Two puppies opened the aisle. Confetti guns went off twice. Sax on the terrace at golden hour, and Sneaky Sound System closing out night two. Sarah and Paul took over the property for two days, and as their Jackalope wedding videographer I got all of it.
As a Jackalope wedding videographer you go in knowing the property is going to give you something. Jackalope is black zinc and charred timber dropped into a working vineyard on the Mornington Peninsula, with rows running down the hill behind the ceremony terrace. It's one of the few venues in Victoria where the building is as much a character as the landscape.
Sarah got ready on site at Jackalope. Paul was at an Airbnb up the road in Merricks North. A 4pm ceremony meant the whole back half of the day sat in good light, which matters more than most couples realise when they're picking a start time.
This one had a running order and they committed to it. Two puppies came down first with the pageboys. Then two flower girls. Then Jenn. Then Paul's three daughters, Emily, Lilly and Clara, one at a time. Then Sarah's best friend Stacey. And finally Paul's dad walked Sarah down the aisle.
It took a while and that was the point. By the time Sarah appeared, everyone on that terrace had already had about eight separate reasons to well up.
"Puppies first, then the kids, then the daughters, then the best friend, then his dad walking her down. By the end of it the whole terrace was gone."
Celebrate with Liz ran the ceremony with Tobi & Tobi playing, and there were two confetti gun moments built in, one on the announcement and one on the aisle dip. Confetti guns are a gamble on film because you get one take. Both of these landed.
Around 7pm they headed out for golden hour photos, and Scotty Sax came out and played while they did it. Live sax over a vineyard at dusk with the guests watching from the terrace. It shouldn't work as well as it did.
Shae from Love Stories By Shae planned the whole thing and it showed. Everything ran on time without anyone feeling hurried along, which across two days is hard to pull off. Tahnee-Jade was on photography and Jo Laver did the florals. White dahlias and delphiniums against all that black architecture is a combination I'd film every weekend if I could.
Sarah wore Hera Couture, with hair by Amber White and makeup by Casey at Peninsula Makeup Artists. The cake came from Miss Ladybird Cakes and Jackalope handled the food, which at this venue is a large part of why people book it.
Then they did it again the next day. DJ Nikki ran a pool party, Andrew Loadsman played at Rare Hare, and the whole thing picked up about where the night before had left off.
And then Sneaky Sound System played the after party. A full set, at a wedding. Guests who turned up expecting a recovery lunch ended up at a gig.
Filming across two days is a different job. You're not shaping one arc out of twelve hours, you're following a group of people who loosen up the longer they're all together. Day two footage has something day one never does, because by then nobody is thinking about the cameras.
Jackalope is dark zinc and hard lines dropped into a vineyard. Put white dahlias, delphiniums and a black tie crowd in front of that and the contrast does most of the work for you.
The vibe in one word
Structure, mostly. A day with this many moving parts can easily turn into a list of events, and nobody rewatches a list. What saved this one is that the big moments were spaced out properly.
The aisle procession did the emotional work up front. Eight separate entrances before Sarah even appeared meant the ceremony opened with a long slow build instead of a single beat, so there was somewhere for the vows to go.
The confetti guns gave the edit two hard punctuation marks. Golden hour with Scotty is the best looking sequence in the film. And the reception ran hot from there.
Day two is where the edit gets its release. Pool party, Rare Hare, then Sneaky Sound System. Everyone had spent a full day together by that point and you can see it in the footage.
Shae's planning is the reason all of it worked. When someone has mapped a two day event properly, a Jackalope wedding videographer gets to concentrate on the moments instead of chasing the schedule.
A planner who had every hour of two days mapped out, a venue that made none of it hard, and a lineup of musicians you'd pay to see.
Every good day has a good team behind it. Two days needs a great one. Here's everyone who made Sarah and Paul's weekend what it was.
