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| heritage charmerin st john + andrew doenau: 9 December 2006; Peppers at Hidden Vale, Queensland |
| Peppers at Hidden Vale was the first place we visited when looking for a wedding location and we fell in love with it. We could immediately stop our hunt for a location, as we knew this was it!” said Erin. Erin and Andrew had their wedding ceremony and reception at Peppers Hidden Vale, a picturesque and historic country retreat at Grandchester about one hour drive from Brisbane. “We had 38 guests at our wedding - we wanted a smaller more intimate wedding with those closest to us sharing our special day. I was the first granddaughter of my grandpa’s to get married too, which made it a special day for him as well.”
We had a lawn ceremony with a long red carpet leading down the aisle scattered with rose petals and gold framed chairs either side for guests. It was really special to have my father walk me down the aisle as I have a great relationship with him while at the end Andrew was waiting – he looked simply amazing! I couldn’t stop smiling through the whole ceremony. A harpist played during our ceremony and afterwards for the guests while we had photos taken.
The reception was held in Cottons Restaurant – it was so full of elegance, charm and character featuring a beautiful old fireplace. We needed little additional decoration so simply added a vase of red roses to each table from the local florist that matched my bouquet. Most guests stayed the night of the wedding in the elegantly restored cottages dating back to the 1800’s. The morning after we all got together for an informal breakfast which was really relaxing and a perfect end to a big night. It was a great opportunity to be able to talk more to our guests and catch up with those that had travelled a fair distance.
I was lucky enough to stay even longer at Peppers as the night before the wedding, myself and my three bridesmaids (my sister and two of my close girlfriends) stayed in one of their luxurious cottages. It was a mini girl’s sleepover, which was a lot of fun and made the morning of our wedding stress free as I was already at my destination and we simply had to get ready – everything was at hand. Our hair stylist came out after our buffet breakfast and we had lunch and wine brought to us in our room. We had decided to do our own make-up so, prior to the wedding, we visited the make-up artists at Estee Lauder in town where the girls were lovely and did a make up trial on each of us teaching us the latest and greatest make up tips. Doing our own make-up was one of the best decisions that was made – we got it exactly how we liked it and we helped each other out.
Andrew and I had an 18 month engagement which made planning our wedding hassle free. We had plenty of time to do a bit of planning here and a bit there. Six months before our big day Andrew was actually sent to Timor with the army so there was a period where we wondered if he’d be back in time but all worked out and he was home two months beforehand. He was extremely helpful with the plans, which made the whole experience a lot of fun; even while he was away he was still involved. In the end we created our dream wedding for around $10,000 - $12,000 which isn’t bad considering the costs of weddings these days,” finishes Erin.
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