Wedding | Phoebe & Danny

Tell us a little about yourselves!

We are both pretty easy going (we like to think anyway), we love travelling, the beach, running, dogs, drinks at sunset and cooking at home. We both have very busy jobs in Brisbane - I’m a TV news producer turned media advisor for a government Minister and Danny is an accountant (possible the most eccentric, passionate numbers lover out there).

We spend most of our money on travelling and I would say one of our greatest talents is taking really long Euro holidays. We’ve been together 10 years and throughout that time, have supported each other through 2 tragic deaths in the family (Danny’s sister and my Dad) - and in our grief, we’ve learnt to not take any day for granted, to enjoy every sunset, love completely, and too not let the little things take root. 

Danny proposed 3 years ago while we were hiking a mountain in Spain (on one of our really long Euro holidays), before we moved to London for 18 months. We took our time being fiancés and loved every second but I must say being husband and wife is pretty damn good too. 

We planned the wedding with 4 months notice, which was a very short time frame for an overseas wedding. We desperately needed something happy to look forward to after losing my Dad last October to cancer and for us the timing just couldn’t have felt more right.

Why did you decide to get married where you did?

We j’adore the South of France - the food, the rosé, the laid-back attitude - and it was a dream of ours that we just couldn’t escape from. We both knew early on we wanted to get married overseas and have a more intimate wedding.

We stayed at Mas Millesime after we got engaged 3 years ago and absolutely fell in love with Provence and formed a connection with the owners Charliene and Ron - so it felt like the stars aligned when we messaged them earlier this year asking if they would consider us having a small wedding celebration there and they said they would love too. We also wanted somewhere that would be able to host majority of our guests for a week - so it wasn’t just a one night affair.

It was absolutely perfect. As it was such a small number of people, everyone really bonded and on the actual wedding day - all of our friends pitched in to help us setup the Mas Millesime - my best friend Syd went to the local markets to get the flowers and designed the wedding table and ceremony spot amongst the olive trees with help from my other friends, my brother was the celebrant and Danny’s best mates moved all the furniture!

How many guests did you have?

We had 33 at our wedding. 18 guests stayed at Mas Millesime.

What was your budget? 

This is so naughty- especially because Danny is an accountant but we didn’t actually talk about a specific number figure. We had no idea what vendors would cost over there, so we were flying blind a bit, but we knew we didn’t want to spend more than 45k for the week.

We ended up spending around 40k for the whole wedding week (5 days and paying for 18 guests to stay).

Tell us about your outfits.

I spontaneously ordered my dress online after finding Arcina Ori on Instagram and falling in love with the design of the dress. it was really unique and I felt it screamed ‘wedding in a French chateau’… originally I thought it would work for my reception outfit but, after going to a few bridal stores - I quickly realised what I had was perfect - simple and elegant.

Danny is hopeless at fashion. I forced him to go suit shopping at MJ Bale and it was like dragging a cat to water. We (finally) got the suit, the week before we had to go. Because my dress was ivory and champagne, I felt like black was really the only colour that would match and I have no complaints - I also love the bow tie look!

What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?

That it was in the south of France. 

Second to that was - that we had live music and good food and wine.

Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?

Getting personalised berets made that everyone could wear on the wedding night and through the week!

Any tips for couples getting married?

It’s ok to be a tad selfish. It's your wedding, it's your day - do it exactly how you imagined it. It’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to please everyone but, reality is, you won’t be able to and you’re at risk of it turning into someone else’s dream wedding or something that isn’t exactly what you wanted.

Are there any vendors that you would like to tell us a little more about?

Our incredible photographer Bronte McVeigh and her team! I stumbled across Bronte’s Instagram after looking at a few bridal pages and fell in love with her style. Looking at her photos, I could really feel the emotion through the screen and I loved how unique each photo was.

On the actual wedding day, we never felt like we had to stop what we were doing for the photos - everything happened so naturally, which allowed us to enjoy every aspect of the wedding and it meant we were more relaxed when the photos were being taken…and my gosh the results show it! Looking back at our gallery feels like we are stepping back into our wedding day in all it’s glory. I feel like the photos really capture the pure joy of the day, and the relaxed, intimate vibe of the wedding. 

I would recommend Bronte McVeigh and her team in a heartbeat and will treasure these photos forever.

Photographer: Bronte McVeigh @brontemcveigh | Planning: by Phoebe | Styling & Flora: Sydney Cornish @thewinifredcollection | Ceremony & Reception Location: Mas Millesime @masmillesime | Celebrant: Phoebe's brother | Hire: Be Lounge @be_lounge_officiel | HMUA: Julia Barboni @muabyjulia | Cake, Catering & Beverages: Coline Leenhardt @coline_leenhardt | Stationery:  Inkie Studio @inkie.studio | Entertainment: Revers Duo @reversofficial | Dress: Arcina Ori @arcinaori | Suit: MJ Bale @mjbale | Engagement Ring: Penfolds Jeweller @penfoldjewellers | Wedding Rings: a retired friend of Pheobe's father | Shoes: Jo Mercer | Necklace: Linden Cook