Weddings
NMJ Bride | Natalie Fitch
We are starting featuring some of our Natalie Marie Jewellery weddings and engagements! We thought what better way to start than to share our director/designer Natalie's wedding to husband Dan.
Tell us your names?
Natalie & Daniel Fitch
How did you both meet?
We met ten years ago, both working in a bar in Manly while I was studying my fine arts degree and Dan was playing in a band. A lot has happened in the years since!
Where & when did you get married - tell us a little bit about your day?
We got married on the 23rd November 2013 on Scotland Island, Pittwater. We hired out an estate called Bangalla on Scotland Island for the day, which had a big house for our families to spend the weekend in with a separate cabin for us and a boat house for friends. It was such a treat to be able to extend the celebrations across the entire weekend. We transported our guests over on a little wooden ferry and greeted them with cocktails in the boathouse. The ceremony was held in the pool house (after a torrential downpour moved us inside), which overlooked the pool and ocean below. The ferry carrying the bride and bridal party was caught in a huge storm on the way over from Newport, which meant the ceremony was almost an hour late. We had to sprint up the jetty, dresses hiked up in the pouring rain to get up to the house. It was not exactly the ideal graceful entrance but the hilarity of the situation definitely helped with the nerves!
We had a small wedding with less than 60 guests, and post ceremony the day unfolded into casual mingling with spanish style food served from giant paella pans. Our guests lounged on daybeds and the lawn while our friend Trent played guitar. This later evolved an evening of dancing, before the ferries eventually started moving everybody back to the mainland. We enjoyed a blissful two days afterwards with our loved ones, soaking up every minute.
What was the highlight?
I had chosen Cat Steven’s ‘The Wind’ to walk up the aisle to, and because of the disastrous entry, our poor musician ended up playing this (very short) song on a loop for about 20 minutes, I could hear it as I made my way up the winding and slippery path to the house, and while I waited for the bridesmaids to join me and eventually make their way through. It was such a special moment (or twenty) to hear that drifting across the gardens mingled with the sense of anticipation from both sides.
For both of us, I think the key highlight was stepping back, towards the end of the day as the sun was going down, and just taking it all in. Looking around and realising that (almost) all of our loved ones were here in this one place, in this perfect scene that we had somehow put together, celebrating us. Both of our families are from the UK, so being all together is a rare occurrence, and something that we very much treasured.
Tell us about your rings, what did that process look like?
I had nothing to do with my engagement ring. Dan (bravely) designed that himself around his grandmothers old mine cut diamond. He did an absolutely perfect job, I could never have asked for anything more perfect. I crafted both of our wedding rings for us. A chunky cuff style band for Dan, and a super fine diamond band for myself (the first Queenie!)
What drew you to Natalie Marie for your wedding pieces?
I knew the designer…..
What do your rings mean to you?
Our wedding rings are the most treasured pieces of jewellery we own. I don’t actually wear a lot of rings myself, they tend to get in the way when working with my hands, but my wedding ring is something I never take off. They are intrinsically laced with sentiment and also the warm wishes of our loved ones, as we had a ring warming during our wedding ceremony where the rings were passed around our guests to be warmed or blessed.