Al Fresco Xanadu Winery Wedding

Abby Capalbo
March 15, 2016
Categories: Casual, Real Weddings
Tags: Casual Elegance, real weddings

Al fresco affairs will always be a favorite of mine, but they get even better when the wedding is so sweet you can almost feel the love through the computer screen. This is just such a day. Beautifully captured by Sarah Tonkin, this Xanadu Winery is overflowing with all the little things we adore about weddings, and you can catch it all in the VAULT.

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From The Bride…Damien and I had been together for nearly 9 years by the time he (finally!) proposed in Lisbon, Portugal. We knew we wanted our wedding to feel intimate in a beautiful vineyard setting and as soon as we walked into Xanadu Winery we knew we had found our venue. We were married by Donna McClelland who helped us create a ceremony that was very special and meaningful to us. After our ceremony our guests enjoyed drinks and canapes under the festoon lights in the courtyard while we went off for our photos. We then joined everyone for a drink in the courtyard before moving into the restaurant, which was set up with long tables, for dinner and speeches. We had perfect weather throughout the whole day, and by the time we got down to Redgate Beach for our location shots after our ceremony it was starting to get a bit overcast which made for some great lighting for our photos. It was also a special time for us to spend together just the two of us. By the time our reception had finished it was softly sprinkling and it was so romantic running through the rain under the festoon lighting to leave!

It’s easy to get overwhelmed and a bit carried away with ideas especially looking at Pinterest and Instagram, but in the end we had to make sure our ideas were realistic to our budget and prioritize what was important to us. We didn’t really have a ‘theme’ but wanted a modern romantic feel which matched our colour scheme of navy and light blues, soft whites and bright pinks. Our florist Amy from Alice & Rose absolutely nailed my vision for our wedding. My bouquet was filled with a mix of soft and bright pinks including David Austin roses and peonies. I couldn’t stop admiring them all throughout the day. Amy also created the floral arbour for our ceremony in the same tones. The flowers really dictated what colour bridesmaids dresses we went with.

The lovely girls at On A Whim were so helpful in creating a custom dress for my bridesmaids that they felt comfortable in and can wear again. The flowers really popped against the light blue dresses and my bridesmaids looked beautiful! I knew exactly what I wanted for my dress, which made it hard dress shopping as I couldn’t find anything that was perfect. In the end I got it made by Donna Tobin Couture who was able to design my dream dress. My headpiece and veil were hand made by Holly Barker Millinery, who was able to create a piece using the same lace as my dress, and really understood my style of ‘delicate and pretty’.

Our letterpress invitations were designed by Andrea at Deciduous Press. She was incredibly helpful and we were so happy with how they turned out. Our graphic designer friend Vanessa Del Castillo Merino designed the rest of our stationery such as menus, place cards, and extra signage to match our invitations and colour scheme.

Our cake was made by Hannah from Bake The Cake. Cake tasting was one of the most fun parts of wedding planning and Hannah did such a fabulous job with our cake and cupcakes. We hired out the whole of Gilgara Retreat for our families and bridal party to stay in. The girls got ready in the main house and the boys got ready in the garden suites, each area with its own character and personality. It made for great photos and we loved having everyone staying together.

Our photographer Sarah Tonkin and our videographer Matthew Bettinaglio were incredible! We are so in love with our photos and can’t wait to see our video from Matthew! We have a 2 minute trailer video we got not long after our wedding and it was so great to re-live the wedding and see things that we might not have noticed on the day. The whole day was absolutely magical but there were a couple of moments that really stood out to us. The first was at our ceremony, standing hand in hand in front of all of our loved ones declaring our love and commitment for each other and not able to wipe the smiles off our faces. The second was towards the end of our reception on the dance floor, our DJ played Damien’s favourite song Wonderwall by Oasis and everyone gathered in a large circle around us, arm in arm with each other swaying and singing to us in the middle while we danced and sung to each other. Looking around all we could see were big smiles from everyone and we felt so much love from everyone. Whilst weddings do cost a fortune, we had a lot of people travel from around the world and Australia to come to our wedding and for us, having everyone there together was absolutely priceless.