It never ceases to amaze me the wonderful ways couples inject their own personalities into their weddings. WA couple – Lori Morey, 28 and Sam Kitchin, 33 – were no strangers to catering big events. They worked in hospitality for the majority of their careers, having met at The Vines Country Club in Perth where Sam was the sous chef and Lori was the restaurant maître d’.
So when it came time to cater their own wedding, Lori says, “We both thought we could do as good, if not a better job than the big venues.” She adds, “We decided to do a DIY wedding. I prepared most of the decorations myself and with the help of Sam’s four sisters and two nieces, Sam and I did all the catering ourselves.”
The menu included all the quintessential dishes of a gourmet Aussie barbecue. Homemade dips with Turkish bread and cheeses. Loads of fresh salads (made by Sam who is a head chef): garden, Greek, potato, and spinach and pumpkin. Succulent meats on a spit. And mouth-watering desserts such as white chocolate and raspberry tarts, passionfruit macarons and lemon slice.
Lori says their union was “not about having a big expensive wedding, but rather having our friends and family there to celebrate our day.” With the goal of creating a laid back, casual atmosphere, the reception was held at Sam’s sister’s beautiful bush property in Darlington, east of Perth, where the pair’s 100 guests were treated to a sit down buffet dinner catered by the newlyweds.
Lori says she found it difficult to find a “simple dress with no puffiness” and ended up buying a bridesmaid style from The Gown Gallery to which she added some Swarovski crystals to give it some “elegant style”.
Sam wore a pale grey vest-and-trouser combination from Roger David with a tan striped tie. “I felt that black suits were a bit formal and being summer, I didn’t want the boys sweating under heavy jackets,” says Lori. “We decided that a lighter colour would go well with with laid back feeling of the wedding.”
The pair exchanged vows in a garden ceremony at Caversham House which had “beautiful views within the garden and was a central location for all our guests,” says Lori.
“I’ve always loved the natural bushland of Australia and wanted to have bouquets with a mix of native flowers,” explains Lori of her Australiana-themed bouquets by Midland Gate Florist.
The bridesmaids wore short pink textured frocks from Myer, a style which they were left to “nut out” on their own, having “vastly different opinions on what they wanted to wear,” says the bride. “It was important to me that they liked what they were wearing,” she says.
Another DIY catering project for this wedding was the cake. Lori tells, “Mum used to be a cake decorator. In my mind she was always first choice to make my cake. Eight weeks before the wedding my sister, mum and I got together and made the traditional fruit cake giving it time to cure. A week before the wedding, mum completed the royal icing and piping work with some assistance from Sam. It was wonderful that our cake had so much love put into it by the people I loved in turn.”
Lori has some great planning tips for other brides-to-be:
- I used an A3 book for all my planning, including payments and receipt numbers.
- Get going with the planning ASAP. I wrote a to-do list straight away.
- I got all the big things out of the way in the first month by doing two or three things a week.
- Write down everything, e.g. conversations, dates, payments and definitely receipt numbers.
Photos courtesy of Fotografia Coppola.
