Vegan Destination Wedding: Holly & Tim - Northern NSW

Holly and Tim recently were married at Limpinwood Lodge in the Tweed Valley, Northern New South Wales. Here they share their great photos and the wedding.

Venue: Limpinwood Lodge

Venue Style: Country

Dress Code: Cocktail

Reception: Limpinwood Lodge

Food: Organic Passion Catering

Cake: Cloverly Cupcakes

Photography: Natasha Jade Photography

The Honeymoon: India!

I found Carly Stone who could provide me with full vegan makeup for me and my whole bridal party.

I used Sarah Quinn who was very happy to use my own Giovanni products. I also used a natural dye before hand, Tints of Nature.

The flowers were a beautiful mix of wild blooms in a simple colour code of purple and white.

The ceremony and reception were at a little B&B in the hinterland of Northern NSW. The ceremony was open to rolling hills and the reception was just on top of the property in an open marquee so you never lost the view. Around 5pm a storm rolled across the valley giving us a wonderful lightning show without a drop on our party.

 

 

We simply combined our iTunes list and made a set list for pre-ceremony, cocktails, dinner and party. Our MC and best man made sure he pressed play at all the right moments.

We actually met on a plane travelling interstate so he did not have long to impress me with his quick wit. He did of course and we have barely spent a night apart since.

Tim had carried around a prop ring for one year before he got a little too festive at a notorious full moon party in Thailand. The next day though we got all romantic and made it official on a beach at sunset.

We were so excited! I was so worried that I would feel stressed or out of my body on the day but it was the best ever!

 

We both had long term friends of over decades so it was a simple choice when it came to deciding who is there for the life events.

I wore a country style dress with a huge skirt. To create a bohemian look I wore a head dress and bangles for days. It took a long time to find a traditional dress that was not made of silk. In the end I opted for a synthetic material but if I had more time I could have designed a dress with organic cotton.

The girls wore simple flowing purple dresses that could be wrapped to each body shape. As it was the country simple sandals were a must.

The boys all wore grey pants with vest and a crisp white shirt rolled up with collars popped. The groom had a gold tie and the boys purple to match the girls

 

It was amazing having our reception at the same venue as people could stroll about the property and the kids could run wild which was amazing for them.

We had an open marquee laden with fairy lights and no floor which meant we could be barefoot on the fluffy grass. We had simple flower arrangements in jars and just a few grassy bunnies and pebbles about.

From the beginning I knew that I wanted a vegan wedding but I never wanted it to be a big deal or boring in anyway. I knew that I wanted a vegan caterer who would celebrate the food rather than making do and I was so excited to find Anthea from Organic Passion Catering as she sure knows how to celebrate and make vegan food shine!

 

We developed a homely banquet style spread that everyone could recognise and enjoy. For the cocktail hour we had capepes of ‘meatballs’, mini pizzas, bruschetta and delicious savory hash browns.

 

For the main banquet we had a spread on each table served in family sized country pie dishes and bowls. The centrepiece was a lentil and mushroom pie with tomato chutney alongside a garlic and rosemary risotto, creamy garlic potato bake, green beans with caramelised red onion and fresh salad with a hearty mustard dressing.

 

There were no leftovers and  I could hear exclaims over the crowd of,  ‘have you tried this?’ And, ‘this food is actually delicious!’

We had a 2 tiered cake made by Katie from Cloverly Cupcakes. The flavour that we decided on was a strawberry shortcake. This meant that each tier was a vanilla sponge cake with the middle filled with vanilla cream and strawberry jam. Once assembled the whole outside was piped into roses of strawberry flavoured white icing. We served the cake with fresh strawberries.

We asked kindly for a wishing well to help fund our honeymoon.

Each guest had a plastic fruit or vegetable which represented the fact that each table had bought a community a seed starter pack to grow vegetables through Oxfam.

We made the adventurous decision to travel India for our honeymoon which was both liberating and terrifying. We certainly did not have the typical beach honeymoon experience but we had the trip of a lifetime. We stayed in India for a month before coming back through China for a few days. In India we came through Delhi, Agra (the Taj Mahal), Varanasi (the Ganges river) and finally the beaches in Goa. Although very easy to be vegetarian in India, I found it challenging to order meals with no dairy. The South was definitely easier in that case. I also loved seeing the cows wandering around having a lovely time and my favourite was watching a cow watch the sunset. Beautiful.

If I could do anything differently it would be to plan the wedding over 2 years rather than 1. This would have given me time to make the wedding eco friendly as well as vegan without busting the budget.