Rachel & Barry
Rachel and Barry accidentally chose a searing 42-degree day for their relaxed Baxter Barn wedding. The couple wanted their wedding to have a vibe that would allow guests to celebrate, dance the night away and have the focus be on them as much as it was on the newlyweds. They chose Jerome Cole to capture their day.
Rachel fills us in on how the two came to be. “We met in idyllic paradise on Orpheus, a luxury tropical island set amidst the magical waters of the Greater Barrier Reef. Alas, we were there for work not leisure, but also happened to find love.”
The groom and groomsmen wore beautiful aubergine suits from Calibre. The suits were the groom’s favourite colour and tied themselves in with the bridesmaid’s aubergine skirts.
Rachels mother made not only her wedding dress but also the bridesmaid gowns! She explains, “My Mum, a talented seamstress in her spare time, designed and made my bridal gown. The French lace was Valentino and was accented with leaf-shaped fine metallic thread work. The lace was purchased from ‘Stitches to Style’ in Armadale but there was only 2m of lace left on the roll so there was no room for error (or a wedding cake tasting blowout). Hours of workmanship went into making the gown, and every stitch was made with love! My ‘something borrowed’ was an heirloom veil worn by my Nanna at her 1953 wedding.”
Rachel and Barry chose Baxter Barn for their wedding, noting “Both the ceremony and reception were held at Baxter Barn, on the Mornington Peninsula. The ceremony took place in a stunning rose garden, with the backdrop of heritage-listed Sages Cottage. Following the ceremony, guests made their way to the rustic barn and alfresco courtyard where the celebrations kicked on until midnight.”
Rachel was played down the aisle by Barry on the ukelele with Rachel’s sister singing Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love”.
Cassandra Duncan officiated the ceremony. Rachel explaining “From the off-set, we wanted our ceremony to be short, uncomplicated and family-centred. Our Celebrant, Cassandra Duncan, is a good friend of ours and this made for a very personal, warm and humorous ceremony. She so effortlessly told the story of how we met and what we love about one another (without the cheesiness). To our surprise, the celebrant also sourced some funny quotes from our bridal party which she read out during the ceremony!”
“Just as we said ‘I do’ there was a crack of thunder and the heavens opened up on our bridal party and guests. Everyone ran for cover in fits of laughter. Unbeknown to Baz and I, apparently a theatrical lighting show took place above our heads during the entire ceremony. Apparently ‘a wet knot is more difficult to untie’ and is believed to foretell a strong marriage.”
Of their photographer, Rachel notes “We commissioned Jerome Cole to be our wedding photographer. He’s insanely talented, has an infectious personality and is very dedicated to his craft! He captured the ‘real’ moments of our wedding; from the raw emotion to the downright silly. It’s not easy to maintain such energy and enthusiasm on a 42-degree day that ends in a freak thunderstorm, but the end result is a work of art!”
Barry made the wedding favours himself, Rachel telling, “A couple of days before the wedding Barry, a professional Chef, made batches of his much-loved lemon curd and famed summer stone fruit jam as wedding favours. I then hand-decorated the 120 jars by tying ‘With Love’ swing tags around each as a small memento for our guests. The morning after the wedding, the bridal party spread the left-over favours across fresh croissants, accompanied by much-needed coffee!”
<a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.polkadotbride.com%2F2016%2F07%2Frelaxed-baxter-barn-wedding%2F&media=http: