Merve & Lucas - January 29th 2022
As wedding photographers themselves, Merve and Lucas took inspiration for their day from many of the past couples whose weddings they had photographed over the years. With a vision of having a wedding that was simple, elegant and warm, Lucas knew Stones of the Yarra Valley was exactly the right place. It was a day filled with beautiful emotion as their culturally and religiously different families came together and with a a tribe of their dream suppliers, there is not a moment of this day you won’t adore.
HOW DID YOU MEET?
We met exactly 6 years ago at the Portsea Hotel on Australia Day weekend. We actually coincidently booked our wedding the same weekend 6 years later. Weird.
We never exchanged numbers and we didn't really know a lot about each other but the following week, I bumped into him at a club. We never had intentions on being together at the time and jokingly even said "don't fall in love to each other" and here we are. We couldn't have fallen any harder.
WHO PROPOSED AND HOW?
Like everyone else in the year of 19’, we had dreams of travelling to Europe. It was actually my first year of booking international weddings as a wedding photographer, and both of us are super business savvy people where we put our hearts and souls into what we love doing most, so this was going to be the perfect excuse to make a holiday out of it. I had one in Turkey, in Italy, New York and also Bali. Lucas had plans to propose in Notting Hill as it's one of my favourite movies, however due to the pandemic, we didn't have a lot of travelling options. We're not overly romantic people where we over-plan for things and make it an extravagant thing to be honest, and once we realised we weren't getting out of lockdown any time soon, he proposed in our kitchen while I was in my robe when we had 8:00pm curfews. I had just done my nails at the time, and jokingly I was recording and saying to him "I'm ready for that ringgggg" and at the time he said to me “oh are you recording, keep recording" and next thing I knew was he was pulling out a ring and I was yelling "OMG SHUT UP, ARE YOU SERIOUS. NO WAY!!!!!" So technically I still haven't said yes to his proposal. I took the ring and ran for my life.
Tell us a little about the planning and design process...
When we had gotten engaged, we were in lockdown and the last thing I wanted to do was to think about our own wedding so we booked exactly a year and 10 months before the big day, so that I was able to concentrate on our couples weddings, especially with so many postponed weddings at the time. I also booked all of our suppliers roughly a year and 10 months out from our wedding. I knew that if I wanted to book the people I really wanted to work with, I had to get onto it straight away. Fortunately and unfortunately enough, great wedding suppliers tend to book out quite far in advance. Once everything was booked in, I spent that year focusing on our couples and roughly the 10-6 months mark was mainly just sourcing inspiration.
WHAT WAS IT ABOUT STONES OF THE YARRA VALLEY THAT MADE YOU CHOOSE US?
From start to finish everything was absolutely seamless.
Lucas always wanted to get married at Stones and I had heard incredible things about the venue. At this point I hadn't photographed Stones before as we were in lockdown but I trusted his word and everything else I heard from others. I remember once we were out of lockdown and working, a few of our booked weddings were at the venue and I was in complete awe of how everything ran. This made me so much more excited for our wedding.
I mean, the venue in itself is the most beautiful and picturesque place but the team just makes everything that much better. I remember on our wedding day saying to the staff, 'I knew you guys were good but now seeing everything on the other end, I can't believe how incredible you guys actually are. Vonnie and Steve have put their heart and soul into creating the most magical venue in Victoria and a team of incredible people. This really shines through the team's energy. Aside from being the most picturesque place, everything was just flawless. the food, the staff, the overall environment and they are honestly great people. Everything is genuinely authentic and they genuinely care about your wedding day.
Thank you again to the beautiful team at Stones for creating the most magical wedding for us! Everything was perfect and we can't wait to come back for weddings we're photographing, lunch/dinner and our friends' weddings too!
What was the inspiration for the look and feel of the day?
To be completely honest, there was so much inspiration sourced from our very own couples who we photograph. We get to be a part of so many gorgeous weddings that we were able to use towards our inspiration. There was also a lot of Pinterest boards.
I always had a vision of having a wedding that was just simple, elegant and warm.
When viewing wedding blogs or magazines what did you find most useful? (eg. Inspiration via real weddings, inspiration through styled shoots, articles or information on specific suppliers).
I didn’t read a lot about weddings. I mainly just looked at photographs on Instagram, Pinterest and that was pretty much it for me. Being a wedding photographer of-course helped in so many ways as we’re able to see what works, what doesn’t.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE PART DURING YOUR CEREMONY?
The most memorable moment of our wedding day was our first look. It was honestly the most heartwarming, most romantic and emotional thing I have ever experienced. Marrying Lucas brought out a whole new love language between us I never knew existed. We're generally full of banter, lots of business meetings over dinners and simply best mates. Those that know us well, know we rarely ever get overly lovey dovey; so this was really different for the both of us. Although we didn't go to Notting Hill, during our first look - we played "she by Elvis Costello" and I literally bawled my eyes out. Usually I see grooms reacting in such a way, but seeing Lucas as a groom from both perspectives of a creative and a bride was the most incredible thing I have ever felt. It was that very moment where I said to myself "he is literally the most handsome groom I have ever seen, I can't wait to photograph him".
I really wanted to do a first look as seeing each other for the first time was really important for me to keep this moment sacred. This might sound contradicting, but the moment was particularly important for me to feel real emotions and to be completely honest, I was petrified of seeing him for the first time in front of all of our family and friends. I wanted us to enjoy an intimate moment just the two of us with hopes that I would be a little less nervous during our ceremony.
The whole time during our first look I bawled my eyes out. It was an unexplainable feeling. I think seeing him for the first time, seeing myself on the other end as a bride, seeing our two culturally and religiously different families come together to celebrate us was incredibly emotional. I couldn't stop crying from happiness and we were both in a romance bubble.
Although we had done a first look, during our ceremony, we both teared up. I think we both just felt so happy that we could share that very moment with our nearest and dearest ones.
DID YOU WRITE YOUR OWN VOWS? IF SO, WHAT MADE YOU DO THAT?
We wrote our own vows and couldn't recommend this more. It was a moment for both of us to be truly authentic and raw with one another in front of all of our family & friends.
What was the best piece of wedding advice you received?
Take in every single moment and truly enjoy it. Because it really does go by so quickly!
WHAT WAS THE BEST THING YOU DID AT YOUR WEDDING?
Book Stones 100%. Honestly everything about the wedding was incredible. Our vendors, family / friends. Everything was just perfection.
WHAT DOES MARRIAGE MEAN TO YOU NOW?
Family.
Do you have any advice for couples who are currently planning their weddings?
Don't overthink what could go wrong. Focus on the positives, and whatever is meant to happen will happen. Of-course in saying that, plan for exactly what you envision for your wedding day. We didn't hold back on booking the suppliers we wanted and it was everything we could have asked for on our special day.
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT WHAT LIFE IS LIKE NOW…
Well we're currently in New York writing this in our 19th floor apartment overlooking the beautiful city. We've just finished photographing a wedding in California and now heading to Italy to photograph some more beautiful weddings and enjoy our honeymoon in our motherland. We absolutely can't wait for what the future holds!
