Surprise Wedding at Budgeree Hall
ELLIE AND BRENAN
Thoughtfully captured by Petite Visuals, Ellie and Brenan's surprise wedding came together with help from their friends, some great vendors and the couples vision of having a relaxed day that flowed the way they wanted. An engagement that started at the top of the Eiffel Tower in April 2017 and a love story continued at Budgeree Hall a few short months later. Ellie and Brenan's surprise wedding pulls on the heart strings.
Why a surprise wedding ?
We had talked about a surprise wedding before we were even engaged. We both liked the idea of taking the fuss and the pressure away. We’re both not huge fans of all eyes on us, so this was the perfect way to do it, everyone had the best night and that’s what we wanted the most!
Who knew about the surprise ?
We both told our immediate families, we wanted them to be in the loop and be a little bit prepared. We also had a big bridal party, 7 girls & 7 guys, so they obviously all knew as well, and they all kept a great secret. I had a couple of my really good friends who were in charge of turning the music off, letting the celebrant know when we had arrived for the ceremony, putting chairs out and just making sure everything was ready for the big surprise, they were a huge part of the night.
Help on the day.
We had so much help! Without it we wouldn’t have been able to pull it off. Our families were there a lot of the week before hand, and our bridal party were all there the day before decorating the hall, hanging lights, building pit fires, building flower bouquets. It was a big team effort! My cousin Kiah, and also one of my bridesmaids/wedding planner, she helped me all week long, and the weeks leading up to it. Without her creative mind we couldn’t have pulled it off so beautifully.
Guests -
We found we were able to invite more people with the surprise wedding. I guess the biggest reason people have to limit guests is because of the cost, but because it was a surprise and we didn’t have to worry about proper catering and could BYO alcohol because of the venue, we were able to invite more people.
The surprise -
At about 8:30, once we were sure all our guests had arrived, the girls and I snuck out a back door, jumped in my mums van and drove down the road to my sisters friend’s house, where we had all our dresses ready to get changed into. While we were doing that, the boys went into the kitchen of the hall and got changed into their suits. Once we had arrived back at the hall, the celebrant made an announcement and got everyone’s attention. My brother, who is in a wheel chair and had a sign on his lap saying ‘Move aside, my sister’s a bride’ then parted the aisle with the help from my mum. People had started to click on by now what was happening. The music started, the boys walked out, followed by the girls and then my Dad led me out.
Ceremony –
Our celebrant, who has been a family friend of both of us for a long time, let us have the ceremony as relaxed as we wanted. We didn’t want a really official type wedding, we wrote our own vows, and had both of our mums do a reading during the ceremony which was a really nice touch. Peter (our celebrant) included the guests in the ceremony, interacting with them throughout. It was nice and laid back, which was what we wanted.
Most special part of the night –
The best part of the night for us both was seeing the reactions of all our family and friends when the ceremony was taking place, there were plenty of happy tears and shocked faces. Another great part of the night was the vibe after the ceremony, everyone was so excited and just really happy, and the night just got better after that.
Professional Photos –
Our photographer, Morgane, she came out the morning of the party to my mums house and took photos of me and the girls getting ready and then photos of us in our dresses, she did the same for the boys also. And she took photos all night long, she didn’t leave until about 1:30am! She was great.
E L L I E + B R E N A N from Petite Visuals on Vimeo.
Stand out Vendors –
All our vendors were stand outs!
I’ll start with my wonderful cousin, Kiah at Hunter and Gatherer Events – She supplied one of her stunning grazing tables, an even more stunning dessert table complete with a donut wall and she styled the whole venue – She took me flower shopping the day before to Tesselaar Flowers in Monbulk and we bought all the flowers we needed for our bouquets and decorations. She then taught us all how to put the bouquets together!!
Morgane at Petite Visuals was our photographer – She captured the night perfectly and was taking photos for a solid 12 + hours. I loved our wedding video she put together and was sooo happy with the photos. She was lovely to deal with and an all-round legend!
The Pizza Wagon catered for the party. They travelled all the way from the Mornington Peninsula in their fully decked out wood fired pizza van. The staff were so friendly and cooked a total of 140 pizzas the 4 hours they were there. Everyone talked about how good the pizza was!
Nomas Tegro supplied the great music for the night! They had everyone up dancing with their great playlist and we were very lucky to have friends of ours sing at our wedding!
Peter Linton was our celebrant – We have known Pete for a long time so it was really nice having him marry us. He let us have our ceremony how we wanted, he is very relaxed and took the pressure of us, as we were a bit nervous about the ceremony.
Makeup by Brittany (Brittany Smart) did all of our makeup, there was 10 of us getting make up done. She was so professional and quick! The girls all loved their make up!!
Kayla Moloney & Lauren Murphy were our hair dressers! They did the best job, we all loved our different hairstyles!