Mindy & Andy's Taunton Farm Wedding
Date: 8th October 2016
Wedding Photographer: Jenny Feast Photography
Wedding Ceremony & Reception: Taunton Farm, Margaret River
Interview with the Bride
We gave ourselves 9 months to plan our wedding. In the end we spent around $20,000 – it would have been a lot more, but we chose to do a lot ourselves in regards to the venue and decorations.
We had 180 guests at the ceremony which included quite a few children. We organized cushions and blankets at the ceremony for kids to get a front row seat, then offered them icy poles and garden games to keep them entertained and involved. We asked for no children to be at the reception however.
Our Bridesmaids received a bottle of their favourite perfume each and a fluffy robe, the groomsmen received matching socks and jocks for the day.
For the flowers, I wanted a mixture of colourful and natives. I wanted the colour to represent the fun of the day, and the mix of native flowers and vegetation because we are both from the Margaret River area and love the incredible biodiversity of the native plants and wildflowers here.
The bouquet was such a perfect mix of red and yellow roses, baby’s breath, boronia, gum leaves and assorted local foliage. Throughout the reception we had bunches peppi branches and proteas, branches of gum and colourful flowers as well!
The groom and groomsmen wore Navy suits from Myer – with a burgundy tie to match the beautiful bridesmaids.
The overall theme to our day was Rustic Farm Fun, and we chose to have deep colours, such as navy and burgundy for our bridal party and the flowers matched these beautifully.
We were walking around the farm one day sussing out potential shed locations, I wanted something really open and our parents had both suggested the shearing shed. Then we were discussing it near Dad’s hay shed and realized it had the most amazing potential. High ceilings, really open, and the view is spectacular over the paddocks, with a row of poplars on one side and an orchard on the other side.
It was a heap of work to get it ‘wedding ready’, but everyone helped out so much and it was so special, looking around and seeing what an amazing job everyone did with it all!
I know that every bride says this, but I LOVED my wedding dress - it was ‘me’ in a dress.
I adored my designer Fara, and we worked together to design a dress I could move about freely in and it was absolutely stunning! Exactly what I dreamed of! I had started looking as soon as I could and I found the design the very first place I looked.
We had our 3 gorgeous nieces as flower girls, with one of them refusing to take off her blue tracksuit pants, so she wore them rolled up underneath! My gorgeous sister-in-law sang me down the aisle too!
We chose to get married under a willow tree in the paddock in front on my parents’ house. This was such a stunning location that we really didn’t need much, we just grabbed an assortment of mismatched wooden chairs from our house and my parents’ house for family, put some flowers on wooden blocks near the aisle and a blanket and cushions for the kids at the front so they could have a good view of the ceremony
We held both the ceremony and reception at a remote location of Taunton Farm as I had grown up here and we have both had so many amazing memories here. We both love the outdoors, so we basically picked our favourite tree on the farm and got married under it.
2.30pm arrival for a 3pm start.
Ceremony at 3pm.
3.30 – 5pm Garden games near the ceremony location with icy poles and champagne.
Reception from 5.30 onwards.
We arrived back from photos at 6.30.
Speeches were at 7.30, with mains going around while the speeches occurred.
Our cake and first dance was at 8.30pm.
The whole evening was full of loads of drinking, dancing, and laughter – I remember stepping back and watching for a bit just how happy everyone was. It was such a beautiful thing!
The photo booth photos were hilarious to look at the next day… oh, and we’d choreographed a pretty epic dance for our bridal waltz to Never Tear Us Apart by INXS which brought the house down!
My advice to other brides would be - enjoy it as much as you can and don’t sweat the small stuff. It’s a pretty crazy event to organize but remember that it is such a happy occasion and your guests will absolutely love it as long as they are well fed and watered!
Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We spent 3 nights at Pullman Resort in Bunker’s Bay which was a gorgeous getaway and we’re planning a big trip to Canada in 2017.
Did you use Coast to Country Weddings to help plan your day?
Absolutely – both on facebook and the website, especially for finding specific needs…
We were going to make invites ourself and just ran out of time, so it was so great having everything in one place to see who could get our invites made – which were amazing thanks to Sam from For Papers’ Sake. Also, to find Miranda from Juice Stretch Tents.
The website was so easy to use especially to find specific furniture and decorating needs close to us. It was perfect.
CTCW Wedding Suppliers:
Ceremony Location: Taunton Farm, Cowaramup
Reception Venue: Taunton Farm, Cowaramup
Photographer: Jenny Feast Photography
Photo booth: Homemade from an old caravan we have!
Accommodation: Taunton Farm Holiday Park cottages and camping
Brides dress & Accessories: Fara Couture, own accessories
Bridesmaid's Dresses & Accessories: Shona Joy dresses, own accessories
Rings: Michael Hill engagement ring & wedding bands white gold from Mazzachuzelli’s
Groom & Groomsman Attire: Suits from Myer
Entertainment: Stillwater Giants and friends that DJ’d. My beautiful sister-in-law sung us down the aisle.
Florist: My beautiful Mum loves her flowers, so she and my grandparents sourced local flowers and Mum, together with some amazing family and friends assembled all the bouquets, button holes and flower arrangements.
Cake: My cousin Kelli makes incredible cakes, so she baked our Salted Caramel and Chocolate Cake as a wedding present to us.
Invitations: For Papers Sake Busselton
Favors: We had stubby holders ordered from Cool Stubby and sunflower seeds for people plant as a thank you.
Stylist: We had our wonderful family, friends and imaginations to bring our dream wedding to life.
Marquee: Juice Stretch Tents provided a beautiful big stretch tent that provided shelter for the guests but also a fabulous wind break and looked incredible too!
