While Madeline and Tanner's plan was always to elope – their family and friends wanted to be there for the moment. "So after much discussion, a micro-wedding abroad felt like the perfect compromise. In retrospect, we’re so grateful. We wanted a new place to explore and the environment to be elevated but carefree. I narrowed my search to the south of France for its style, its energy, and the guarantee of good food and wine. "

A traditional English wedding was never really on the cards for Louise and Andy. "Being able to have the ceremony outdoors in nature was an important aspect of the day. So with the unpredictability of British weather, a destination wedding felt right. After visiting Sicily we fell in love: its charm, diverse history, beautiful coastline and 300+ days of sunshine there each year, were all deciding factors."

Ali and Ed were pretty relaxed about their wedding, provided we threw a great party in a nice place, and caught it all on camera. "We didn’t want anyone to leave the night feeling like they hadn’t eaten and drunk as much as they wanted and danced as much as they could!"

Jessica and Will pulled their destination wedding in Scotland together in under three months. "It was a little wild, but it worked because it was so small and intimate. Having that short timeline actually helped us. It kept us from overthinking every detail and forced us to make decisions quickly. If we’d had a year to plan, the wedding would have taken over our entire lives."

Harriet and Tim met in Austria, live in London and were married in Mallorca, where Harriet's parents live. "On our first trip to visit them, they took us to Finca Biniagual for a wine tasting. We fell in love with the calm, tranquil, authentic Mallorcan setting… and the wine was delicious which helped! I had always dreamed of having a street party – style wedding, and our venue was the perfect back drop for that."

Cordelia and Cole's approach to planning was to strip down the idea of a “wedding” to its studs and then rebuild it to be specific to them. "For example, when considering whether to carry a bouquet, I decided I only wanted one if it was designed and made by Cole’s mom, who is a talented floral designer, with flowers that held meaning to us."

Flora and Dylan explicitly separated their ceremony from the party—"keeping Friday sacred for our vows and dinner, and Saturday exclusively for dancing. We’ve been to so many weddings, and we really wanted to reinvent the sequence and introduce an element of surprise."

Hannah and Drummond weren’t trying to follow a formula—"we just wanted the day to feel like us.  Our priorities for the day were surrounding ourselves with our closest family and our favorite rituals—slow mornings and coffee at home and martinis at our go-to neighborhood French bistro to end the night."

Keren and Omer's vision was to create a deeply personal and communal celebration that truly reflected who they are as a couple. "From the very beginning, we envisioned a small, intimate celebration. With a modest budget and an abundance of creativity, we crafted an experience that felt complete and authentic - one that not only fulfilled our dream but also brought us even closer together as a family."

Alice and Will were married in London. "Less is more—focus on the feeling you want to create and build the day around that. We wanted to the day to feel intimate and elegant, without getting lost in the frenzy of the city. We held our ceremony at St James Piccadilly, which is a ten minute walk from the ICA—this meant there was a lovely pace to how the day unravelled as we could walk with everyone from the service to the drinks reception."

Petra and Eli were married in NYC where their love story began. "We surprised our guests with a performance of our wedding song instead of dancing to it. Petra learned La Vie En Rose in French just 30 days before the wedding, and only three people knew, including our vendors to ensure everything was set up. Keeping it a secret from everyone else, even our families, was challenging but so worth it. Seeing the reactions in the crowd made it a moment we’ll never forget."

"The most important thing for us was to create a celebration that felt like a true gathering of love - not just between the two of us, but among all the people who have shaped our lives. We saw our wedding as an opportunity to bring everyone we love together for a shared Tuscan escape - a few sun-drenched days of slowing down, reconnecting, and simply enjoying life side by side."

Alyssa and Laura had a small and intimate wedding with eight guests at The Sea Ranch Lodge. "Our wedding guests were so important to us. We really wanted to have people with us who were chill, matched our vibe and who have always supported us and been on our team. Because we were so selective in who we chose to spend that day with us, it was truly magic."

The wedding Christy and Daniel envisioned wasn’t stiff or staged. "It was meant to feel like an art film that had gone slightly off-script. Champagne, city lights, jazz echoing down marble halls, and the kind of energy that blurs elegance and abandon."

Simplicity and ease were Isobel and Samuel's biggest priorities. "We wanted the day to feel natural and effortless, yet still memorable for our family and friends. Since the venue was so close, we even started the morning at our favourite lido before easing into the afternoon."

"Caribbean people love — and I mean love — to party, or as Trinidadians say, fête. So we knew we had to throw a proper Caribbean fête, with the right blend of music, in the heart of Portugal. Our goal was for the entire weekend to feel like a continuous party, from start to finish, and for our guests to bond and come together as one by wedding day. "

For Coco and Grant the guest experience was important - "and so was not overspending on the small stuff. We wanted the weekend to feel thoughtful and welcoming, with affordable accommodation options, smooth transportation, and food everyone could enjoy. We moved our ceremony to Friday night, where the sun set as we shared our vows surrounded by loved ones who quite literally encircled us. That change created a long, relaxed celebration on Saturday, tornado warnings included."

Tatiana and Ryan were married in L.A. and wanted their wedding to feel like a living, breathing work of art—"an experience that reflected our love for creativity, community, and the Creator. In the Bahá’í Faith, art is considered an expression of worship, so we designed the ceremony as a form of prayer in motion."

Dani and Ben had a 'laid-back luxury' style wedding in Los Olivos, California. "Your wedding can be literally whatever you want it to be. There are no rules you need to follow. You don’t need to participate in any wedding traditions that aren’t meaningful to you— and you can invent new ones if you feel like it."

Ivy and Ian wanted their wedding to spark joy and be focused on allowing them to be present with their love the entire time. "We both work a lot and can be perfectionists: we knew we wanted to cherish our wedding and not feel stress surrounding it. As a result, we were really intentional about only planning details that made us excited – and not getting lost in the minutiae, the event production, and how others would perceive us."

When Bella and Tristan think about all the milestone moments in their lives; the night they met, when they got engaged, nights with friends, and celebrating with family, they all have a common thread; they were distinctly Melbourne. "Always with good food, a Brunswick Street backdrop and unpredictable weather. We wanted to make sure our wedding day was no different."

Phoebe and Danny planned their destination wedding in the South of France with around 30 guests in just four months. "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."

Sarah and James wanted to keep their elopement simple and stress-free. "We wanted the day to just be about us and enjoying the small moments together without the stress of looking after our guests. We both would rather spend the day with each other and have a private ceremony where we can be ourselves and share what we love about each other privately and we could not be happier with how the day turned out."

Tayla and Khy were married in Adelaide, where Tayla grew up. "It felt important for me to incorporate my Japanese heritage on the day. We held a sake ceremony to begin our night, and had one of our guests - an old family friend - to perform the ceremony. We had the sake barrel and wooden masu cups shipped from Japan. Sake was shared amongst our guests and the barrel was finished by the end of the night!"