Wed Log
Pioneer Country
Wedding Tips and Advice
Wedding Tips and Advice
Styling Tips
TWO WORDS – agree upon your TWO WORDS to describe your wedding vibe. Eg “Natural Country”, “Elegant Country”, “Farm Boho”, “Family Fun”, etc. Then use these two words to help you decide everything from the font used on the invitation to what type of shoes you should be wearing and the style of the floral bouquets. When in doubt, hold up the items in question and run your TWO WORDS past them and one will be the obvious winner.
LINKS – link the different elements of your wedding to give your wedding a polished, well rounded feeling. Eg If you use gum leaves in the chapel, consider using some in your bouquet, the lapel pins and as part of the table styling. The same with colour, once you have decided upon your colour palette, continue with accents of same hues from woe to go.
How to save money
OFF-PEAK – Consider an off-peak wedding from Monday to Thursday. You still get the day before the set up and rehearse, the day of the wedding and you can collect your cars and styling stuff the morning after. If most of your guests are coming from afar they probably were planning to take a day off work anyways.
Get Organised
Once you have confirmed your booking Sarah will invite you to join our shared run-sheet.
💰 The first worksheet covers all things relating the cost. It is best to plan conservatively and assume every invited guest will attend, then when they decline you finds yourselves with some spare cash versus having to hunt around for those extra few dollars just prior to the wedding.
🕰 The second run-sheet helps your schedule evolve. Initially your wedding planner will propose a run-order based around sunset and the golden hour for best photography. Typically the invitation time is sunset minus 3 hours For example, in winter the sun set early and a 2:30 pm is a typical start time with the bride walking down the aisle half an hour later at 3:00 pm.
🛒 Vendors. Once the venue is booked then the next key people to book are your celebrant and photographer. Pioneer Country has a list of proven and reliable service providers. Once your in-house wedding planner understands your style and budget she can streamline your selection process even further by recommending vendors specific to your requirements. What is the point of requesting a floral quotation from a vendor that is well outside of your budget??
Time line
Most couples choose to book 1 year out from their wedding so plan to be a little flexible with your date and selected vendors if you book less than one year out. It is also worth noting, that COVID seems to have shortened the booking lead time for some weddings and it is now not unusual for couples to turn around their wedding within 3 to 6 months from the date of booking confirmation.
Legally your celebrant requires 1 month and 1 day to process your wedding paperwork. If the date is available & the celebrant has the paperwork in order Pioneer Country can turn your wedding around within the week and we have done so in some exceptionally moving circumstances.
Run order planning
A great wedding that guests rave about for years afterwards gets down to an amazing runorder. To quote a leading wedding DJ, “Have them begging for one more dance when it is time to close”. That way your guests will be buzzing all the way home and even the next day.
Work with your in-house planner to discover how long is the best time to allow for speeches and when, and how long should you allow for dancing.
Vendor Booking Order
If you have a friend that is a celebrant or a specific religious minister that you would like to conduct the marriage ceremony then you need to book them and the venue in parallel (ie make sure they are both available on the same date).
Otherwise the pecking order is:
1st Venue
2nd & 3rd Celebrant & Photographer as soon as possible after the venue is confirmed.
Then at a more leisurely pace:
Accommodation, floral (bouquets & buttons holes as a minimum), Stylists (or formulate your DIY styling plan), furniture hire (normally not required at PC), hair & makeup, attire, favours (optional).
On trend
On trend
On trend
WED LOG (BLOG)
This is a blog about the funny stuff that goes off behind the scenes when you run a farm and wedding venue with your 83 year old dad. (I don ‘t have a picture of Bill to hand but he collects bells).
Exciting things are happening at Pioneer Country. Our extreme make-over has begun. In the coming weeks watch us transform from federation colours to neutral whites and greys as we get all our barns re-painted. Sarah 2 June 2023
It is official, champagne towers are now back in vogue & Pioneer Country is pleased to announce the hardware for your tower is now part of our standard in-house styling (included in the venue hire).
A champagne tower is a great way to kick off official proceedings just after the bride and groom entrance to the reception area or to energize your guests once they have slumped into a food coma after the main meal and before the speeches start.
If you have never poured a champagne tower you won’t be able to wipe the smile of your faces or off the people receiving such a fun and celebratory drink.
1 Sep 2022
Pattie, my now fully grown black Angus cow that was hand reared is holding out on me. She has a big udder and showing all the signs of having recently delivered a baby calf but she is hiding it from me.
As background, the above are some pictures of Pattie growing up. Pattie was born 20 Sep 2019. Immediately above is Pattie photo bombing at last week’s wedding – how good was that rainbow?
Stay tuned for more details and where she hid her baby.