Rustic Vintage Wedding in Western Australia: Shae & Callum

Rebecca Mercia Photography

April 30, 2014

yallingup chandeliers wedding rebecca mercia 335

Over anything else Shae and Callum wanted their wedding to be enjoyable for their guests. They had a rustic vintage theme and an outdoor wedding at Chandeliers on Abbey in Yallingup Western Australia.

“From the start our biggest priority was making sure that whatever we did, we created a relaxed atmosphere”, explained the bride. “To us this meant an outdoor ceremony and reception (in the same spot to avoid having to leave) cocktail food, couches and plenty of drinks (including shots instead of champagne for the speeches!) We wanted to try and pay as much attention to the little details as we did the big details and as much DIY as (sanely) possible. Of course we couldn’t have pulled it off without the help of wedding blogs and Pinterest!! ”

yallingup chandeliers wedding rebecca mercia 359

“Everything went great for most of the day but WE RAN OUT OF ALCOHOL BY 6:30PM!! The venue was BYO alcohol so we arranged drinks through a local bottle shop that caters for weddings and when going through numbers prior to the day I was assured by them that with the amount ordered we would have leftover… About 6:15pm rolled around (about an hour after the ceremony finishing) and my Mum came to let me know that we had just about run out!!! Luckily enough the venue coordinator was able to go and collect more before anyone really noticed! A big contributor to this was that we wanted the bar to be open when guests arrived at 3:30pm. It was important to us that everyone was relaxed and mingling with a drink (if they wanted one) while waiting for the ceremony to start!”

yallingup chandeliers wedding rebecca mercia 239

“My favourite thing about our wedding was that everybody else enjoyed the day as much as we did!” she continued. “For both of us one of our favourite parts of the day was having the first look, getting to see each other and have the fun we did with our bridal party and photographers.”

yallingup chandeliers wedding rebecca mercia 423

The theme of the wedding was rustic vintage and the couple put their own stamp on it by collecting all the décor items themselves. “All the ceremony and reception décor was collected over the course of the year by myself and a close friend (also getting married next month). Through the planning of both of our weddings and collecting of gorgeous furniture and décor we developed a passion for all things weddings and so our furniture hire business Sparkle & Bloom was born.”

yallingup chandeliers wedding rebecca mercia 437

“My husband also built two free-standing walls, we used one to display family photos (our parents on their wedding day, our dog, people that couldn’t be there on the day as well as a painting done by the groom’s tattooist sister with the saying ‘Home is Wherever I’m With You’). We used the other for an open air photo booth, those photos were taken by a friend. One of my fave things were the pallets we used as seating, we had cushions made to fit them and had them randomly placed around outside.”

yallingup chandeliers wedding rebecca mercia 663

“We spent money on photography and my dress but really saved on our venue because it was BYO. Photography was high on the list for us though, I couldn’t personally put a price on the importance of that. I also loved the idea of having my dress made from scratch as I was finding it so hard to find ‘the one’ off the rack. It was a 9 month process and was so exciting going to each fitting and seeing it come together!”

yallingup chandeliers wedding rebecca mercia 655

“My biggest advice for other brides would be to try dresses on, even if you think you’re going to buy one online. I was dead-set that I would wear a tea length gown and was going to order over the internet. I decided one day to go and try dresses on for fun and when I put what I thought I wanted on I hated it! I ended up in something I never imagined I would wear.”

yallingup chandeliers wedding rebecca mercia 693

Suppliers