Keep It Sweetly Simple!

Simple easy service with one of Canberra's most experienced celebrants. (I have married over 1400 couples.) Your beautiful, memorable and personalised alternative to a Registry Office wedding. Only one one-hour meeting required and the next time we meet, it's your wedding day!

16 May 2011

Just like Kate and Will, you too can ride in grand style in a genuine royal carriage

Hello, and welcome

Michelle and Aj married in The Heart Garden on May 5
     On Mothers’ Day, my sister and I took our dear Mum to Devonshire coffee at Crisp Galleries and Lavender Gardens, a large rural property on the Hume Highway, just past Bowning and one of my favourite wedding places. This amazing place is now even more amazing. Along with the beautiful gardens with lots of wedding site options and the unique ‘performance space’ which is perfect for grand concerts and memorable wedding receptions, there are now two new features. One is a woolmill. It’s truly extraordinary and in October will be opened by a very important person (and I’ll return to this post to mention her if I find out from Peter Crisp that it’s OK to do so) but the woolmill is not so relevant to this blog. 
Photo from Getty Images
     
     At Crisp Gardens and Galleries, there is now a coach museum. Yes, a coach museum! And in that museum there are coaches for brides to arrive in spectacular fashion at their wedding ceremony.       There’s a brilliant old hearse in mint condition but of course, you would not be choosing that one. There’s an original omnibus but you wouldn’t be needing that much space. 
     The obvious choice is the landau used by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Yes, their actual royal coach! Not a replica, but the real thing. That’s why I'm writing in this blog that you can be just like the royal couple, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester as you travel in royal style on your own wedding day.  
     As you can imagine, the fittings in the royal coach are superb – very elegant and of the highest quality. There are more photos in the slideshow to the right of this post 
Photo from Crisp Galleries collection
   Another thing I appreciate about Crisp Gardens and Galleries is the enthusiastic way that Jeannine, the wedding co-ordinator and tender of the massive gardens, enthusiastically recommends me as a celebrant. I like to tell you in my blogs of venues to consider for your wedding and it’s nice for me to be recommended in return. Jeannine keeps a comprehensive folder of wedding service providers so if you choose to marry there, she can advise you on celebrants, caterers, transport options and local accommodation providers. 
     Click here to see a gallery of great photos. There's a photo of me in this one. If you prefer a more modern form of transport than horse and grand carriage, you'll also see in this photo, the helicopter that flew in the groom and his attendants. (There's also an airfield at C G and G)


     Nicole and Jig were married at Crisp Gardens and Galleries last month. The ambience was perfect for their informal get-together of family and special friends.      
     Jig and Nicole were so pleased to use a table for their signing that had been sculpted by their late friend Michael Murphy. Check out the table legs and feet! 
     Crisp Gardens and Galleries is a venue for the work of many sculptors and artists. At the moment, a chain-saw sculptor from Wales, Adam Humphreys is in residence and his prolific work adds character and interest around the gardens.


Congratulations Nicole and Jig!

Plenty of room for a party
______________________________________________



When Aj and Michelle turn to face each other to make their vows,
Michele the Celebrant hands Michelle's flowers to friend Michelle

   In The Heart Garden
     For the wedding of Michelle and Aj on Wednesday May 4, the weather was brilliant. In the late morning sunshine, we held the ceremony outside. 
     For the wedding of Hoami and Rob last Thursday May 12, even though the sun was shining in mid-afternoon, it was much cosier in the green room (my meeting room). There are windows in three walls and the autumn sunlight streamed in.
     There’s a small wedding here on Wednesday morning. It may be inside or out. We got our first big frost for the year on Saturday night and many flowers immediately froze – begonias, fuchsias, marigolds and impatiens. Colour in the garden now is mostly coming from autumn trees and vines, and there are plenty of those. Pansies, violas, polyanthus and camellias are coming into bloom and more sunlight comes into the garden as the trees lose their leaves. 
     You’d be most welcome to have your small wedding in the Heart Garden (or inside). Any weekday between 9 and 5, at no extra cost. After a couple of wet wedding days lately, I have made the maximum number of guests six so there’s plenty of room in my meeting room on a wet or cold day for the ceremony, the signing and the celebratory drinks.
     If you'd like to marry in my beautiful garden (especially in Spring)and you plan to have more than six guests, you are also most welcome to do so. In this case you may invite up to 40 guests but I ask you to have a back-up plan for wet, cold or fiercely hot weather. Perhaps your reception venue. Again, there is no extra cost to marry in my Heart Garden in Weston.
Looking out the Heart Garden gate
     Now that winter is imminent, things tend to go quiet on the wedding scene. Winter is a great time to get married though as you can marry in a warm place inside, free of weather worries. I plan to do a blog soon about the research into venues with open fires I have done for a bride recently. You'll also get lots of options for your reception venue in winter, and probably some really good prices as well.
     If you would like me to be celebrant at your wedding, in my garden, or in any other location in Australia I'd be delighted to do so. Please feel free to phone me any day between 9am and 9pm on 02 6161 0718, or on my mobile 0406 376 375. Or email me. Click here, or fill in this email contact form.
     If you'd like to know more about the full service I provide, I will post you a package of information, along with a Notice of Intended Marriage (and no obligation to lodge it with me). 
     Please note that there are Pages of extra information, top right of this blog, including a page with twelve good reasons that I may be just the right celebrant for your very special day.

Till next time
Sincerely
Michele