Modern Wedding at Chapel Hill Winery in McLaren Vale // Alicia and Jeremy

Chapel Hill is a magical place for a wedding, and Alicia and Jeremy are a couple of magical people with a hilarious set of siblings that made for an extraordinarily enjoyable day for everyone involved. They dodged a 40 degree bullet by about 24 hours and were blessed with mid to high 20s and perfect wedding conditions.

Tell me about your The Beginning!

Alicia’s brother Jarrad played tennis with Jeremy along with a long time family friend of ours (Harry). Jeremy came to the Easter trip the family friends went on every year (along with the rest of their tennis team). So that was where we first met one another.
Then a couple of years later Jeremy helped organise Harry’s 21st with Harry’s sister Emma and that was where we reconnected.
I remember at the time my Mum had a theory about you’re not going to find your ‘life partner’ at a bar, you’re more likely to find it somewhere you have common interests like a sporting club. Eg like Tennis. At Harry’s 21st Mum, Jeremy and I were sitting together at one stage and she had this conversation with us. I don’t think she thought we would get together at the time but it was interesting in hindsight.

So then after the 21st, Jeremy messaged Alicia asking her out.

When and where did you get engaged?

Jeremy had finished up at his work of 12 years so took a week off before starting his next job. We’d organised to have a couple of nights at Lady Bay Resort at Normanville to get away and play a round of golf.

We drove down after work on the Wednesday, stopping to pick up some food on the way and Jeremy was fairly quiet after picking up the food. When we arrived he said, ‘we’ll eat first, then unpack the car’. We went inside and the lights were all off and when we came around the corner, there were balloons and fairy lights. And that’s when he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

What style/theme have you chosen for your Wedding Day?

We always thought we’d have a wedding at a winery. We’ve gone with a black and white theme, something that’s slightly formal and ‘classic’ that hopefully won’t date too quickly. We didn’t want to add too many colours to the mix either and The Retreat at Chapel Hill Winery is so pretty to begin with, that black and white seemed to fit in nicely.

What are you most looking forward to on the day?

When we first started talking about a wedding, ultimately we thought it would be nice to get all of our favourite people in life and throw a party for them. So I think being able to look at the people that have gathered for us will be really special.

Top Tips!

Don’t let other people’s expectations influence how you want the day to go. Lots of people in your life likely have an idea of what the day is going to look like and that may or may not align with your idea of the day. It took a lot to work out that it’s ok if that idea isn’t right for us.

If there is something that is important to your day, like a particular vendor, prioritise booking that as early as you can. For some things, we were able to book things later but that did start to limit the options available.