Melani and Matthew Pretty Country Wedding

The couple, who are both British, moved to Melbourne in Australia seven years ago, so organized everything from abroad. ‘As we were doing everything from overseas, we wanted everything to be held in one place,’ explains Melani. ‘We wanted a small, boutique hotel with beautiful grounds, classic, elegant decor, and a personal warm feel. The wedding co-ordinator, Natalie Rolls, was also particularly impressive and filled us with confidence in her ability to help us organize our wedding from afar, which was so important to us given we live so far away.’

Their day was beautifully captured by Ria Mishaal Photography. Enjoy!

Melani and Matthew kept their flowers fresh and natural in whites and greens. Melani knew that when she met her florist, Flowers by Passion in Bath, that they were perfect for her.

Melani looked absolutely gorgeous in her Justin Alexander dress. It was everything Melani wanted and more. In her words, ‘it was timeless, romantic and elegant.’

The couple got married in the stunning gardens of Barnsley House.

Melani and Matthew had jam jars tied with twine holding loose miniature bouquets on the ends of each rows of the chairs at the ceremony.

Melani’s bridesmaids were in gorgeous off shoulder white gown and with natural white and green waist belt.

Matthew hired his suit from Neal & Palmer. He bought his waistcoat and hat from Favourbrook.

The couple hired the house out exclusively for them and their 50 wedding guests.

At the reception, they used pots of herbs with chalkboard signs as table names. ‘The herb feel brought the country classic feel of the gardens indoors and as Barnsley House was originally the homestead of famous gardener Rosemary Verey, we felt this honored the whole essence of the venue,’ says Melani. ‘Whilst we love living in Australia, we are really nostalgic about the English country garden style as it reminds us of home and so we wanted to capture this sense of style whenever we could.’

Melani and Matthew chose macarons from Ladurée for their wedding favours. Ladurée has a special meaning to the couple as they got engaged in Paris and had macarons from there on that day. ‘We also liked the pale green colour of the box as it fitted in perfectly with our colour scheme,’ says Melani.

Melani has added a lot of personal details and DIY projects to our big day. For example, the bar menus were handwritten out by the bride onto old antique jugs that the bride’s mother had found years ago. They are now displayed as decoration in both houses.

The buffalo skulls were all from the pre-existing herd of buffalo that used to roam the farm, some of which the bride’s family used to own. Along with the beautiful herd that was present during our engagement we wanted to make the buffalo apart of our big day in some way. We used decorated skulls throughout the venue for our big day, as well as one for our guest book in which guests signed or “branded” with a sharpie. That skull has been hung up in our house now, with the dried florals still on the horns.

We had custom matchbooks that said, “The Perfect Match” made up four of our guests. Amy’s parents had done the same at their wedding and it makes her smile as she still sometimes comes across an old matchbook from their big day back in 1988.

Their wedding cake was made by Baby Cakes in Bath. Melani and Matthew wanted something classic, simple, and elegant. One-tier was lemon drizzle and the other tier was a classic vanilla sponge. As they only had 50 guests at the wedding, they did not need anything too big.

Every detail of Melani and Matthew’s wedding was planned to perfection.

For Melani, wedding style means’ capturing an essence of both you and your partner as a couple to reflect the things you love.’ ‘We wanted something timeless and to look back at our photographs and still feel that the style of the day is a reflection of who we are at any stage of our life.’ Hope you will love Melani and Matthew’s Pretty Country Wedding