When we think of a social media love story, we think of Twitter, Tinder, Instagram or Facebook.
But Aundrea & Ardie's tale is a very old school one, these sweethearts met as teens on MySpace, and fell in love over MSN. How cool is that!
So we're pretty excited to share their gorgeous Sydney wedding day, with fabulous pictures by Mark of Gold Hat Photography.
Marrying in Lavender Bay, with a spectacular view over Sydney Harbour, this pair planned a day that was all about them and their life together.
With Ardie as a musician, and Aundrea as a jewellery designer, their wedding day was a celebration of their tastes, talents and creativity, with romantic style (Audrea's Hayley Paige gown is just incredible!), thoughtful DIY touches, and lots, and lots of music!
With an intimate garden ceremony, an iced tea cocktail hour, a stroll through a carnival, and some very meaningful speeches, there's a lot to be inspired by.
So don't just swoon over the pretty pics, be sure to read Aundrea & Ardie's insights into this very special wedding day too!
Wedding Day Snapshot
Our Love Story
The short story is, we officially met through friends at Ardie’s 18th birthday party when I was just 16 years old. But the long (true) story is we fell in love on social media.
Ardie had a musician Myspace and I was a total groupie so started chatting with him, months went past and MSN started picking up the conversation so he invited me to his birthday party and the rest is history.
The proposal was very intimate, Ardie kept it a complete secret from everyone and took me on a picnic date to Milk Beach, Vaucluse, where we had gone on a Valentine’s date four years prior. He pretended we were celebrating our 7.5 year anniversary and had packed a beautiful picnic with Champagne and flowers.
I pretty much guessed what was happening from the start but played along with it!
Our wedding in three words? Love-filled, magical, artistic.
The Inspiration
Ardie and I are both artists in our own fields so it was really important for us to be able to showcase our own flavours on the wedding day.
We knew from the start that I would be choosing the colour palette and style, and Ardie would have control over the music so that’s the way we planned it!
Being a spring wedding, I wanted to introduce really soft blues with a mixture of colourful seasonal flowers, with predominantly blues, pinks and greens across everything.
We were married in a garden overlooking the harbour so Ardie’s parents put on a garden party with different iced teas, champagne, desserts and sandwiches where guests could wander down to Wendy’s Secret Garden.
The reception was over at Luna Park right on the water so that in itself brought a real sense of vintage glamour and fun so we kept with the theme by having a photobooth both inside and outside the venue for guests to pose with.
Pre-Wedding Attire
I got my bridesmaids beautiful navy silk robes, while I wore a gorgeous white embroidered robe and lingerie that was a gift from my mum.
The Ceremony
The ceremony was a really special one for us as we asked Ardie’s father to participate in marrying us alongside our celebrant (who is Ardie’s uncle).
We had a bible reading and a poem by E.E Cummings.
I walked down the aisle to one of my best friends Morgan Joanels' stunning voice, as she sang Elvis’ ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ which is the theme song to our favourite movie!
The Venue
We looked at so many venues and we thought we had made a decision (multiple times) but there was just something special about Luna Park, I had a lot of family visiting from overseas, and Ardie from interstate, so we wanted somewhere that would showcase Sydney in all it’s beauty.
We both have lived in Sydney all our life and we have so many wonderful memories down by the harbour so we knew we needed a water view.
Clark Park provided a beautiful setting for a magical fairy garden wedding and Luna Park was definitely a unique venue that embodied the fun spirit of our relationship.
The Photography & Videography
Videographer was a no-brainer, Aria is a friend of ours and we’ve always loved his work, so we always knew the day we got married we would have him video it!
Photography was a tricky one for us, we spent a lot of time trying to find the perfect photographer that we felt would capture our personalities and style and when we stumbled upon Mark, we had no doubts he would do an amazing job!
The Flowers
The bouquet flowers were quite wild and rustic, featuring Pieris, Orchids, Roses and Hanging Amaranth.
The boys all wore small buttonholes with a focal rose and a few berries and the centrepieces were real manzanita style trees covered in a moss base and flowers with hanging tea lights and lanterns.
The Refreshments
The garden party at the ceremony had a selection of iced tea.
The reception was a sit down three course meal with a selection of mini desserts plus the delicious cake which was a two tier naked sponge cake featuring red velvet and cream cheese, with caramel sponge and passionfruit curd with a raspberry coulis with gold edible feathers.
The Decor & Details
We styled the whole wedding ourselves and had loads of DIY projects!
My brother designed us a photobooth cut out of a designer bride with her drummer husband for guests to pose with. Ardie and his dad also made special gifts for the groomsmen with custom made beer bottle holders.
I designed the jewellery for the bridesmaids as part of the new bespoke jewellery for Isabel and I. A rose gold body chain with blue quartz crystals to symbolise faith and loyalty, with rose gold feathers and an infinity charm.
The favours were also made by us. We made our very own bottles of infused olive oil with basil, chilli, garlic, rosemary and kale from our very own garden! These took forever to make!
Favourite Moments
My wonderful husband got up during the reception to sing and play guitar for me. He performed an acoustic version of Warm Water by Banks that he dedicated to me.
The speeches were definitely our favourite moment as we were both really raw and honest with how we felt and were able to share this with our guests (something we’d never done before).
Ardie was quite emotional throughout his speech which was the most beautiful thing to witness for myself and for our guests.
My speech was a letter I’d written to Ardie a few months before the wedding that I hadn’t intended for anyone else to hear, but it just felt right to read it on the night which was a really special moment.
We also can’t go past the line up of musicians who helped make our wedding so unique. We have incredible musician friends who all lovingly got up to perform different songs for us!
The Music
Processional: Can’t Help Falling in Love – Elvis
Signing of the Certificate: Thinking Bout You – Frank Ocean
Introduction as husband and wife: Only One – John Butler Trio
First Dance: Bloom – The Paper Kites (performed by our friends)
Advice for Other Couples
Mywedding.com for your rsvps! This website is fantastic as it helps you to email all guests about weather, parking or gift information and everything they need to know can be found there, much easier than trying to fit everything onto an invitation.
Pinterest! Literally every good idea is listed there.
Minted has beautiful invitations by designers from around the world.
The biggest tip we can give other couples is to stay true to who you are as a couple. It’s your special day and you need to make sure that you two are the ones who will have the best time.
Planning a wedding can be a stressful time, and budgets will always get way blown so be prepared for that and just relax!
Such a romantic wedding, right? I just love the idea of a groom singing to his bride, and Aundrea's speech sounds so special as well.
Thanks so much to Mark of Gold Hat Photography, and of course the gorgeous Aundrea & Ardie for sharing their Sydney harbour wedding with us.
P.S. Mark from Gold Hat Photography is based in Australia, but is originally from Nottingham, and will be available to shoot weddings in the UK during summer 2016. Visit his website to find out more.
Be inspired by more beautiful real weddings.
