Romantic Australian Wedding in a Library

I may be a bit biased as a lover of classic literature, but today’s wedding from Lara Hotz and Jardine Botanic Floral Styling is right up my alley. As soon as newlyweds Jen and Andrew saw Bendooley Estate, home to a unique book store, they knew it was their perfect venue. Building around such a stunning setting was a breeze, and their entire wedding day was a smash hit!

From the bride, Jennifer: We wanted an old romantic style for our wedding. I am a lover of books and as soon as I saw the venue which was a Book Barn we fell in love with it. There was no doubt in our minds that this place was where we wanted to celebrate our first day as husband and wife. What better backdrop for the Bridal Party table than to have a showcase of books behind you and all around you. The location was sentimental to us because the Southern Highlands was the location of our first getaway as a couple and nothing was more fitting than to have our wedding at a location so dear to our journey together.

Bouquet recipe: Notes from our florist: lush slightly unstructured bouquet in creams, pale peach, apricot and a touch of blush with greenery and texture such as sea holly. Florals to be included are David Austin garden roses, peonies, hydrangeas, sweet pea with touches of jasmine vine. Natural stems to be showing and to use long trailing ribbons to complement the bouquet – I just left it up to my amazing florist to choose whatever she wanted as she is such a creative talented person and the flowers were the talk of the party form the table arrangements to the church flowers to the flowers in each bridesmaids hair to even the scented floral arrangement she created in the ladies bathroom.

For the favors for the guests we got a local jam shop “Little Hand Stirred Jam Shop” in Berrima (location we got married) to make us some jams and we designed the labels and dressed them up in doilies with navy ribbons around them. We wanted to incorporate some local produce in our wedding. My sister also baked lemon biscotti as an addition to the favors for each guest and had a cute message saying “Sweets to end the sweetest day”. We also created the seating chart and named the guest tables old romantic movies that we both love which were Casablanca, Gone with the wind, Breakfast and Tiffany’s, Officer & a Gentleman.

I love the color Navy Blue and had to have that color in our wedding. We had the boys in Navy Blue suits and the ribbon for our Jam favors was also blue. The bridesmaids gifts were blue Swarovski earrings which they wore on the day. I’ve always been in love with Red Roses and the red rose was incorporated in all our stationery from our invites to our wedding programs, place cards and menu cards. We wanted a different wedding that no one has experienced before. Something that they went back home to and talked about how different it was. We wanted to create a modern vintage, unique, romantic, whimsical wedding. Because it was most guests first destination wedding and we wanted to create a relaxed feel out of the city where guest can let their hair down and enjoy the magic that our wedding would bring and just enjoy themselves and leaving all the stresses of work and anything else back at home.

Any advice for couples planning their weddings now? It could be such a stressful thing to plan but every time you think it’s too much just take a moment to stop and think that this is the most amazing thing you will ever plan and enjoy the ride – it’s not worth the stress. Also, don’t cut corners – if you really want something then do it. It doesn’t have to be the most expensive thing but if you want it then get or do it, because it will only be a regret after. Also, research suppliers and ideas. We spent pretty much every night getting ideas of what I wanted and researching the best suppliers that would fit into my wedding and I can say with all honestly that I got the best for me and there is not one thing I would change.

View all images from this wedding in the gallery

Wedding Music:
Processional: “Hallelujah,” Leonard Cohen (performed by Michael Duchesne)
Recessional: “All You Need is Love,” The Beatles (instrumental, performed by Michael Duchesne)
First Dance: “Stand By Me,” Ben E. King (performed by Michael Duchesne)
We had a guitarist/singer and a violinist perform at our ceremony and at our reception up to the cake cutting. The guitarist Mike I found by chance after a lot of YouTube videos and fell in love with his voice instantly. It was after I booked him that I realised he was a finalist in The Voice Australia the previous year.

Wedding Location: Berrima, NSW, Australia / Photographer: Lara Hotz / Florist: Jardine Botanic Floral Styling / Ceremony Venue: St Francis Xavier Church / Reception Venue and Caterer: Bendooley Estate / Wedding Dress and Veil: Pallas Couture / Wedding Shoes: Christian Louboutin / Bridal Headpiece: Viktoria Novak / Earrings: Swarovski / Bridesmaids’ Dresses: Review Australia / Junior Bridesmaid Dress: Moonsoon UK / Groom and Groomsmen Suits: Roger David / Junior Groomsman Suit: Indie Kids by Industrie from David Jones / Wedding Cake: Alison Lawson Cakes, flowers on cake by Jardine Botanic Floral Styling / Music: Musical Functions – The Violinist was Jeremy Curran and the Guitarist was Michael Duchesne / Wedding Invitations: Shabbyscrap from Etsy / Videographer: Lightnoise Films / Transportation: The Vintage Factory. We had a 1927 & 1963 Rolls Royce. The 1927 Rolls Royce was actually used during the filming of the Great Gatsby in Australia.