A Diva Wedding...

I had visited my venue about 6 days prior, the sun was shining, it was 26 degrees in the last week of May. The place looked stunning! The day....... 99% chance of rain, overcast and about 12 degrees freezing!  My bridal party and family had stayed in the onsite accommodation the night before, the boys went to their house, and us girls had ours.

By the time we'd all showered and organised our things for the following day, we didn't get to sit and watch a movie as I had hoped. We did get to bed early, we were well rested for our early start for hair and makeup.

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Zepporah had organised a breakfast grazing box to be delivered to each house so we all had food to nibble on. Champagne mimosas made an appearance to help calm the nerves.

My brother and I drove 15 mins to get GOOD coffee for everyone, (did not regret that for a second), the other bridesmaid's hair and makeup had to start before me so it was safe for me to disappear for a while.

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It was a typical get-ready morning, exchanging of some gifts, I went for a sneaky peek to the reception and helped hang some fairy lights.  The place looked great!

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Whatever the day was to throw at us, I was determined to go with the flow and enjoy it. I didn't care about the small details or placement of signage or what time things happened. I just let it be!  

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The day was brilliant! Freezing cold, but the rain held out, the overcast sky looked great in pictures, and we could dance up a storm to keep warm.  

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The food was delicious, the band was killing it, the photo booth was a hit with young and old!

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Some cool things we did....

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1.  At the commencement of the ceremony Hubby led our guests in a little interaction (which helped warm them up for just a minute!). We played "500 Miles"  and on the "dah da da daaa" we had guests on the Right side hands up in the air, followed by the guests on the Left side hands up in the air, and back and forth.     I had a very long walk (not quite 500 miles) down a long path to get to the ceremony rotunda, we'd found a beautiful version of 500 miles which turned acoustic halfway through, and brought everyone to tears as I entered.   

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2. Hubby organised a surprise group dance with all the guests following the ceremony! There's a video of the surprise dance on the Courier Mail's website!

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3. The first dance and father-daughter dance were definitely highlights (and high-pressure moments) of the day. We really didn't want to stress about it all night or wait until after dinner. So we opted to do both dances straight after our Reception Entrance.  All the guests stood surrounding the dance floor to watch our dance, they were fully immersed in the emotion!

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4. We really cringe when it comes to after-dinner speeches, so we opted for a nice thank you speech and did not invite any guests to speak.  ......... we invited all of our guests to the dance floor for a few "line dance" style dances. Similar to nut bush and macarena where everyone can follow! This got the dance floor started!   songs were: Cupid Shuffle, The Wobble, Cha Cha Slide.

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5. We provided slip-on spa slippers for our guests to kick off their shoes and keep dancing the night away!

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6. We did an early Sparkler send-off whilst we still had our videographer, and we knew some of our older guests were leaving early, so they could still be involved.

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7.  At about 9:30 pm we provided cheese toasties to the guests to keep their hunger at bay (and soak up some alcohol!), these went down a treat!!    We DID do the "shoe game" which was funny for everyone, the guests loved this.  We DIDN"T do a bouquet toss or garter remove, those traditions weren't for us.

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8. At the end of the night we invited all remaining guests to the dance floor for a final dance to Horses, we stood in a big circle and made up some simple horse-riding moves that everyone could follow! It was a great way to end the night on a high.

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9. The following morning we hosted a breakfast for everyone who stayed locally. This was a great debriefing to relive the moment and a chance to catch up with some guests that we hadn't gotten around to last night.

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10. FLOWERS!! We had so many beautiful flower arrangements on the tables.  We repurposed the Arbour flowers and had them moved to the Bridal Table for the reception.  We had asked the important women in our lives to take home a bunch of flowers from their table at the end of the night.   My bouquet was dried and turned into some amazing items including a ring pyramid, 4 coasters, a chopping/grazing board, and a display block by Botanicals by Kate.  They look amazing! For less than $300!

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