Garden florals at The Newcastle Club

The Journal

5 June

Victoria and Shannon tied the knot in the heart of Newcastle surrounded by their closest friends and family and the sweetest English Garden inspired blooms

Their day was the perfect mix of elegance and tradition blended with pops of colour, sentimental moments and laughter.

Scroll down to catch a glimpse…

Tell me a little bit about yourselves and how you become engaged?

We had been together for 11 years at the time we got married having met when we were at university in Newcastle. The joke is that he keeps having to quit his job for me because he followed me from Newcastle to Sydney to London and then back to Sydney in that time. We had always talked about getting married once we moved home from London and so we got engaged on our trip home in Portugal on a beach after a long lunch which was super romantic. I knew when we left London a few weeks earlier that there was an engagement ring in his suitcase.

We’re happiest when we’re hanging out and getting food or drinks near where we live. Shannon said in his vows how he likes that I bring him coffee in bed of a morning as I’m much more of a morning person. I said that I admired how loyal he is to his family and friends.

What drew you to Film and Foliage and why were flowers important to your day?

I have known Ash for years so she was the first pick!

I showed her a couple of Pinterest images of cottage garden flowers bouquets and she said something like ‘Ok we’ll take that and refine it a bit with lots of delphiniums’ and basically went from there.

The mood board and her guidance was exactly what I needed as I had never thought that much about flowers apart from always admiring the arrangements on her Instagram image.

I felt the flowers really added to the sense of occasion and gave a feel of a joyous spring day. I also think whenever I smell delphiniums for the rest of my life I will think of my wedding.

Did you incorporate any special traditions or unique elements that represented you both?

We wrote our own vows with the help of our celebrant. We made them relaxed and funny because that’s how we felt the wedding should be and we hope it set the tone. Our vows were meant to be secret, but I convinced Shannon to let me see his beforehand (for vetting purposes). He gave me a "redacted version" (his words), saving the jokes for the ceremony.

The planning process: What was your plan of attack? Budgets, making decisions, inviting guests?

I ran the wedding in a spreadsheet and generally made the decisions while sending things to Shannon for review and a veto (although this was rare).
I didn’t feel too stressed about it although cutting down the guest list was difficult.

Once we had everything booked I didn’t do that much until the month before the wedding when all of the final decisions like timeline, vows and song selections had to be made.

Newcastle Club is such an elegant venue! How did you find it and select it over other locations? What were you looking for in a venue?

We met in Newcastle and our parents and lots of our family and friends are still in Newcastle so that was the place we wanted to get married. It was great having friends come from around the world to Newcastle for the first time. We also were looking for a venue that included a lot of things like a ceremony venue, food and a bar to take the stress off of us (me) when planning. Ash suggested a few locations around the Newcastle CBD so we worked off of that list. When we went to see the Newcastle Club it was so elegant (I could tell my Mum was in awe) and it felt like it wouldn’t need too much extra styling. I asked a few people who had attended weddings there and they were really positive about the food and the service so it was a done deal.

Tell me about an unexpected magical moment you experienced on your day:

We did our photos beforehand so that we could enjoy sunset drinks with all of our guests. Shannon said despite this when I walked down the aisle with my parents he was still very emotional.

When we ducked out before dinner started for a few more photos we came across four women on a bachelorette party. They immediately set up a tunnel for us to run through, giving us a laugh and a very amusing photo to remind us of the day's events. Ducking out at sunset for photos was also a nice break from what had been a crazy few hours as it was just the two of us (and our photographer and videographer) having some fun and taking some silly photos.

What was your vision for the day and how did you choose your style?

My vision was always that everyone (myself included) had fun.

When it came to the design I started by looking at images on social media and creating a board of things that appealed to me. I didn’t have a vision at that point as I was just collecting ideas. This was pretty easy to do because my social media got somewhat taken over by wedding content. Once I had a bunch of images saved I realised that I was attracted to images that were classic and traditional but with minimalist elements like white tablecloths and simple chairs.

When it came to flowers I realised I really liked cottage garden flowers and lots of color particularly blue. In hindsight I was probably channelling my love of UK gardening shows and period dramas.

What’s some advice you would give to loved-up couples planning their day?

A friend who attends a lot of wedding said to me that everyone only remembers whether the food was good, whether there was enough booze and how much the dance floor went off. Whenever I needed some perspective, I thought that was a good piece of advice to go back to.

People love talking about weddings so feel free to pick the brain of friends (particularly ones who have been married recently).
That said, you won’t have the same tastes as everyone so don’t stress if your aunty or your mum’s fiends doesn’t agree with your decisions.