A Chic Garden Celebration in Ibiza

Photography by Tali Photography for Megan and Duane.

With its ebullient culture, sun-drenched skies and kaleidoscopic coast layered in hues of green and blue – it’s no surprise that Ibiza has long enticed many-the romantic soul to its shoreline.

For Megan and Duane, the island is deeply entrenched in their love story. Playing host to their first date together, Ibiza sparked the flame that would see their paths poetically entwine; leading them to settle, then marry there at a celebration imbued with personal sentiment.

Set within the sumptuous gardens of villa ‘Casa Dreamaway’, Megan and Duane’s wedding was a chic and leisurely affair. Vows were exchanged before an arbor of dark foliage and crisp white roses, the bride magnetic in a beaded Pallas Couture gown. Post-ceremony, dinner was served beneath balmy skies at tables styled with monochromatic detail.

Capturing all the magic from behind the lens was Tali Photography.

Our Story

Names / Megan & Duane

Wedding Date / 4^th May 2019

Guest Numbers / 100

How We Met

We actually met through Duane’s father, in not the most conventional way. Going back 10 years ago, my friend Ana was dating Duane’s father at the time (he is known for his younger girlfriends) and she invited me to stay at her then boyfriend’s house in Marbella for the weekend. This was where I met Duane, we felt an instant connection and kept in touch, as it so happened we were both spending the summer in Ibiza. We shared our first date in a beautiful converted old church restaurant called Sa Capella and here we are 10 years later with our beautiful two-year-old daughter, Myla.

Our Engagement Story

We got engaged in Formentera in 2014. Duane had chartered a boat for the day with our closest friends and we sailed from Ibiza to Formentera. We stopped at Beso Beach for lunch, and I now know that he had initially planned to whisk me away for a romantic beach walk, however, I think I may of have had one too many glasses of sangria at lunch and this idea was postponed! Later that evening we checked into a beautiful boutique hotel in the village of Sant Francesc and our friends sailed back to Ibiza. While walking around town, we stopped inside a beautiful church doorway, he dropped down to one knee and we both immediately burst into tears of happiness…of course I said yes!

Marriage to us means…

A promise to love and support each other, to help each other grow and to always stay present and enjoy every moment together as a family. To Duane, this also happens to mean throwing a great party!

The Details

Wedding Location

Ibiza holds a very special place in our hearts. It’s where we had our first date and where we have chosen to settle and bring up our daughter. We couldn’t imagine having our wedding anywhere else. ‘Casa Dreamaway’ was the perfect choice for us – a modern villa in the countryside, complete with beautiful gardens and plenty of open space, meaning we could create the perfect intimate celebration and not to mention the nightclub in the basement where the party continued into the early hours!

Event Aesthetic & Inspiration

I would say we complimented the style of the villa and combined modern, minimal styling with the beautiful rustic garden setting.

Photography

As soon as we saw Tali’s work we immediately fell in love, her photos are incredible. We absolutely loved her style and the tones she uses are just amazing. Her work is very unique and unlike a lot of photographers that we had come across before. Lisa from Isla & Smith also works a lot with Tali, so it was a match made in heaven to have them both together. We were completely blown away by the pictures Tali took, she captured everything perfectly and her creative direction ensured we got the couple shots that we had hoped for. Not only is Tali an incredibly talented photographer, but she is also a lovely person and brought such an amazing positive energy to the day.

Fashion Notes

Bride’s Dress

My dream dress was custom made by the fabulous team at Pallas Couture. After scrolling through Instagram and Pinterest for hours on end, I fell in love the ‘Diorella’ gown and was even considering the flight to Sydney as I knew this was the one, but I couldn’t find any European stockists of this particular dress. After asking the Pallas team a million questions over email, I was so excited to hear they announced a London trunk show. It was here that I met the amazing Rebecca from Pallas who helped make custom changes to the dress to make it absolutely perfect. Once the finished dress arrived it was even more magical than I had imagined. It really did exceed even my highest of expectations, I was blown away and couldn’t stop trying it on!

My evening dress was from the Pallas Collective range. I wanted something easy to dance away the night in yet still have that wow factor, so as soon I as saw ‘La Robe’, I knew this would be more than perfect. The detailing looked amazing in the evening light and I loved the combination of the bell sleeves and scalloped skirt. There is an endless choice for wedding dress designers but I feel so lucky to have worked with Pallas as they really did make my wedding dress dreams come true.

Bride’s Shoes

My shoes were a nude suede scalloped sandal by Prada from Net-a-Porter.

Bridesmaids Dresses

My bridesmaids wore custom made designs by Rebecca Rhoades. I liked so many different elements from various dresses and really wanted to combine them all to make the perfect dresses for the girls. We opted for a cowl neck slip dress with a low back and side slit in a beautiful white silky fabric.

Flowergirl/Pageboy Outfits

Our daughter wore a custom made dress from Little Eglantine. This was a white dress with a peter pan collar, a small black bow at the neck and black piping around the waist. Myla also wore matching shoes with black suede bows.

Wedding Rings

A friend of Duane’s father worked closely with Duane to custom make my engagement ring and created a raised princess cut diamond set on two interweaving bands, one paved with small diamonds and the other plain platinum. To match, I opted for my wedding ring to be a fully paved band set with small diamonds. Duane chose to have a flat brushed platinum wedding band.

Jewelry & Accessories

As my dress had so much detail, the only jewelry piece I chose to wear was my Grandmother’s original engagement ring she received from my Grandad when they first became engaged. It was a slim, gold art deco band with a small circular diamond. As it held a lot of sentimental value, it meant a lot for me to be able to wear it.

Groomsmen’s Attire

Duane wore a custom three-piece dinner suit in midnight blue from Thom Sweeney with a black bow tie, black patent loafers from Duke + Dexter and finished with sunglasses from Thom Browne during the day

Hair

I always wear my hair down so I couldn’t imagine having it any different. The very talented Faye Browne styled my hair into her signature Hollywood Waves that lasted perfectly even with all the late-night dancing!

Makeup

My makeup artist was Lauren Buckley, I absolutely love her work so was very excited to have Lauren be a part of the wedding. I don’t tend to wear a lot of makeup day-to-day, so I wanted a natural yet flawless look with hints of copper and nude tones.

Style Notes

Stationery

I actually designed the wedding invitations myself combining a minimal design with copper letterpress on thick, grey textured card, copper gilt edging and finished with a matching envelope sealed with grey wax decorated with copper foil. As we had guests flying in from around the world, we used the website www.withjoy.com for our guests to RSVP.

For our ‘on the day’ wedding stationery, we used Isla & Smith’s favourite, Vine in the Wild. They created our welcome board, seating plan and wedding menus with modern, minimal styling.

Favors

For our wedding favors, we chose a mixture of black, white and grey agate coasters finished with a copper edge. I did initially think a few may be left over after the dinner and I would keep these for the house, but there wasn’t a single coaster left, so I think they went down pretty well with the guests!

Flowers & Bouquets

For the bridal bouquet, we chose long stem white roses neatly tied with black suede ribbon into a long, loose bow. The bridesmaids then had smaller versions and we had a mini version for our beautiful flower girl.

Videography

As for the videography, we chose Infin8 Images. I have known Garry for many years and more recently Bianca too, so it made it extra special to have them be a part of our day. They shot our video in a cinematic style and we absolutely loved it, they really did capture every element and we definitely shed a few tears when we watched it back. Both Garry and Bianca really did go above and beyond creating our wedding film and I can’t thank them enough.

Preparation

The night before the wedding, Duane and his Groomsmen stayed at the Ibiza Gran Hotel and had a nice relaxing morning in the spa whilst I stayed at the villa ‘Casa Dreamaway’ with the Bridal Party. We started the day with a healthy breakfast and fresh juices delivered to the villa, making sure we were feeling our best inside and out and ready for the exciting day ahead. I had matching beautiful nude robes with bell sleeves made from Monde Noble as gifts for the bridesmaids which matched my longer version to wear during the morning. We also had our wedding singer Bluey Robinson perform his soundcheck whilst we were getting ready, so this provided us with the perfect soundtrack.

Ceremony & Reception Décor

Both myself and my wedding stylist Lisa were heavily influenced by all the Australian floral designs and décor ideas we had pinned on one of our many Pinterest boards. The ceremony was held at the bottom of the garden overlooking the countryside surrounding the villa. For this area, the black metal arch was a key piece of the décor. Combining my love for bright white roses with eucalyptus leaves, olive branches and plenty of dark green foliage, the florist created the most stunning floral arch. The welcome and seating boards were also decorated with more roses, dark foliage and white orchids to match.

We loved the look of having two long tables in the garden for the reception and hung pontoon lighting draped at different levels overhead. We had quite a minimal look for the tables using white linen, black napkins, clear vases with white roses and foliage, long tapered black candles and agate coasters. We decorated our bride and groom chairs with olive branches and white roses to make them extra special. To bring the look together around the villa, we also decorated the stone staircase with cascading dark foliage and pillar candles and had the main bar covered with more foliage too.

Wedding Stylist/Planner

I was so happy to be working with Lisa from Isla & Smith. Lisa’s creative vision was exactly what I had hoped for and completely embodied the Aussie inspired style I loved. We spent hours sending each other inspirational photos that we had found to create the perfect look. I knew with Lisa I could implicitly trust her ideas which made the day come together seamlessly and her attention to detail blew me away. I absolutely loved the experience of planning the wedding with Lisa, and I feel very grateful to now have her as a friend so I can still send inspo photos – however, these are now normally clothes we want to buy instead!

Food and Beverages

On arrival, guests were greeted with champagne and canapes and then after the ceremony enjoyed various cocktails and drinks from one of our two fully stocked bars. For the reception, we decided to have a formal sit down dinner where guests experienced a Mediterranean-influenced menu using seasonal produce including freshly carved jamon, burrata and local prawns to start, followed by a choice of miso salmon with papaya salad, or a local favourite Iberico Pork for main. To finish, guests shared dessert platters filled with a selection of Belgian white chocolate mousse, mango and passionfruit cheesecake, dark chocolate tiffin and avocado and lime tart. We were kindly gifted a personalised six-litre ‘Methuselah’ bottle of champagne from Veuve Cliquot, so we used this to fill everyone’s glasses for the toasts throughout dinner. We were also sure to have the local Heirbas liquor on hand for any celebratory ‘chupitos’.

For our late night snacks, we hired ‘Pizza Guy’, who freshly made and cooked pizzas in front of our guests and he threw them in the air to entertain everyone too!

Cake

We incorporated our love for marble into the three-tier wedding cake combining a grey marble effect with rough edging and gold leaf details. For the filling, we opted for chocolate orange.

Wedding Songs

Ceremony – Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve performed by a Violinist Duo

Post ceremony – You’ve Got The Love by Candi Station

Reception entrance – Volare by Gipsy Kings

First dance – As by Stevie Wonder performed by Bluey Robinson

Entertainment

We had a violinist duo playing during the ceremony and through the cocktail hour, followed by a local island DJ Nick Holmes who played the perfect selection of easy listening yet uplifting music to set the tone for the day. For our first dance, we felt very honoured to have Bluey Robinson perform with his band. We knew there was no one else that could sing Stevie Wonder as well as Bluey and he did not disappoint, his voice really is unbelievable. Covering songs like Prince’s ‘Raspberry Beret’, Earth, Wind & Fire’s ‘September’, and Stevie Wonder’s ‘All I Do’ – they had everyone on the dance floor!

Afterwards, we had another local island DJ Andy Baxter playing some dance classics until we moved down to the club in the basement where a few of our DJ friends took to the decks including Duane’s cousin, and we danced until the early morning hours.

Gift Registry

Gifts were not necessary as our guests’ presence was a gift in itself. However, for guests that did insist we asked for a charitable donation. We felt inspired by what Duane’s friend Kai had created with The Abode Project building a school in Uganda and providing free education for over 100 children. We feel very fortunate to have raised just under €10,000 and are in touch with The Abode Project to find out how we can help more children.

Celebrant

As our celebrant we chose our friend Emma David who flew in from Bali especially for us, it meant a lot to have someone who knew us personally marry us. Emma has the most beautiful energy and her service was meaningful and from the heart.

Readings

For us, one of the most special parts of the day was our vows. They were written by each of us with a little help from Emma. They were completely personal and created with a lot of love and emotion – when Duane read his vows I don’t think there was a dry eye. Duane’s brother had written a poem for us which he read during the ceremony and it fitted in perfectly.

Honeymoon

We chose to fly into Rome on the following Monday after the wedding. We hired a car and drove straight to the Tuscan countryside where we stayed at the beautiful Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco, we spent a few days here exploring local towns, eating, drinking and taking in the picturesque rolling hills. We then stayed at the Belmond Vila San Michele just outside of Florence in Fiesole, which gave us picture-perfect views over the city. We had the most amazing time away just the two of us, but coming back home was made a little easier as we really did miss our daughter.

Special Details

Sources of Inspiration

Both my wedding stylist/planner Lisa and I drew a lot of inspiration from both Instagram and Pinterest and of course The Lane, we made so many mood boards between us. Lisa has also created some of the most beautiful weddings herself, so I was happy to have her guidance throughout the planning. 

A Memorable Moment

Standing together in front of our friends and loved ones reading our vows – it really was a special moment.

If I could give other Brides-To-Be one Piece of Advice

It all goes so quickly, be sure to stay present and enjoy every second of the planning process as well as the actual day. Before you know it, you will be looking back at the photos and videos wondering where the time has gone!