Golden disco elopement at Tanglewood

Lauren-Anne + Mark’s wedding

Tanglewood Estate, Dromana

Published on Nouba as well as in Nouba’s top 10 weddings of 2018

Photos: Anna Taylor Photography

You may remember back in 2017 that along with a rad group of pretty nice wedding vendors, we gave away an elopement to Amie + Nick – a GOT’s inspired snowy elopement that was quite the dream to work on. It’s now a thing we do each August – ie, give away a winter elopement in an epic natural location. Led by Anna Taylor Photography, we decided to hold the wedding at Tanglewood Estate on the Mornington Peninsula.

It’s such an amazingly beautiful venue with acres of trees and bush, but also beautiful, amazingly finished spaces to use. It’s tranquil, calming and such a treat. Anna and I spent more than two hours walking around when we went to scope out locations.

The couple

We asked couples to tell us why they deserved to win an elopement as we wanted to give it to a couple that for whatever personal reasons, wanted to get married but hadn’t been able to. Together, we sifted through a heap of excellent entries before asking Lauren-Anne and Mark to let us marry them in grand style. And of course, they said yes and it was ON!

The vision

Maybe it was the time of day (golden hour) that Anna and I were roaming around, but the whole of Tanglewood is one beautiful golden place. Even the moss on the trees was a beautiful gold colour and not bright green, so we quickly became quite enamoured with the idea of basing the concept around gold and shimmering things. This morphed as I developed it into a 70s vibes golden elopement celestial disco. Once you nail your concept, everything flows from there – the vendors to involve, the dress, hair, makeup, furniture, cake, styling, – even the food!

Getting ready

I used to be not a fan of getting ready photos – but the more I see them (well, good ones!), the more I can see it’s quite lovely and very much part of the story of the day to capture all the feels of getting ready to marry your sweetie. Anna really captured things beautifully. Who doesn’t want to see a bride’s hair getting crimped? So rad!

First Look

After we’d already finalised the elopement design, we decided to add a new vendor in town (well sort of; it’s a new business of Oli Sanson Photography who is now called Briars Atlas) to the mix. The Arbourists were about to launch their range of light up arbours with portable power – nothing like this existed in the wedding market, so we decided to include this new and ace idea into the mix – as the spot for the first look and in a couple of other parts later on.

Little Lady Blooms florals on the triangle arches are primo, don’t you think? It really set the scene for a super special moment for Lauren-Anne and Mark.

Portraits

Ceremony

We made the gorgeous couple and their parents bush bash out to the a ceremony spot that Anna and I had decided was ‘the one’. A beautiful rounded gum tree with a clear space at the bottom, surrounded by gorgeous bracken, and everything a little golden due to Tanglewood’s higher the average quality gold tree moss!

Adding florals creeping up the tree trunk, and vintage gold braid and amber lanterns, we created a place and space for the couple of marry and remember the moment forever!

The day threatened rain but nothing eventuated. Until the exact moment the ceremony started! Of course! Thus we sent long-legs Dave running down with some cute clear umbrellas and the show went on. Fidel and Sarah created a romantic, quirky ceremony with their custom songs for the couple. They bring such a uniqueness and a major point of difference, that everyone should have them for their ceremony ok? GREAT.

Other highlights included how much joy the couple exuded, Nat Sproal’s cracking ceremony performance, the couple celebrating their moment of marriage with shots of whiskey, and all those beautiful rain photos!

Dinner

Creating a romantic, warm and golden reception dinner, Tanglewood’s studio space was the perfect cosy location – with it’s timber, red brick and warm metal finishes.

We asked Bangin Hangins to come on board to create a romantic canopy and Sarah did a rad job bringing so much lush warmth and movement to the space. Adding dramatic furniture – our burgundy Fleur de Lys sofa Roger – for the couple of sit on and be all loved up and mazzed, creamy shaggy rug, and our Millsy chairs with their white leather and gold frames.

Little Lady Bloom’s epic florals including a massive Wattle heavy garland, really jazzed up the space. Ready for The Farm Cafe to serve a delicious grazing dinner.

Celestial disco

With our gorgeous couple married and their bellies full of delicious food and bubbly booze, it was time to don those fur coats and head out to the disco under the stars. If you marry at Tanglewood, have some part of the occasion outside under the stars because they are so bright here and it’s just LOVELY.

The disco was a place for a first dance for Lauren-Anne and Mark, and to just celebrate and party after an epic day of GETTING MARRIED TO EACH OTHER! Set-up under a big old tree the we adorned with many disco balls, festoons, a bar, 70s vibe lounge area, heaps of plants and of course, The Arbourist’s triangle arbours – how great are they at night! Fidel and Sarah brought the party and everyone was dancing.

You can’t see in these pics, but all the vendors including us, are in the background have a knock off drink and a dance, so fun and special for us, because we all get attached to our clients.