Meet the couple
Lilly is a full spectrum doula working with individuals and families in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, as well as offering distance support to those outside of the locality. For the last 10 years Bec has been working for a medical device company based in Melbourne and manages the Australian sales team. They met in early spring of 2015 and have been together ever since.
Who proposed?
Bec!
How did you choose your ceremony and reception venue?
We got married on the family property in Lilydale where Bec grew up, and where her family has lived for more than 20 years. The surrounding garden is this beautiful overgrown space with Frances Hodgson Burnett ‘Secret Garden’ vibes, originally designed and created in the early 1920s by Edna Walling.
Choosing to have our wedding ceremony and celebration outdoors wasn’t a difficult decision. In fact, it was the very first thing we decided on!
What was your wedding theme?
We wanted to have an intimate celebration in a space that felt like our home, and that brought all our friends and family together over delicious plant-based food, great wine and music. Rather than having a specific theme in mind, we focused more on creating a space that felt warm, relaxed, intimate and full of love. The colour palette was simple, with lots of earthy summer tones brought together with foraged local grasses, dried flowers, festoon lighting and big white paper lanterns.
What made your wedding unique?
I think all weddings are unique, but what made our wedding unique for us was that we stuck to what felt right for us. It’s very easy to get caught up in other people’s ideas and expectations of what a wedding should be like, but if you can quiet this noise – you can get creative with building new tradition, ceremonies and rituals that feel right for you.
Is there a story behind your dress?
Finding our outfits was relatively easy. Bec picked out a pair of stone-coloured linen trousers and then settled on an orange linen shirt from Country Road, which we then had tailored. She also found a lovely pair of olive green vegan sandals from Ahimsa, and her outfit was done! I also made her a little boutonnière from dried flowers, which she also wore on the day.
My mum and I collaborated on my wedding dress, which was made from a soft, sheer silk cotton. Dream! It was important to me to feel like myself on the day, and so I went with something classic and minimal. To share this creative process from start to finish with my mum – and for such a momentous occasion – was also something very special for us both.
Tell us your wedding bands/other special elements of your day.
Making our wedding bands together was also a particularly special moment. We worked on these with our friend Tess King at her home, and it was a beautiful process. We wanted something that we collaborated on together and that could become a family heirloom one day – an object that carried a story and significance for us both. Each of our bands were handcrafted in jewellers wax before being cast in 18k gold, organically shaped and left to show the patterns imprinted from both of our fingers.
What makes your marriage?
Marriage to both of us means a kaleidoscope of things. At the centre of it though, marriage to us means making a formal commitment – in front of each other and our community – to building a sacred, authentic, conscious relationship (toeach other, and to ourselves). We hope that we can continue to pour our energy into this love and life that we are co-creating, a home that we can build and call our own, more hikes, more shared dinners, more laughter, more wrinkles, and continuous expansion for both of us as individuals and as a couple.
What’s your best advice for planning the perfect wedding?
Firstly, let go of the idea of it being perfect and try to just enjoy the process! Take time out from the planning. If this means scheduling time where you ban all wedding talk, do it! Try not to get too caught up in other people’s expectations of what you should or shouldn’t do, if it’s not important to you and your partner, then don’t do it. If you want to have an intimate elopement and then celebrate later with family and friends, do that. Don’t feel pressured to invite people (even family members) who you’re not 100% sure will show up for you both with love and joy. You get to curate the energy surrounding your wedding day and the people attending are a huge part of that. Remember, you get to decide exactly what you want your wedding to be.
What were the highlights?
It sounds so cliché, but the whole day really was so incredible, and we were on such a wild love high the whole time. There were a million tender moments throughout the day, and the days following. The ceremony was beyond magic and the moment where we came up the steps together to see all our friends and family cheering and smiling was very emotional and stands out in my memory as a special moment.
During the ceremony Bec’s oldest friend Steph read the poem ‘Habituation’ by Margaret Atwood before we exchanged our vows, that we had written ourselves and had chosen to keep private until the ceremony. It took everything I had to hold it together and not cry during the ceremony, my heart was full to bursting!
Anything else you’d love to share? Especially iso related?
We were very lucky to sneak our wedding in just before things started getting more intense with the pandemic in Australia. Although we only married in February, with two very long lockdowns and numerous restrictions in between it seems like a lifetime ago. I think if you’re planning a wedding now, it would be a great time to support local and small businesses. It’s so important now, more than ever, to connect with and support our communities across all aspects of our lives.
VENDOR CREDITS
Ceremony and Reception Venue: Bec’s family home (Lilydale)
Photographer: Ilsa Wynne-Hoelscher Kidd
Florist: Local foraged flowers & grasses, other flowers & bouquet: The Backyard Garden Enthusiast (Joanne Diver) & Red Earth Flowers
Celebrant: Precious Fawcett
Stationery: Invitations, RSVP, menu & seating plan designed by Lilly Lowrey, place settings & calligraphy by Alex Hamilton-Smith
Catering: Locavore Studio
Cake maker: Fig & Salt – Vegan Pear & Cardamom with Buttercream frostingFig & Salt – Vegan Pear & Cardamom with Buttercream frosting
Wedding Favours: Handmade by Lilly Lowrey
Hire Items: Marquee Monkey’s & Bespoke Event Hire – DJ
Signage: Handmade by Lilly Lowrey
Entertainment: Sarah from Caravan Sounds
Rings: Engagement rings handmade by Bec & Lilly with the help of friend Tessy King; Wedding rings made by Naasica
Lighting / Sound Hire: Caravan Sounds
LILLY’S OUTFIT
Bridal gown designer: Co-designed with my mother, Christine Lowrey
Robes: Deiji Studios & WORN
Shoes: Siren
Accessories (earrings, bracelets, anklets, barefoot sandals etc): Vermeer Studio
Hair: Coloured & styled by Sarah Verschuur
Makeup: Lana Caitlin MUA
BEC’S OUTFIT
Outfit: Shirt from Country Road, Pants from Seed Heritage
Shoes: Ahimsa sandals
Accessories: Vermeer Studio
