With a venue as pretty as The Mecure Resort Gerringong, you can simply sit back and watch the perfect setting magic happen. With glimmers of coastlines and mountainsides, it’s perfectly tucked into a place that creates wedding background perfection, which you can see in each gorgeous image from Bianca Dopson Photography. And that’s just the very beginning, because the details that actually fill this fête will make you stop in your tracks, and the love between this new Mr. & Mrs.? Well, that’s the detail of it all. See it all right here.
From Bianca Dopson… Ben and Katie are the most beautiful couple I have ever met (and I’ve met a few)! They are as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside. They planned this stunning wedding so perfectly, every detail suits who they are as people and as a couple so well. Katie hand-made so many of the details, many of which are far too beautiful not to share. After photographing their most perfectly styled engagement session, I just knew the wedding would be perfect in every way.
With romantic, vintage touches, her details created the most beautiful wedding, held on the grounds of the Mecure Gerringong, on the NSW South Coast, the setting complimented the day perfectly. As well as their gorgeous friends and family, their bridal party also included 9 (Yes 9!) children, all of whom were perfectly behaved and who added so much more to the day. It was perfect in every way, even a sprinkle of rain and quick amendment to the out door ceremony to a make shift chapel inside the resort’s restaurant couldn’t have dampened their spirits. It was truly beautiful to be a part of… and one of the most beautiful days we have been lucky to share in.
From the Bride… I remember waking up on the morning of our wedding, hearing the rain pouring down outside and feeling an overwhelming sense of peace. The weather didn’t matter, I was marrying the man of my dreams and I knew the day would be perfect.
Our ceremony and reception were both held at the Mercure Resort Gerringong on the beautiful south coast of NSW. Ben and I wanted the day to flow beautifully for our guests and didn’t want a big break in the day where they would have to find something to do to fill in the time between the ceremony and the reception. We were so happy when we found a beautiful venue where we could have both– guests would be free to stay and start the evenings celebrations straight after the ceremony, while Ben and I got our gorgeous VW Kombi wedding cars and went off for photos with our bridal party.
I think the inspiration for our wedding initially came from our venue. Tucked away between the mountains and the coast, it was perfect and exactly what we wanted – beautifully elegant with just the right amount of country charm, and we wanted our wedding to echo that. We tried to make sure that everything complimented the simplicity and beauty of the venue and the surrounds, keeping the colour scheme simple – crisp white linen and beautiful greenery with little splashes of purple.
We knew we could have a gorgeous wedding without spending a fortune, so we tried to keep costs down with lots of little DIY projects, getting ideas and drawing inspiration from different wedding blogs, magazines and websites like Pinterest and Etsy. We had our save the dates and invites designed by a seller on Etsy but printed and put them together ourselves, then designed our own place cards, table numbers and menus using the same colours and fonts and a similar design. We bought silver ballet flats for our four flowergrls and spent hours adorning them with crystals and pearls. We also made a little box personalized with our names and wedding date for our rings to sit on which looked gorgeous in our photos. Doing things ourselves was nice as we were able add little bits of our personalities into things that may not have been there had we just bought everything or had someone else make it all for us. One of my favourite things was an antique table that we purchased for a bargain on eBay and restored, turning it into a beautiful ‘lemonade stand’ for our guests to enjoy before and after the ceremony.
It was important to us that our guests felt welcomed and loved from the moment they got to the venue, so we made some wooden signs which lined the driveway telling guests how excited we were to see them! We didn’t want them to feel like they were just attending our wedding, but to know that they were a very special part of it. We also collected wedding photos of all of the past weddings in both our families (grandparents, parents, aunties & uncles, brothers & sisters and cousins) and had the ‘weddings through the generations’ all hung with little wooden pegs on twine in a large wooden frame at the reception, which everyone loved (some of the hairstyles and dresses had people giggling too)!
We used two different florists because our venue had a florist who they worked with for the reception, and one of our good friends did our ceremony flowers and bouquets. It was amazing how beautiful it all looked together! Our gorgeous bouquets by Sally at Blushing Blooms were perfect – beautiful mismatched blooms loosely bunched together in a hand tied style, and our gorgeous reception flowers by Ann at Ideas In Bloom were the same style and complimented everything perfectly. We couldn’t have been happier!
Bombonieres for our guests were a little less traditional, rather than giving them something personalized to us that they would have no use for after the wedding, we gave each guest a little gardenia plant to take home and put in their garden. These were made by our wonderful sister in law (Your Living Gift). We also had our beautiful bridesmaid dresses made by a friend who I went to high school with who now has her own little dressmaking business (Pauline’s Dressmaking & Alterations) and they turned out perfect!
I feel so lucky to have had such a wonderful team of people who understood our vision and went above and beyond in helping to make our wedding day special. Our venue coordinator, photographer, florists, car hire company and cake lady were all so helpful and beyond anything we could have hoped for and we are so grateful.
When I think back to our wedding day it feels surreal that it’s all over. We still get so excited every time we look at our photos or hear friends and family telling stories about the day. It was absolutely perfect – the wedding of our dreams and we wouldn’t change a single thing.[dotted]
Wedding Photography: Bianca Dopson Photography | Venue: The Mecure Resort Gerringong, New South Wales | Floral Design: Blushing Blooms, Flowers by Sally Thompson + Idea’s in Bloom | Wedding Cake: Devilish Cakes, Kiama | Wedding Dress: Maggie Sottero| Men’s Attire: Roger David | Makeup: Evonne from Bella Day Spa, Gerringong NSW | Bridesmaids’ Hair: Chelsea Hair, Shellharbour | Favors: Your Living Gift, Pebbly Beach