Woodstock Winery Wedding – Michelle & Ryan
Woodstock Winery Wedding Ceremony
The main appeal of having a Woodstock winery wedding in my book would have to be the beautiful picturesque, but still private surrounds of the winery. There is a large, open grassy area out the back of the main restaurant, lined by gum trees, bushes and of course the Woodstock winery’s vineyards nearby. Michelle and Ryan chose to set up their wedding ceremony so that the vineyards were the backdrop to their arbour.
The sun was out in full force throughout their ceremony, causing some rather harsh light shining on poor Michelle’s face, but thankfully the ceremony wasnt overly long and it also wasn’t so hot that it got uncomfortable – but the guests quickly found some shade before and after the ceremony.
The highlight of the ceremony would have to have been the moment when the exchanging of the rings was held up by Ryan and his best man’s antics where they faked forgetting the rings, only to reveal that their little dog was waiting in the wings with the rings tied around it’s collar.
Glamour Photos
What was a little different to most other weddings, was that directly after the Woodstock winery wedding ceremony, we immediately jumped into a bus waiting to take us down to the beach for the glamour photos – forgoing the usual family group photos that usually follow a ceremony. Michelle and Ryan had purposefully planned it this way so as to have a more relaxed, leasurely time down at the beach and to make sure they got all the photos they wanted.
I was quite excited by the copious number of flying seagulls in the air during Michelle and Ryan’s photoshoot on the beach, that it made it that much easier to have them smiling in their photos as they were laughing at my own antics being excited about the birds. Thankfully they held their distance away from us, along with another nearby wedding ceremony that was taking place a top the cliffs – nothing worse than gate crashing another wedding, but the birds made for an awesome backdrop in many of their photos!
After having photos on the beach, and posing for a Starwars themed photo, we then head back to Woodstock winery and used some lovely trees they have in their car park before being announced at the reception. During the reception, we head out for the family photos and used the dying sun for some photos amongst the nearby vineyards.
Woodstock Winery Wedding Reception
The wedding reception took place in the Woodstock winery’s beautiful two-tiered restaurant, with the head table in the center of the arc, and family tables lined up either side. There was no indoor dancefloor, so the first dance took place outside, and there was no shortage of people out there enjoying the wonderful, warm weather. Emotions were running high during the daddy daughter and monther, son dances with family members all joining in, and was lovely to see 🙂
Michelle and Ryan opted to have a cool, modern take on a wedding cake, having doughnuts piled up with a starwars themed topper, adding a little bit of quirkyness to the whole day.
I’d like to thank Michelle and Ryan for having me photograph their special day, and I hope they enjoy their photos!