amy & aaron

Amy Griffiths & Aaron Finch { 7 APRIL }

WILLOW & STONE ESTATE, BALLARAT, VIC

photos captured by: She Takes Pictures He Makes Films | styling by: Ruby & James

Australian cricketer Aaron Finch tied the knot with his sweetheart Amy Griffiths at Willow & Stone Estate in Ballarat. “When our friends and family told us in the lead up to the wedding that it would be the best day of our lives we didn’t really believe them but it absolutely was. Aaron jokes that we should get divorced in order to do it all over again!”

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OUR TIME | “Following our engagement I took the reins of the wedding planning. Having a background in events meant I had already worked on a number of weddings. It was like planning any other event except this time it was ours!” Amy and Aaron had a late afternoon, 4pm ceremony and were married at the top of the stairs in front of the main property. “Instead of walking ‘down’ the aisle we walked ‘up’ the aisle!”

WILLOW & STONE | Situated in Ballarat, Willow & Stone Estate was the ideal venue for Amy and Aaron. “I had come across the estate while browsing through Instagram. They hadn’t hosted too many weddings there and we were keen to find a venue we could make our own. We also had friends and family coming to the wedding from all across the state so it was a nice central location. Willow & Stone Estate offers great accommodation options within walking distance from the property and we could have both our ceremony and reception there. We first visited the venue on a very cold morning in August while Aaron was in between overseas trips. The owners Leisha and Carlos warned us that we were probably seeing the venue at its worst given the time of year but as soon as Aaron and I got back into the car we knew we’d found our venue. Willow & Stone Estate was charming even in the middle of winter and we were excited to see how it could look in warmer weather.”

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FASHION FORWARD | Amy gifted her bridesmaids with denim jackets to wear at the reception. “My sister is a graphic designer and she helped me customise the back of each jacket with my bridesmaids’ favourite love songs.”

Amy’s gown was custom made by Cappellazzo Couture. “The design was based around our variety of chosen fabrics. Sonia Cappellazzo and I had fallen in love with a number of fabrics so it was then a matter of her working her magic to come up with the best way to feature each one. I could not have been more pleased with how it all came together. Sonia is a genius. I loved my dress with its metallic look.”

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AMY LOU | Given Amy’s middle name is Louise, it seemed fitting that the wedding bouquets featured Amy Lou roses. Hydrangeas, dahlias and garden roses were also showcased amongst foliage of magnolia, eucalyptus, gum and amaranthus.

“We decided that instead of our guests throwing petals after the ceremony we would use foliage. We spray painted it gold which suited our colour scheme and paid homage to the gold rush town of Ballarat.

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IT'S ALL IN THE ATMOSPHERE | “We wanted to keep our wedding styling minimalistic and elegant with a modern touch.” The wedding colour scheme consisted of black, white and neutral tones with accents of gold and apricot. Candles, lanterns and drapery created a romantic ambience. “We chose three long tables for our reception dinner. Grey terrazzo boards with clusters of candles and gold cutlery kept the table designs clean and simple. This also meant the shared food platters could be the real feature of the tables.” Above, floral installations decorated the space and other arrangements adorned key signage spots including the bar, seating chart and welcome sign. “These became popular spots for our guests to have their photos taken.” There were also smaller arrangements on the bar tables in the garden.

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DOGS OF HONOUR | “As I didn’t have a maid of honour, Aaron and I had our two rescue dogs Evie and Frankie as our ‘dogs of honour’. They had customised leashes with their names engraved on them. We also decided against a wedding registry however we had a wishing well and this helped form donations to the rescue missions where we had adopted Evie and Frankie.”

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DESERT FIRST | “I love all things sweet and absolutely adore dessert so we decided to treat our guests to mini desserts before the ceremony began. A cart supplied by Dann Event Hire was set up with a cute ‘Eat Dessert First’ sign.” The wedding cake was a 3-tier semi naked cake consisting of mint chocolate, salted caramel and coconut mud cake layers with white chocolate ganache. “I spent the days following the wedding devouring the leftovers!”

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DANCE FLOOR ANTICS | “Instead of a traditional father daughter dance we had a ‘family dance’ to a rendition of Billy Thorpe’s Somewhere Over The Rainbow. I danced with my dad, Aaron danced with my mother-in-law, Justin the best man took my mum for a spin and my sister Katie danced with Aaron’s dad.”

One of the biggest highlights for Amy was the final song of the night. “I’m John Farnham’s number one fan so we had You’re The Voice playing for our finale. It was blaring through the speakers as our guests lit sparklers and Aaron’s teammates took it upon themselves to put us up on their shoulders. It was very spontaneous but the perfect way to end the night.”