Melbourne couple, Clare Nicholson and Daniel Young, were living and working in London – as so many Aussies do – when they got engaged and started planning a wedding back home.

Despite loving London (they intended to go for a year and are still there six years on), the wedding they planned, with the expert assistance of Simply Wed wedding planners, was essentially an antidote to the chilly climate and London way of life.

Their vintage-inspired picnic wedding was held under the beautiful oak trees of a private vineyard in Victoria’s Yarra Ranges and the weather was perfect – warm and calm – and still a balmy 25 degrees at midnight. A dance floor was set up on the lawn beside the vines, with jazz music playing by the Baker Boys Band and, with none of the formal wedding traditions like seating plans, cutting the cake or a bridal waltz, there was only one word to describe how everyone felt – relaxed!

For dinner, guests could grab a picnic basket to share between 10 and plonk down on a rug to enjoy gourmet goodies such as meats, cheeses, olives, pate, crackers and fruit. For the main affair, a modern Aussie BBQ was served with a mixture of red and white meats, fresh seafood, tantalising salads and mini bread rolls, whilst for dessert, everyone helped themselves to a vintage style dessert buffet.

And it wouldn’t be a Melbourne wedding without lattes! Coffee lover, Daniel, even went to the trouble of having his own coffee blend created just for the event. ‘Clare & Dan’s wedding blend’ was packaged up and given as bomboniere and was also served by Flying Bean mobile barista for the duration of this very chilled-out soiree.

Style-savvy bride, Hayley Wandelt-Smith, had just graduated from a Bachelor of Fashion Design in Canberra when her beau of seven years, Chris Morgan, proposed (more about that later). It was an exciting time. A fashion degree, a wedding to plan and then, a move to Melbourne – Hayley had accepted her first design role at a company unlikely of an upcoming fashionista – Australian Defence Apparel. Designing protective clothing for the military and law enforcement, she says, “I design body armour by day and more girly things in my spare time!”

And there’s fewer more girly things to design than a wedding. Hayley was her own wedding planner and, armed with a fashion degree, she styled the pair’s modern romantic wedding using mood boards to outline her feminine vision. “It helped to get everyone on the same page,” she says.

Despite having all the skills and creativity needed to design her own bridal gown (she had already designed her aunty’s wedding dress), Hayley decided not to put herself under unnecessary pressure and opted to buy a ready-to-wear design from Fairytales Bridal Boutique. “People expected that I would design my own gown, but I wanted to enjoy the experience of planning the wedding and not have to worry about doing my own fittings,” she explains.

In front of 120 guests, Chris and Hayley exchanged vows before a beautiful release ceremony on the steps of the picturesque Chateau Wyuna chapel in the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges.

It’s never too late to find true love.

This sweet older couple, Kim and Greg, found each other later in life but were definitely not too old to say ‘I do’ in this laid back, western-inspired vintage wedding in the historic country town of Gundaroo, NSW.

Whilst 68-year-old Greg is a born and bred Aussie bushman and technology isn’t really his forte (he doesn’t even send text messages), 45-year-old Kim is much more computer savvy and quite the internet shopper. She did most of the styling for their vintage wedding herself, buying bits and pieces online (she hates shopping the regular way), and found her 97-year-old vintage wedding dress through a local vendor on Etsy who had sourced the gown from a museum.

Greg (who has 34 grandchildren – Kim jokes she knows all their names off the top of her head) looked cool yet gentlemanly in his Whatt Earp-style outfit, also purchased online – from the US. Kim’s limited edition Diane Hassall wedding shoes (with Swarovski crystal butterflies) were ordered the same way from London.

Young-at-heart Kim even chose a song from teen movie, Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1, for the ceremony – if you’re a Twi-hard you’ll know Bella’s wedding processional, Butterfly Waltz. “When I heard the song I loved it,” says Kim. “It has an old world sound that is absolutely gorgeous – no modern techno sounds!”

It was a beautiful, warm Autumn day for the couple’s civil ceremony at the heritage listed, Gundaroo Colonial Inn, with their good (and quite younger) friends, Dion and Erin as attendants.

As the celebrations continued into the evening, Kim says, “People started piking at about 11pm but I wanted to keep going! Everyone had a rip-roaring time.”

This is a love story with little twists and turns of fate proving you just can’t plan everything, even if you tried.

Web developer, Marcus Uitert spotted art director, Laura Fritsch, in a sea of 20,000 revellers at music festival, Stereosonic. She was not even meant to be there. Having been convinced by a friend (who then stood her up!) to go along, she’d spent the day with strangers and, at 10pm when the festival came to a close, the crowd converged toward the exit gates of Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse. About 10 metres from the gate, Marcus approached Laura asking where the after-party was (subtle!). They got chatting, exchanged numbers and three months after their first date, moved in together.

Two-and-a-half years later they were engaged (on a surprise trip to Paris organised by the romantic Marcus). Upon their return, they booked a vineyard wedding on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula. The rustic theme and decorations were all sorted, invitations were designed and they’d had several meetings with the priest from the only Catholic church in area.

Then, with six months to go, Marcus received a phone call from the winery – they could no longer hold the reception there due to permit issues. “Are you serious!?” they said (a bit more, too, I’m sure) and a mad dash ensued – a new venue (Abbotsford Convent), a new date, shuffling of suppliers and booking new ones.

It was chaos. But then luck (or destiny) prevailed. The priest relocated to Coburg (just 10 minutes from the venue). Some of the older guests were relieved not to have had to travel so far. And the new caterers at the Abbotsford Convent turned out to be absolutely amazing. Delectable food and presentation to die for.

Laura says, “Despite all the stress that was created from having to change venues, Marcus and I had the wedding of our dreams and couldn’t imagine doing anything differently. It was the perfect day.”

The couple’s morning wedding was held at 11am with a sit-down lunch at 12.30pm. With no time for photos in between (they were held afterward instead), “the joy and spirit from the ceremony flowed really nicely into the reception without that huge gap in the middle,” says Laura.

It was meant to be.

The Grand Rosina Room of Abbotsford Convent was styled with bright bunches of colourful flowers, which Laura did herself using flowers sourced from Dandenong Market.

The bride’s mum made and decorated the beautiful three-tier wedding fruit cake – with an elegant Eiffel Tower cake topper the reminder of a perfect Paris proposal.

She also made Cointreau cupcakes for the bomboniere. “Mum was up all night baking and still managed to look stunning on the day,” praises Laura.

Laura’s bridesmaid, Kelly-Anne, wore a floor-length teal gown by Out with Evie, which they found at Myer. Laura tells, “She flew down from Darwin; I had half a day to spend with her so we went to Myer and I threw dozens of dresses into the fitting room for her to try on. The blue one looked the best on her and fitted so well.”

With just one attendant on either side, the groomsmen wore a charcoal suit he already owned, and Laura says she could afford to buy all of Kelly-Anne’s outfit, including her shoes and jewellery.

Photos courtesy of Whitepoint Photography.

Ever heard of elephant dung paper? Nope, neither had I, but I was certainly intrigued to learn more! Melbourne couple, Carly Wilkins and John Gillieron used it to invite friends and family to their Aussie bush wedding at Craig’s Hut near Mt Stirling, Victoria (the remote log cabin originally built for movie, The Man from Snowy River).

So of course, I Googled this new and fascinating term and here’s what I learnt: elephant dung paper is exactly how it sounds – paper made, not from trees, but from fibrous elephant poo! Umm, ew?

But it’s all in the name of environmental and animal conservation (you can read more about it here) and whilst some guests “thought it was gross,” says Carly (with loads of jokes about who licked the envelopes), others thought it was fantastic. Because the final product, despite its interesting beginnings, is a rather lovely eco-friendly paper, perfectly suited to the rustic wedding theme.

For this outdoorsy couple (who met at Scouts), their bush wedding was a huge logistical challenge. A fourteen-hour day that commenced at 10am meant that lunch as well as dinner had to be catered for, not to mention the physical logistics of transporting guests through rough terrain to the cabin. But 4WD enthusiast, John, wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Carly tells, “We got all our friends with 4WDs to operate a shuttle system. Guests loved it – many of the cars were well-done-up tough machines and it was their first time in 4WDs.”

With no option for a limo, Rolls Royce or any other girly wedding car, the bride still arrived in total style, not to be upstaged by big boys’ toys – a magnificent chopper accompanied by her dad and only bridesmaid. What an entrance!