When Jared and Jonell asked if they could have their wedding at the farm, the bush fires were just starting up around our area.  We were in the possible projected path of the fire that devastated Nymboida, so we held off giving out the invites at that time because we weren’t sure if we’d have a farm to have the wedding at.  We luckily got through the fires untouched, but as the drought grew worse over summer, the thought of having a wedding on our dry dead grass overlooking the dried up dam wasn’t appealing either.  Christmas came and brought a bit of rain which was beautiful but not enough to fill up the dam… we had to wait until mid January when the heavens opened and filled the dam in 1 day.  Everything turned green pretty much instantly  and we were back on track to having a beautiful wedding at the farm.

February came and the rain just kept coming…which bought new challenges.  Half our dirt road washed away and left us with huge pot holes and ditches, the grass grew so fast and the ground was soggy which made mowing difficult.  When the guys came to put the marquee up two days before the wedding, they upgraded us from the elegant wedding marquee to the corporate heavy duty marquee since the ground was still soggy and the forecast was for more rain and possible storms.  Even with the heavy duty marquee they still weren’t confident about putting the marquee up under those conditions.

But after all of that worry (and heaps of prayers) the day turned out perfect.  It was overcast with light cool breezes and the forecasted rain held off from the time we put the marquee up until after the wedding was over and everyone had left! The ground dried out enough that our guests didn’t need gumboots, and the rain started back up again after everyone had packed up and left…how perfect was that!

Here’s the official video of the wedding thanks to Jareds brother Jardian Ormsby for capturing it all on video and putting it together for us!  The ceremony was performed at the Brisbane Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the reception was at our farm the next day…yes a two day wedding!

The preps

A lot of work was put into preparing for this wedding.  From cutting down logs, to building the dance floor and teepee, keeping up with the mowing and ground keeping, fixing up the dirt road, making signs, decorations, hiring and decorating the marquee, tables, chairs, organising catering equipment, the food, preparing the pork and lamb from scratch (yes from alive to plate) and figuring out how we’d cook them for 160 people, making sure we had enough generators and power …and the list goes on…here’s some pics and videos

Building the dance floor thanks to Enoka for his carpentry expertise

Putting up the teepee

Filling up the holes in the dirt road, cutting logs, preparing the bonfire and making signs

The spit roast.  Stafford had no idea how he was going to cook the spit roasts until the day before the wedding.  We had these metal frames that he put together with some corrugated iron that was lying around the place.  The spit rotisseries are portable and adjustable so he was able to adjust the height and width apart from the hot coals as he needed.  The corrugated iron at the bottom allowed air to flow through the fire and the corrugated iron on the top kept the heat in. Yep, Stafford is an outside the box thinker! It worked perfectly by the way…the roast was moist and the guests were happy.

Getting the final things in place

With everything in place, the girls were the first to test the photobooth inside the teepee

The marquee looked beautiful thanks to Jareds Mother and her good friend Sherri for all their hard work with the decorations

We even had a sing-a-long with Stafford

Everyone danced the night away thanks to our awesome DJ Boz and MC CJ!

Wishing Jonell and Jared all the best for their eternity together