Ryan + Giulia | Glenworth Valley Bush Wedding

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[ Glenworth Valley Bush Wedding ]

Noraville is a sleepy kinda place. It’s a suburb on the central coast, with a mixture of old holiday houses like your grandparents had, alongside flashy new homes. But it hasn’t lost that holiday feel – relaxed, laid back, quiet. Until Saturday. Last Saturday, Noraville was woken with a blast of trumpet and Tuba as Giulia met Ryan at the front door of his childhood holiday house – his Nan and Pa’s place, that now is the home of his parents. Arm in arm, Ryan and Giulia, along with the 100 or so of us guests danced and partied our way through the streets in big band Low Down Riders style to the beach ceremony.

Under a bamboo teepee, literally surrounded in a circle in the sand by their loved ones, Ryan and Giulia became Husband and Wife. We then convoyed inland back the stunning Glenworth Valley, where Giulia’s creative genius was celebrated with hundreds of handmaid pom pom garlands cascading from the marquee. A horse head originally from the Sydney Theatre Company was scavenged from The Bower for $5 and sat proudly in the corner. Mr Goatys amazing gelato was so delicious (their ginger and salted caramel was AMAZING). Giula’s pappa Pino would have approved of Cheese to Meat You’s grazing table (plenty of prosciutto with lots of fat!)

Speeches included a second (better?) ceremony with Giulia arriving on ‘Horseback’ and Ryan rock climbing up to his love. Following this, Giulia performed Madonnas “Like a prayer” with paper plate hats for everyone, as a celebration of her love for Ryan, but also as a tribute to her late father Pino, who had stood by her side during childhood musical performances with a paper plate on his head, to give his young daughter Giulia (or the ‘fat boy with braces’) confidence to perform. Giulia remembered her late Mumma Franca, with her gorgeous illustrations scattered around the venue, and through her beautiful bridesmaid Michelle following Franca’s Strawberry and Cream cake recipe for the wedding cake.

Now there is a reason that I love hanging out with this group of school friends – even though I live a few hours away from them and we have been out of school for 15yrs… it’s because they are FUN. At any other wedding, after speeches have been had, and the band has packed up, it’s normal for guests to start to dwindle off, chatting round cuppas or the last beers for the night. Not these guys. After lighting the hottest bonfire Glenworth Valley has seen in years, the creation of the Love Shack began. What better place for Ryan and his (pregnant and tired) wife to spend their first married night than under a flamboyant structure of bamboo, quilts, hay bales, the odd fairy light and fake flowers, with a inflatable Pegasus and Swan at the entrance. It wasn’t mozzie proof, and it didn’t have a mattress but it did have a video clip of us all serenading them with Sexual Healing (although none of us knew the verses we made up for it in the chorus).

Bel, Bud, Pip and I had a beautiful weekend with you, Ryan and Giulia. Congratulations! I feel honoured to have been able to capture your day. Lots of love to you Rydog Industries, and we’re so glad you found your beautiful soulmate Giulia!

Note – the first few photos are of horses. A bunch of us guests arrived Friday night and set up our tents to camp just near the reception marquee. At about 6am the morning of the wedding Bel was talking to Pip and Bud (our 1 and 2 yr olds) when she heard hooves in the distance. Thinking that seeing a horse might amuse the kids she went outside. In a few seconds she was yelling at me to grab the camera. What was one or two horses soon erupted into hundreds of frisky horses cantering down the escarpment above our campsite. Things would have been fine except when they saw the lush green grass, covered in morning dew surrounding our tents they deviated from their track and made a beeline for us, galloping down the hill, jumping tent pegs and ropes, and scaring the daylights out of all the other guests still asleep in their tents!