an outside celebration ceremony and reception – a casual feast with long trestles, shared food, flowers galore and strings of bare globes everywhere full of our nearest and dearest friends and family. I don’t pin point my styles or choices to ‘themes’ but I wanted an organic and warm feel about it. Obviously, weather can do strange things and I wasn’t prepared to create my outdoor dream reception only for rain or a thunderstorm to ruin it. So, my second thought was – to still have the outdoor ceremony, but for the reception - I’ll bring my outside dream inside. We stumbled across Golding Winery one day whilst driving around the Adelaide Hills to look at wedding venues, and as soon as we stumbled across it, we knew it felt like ‘us’. We wanted a venue that we could have total creative control. It wasn’t too big, the gardens were lovely and the ‘barn’ was just what we wanted – a blend of beautiful gardens and old stone. A perfect blank canvas to create the type of celebration we wanted.

We wanted our ceremony to a celebration that included our best friends and family. We didn’t want anything too formal – just something inviting, pretty and ‘us’. We were so excited about the fact that all our nearest and dearest would be in the same place together. Cinema chairs created a point of difference for our seating with the custom made altar, which I made myself, sat at the top of the lawn decorated with flowers. We decided to include a ‘planting ceremony’ to symbolise our commitment. We chose a native rosemary plant, which was the first plant we planted at our house when we bought it – and this same plant was to be our bonbonniere for guests as a thank you gift. 

I truly believe the flowers create an atmosphere that other decor options cannot. I wanted a ‘just picked from the garden’ style of flower structure for the wedding. So many different blooms and herbs were in the bouquets it’s hard to mention them all. It was really important to me that my flowers weren’t ‘structured’. The bouquet was bound off with burlap and tulle to match my dress. 

My flower ‘recipe’ for the wedding tables were loose arrangements in a ‘just picked’ style full of spring blooms, gums and herbs. Included were peonies, blushing brides, ivory roses, pale pink roses, white and pale pink astilbe, dusty miller, sage, rosemary, blue gum and white berries. The boy’s buttonholes were an organic construction of rosemary, berry and burlap binding. 

 Upon entry of the reception, we wanted to do something different when it came to escort cards. Our idea of sourcing old drawers in A-Z to put the escort cards in was a little ‘interactive’ feature of the wedding but we wanted show the guests that they weren’t just a number on a table. Our guests were invited for a reason, and it only felt right that we would hand write a personal thank you to each and every guest in a custom made card which also featured their table number. We decorated a few of the drawers with flower arrangements ourselves to allow the organic tones to flow through. 

The most important thing of all is to remember your wedding should be a reflection of the both of you – not just the bride!!! Our incorporation of Julian’s gardening in our planting ceremony and the bonbonniere and my love of flowers and decoration were elements of both of us which tied together to be a reflection of ‘us’. Our most favourite moment was sitting down at the reception after greeting everyone casually walking in. We both looked at each other and said ‘how good is this!’. We couldn’t fault it. Planning a wedding is a huge task – but if you have the right people around to help you, your day will be everything you want it to be. Having someone to ‘coordinate’ your day is the best decision you can make. Hiring the right vendors that can execute your style and what you want is so important.

Photography | Emma Sharkey Photography, Styling, Stationery and Event Planning | Emkho, Floral work | Blooming Bridal, Bride's dress | Liza Emanuel (Bella Dress), Wedding Cakes | A little touch of sweet, Grooms Suits | Jack London, Lighting | Rapture Events and Designs, Celebrant | Bronwyn Lyndsay, Celebrants of Adelaide