Real Wedding; Steph and Anthony @ Somerley House
About You Two;
Now, How did you two meet?
We’re a Tinder couple! Which is a little ironic as we were destined to meet eventually, living within the same, very small circle, though Tinder just sped things up. It’s probably a good thing we met that way too as we would have otherwise met with Anthony becoming a client at work, and I was always really strict about keeping things professional.
Who popped the Question and how did it happen?
Anthony did and I’m honestly amazed he went through with if after I made the proposal a bit of a nightmare for him – turns out I’m impossible to surprise! We were on our first interstate trip with our baby, who was 4 months old at the time and not sleeping a wink. We were walking zombies! The trip had been full on visiting so many friends and family, and we finally had a day with no plans so all I wanted to do was sleep. Anthony suggested we have a shopping day in the city and I flat out refused. Unbeknownst to me, he was planning to propose and take me ring shopping!
So he went off to the city to ring shop without me, while I stayed at home with our son and slept. He returned after a full day and I was surprised/confused to see he had no shopping bags at all, despite having been out or the whole day. He asked to go for a walk, and I was even being difficult about that as our son was being super fussy. His mother basically pushed me out the door at that point! We started walking toward our favourite, secret beach which has amazing views of the entire Sydney Harbour and Anthony said that he wanted to have a talk about our relationship. With all of the pressure on us at the time, raising our newborn son without any friends or family around to help, I thought he must be breaking up with me! I was in total shock when he got down on one knee and showed me the most beautiful ring, and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. I dropped to the ground and started crying- needless to say it was a resounding yes!
Why did you choose your venue and how was the venue choosing process?
I always thought I’d get married on our family farm in the Southern Highlands. It’s a beautiful property which is very special to us. The more I looked into a “DIY wedding”, the more I realised it was just way more of a task than I was up for. We knew we wanted to get married in the Southern Highlands though the only venues I knew of were hotels, and beautiful as they are, the thought of other guests and people I don’t know being around to see my wedding when we had this stunning private property just didn’t feel justifiable.
Luckily my social media algorithm put the stunning Somerley House in Sutton Forrest in front of me and it looked perfect. This is a venue where you hire the entire property, consisting of several acres, to have exclusively for yourself and your guests, so it ticked that box. We booked a viewing and instantly fell in love and decided to look it in and not bother looking at any other venues.
Quick Fire Questions;
How many wedding guests did you have?
Around 70
Sit down or Cocktail Style?
Sit down reception following cocktails by the Somerley House pool.
What month?
Late October
Planning The Wedding;
Was planning the wedding stressful or did you enjoy the journey?
We gave ourselves a very long lead time to minimise the stress and I definitely recommend this, however I don’t think there’s any avoiding the stress of those final few weeks! I may or may not have had a slight meltdown over the phone to Vanessa at WEC who was good enough to call me when she could sense my stress over an email, and she was super reassuring. Having such a great coordination team was a major help!
How involved were you both in the wedding planning, did one of you take more of the lead on certain aspects than others or were you both equally involved?
Anthony never had much interest in having an elaborate wedding but he knew it was a lifelong dream of mine, so he was more than happy to take a back seat and let me just bring my vision to life. I loved the planning process so it worked perfectly for us. He took more of the reigns for our recovery day, which we had on the farm the following day.
What was the top couple of non-negotiables or important must-have’s at the wedding for you both?
The most important thing was to ensure our guests would be comfortable and have a great time, really everything was centred around that. For us that meant having a solid weather contingency plan, thinking of food and drink – for example we did a late night snack for guests, thinking of the ‘flow’ of the day and having a great band, to name a few examples.
Another thing I’m really glad we took into account was how well we vibed with our vendors and the energy we felt they would bring to the day- I think this is super important and really easy to overlook with everything else to think about.
Tell us about your dress and that dress-finding process?
I had visited two other designers before I went to Eternal Bridal, where I found my dress. I was having lunch with one of my bridesmaids before going in and remember telling her that I wasn’t going to find my dress here, I just wanted to get a feel for my style as they have a wide range of designers and styles. I picked out a few and after getting a feel for what I liked, the amazing consultant showed me another dress which she felt I should try.
I fell in love instantly and stopped looking after that! I’m so glad I was open minded and tried a range of styles and designers as I had always thought I wanted a mermaid style dress but ended up going complete opposite with a princess style, which ended up suiting both me and the venue/our wedding style so much better.
What sort of theme, vibe or style did you go for?
Our vision was ‘spring garden party’ and I am so happy with how it turned out! I wanted a timeless, romantic elegance and really feel we achieved that (massive thanks to WEC for nailing it with the set up and styling on the day and bringing the vision to life!).
On the Day;
How did you both feel wedding morning?
I was pretty exhausted when I first woke up, of course I was too nervous and excited to get a wink of sleep the night before! However the excitement soon kicked in and it was such a fun and relaxing morning. There had been so much stress in the lead-up to the day and it was finally here and it felt like everything was now out of my hands. I had amazing vendors who I totally trusted and also knew that WEC were totally on it, handling all of the coordination for the day. My bridesmaids were also super across everything and took my phone from me, so I was loving life in my bubble!
Anthony had a slightly chaotic morning as he was looking after our little boy who overtired and overwhelmed (though was a little rockstar for the entire day and night once he settled). The silver lining was that a lot of his groomsmen had come in from overseas and it was his first time seeing them in a while, which was pretty special.
What was the best part or moment of your day?
For me it was arriving at the ceremony and seeing my beautiful boys (my son and husband-to-be) and all of our loved ones in the most beautiful ceremony setting I could imagine, including my friend who is an amazing singer and harpist. She performed live while I walked down the aisle and it was just the most special moment imaginable.
Anthony agrees that the ceremony was the highlight – seeing our son walking down the aisle with our rings and running up to him so proudly to give them to him, and then seeing me walk down with my Dad.
Anything you would change about your wedding or anything that didn’t go to plan?
We were so lucky that there were only relatively really minor things that didn’t go exactly to plan. I had mentally prepared myself that things probably wouldn’t go exactly as I’d hoped for or pictured in my head. I never imagined that they would far exceed what I had envisioned and am still blown away by how perfect the day was, thanks to our amazing vendors, bridal party, guests and weather gods! I can’t even think of anything I’d change- except maybe holding it together a little better when I walked down the aisle because I looked like I was having a breakdown in the photos!
Are there any rituals, sentiments or traditions you incorporated into the day?
Yes. One of my bridesmaids made a candle for our late friend, Kellie, which burned for the entirety of her wedding. My other bridesmaid used the same candle for her wedding and I used it for mine as a way to honour her spirit which was with us on our special days and every day.
After the Wedding;
Describe newlywed life in a couple of words?
The same but way more relaxing with all of the wedding stress out of the way! The wedding planning process was wonderful and I’m so glad we did it, and now it’s nice to settle down and focus on building our life together.
Best investment or money well spent on the wedding that you made?
Hands-down on hiring WEC to handle our on-the-day set up and coordination!
Budget-over, under or what you estimated?
Credits:
Coordination/Set Up; The Wedding and Event Creators
Celebrant and MC; Oliver Thomson Celebrancy
Venue; Somerley House
Florist; Botanica Style Co
Photographer and Videographer; Dreamlife Photos and Videos
Content Creation; Jonathan Dear Photography
Catering and Bar Staff; Mint and Mingle
Cake; Applemire Cakery
Entertainment; Alana Conway and Red Soda
Makeup; Makeup by Drew
Hair; Beleza Hair
