Julia & Phil: A Byron Bay New Year's Eve Wedding

Published 28th August 2013 in ALL Categories, Real Life Wedding

Julia & Phil chose New Year’s Eve as their wedding day, and Byron Bay as their venue. Risking curfews, inflated costs and rogue bridesmaids, Julia tells of her special day’s unique set of circumstances…

New Year’s Eve allows couples to celebrate their wedding among throngs of revelers in the spirit of a new year, and the start of your new life. But planning a wedding on one of the most popular night’s of the year throws up another set of conundrums: places are booked out, venues and suppliers tend to inflate their day-to-day prices and in the case of Byron Bay, you’re working under a council regulated curfew. None of this deterred Julia, however! 

“I purchased the Wedding Guide Magazine and followed the time lines provided making sure that everything was covered and in enough time for everything to fall into place. We decided to make all of our own decorations to make it feel more like us with the colours and concepts we wanted.”

“We grew up in northern New South Wales, me on the coast and Phil inland, and we wanted to get married close to home and close to our heart. We looked at a number of venues throughout the Byron Hinterland and Byron Bay and due to our date, New Year’s Eve, we found that a number of the venues were doubling their already high prices and had curfews which meant we weren’t able to spend New Year’s with our guests.” 

“We went to the Figtree Restaurant to have a tasting and at the end of our tasting we knew that if we didn’t have a venue that we would at least have a caterer [they] were extremely flexible and offered the view of the NYE fireworks for us and our guests after they closed the restaurant.”

Liaising with local suppliers and sticking to the Wedding Guide Planner, Julia found she was making good headway in planning her day. Until outfitting the bridesmaids became a stylistically political hot potato…
“I thought I would be nice and allow the girls to choose a dress that they could wear on other occasions. However, their choices did not come close to what I had in mind for the dresses, even after I told them the theme was country. The choices were mainly short, dark blue or green dresses. Whilst I had in mind a long dress in mushroom/coffee. With a month to go I put my foot down and showed them what they were going to wear!”

And with the country theme reflected in their décor and style Julia set about enjoying her day, “It was absolutely perfect, not much that I could change in relation to the day.”
For the photos Julia was keen to showcase the best of the northern rivers, the forest, the beach and the train tracks – Julia’s father used to work on the railroad and she recalls school holidays filled with travelling by her father’s side. We think she nailed it!

Photographer: Nick Murray Photography / Gown: Mary Vidler / Flowers: Passionate Flowers, Byron Bay / Cake: Betty Patterson / Hair & Makeup: Julie Corbet /Rings: Nic Torbin, Brisbane / Groom & Groomsmen: Spurling / Ceremony & Reception Venue: Figtree Restaurant, Byron Bay / Celebrant: John Wilson

Processional: Marry Me - Train
Signing: The Luckiest – Ben Folds Recessional: I Won’t Give Up – Jason Mraz