Refined country-luxe for Ryan and Corey’s Bendooley Estate wedding

A “nightmare” proposal set the stage for a dream wedding for Ryan and Corey at the beautiful Bendooley Estate.

110 guests were invited to celebrate the marriage of Ryan and Corey at amongst rolling Southern Highlands wine country at Bendooley Estate. The evening consisted of generous helpings of laughter, dancing, and delicious food.

After carefully selecting rings together, Ryan put secret plans in place for a romantic proposal on their anniversary, at the lookout where he first asked Corey out. “At was an absolute nightmare,” remembers Ryan.  “Corey was being an absolute brat and refused to go because it was raining. so I literally had to force him into the car!”

The jig was truly up when the not-very-stealth photographer, who had been hired to capture the moment, came up and asked, “Are you Ryan?” Talk about ruining the moment! Luckily the most important part of Ryan’s proposal went perfectly to plan with a resounding “yes” from Corey.

Thankfully, the organisation of the couple’s modern, classic wedding celebration for 110 guests was much smoother. It was Bendooley Estate’s delicious rustic fare, inspired by the seasons of the Southern Highlands, that sealed the deal for Ryan and Corey.

“Obviously we wanted a venue that looked amazing, but it was really important to both of us that our guests left with their bellies full,” says Ryan. “Some of our family members had been to weddings at Bendooley Estate before and loved the food— as soon as we had our tasting at the venue we were sold!”

On the day of their wedding, Ryan and Corey both wore custom-made white tuxedos by InStitchu. Not wanting to be dressed exactly the same, the grooms personalised their weddings day looks by choosing their own bow ties, shoes, and rings.

The ceremony took place against the backdrop of the big barn doors of The Stable at Bendooley Estate. When the ceremony concluded, the doors were opened allowing the wedding party to flow seamlessly into canapé and cocktail hour. A final reveal took place at dinner time with the curtains opening up to reveal the long tables and statement windows beyond.

For their first dance, Ryan and Corey put on a show-stopping performance complete with matching  gold hot pants. Any regrets? “I wish we had added dry ice to give our first dance a real wow factor!”  says Ryan. “Other than that, honestly we would do almost everything in our wedding exactly the same.”

For our wedding we wanted a venue that was really memorable— something that was classic and rustic, but modern. As soon as we found The Stables at Bendooley Estate on Easy Weddings, we both knew it was the one. We didn’t even look at any other venues. We were in love when we did our first inspection.

Ryan & Corey

This modern rustic wedding at Bendooley Estate was captured beautifully by The Evoke Company.

“We had our suits custom made by the team at InStitchu and decided to go with a classic white tux.”

 We loved getting to choose the little details and really personalise our suits for the big day.

Ryan

Photos courtesy of The Evoke Company.

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