Last week I had the pleasure of attending a flower arranging workshop with Liesa from Fleur De Lys Flowers.

We started by visiting the flower market to learn about what different types of flowers to choose for different reasons, how to pick a healthy bunch and had fun looking through all of the pretties!

Back at the workshop we were spoilt with a gift pack each, complete with scissors galore to get us started!

Liesa demonstrated how she goes about creating a gorgeous arrangement in a vase, giving us tips and tricks along the way…

We were then treated to a lovely lunch before we got to it with our own arranging!

And then this was what I produced…

I would highly recommend attending a Fleur De Lys workshop with Liesa!

Other workshops Fleur De Lys offers include flower crowns, bouquets, button holes, installations and more…

Contact her for all enquiries at: liesa@fleurdelysflowers.com.au

Well the last of an astounding five Love Cherish Adore wedding fairs is now sadly over with…and what an amazing day it was at Ayers House!

As sponsors of this fair, we were able to showcase our own display along with some amazing collaborations with other like minded vendors.

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The long table in the library was a take on a mad-hatters tea party with use of our teapots, teacups, trays, cake stands, tins and other mis-matched vintage goodies! Ayers House showcased their Chiavari chairs, while Lilli-Anthus stunned us with her floral expertise once again.

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Our timber barn trestle tables are a great match for the Conservatory, which is only one of the reception rooms on offer at Ayers House. Here we showedour mis-matched vintage plates, glassware and cutlery pretty vintage mix with the venue’s Bentwood chairs, Lilli-Anthus’ floral centrepieces in their crystal vases and our brand new Copper place cards holders, which Jess Matthews Design hand wrote each place card.

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The lawns out the front of the venue offer the perfect setting for a ceremony, where we were able to show what a real-life ceremony would look like, complete with our birch and timber arbours, signing table and our mis-matched vintage timber chairs.

Arbour greenery & aisle flowers – Lilli-Anthus // Artwork on By The Oaktree chalkboards – Jess Matthews Design  // Clear Marquee – Adelaide Hills Party Hire

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See you next year! xo

The biggest appeal of a DIY event? It’s creative and cost saving, right?

Creative, most definitely! You can find endless projects online these days, especially with inspiration from Pinterest and Instagram. DIY allows you to add your own personal touch to your event — and if done well, it can produce amazing results!

However, the biggest consideration for DIY is the cost. That’s the main reason why people opt for DIY — to save money.

So, I now write to you as a bride who did everything DIY for her own wedding. We spent SO much time and money sourcing paper, fabrics, vases, jars, chairs, crockery, glassware and so many other vintage pieces to create our own unique wedding. At the time we thought DIY would be much cheaper than forking out money for a wedding planner and hiring all the decorations and wedding pieces ourselves.

My husband and I knew we wanted to do it ourselves, but we were faced with 2 options. We could either buy everything and then try and sell it all afterwards (to get our money back). Or, buy everything and start our own vintage styling business afterwards, hiring out everything we bought for our own wedding.

We chose the latter and this is how By The Oaktree started. In our case, it worked out very well for us, because it was a business expense. But from experience, I can tell you that it was a costly exercise — time consuming, expensive and required a huge amount of storage space.

So, does DIY REALLY mean you save heaps of money?

By the time you pay for materials, spend time working on projects (this can be days or even months), and possibly making some mistakes along the way, it actually doesn’t end up much cheaper at all. Unless you’re a DIY wizard with magical powers, DIY weddings, can actually make your wedding planning more stressful and time consuming.

My advice, as someone who has been there; leave it to the professionals. Let them use their knowledge to help you create a beautiful event that you can enjoy the lead up, as well as the actual event, whatever that may be!

I hope that helps, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me,

Jenna xx

After working closely with a lovely couple of ours who had only 6 months to plan their wedding and with both of them working busy full time jobs, it opened our eyes to how many great contacts and relationships we have within the wedding industry!

So after considering how we could assist more couples like this, we are excited to launch…

>>> A Different Type of Wedding Planner <<<

Listening to the future Mr & Mrs H, we were able to match vendors with their personalities and style straight away. By The Oaktree then made contact with each of them to obtain quotes, which were then all sent through to the couple for them to look over on weekends and make adjustments and decisions.

As we were also styling their special day with our vintage props, we were able to offer a lot of advice as to what things would work together and other things that wouldn’t. As the bride said ‘I only care what my dress looks like and you (BTO) can do everything else’…we were there to offer advice on celebrants that would match their personalities, colours of flowers that would work together with the dresses and stationary along with details about where the ceremony should be held so that the photographer could get the best backdrop on the day.

As my background is in interior design (I also worked on their new home too!) I was able to draw up optional table seating plans to see how it would best work for them to fit all of their guests into the space along with the dance floor, bar, lounge area and of course the cake!

Looking forward to sharing the photos with you in 5 months time! Yes it only took us a month to plan their whole wedding and now they can sit back and enjoy the ride…Kitchen Tea and Hens Night planning is up next!

A Different Type Of Wedding Planner

Our experience in the industry and relationships with all contacts allows us to judge which vendors we think will be suited to your individual personalities and of course the style of wedding you are dreaming of. The worst thing that can happen on your one special day is to be let down by someone or their product (trust me we know from our own wedding!)

Initial consult – $290

The consult will include the following:

• 2 hour consult to go through the plans for your wedding
• identifying your style and vision for your wedding day
• establish what you have already booked or planned
• go through our checklist of what needs to be done and in what order

After our meeting, we will provide you with documented information about what we have discussed and contact details for quality vendors who we feel will be best suited to you and your style. We will also contact them to let them know a brief background about your wedding.

After a little more guidance – $350-$750

• Another 1-2 hour consult to get more detail about what colours, themes, looks etc. you are aiming for. If you have booked your venue, we would love to meet you there, as this helps to visualise how everything will work together.
• On your behalf, we will liaise with those suppliers that we feel would be best suited to you and organise quotes that will then be forwarded on to you.

If you decide that you need our assistance further for things like floor/seating plans, meetings with vendors etc. we can work out custom pricing for you!

Contact me for more info.

Jenna x

Last November By The Oaktree had the absolute pleasure of using so many of our wonderful props to style this stunning wedding at Bungaree Station in Clare.

Olivia was a bride with a clear style in mind came to us with many ideas, but was open to our suggestions to create the most perfect day.

Their family was so welcoming and helpful, letting us know that every aspect of the day reflected the couples style and vision for their wedding!

A HUGE thank you to Evan Bailey Photography for providing us with the below images. For more of their wedding, check out the Real Events section of our Gallery on our website.