Choosing the venue (and date)
We had decided we wanted a wedding in February prior to searching for a venue.
We were looking for a venue either near the beach or in the Dandenongs.
There were no beach venues big enough (160 minimum) or close enough to home, that we liked.
We called Nathania because we knew a few people who had held their reception there and recommended it, and got them to send information to us.
It wasn’t until we actually went to Nathania and looked around, that we became impressed with the really lovely ambience of the venue, and, in contrast to some other places, we realised that this venue was completely appropriate for a wedding reception. After visiting the first time, we really couldn’t go past Nathania, so we set a date with them.
Planning
James and I had no idea about what needed to be done to organise a wedding reception.
From the moment we booked our wedding, until the final days before the wedding, Nathania continually prompted us with what needed to be organised next.
They had extensive paperwork that guided us through every step of the planning.
It was really comforting for us to know that a wedding professional (Jean-Francois) and team had our best interests at heart, and as such we didn’t have to panic about any aspect of the planning.
Challenges
We only encountered a couple of minor challenges in relation to our wedding reception.
One was trying to squeeze 160 people, as well as a large band, into the venue (we also had 10 on the bridal table).
Jean-Francois worked very hard on moving the tables around so that we could fit everyone in, and he made sure we were happy with his final arrangement of the tables.
On the night there was plenty of space, plenty of dance floor and everyone fit so we were extremely happy with this!
The other challenge was perhaps refining the menu so that the Italian family members we had coming would be satisfied with the food they were eating!
This was a big deal for us and Jean-Francois understood this implicitly and created a menu to reflect our needs and tastes.
When we had our trial meal, we (parents and us) were able to suggest changes, which didn’t seem to be a problem for Nathania to organise on our wedding day.
James’ dad left the trail meal very happy indeed!
Real Deal
Our wedding day was fantastic!! The service at our reception could not have been any better.
The food was absolutely fantastic – a lot of people commented about this – particularly the dessert.
(We cut down the dessert options slightly which meant that a few of each dessert could be put on each table – this worked very well).
The whole night ran very smoothly, the venue was set-up perfectly, nothing ran late, we had our own (nervous) MC and she was kept very calm by the staff and went on to do a wonderful job!
We had a band and the sound from that was great, everyone danced most of the night.
We ended up using Nathania’s photographer to take impromptu photos of our guests, and we had them displayed on a screen throughout the wedding.
I was sceptical about this idea to begin with, but it was a real hit with everyone (especially us) so I’m happy we used this service.
The fact that we didn’t notice much about the actual venue on the night of our wedding is tribute to the fact that everything ran smoothly.
Theme/style
We had a fairly traditional, formal wedding. It was quite big and also family oriented.
As James has an Italian background, we included what we could of their traditions.
One of these was implemented in our bridal waltz. After dancing solo for a while, the bridal party came onto the dance floor and wound coloured streamers around us, so we were bound tightly by the end.
This was a really gorgeous tradition. Other than this we didn’t deviate much from the traditional wedding.
The bridesmaid dress colour was pale pink, so we incorporated this colour in a lot of things, including the groomsmen’s ties, chair ties,
bonbonnieres, flowers, cake base.
Overview
James and Meagan arrived at 6pm and with their bridal party went to the ‘bridal party’ room for refreshments.
Guests arrived from 6pm and were served canapés and drinks outside.
The bridal party was introduced when everyone was seated.
We proceeded with the entrée, our bridal waltz to open the dance floor, then the main meal.
Speeches followed (Bride and Groom’s fathers, Best Man, Bride and finally the Groom).
We then cut the cake and had another session of dancing.
Finally dessert was served and more dancing followed!
Throughout the night we had a band that we hired, playing, and sometimes (for example for our bridal waltz) we used Nathania’s DJ to play a song of a CD.
We said our good-byes (at midnight) around a circle of all our guests then drove away in our car…
We can not recommend Nathania Springs highly enough. From beginning to end they looked after us and our families.
Their attention to detail, experience, friendliness and professionalism meant that our wedding reception went off without a hitch.
It was a night to remember!
Thank you,
Meagan and James
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