Real Wedding // Ellen & Aaron’s Byron View Farm Wedding

Ellen & Aaron celebrated their romantic wedding at Byron View Farm on a magical autumn day. Well known for its 360-degree view of the hinterland and ocean, Byron View Farm was the perfect venue choice for this gorgeous couple. With a romantic, whimsical and elegant styling vision, Ellen & Aaron chose neutral tones with subtle touches of gold to bring together their theme. For florals, earthy tones with hues of pink, cream and chocolate were used throughout, which beautifully complimented the natural elements and tones of the venue. Read on to hear more about Ellen & Aaron’s love story and special day.

Tell us about your story, how did you meet and where did the proposal happen?

We met three years ago, the same way a lot of people meet these days, good old Tinder! We decided to meet for our first date pretty much straight away after matching on Tinder; neither of us expecting anything to come of it. Our first date started at a bar in the city of Brisbane and ended in the valley after a few too many cocktails. It was like hitting the town with your best friend! We knew very quickly that this was something special.

Aaron proposed at the beautiful Intercontinental Resort at Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast. He surprised me with a weekend away there, and after dinner, we went for a walk around the grounds until we came across a beautiful fountain. Aaron asked me to take photos of everything and when I turned around, he was down on one knee. It was truly magical!

What were the reasons for choosing Byron View Farm as the wedding venue for your special day?

As soon as we arrived at Byron View Farm to take a look, we knew this was going to be our wedding venue. Just the overall feel that comes over you when you’re up there, of pure relaxation was exactly what we wanted.

You simply cannot be unhappy when you’re at Byron View Farm. Not to mention, the uninterrupted views of the surrounding mountains and ocean, the animals, the cottage, the space. It had everything we could have dreamed of. One of the major perks as well, was that it is a pet-friendly venue, and we were able to have our labrador attend our wedding!

Rob and Billie (Byron View Farm’s managers) are so lovely and made us feel so welcome for our wedding weekend. We can’t wait to visit again and stay there for future anniversaries!

What style were you striving for with your table settings, florals and reception? Was there a certain look or vibe that you wanted to create?

We wanted our wedding to feel whimsical, romantic, and elegant. We went for neutral tones, with hints of gold and we worked closely with our florist to create a palette that would work beautifully with our styling. For our florals we opted for earthy tones, blending with soft pinks, chocolate, and cream. It all came together so beautifully, even more amazing than we had envisioned. All of our guests couldn’t stop complementing our styling and how beautiful everything was

Were there any wedding suppliers that you particularly loved working with and why?

All of our wedding suppliers were absolutely incredible, we truly did have the dream team when it comes to weddings!

Photographer

Our photographer and videographer team were an absolute dream come true. I had met Esther from The Love Archives 3 years ago, before even being engaged at a photo shoot for a friend’s charity. Esther’s energy and how comfortable she made me feel in front of the camera that day made me quickly look her up on Instagram, only to discover she is an insanely talented wedding photographer! I knew right then that I would be booking her for my future wedding one day. I didn’t hesitate in contacting Esther to book in our wedding as soon as we were engaged and had picked our date.

I’m not surprised to say, she absolutely delivered, not only does Esther make being behind the camera such a fun time, but the quality of her work is also out of this world. Esther’s artistic eye for candid shots is one of the main reasons I chose her. I really wanted our wedding to be captured in an authentic real way and that’s why I chose Esther. Konrad, our videographer with The Love Archives was also unreal on the day! We didn’t know who our videographer from the team would be and I was so excited when I saw Konrad arrive on our day. He’s so incredibly talented!

Celebrant

Mel our celebrant was incredible to work with! Mel had been recommended to us by family who’d been married by her five years prior. Working with Mel was amazing, she truly went above and beyond to create our ceremony in a way that was personally tailored to us. We met with Mel several times prior to the wedding, she helped us with our vows to make sure they were matching in tone and length. Our ceremony was emotional, fun, and serious all at the same time. Mel engaged with our guests in our ceremony and so many people complimented her afterwards saying that ours was the best ceremony they’d ever been to. We feel so lucky to have been married by her!

Musician

Niall Lochhead, our musician was absolutely amazing. He made the process of planning our music for the day so easy leading up. His voice is just so incredible, and all our guests can’t stop talking about how fantastic he was! Not only is he an amazing vocalist and acoustic artist, but he was so much fun as a DJ! He made the vibe of the night so much fun, we all couldn’t stop dancing!

Hair & Make Up

And of course, have to mention Wiela from The Bridal Knot. She made us all feel beautiful and flawless on the day! 

What were your favourite parts of the wedding planning process with Byron Bay Weddings?

We knew we’d made the right choice very quickly with Byron Bay Weddings when as soon as we had our first planning appointment with Maddie (wedding planner), we felt so at ease and excited for the planning process. We got excited for all our appointments, as we got so much covered in each one. Maddie had a great knowledge of Byron View Farm and made so many wonderful suggestions to make sure our day flowed beautifully. We truly had so much fun planning our wedding and weren’t stressed at all with the process. We can thank Maddie for that!

Kate (wedding coordinator) was amazing as well. All our plans changed on the morning of the wedding, with impending wet weather! I spoke with Kate on the morning of the wedding, and she was so supportive of our decision to change the reception to the veranda, and the ceremony to the gravelled area (which was such a great decision!) The team made sure everything was perfect.

Tell us what were the most important aspects of your wedding day and which moments really stood out to you?

The most important aspect for us was emphasising really beautiful styling that complemented the venue, and us as a couple.

Overall, we wanted to have great music, beautiful styling, a fun and memorable ceremony, good food and simply good vibes. With the Byron Bay Weddings team and Byron View Farm plus all of our amazing wedding suppliers, this was easily done!

One of the moments that stands out to me the most is just before I made my walk down the aisle, I was getting really emotional and overwhelmed, and, Dan, our On the Day Coordinator told me to take a step out of the cottage and into the fresh air. It immediately eased me, and it’s just stuck with me. The other is at the end of the night, Niall Lochhead played the last song (which was a surprise of his choosing) and we danced as husband and wife in the middle of all our friends and family, it was so much fun and a really great way to end the day.

What would be your biggest advice to other couples currently planning their wedding?

Trust in your suppliers and let them be creative! They absolutely know what they are doing, and they will make sure your day is perfect. Our florist Em from FLWR created the most beautiful florals for our day and I think if you let your vendors thrive with their creativity, you will get the most amazing outcome!

Just go with the flow. Plans might not go exactly how you wanted them to, and sometimes that’s because they weren’t meant to. We absolutely loved the last-minute changes and thought it actually worked out better than our original plans. Also, try and take some private moments on your day with your newlywed. It goes so fast and taking those 5 minutes to just soak it all in, really stands out when thinking back to it all.

Ellen & Aaron xo

Suppliers
Venue: Byron View Farm // Hair & Makeup: The Bridal Knot // Celebrant: Wed with a Twist // Photographer & Videographer: The Love Archives // Florals: FLWR // Musician: Niall Lochhead // Cake: Just Add Flower // Guest Transport: Byron Bay Double Deckers// Catering: Fig Tree Catering // Lighting:  Byron Audio // Furniture & Styling: The Wedding Shed // Planning & Coordination: Byron Bay Weddings