Real weddings: Linda and Bradley

Posted on 22 December, 2016

The Great Hall at University House was the perfect fit for Linda and Bradley’s Christmas themed wedding. The bride takes us through the big day…

The dress

I tried standard full length gowns that dragged on the floor; which didn’t make sense to me – I wanted to move freely and be able to dance so I opted for a tea length gown. I found a Karen Willis Holmes sample online in Sydney, so travelled up for a day with my Mum and Aunt. When I put the dress on and swished around, I felt like a pretty ballerina.

The ceremony

We wanted somewhere warm, indoors, intimate and glamorous so we chose the National Film and Sound Archive. We were inspired to make a wedding movie about our love story, ‘Spectacular Spectacular’ to screen before the ceremony, so needed a theatre. We hired a producer to make it for us professionally. Bradley’s best friend is a published Walkley Award winning author and reputable (Huffington Post) journalist who came down from Sydney to ‘conduct the interviews’ (with ourselves and our guests) that featured in the movie.

The ceremony, which we wrote ourselves, was stunning and moving – and fun! Every one of our guests and wedding party took part in a ring blessing – each adding their own personal blessing/prayer while holding our wedding rings. We really enjoyed and soaked up the moment – while we did get lost in it, we didn’t lose our minds in worry or stress at all.

The reception

The Great Hall is an extraordinary, Hogwarts-like hall, perfect for two long tables (no separated ‘wedding table’); and perfectly matched our Christmas in July theme. The day felt like one long celebration of our love; it was joyful and happy.

The Christmas in July theme was perfect and festive; there was a canopy of fairy lights and a giant Christmas tree surrounded by lanterns. The warm mulled wine served in the reception foyer before the Christmas dinner was delicious and indulgent while the DJ played a string of Beatles tracks. Guests loved the ‘Moon’ photo booth my Dad made and spent the night getting dreamy snaps under his playful smile.

We also had an undercover singing chef (from Singers for Hire), called Mario Lasagne, who was a show-stopper which our guests completely loved and really captured the merry mood. He sang five amazing numbers including: Have yourself a merry little Christmas; Can’t take my eyes off you and Nessun Dorma.

We made smart catering choices: a shared banquet with a soup entrée instead of four or five courses; pudding instead of wedding cake, which doubled up as dessert; bottled wines on the table not a beverage package (especially given many of our guests were not big drinkers!) Oh, there may have been a surprise visit by Santa who had a gift for everyone – how could we not?