Rings hidden under the guests' chairs. A kissing booth out on the lawn after dark. A dog with his own attendant. Laura and Dale put a lot of themselves into their day at Flowerdale Estate.
As a Flowerdale Estate wedding videographer I've filmed this property before, and it always delivers on the countryside. Rolling green, big open lawns, an hour out of Melbourne and a world away from it. What made Laura and Dale's day different was everything they brought to it.
Both of them got ready on site, which changes the tone of a morning before anything official starts. Nobody's driving between locations or waiting around in a car park. Just the two of them and their people in the same place all morning, building toward a 3.30 ceremony.
Sheridan Newnham ran the ceremony, and she came in with a plan. Before guests arrived she taped the rings underneath two of the ceremony chairs. Nobody knew. Then partway through, she sent the entire crowd searching under their own seats for them.
It's the kind of thing that either lands or dies, and this one landed. The whole ceremony broke open at once, everyone laughing and half standing up out of their chairs. From behind a camera it's exactly what you want, because a reaction like that can't be manufactured. All you can do is know it's coming and be ready for it.
"A whole room on their hands and knees looking under chairs. Nobody planned that reaction. It just happened."
Glen Nicholls was on photography, and the two of us worked the property all day without getting in each other's frames. That only happens when both people are watching for the same things.
A Hair Stylist Secret handled hair and Tash Green Beauty did makeup. Laura's dress came from Luv Bridal. And the dog got his own attendant, Mrs Barkers, which meant he was actually around for the day instead of being walked off after the ceremony photos.
DJ MC Apples ran the reception, and if you've been at a wedding he's working you know how that goes. He reads a room quickly and he keeps moving it. The floor filled early and stayed full.
Out on the lawn the couple had set up a kissing booth. Green and white stripes, hand painted sign, twenty five cents, with a "The Frolings" banner strung across the front. Under the festoon lights after dark it turned into the best photo spot at the wedding. Guests actually queued for it.
Bare branches just starting to turn, deep green lawn, black tie against all that open countryside. Then after dark the whole thing warmed up under the festoons. You get two different looks out of Flowerdale in one day.
The vibe in one word
Contrast, mostly. A film needs somewhere to go, and a day that stays at one temperature the whole way through gives you nothing to cut against. This day moved around a lot.
The ceremony opened quiet and then broke wide open with the ring hunt. Sheridan pulled the room from still to chaos in about four seconds, so the edit gets a genuine gear change without anyone having to force one.
Portraits sat in the middle. The arbour, the bare winter trees, the hills behind the property. Because Glen and I were both working the same space without crowding it, we could move quickly and let Laura and Dale just be in it rather than getting directed shot to shot.
Then Apples turned the reception up and the day changed completely. Between the dance floor and the kissing booth out on the lawn, the back half of this film runs hot. That swing from a quiet ceremony to a packed floor is what gives the edit its shape.
Days like this are the easy ones to edit. Laura and Dale had already made it interesting before I turned a camera on.
A celebrant with a plan, a photographer who saw the same moments, and a DJ who never let the room drop. Laura and Dale didn't have to manage any of it.
Every good day has a good team behind it. Here's everyone who made Laura and Dale's day what it was.
