Hullo!
So you’ve arranged to get the gang together somewhere up in Daylesford on a certain date for your wedding, and you’ve arranged the photographer and arranged your outfits and decided who’s going to be your witnesses, and you’re about to call me to be your celebrant (!), but how much arrangement do you actually want? And where should you set this marvellous event? Well – do you want time to really settle in for a story and dwell upon every moment, or do you dread the thought of everyone looking at you?! Do you want the Full Bespoke Experience, or do you just want to “Get On With It”? Let’s see what sort of Daylesford wedding venue best suits which sort of ceremony.
The “Whole Shebang”: A Full Storytelling Ceremony.
For those who want to lean into the romance, my Full Wedding Version is a bespoke, hand-crafted celebration of you, all You, and nothing but the You. This isn’t a template I’m cutting and pasting, or random fluff from a content generator. I personally create every single script I perform myself, ensuring it captures the exact frequency of your relationship, as gleaned from what you have kindly shared with me about your lives, your values and your aesthetic.
A full ceremony can include your origin story (the “how we met” that everyone loves to hear), it can include readings that actually mean something to you, and little ritual touches that bind you two and your families together. It’s about 20 minutes of intentional, heartfelt storytelling wrapped around the ‘I Do’s. That might seem like a lot, but believe me – the minutes fly by.
For a wedding like this, consider choosing a setting that requires a few moments of walking, so that your guests have to leave their usual concerns at the car and transition into your special space, ready for something that is not like their everyday. Ideally you will both walk a few moments towards us too, either separately or together, to get your head on straight and generally ease yourself into this remarkable thing you are about to do.
For a beautiful, spacious setting off in its own world, consider Sault on the Ballan-Daylesford road, with its chapel-like garden room down in the lavender; Lavandula on the Newstead road at Shepherd’s Flat (lavender again plus lovely old stone walls everywhere); the astounding deck at Sky High on the shoulder of Lalgambook (there is no better place to Contemplate The Infinite); or the magical Villa Palma in Hepburn on the hill up from the Springs, with avenues and vines and fountains and are we actually in Italy (it’s pretty convincing)! All these venues have enough space that you will walk in in one sort of relationship, and walk out in another, and in between is this special zone that you have to deliberately get to in order to make the change. People have always set aside special places for ceremony – in choosing your wedding site you are doing the same thing.
“Let’s Get On With It”: The Short’n’Sweet Pop-Up.
Sometimes, you just want to be married.
You love each other fiercely, but you’d rather save your attention just for each other rather than making sure 100 people have a good time today. Your wedding is just as important and special – but it’s not about what other people need? No worries. In this case, I recommend the Secret Garden approach.
The “Get On With It” ceremony is my version of a registry-style wedding, but with much better scenery and a lot more heart. It’s short (about 7 to 10 minutes), sweet, and focuses purely on the important threshold you’re crossing. It’s perfect for elopements or for couples who run a mile from the spotlight.
It’s the “No Faff, All Feeling” approach. You arrive, your Besties arrive, I arrive all smiles, and we sign a paper. We say some very important words together, sign My Big Red Book and two other things, and behold! You are wed! in the time it takes the coffee to percolate.
Where’s a good place to do that?! It’s anywhere that you find to hold you cheerfully for a few minutes for the words and papers, and/or where you can collapse afterwards with your best friends in the glow of your happiness and glee, shoes kicked off and music turned up. Accommodation venues are great for this. Try Alannah Hill’s utterly enchanting jewel-box Wisteria Hysteria at Dry Diggings, or The Manor House, Poet’s Lodge or The Oxford for tucked-away tiny courtyards that your few delighted guests sort of sneak into, as though you’re all going to meet in a cubby. You can erupt out the door in a riot of applause and we get this show on the road right away.
But wait! Why not save the money for the catering?! Why not do a swoop on a public setting? Consider Sailor’s Falls lookout or a shaded glade beside Lake Daylesford. Pop-up nuptials under the Vincent St lamp-post perhaps? And I am dying for someone to get married in the Blowhole diversion tunnel at Hepburn. It would not be the first time I have worn hiking boots for a wedding.
The Main Thing Is…
The main thing is that the type of ceremony you want influences the setting you might choose, and the setting you choose will help tell you (and me) what form of ceremony you want. Daylesford can do you a chandelier, a paddock or a tower; a rustic wall or a railway line; waterfalls, volcanoes and botanical gardens; you can be On Display or In Retreat and it will be just as you want it, whatever that is – because that is what I do. Try Daylesford. It will be thoroughly You.
Happy planning!
Tamsin Whaley
Authorised Marriage Celebrant
P.s. thanks to MEO WEDDINGS PHOTO AND VIDEO and ROHIT JHAWAR PHOTOGRAPHY for the pics.