JESS X EVAN

dan evans photography adelaide real weddings

wedding date 27 march 2021

83 wedding guests

Evan + Jess had recently travelled back to Adelaide from Canada the weekend that they met for his best friends wedding and was only in Adelaide for 5 weeks. "Evan and I met on a night out in late 2017, Evan was on a punters night with his friends and I had been at the polo. We ended up at the same bar in Glenelg, Adelaide. I had never previously felt the whole love at first sight feeling until I had seen Evan across the dance floor and we connected instantly! Unsure whether it was his Spanish dance moves or the gins, but we spent the next 24 hours with each other after this moment."

Evan then went on to travel to Japan (a pre arranged trip before they had met) before making his way back to Canada. "6 weeks after we met, I flew over to Canada for a spontaneous trip to reconnect with Evan and we travelled throughout Canada. As irrational as it sounds we then made the decision to both move to the UK, a dream of Evans and to start a life in London. We had been together all but 3 months before we packed our bags and jetted off to start a new life in London. It was fun and life changing at the same time.

In 2018 we made our way back to Adelaide and I quickly fell pregnant to our first child Poppy.

dan evans photography adelaide real weddings

the proposal.

Together for almost three years, Jess + Evan were travelling in a campervan with their daughter Poppy around Kangaroo Island giving support back to the community after the 2020 bushfires. "I had just been for a run along a beach one windy morning and found Evan and Poppy standing on a cliff top waiting for me. Evan gave me a beautiful shell and said “isn’t this pretty cool”? I tossed it back to him and said “yeah great find”. He then persisted on me holding the shell and low and behold a diamond ring was inside. Evan and Poppy then sat down on one knee and asked me to marry them. I just about fainted at this moment in time! I absolutely said yes.

the venue.

Evan and I started our own business within the wedding industry once we moved back from London. Being a carpenter, Evan built a vintage caravan bar from scratch and turned this into one of our first mobile bars. We built our business around event hire and awesome bar services, something which lacked in Adelaide at the time. In 2020 we decided to start our 3rd business idea together, Glenberrie Place. It was our home property built on 8 acres of parklike land with grazing horses and beautiful woodlock areas for ceremonies. It wasn’t hard to decide that home was where we wanted to hold our wedding.

wedding theme.

We are always inspired by nature and creative people at heart so our wedding was nothing but eventful with the goal of being as sustainable as we possibly could.

We wanted guests to be able to have an absolute blast at our wedding day with entertainment and also forever flowing cocktails.

Our style was a mix of boho with touches of beach elegance. From giant tipis through to bamboo bars and canopy draped festoon lighting. We chose to opt for Hampton type cane chairs with loads of white cushions and also a kids hang out zone as we wanted parents to feel as though their kids were welcome at the wedding.

favourite moment.

The feeling of excitement before walking down the aisle with our daughter and standing next to Evan on the day.

favourite detail.

The fire dancers, hands down these guys were such entertainment. We had the team at Dragon Mill choreograph our first wedding dance, the feeling of fire dancers waving their fire batons around you was unreal. The dancers were a highlight of our day and provided epic entertainment to break up the night.

gown + suit shopping.

Being in the wedding industry ourselves we had seen a lot of dresses and suits for ideas. I felt quite lucky that I had met Penny who owns Ara Experience at a photoshoot who helped design and create my dream wedding dress. Evans experience shopping for suits was pretty seamless. He found a colour scheme on Pinterest and then we spent a morning suit shopping and found relatively close to Evan’s ideal suit. Shoes on the other hand for the groomsmen proved to be more time consuming including weighing in on cost factors for x5 pairs of shoes.

what does marriage mean to you?

Marriage to us was a formal way of representing our love, it was eternal and forever lasting. It also symbolised family with our precious daughter Poppy.

classic stories.

There are always the classic who’s family is going to embarrass you the most at a wedding. Unfortunately my (Jess’s) family took the cake on this one. My Dad, a countryman at heart isn’t a huge fan of suits so as soon as the ceremony finished he disappeared and returned wearing his jeans and Merrel boots. Dads staple attire. This sure made our friends laugh and I am glad was able to showcase his true colours on our wedding day.

advice.

Showcase your true style, be creative and if you are handy on the tools, make your own arbours or details for your wedding. Borrow items from family for styling and try consider the environment with your details as so much is disposed after your day.

standout vendors.

All of our vendors were honestly a dream team, from the lengthy conversations with our celebrant Cherie on trying to pin us down to write vows to her husband and his team assembling three giant tipis working in with our reception space. Our florist, Bonnie Blooms for her creativity and flexibility with creating the most amazing growing florals on a mini naked tipi. We couldn’t thank our vendors enough for their work.