'Do I?' at Bendooley Estate: exploring wedding venues in the Southern Highlands
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| In front of the beautiful historic Homestead at Bendooley Estate, Berrima NSW |
Welcome to my first blog post sharing my wedding planning over the past year. The Boy and I got hitched middle of this year and I have to say, looking back over the past six to 12 months it has been quite the journey! Never in my whole life have I ever had to make so many decisions in such a compressed period of time. At some point, I started to wonder why did I even bother agonising over small details (example: wedding invite font - italics or no italics? Does it even matter?). Anyway, over the next few posts I'll be sharing my wedding planning experience and tips for planning and hope this will be helpful for brides-to-be, especially for those also based in Sydney.
Tip number 1: book your venue first! Then everything else will fall in place.
I made a fashionista mistake of becoming obsessed with finding the perfect wedding dress, endlessly scouring Pinterest for inspiration ideas followed by Facebook Marketplace and Still White for second hand finds. The Boy quickly pointed out it's hard to decide on the style of gown if you're unsure of the wedding vibe. He was right. Secondly, venues get booked out months in advance, sometimes six to 12 months, so it's definitely good to lock in your date as soon as possible. Many other wedding related decisions are dependent on your venue and date, such as florists, celebrants, cake and not to mention the guests, so you really can't progress with your wedding planning until your venue is confirmed. It's a bit hard to ask a florist for a quote if they don't know where they're delivering to and if they are available on the day.
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| Poplar tree lined driveway as you enter the estate, feeling like the heroine of a Jane Austen novel heading into Pemberley Estate. |
We were tossing up between a wedding in Sydney, where most of our family and friends are located, but I just couldn't resist the idea of having a wedding on a farm or homestead in the great outdoors. This was an option I had to explore. I had been to previous weddings of friends in the Southern Highlands and all the venues were so beautiful and there is something irresistible about fairy lights in a barn. The Boy and I had already decided on having our wedding in Autumn, as a sentimental nod to one of our early favourite weekend trip away to see Autumn leaves turn red, and I knew Southern Highlands would be pretty in the Autumn. Think how gorgeous the wedding photos would turn out with autumnal leaves in the background in all their scarlet splendour!
A quick online search revealed some popular and well known wedding venues in the Southern Highlands, two of which I have been a wedding guest at, and include:
- Bendooley Estate
- Mali Brae Farm
- Growwild Wildflower Farm
- Somerley House
- Montrose House
- Sylvan Glen Estate
- ... and more
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| The lake inside the grounds, one of the two ceremony venues |
Bendooley Estate took my fancy after seeing photos on their website. It is located at 3020 Old Hume Highway, Berrima NSW, about 1.5 hours drive from Sydney. The estate also offers beautiful cottage accommodation that is also open to the public. There are many Airbnbs and motels in the surrounding area available should your guests want to stay the night. It didn't take much to convince The Boy to make a weekend day trip to visit Bendooley Estate. After a quick email via their website to their helpful staff, we were booked in and driving down to the Southern Highlands on a sunny summer's day in February.
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| Say 'I do' under the ivy canopy at the Lakeside Pavilion - it's nice there is a wet weather option available, often a risk with outdoor weddings |
The estate has over 200 acres of grounds, beautifully manicured with vineyards, greenery and a rose garden, and everything looked lush and green in the peak of summer.
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| The restaurant cafe is a Berkelouw book shop during the day |
If you are simply passing by on the Old Hume Highway between Sydney and Canberra, you can drop by for a casual brunch or lunch at the Book Barn cafe or some wine tasting at the Cellar Door. There is both indoor and outdoor seating, perfect for a warm summer's day.
The inside decor of the Book Barn is warm and inviting, the most prominent features being the grand rustic chandelier, high ceilings and large wecloming fire place that create an unique setting for an intimate wedding. The venue is beautiful on its own and looks even more amazing in wedding photos when decked out in floral arrangements and glowing candlelight. If you're a book nerd like me, you'll especially love having rows of books for your wedding reception background. There's just something cozy about being in a library!
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| Charming book store and cafe by day, converting to an intimate wedding reception at night. |
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| This book was hot off the press around the time of our visit |
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| They even have a large working fireplace that can be used to keep guests warm and add ambience to the atmosphere. Toasted marshmallows anyone? |
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| We were lucky to see staff setting up an event and what the guest tables might look like (you can choose different configurations to suit your wedding numbers). You can see that the bookshelves have been wheeled to the sides of the room and make for an unique backdrop to your wedding. |
We of course wanted to sample what the food might be like, so booked ourselves for lunch at the restaurant. The menu is modern Australian with entrees between $20 to $30 and main courses between $30 to $50. The wood fired pizza smelled great too.
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| Restaurant menu |
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| Main course: Pan seared duck breast with sweet potato puree, buttered leeks, baby carrots, radish and red wine reduction (it was nice) and enjoyed this dish more than the beetroot cured salmon entree. |
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| Lovely rose garden in front of the historic Homestead House |
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| Ceremony location in front of the lake and beautiful grand trees. Wedding package includes set up of chairs and signing table. |
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| The estate is also a winery, drop by for some wine tasting at the Cellar Door |
By the end of the trip, I was completely in love with this place and if you are considering a wedding in the Southern Highlands, I would highly recommend it. The grounds are absolutely enchanting and every corner seemed to be a romantic and unique backdrop. It also seems very private so you won't have to worry about airplane noises or random strangers walking by your wedding ceremony like you might in the city. The team was also friendly and helpful, with plenty of experience to help you organise your wedding.
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| Easy breezy summer outfit: link here |
From memory, the price of the wedding package was fairly reasonably priced (our budget was around $150 per head) but it would be best to enquire with the events team for more up to date pricing. Because we had decided on an Autumn wedding, we discovered that many venues offer a Winter discount between June and August. Saturdays, Fridays, Sundays are usually the most expensive compared to a weeknight, and a lunch reception is less expensive than a dinner reception.
We left Bendooley delighted to have found such a beautiful venue. However, on the drive home we started to consider some flip sides:
- Transport - Bendooley Estate is 1.5 hours drive from Sydney and I had assumed that all of our guests would have no problems driving. However, The Boy pointed out some differences between our two groups of friends. Many of his friends actually don't drive and even if they did, majority would likely drink at our wedding and be unsafe to drive afterwards. We would then have to organise a shuttle bus to bring them from their accommodation and back. This was an additional cost and item to organise that I hadn't considered before.
- Accommodation and extra costs to the guest - I've been to several destination weddings for my friends and absolutely loved being able to make a mini weekend trip out of it. I assumed that our guests would be happy to pay for accommodation after the wedding but The Boy thought this would be a major inconvenience for our guests.
- Guest numbers - Having a wedding that's slightly more difficult to travel to can be deterrent to your guests clicking that RSVP. Now, of course, people closest and dearest to you will make the utmost effort to attend rain, hail or snow, so this may be one way to cull your wedding guest list to only those who are willing to travel. On the flip side, there might be some guests who you would have liked to come but just simply weren't able to travel so far, such as nanna who might not be able to up for a long car trip.
- Additional travel costs for vendors - Similarly, your vendors such as florists, hair and make up, celebrant, DJ/band if you are having those things, may charge additional costs for travel to the venue. You can bypass this by choosing vendors in the local area, but then it might be additional costs for you if you have to travel to visit the vendors (such as your hair and make up trial) if you are unable to organise things online with them.
- Day of the week - we had already asked our family and bridal party to save the date by this time, and some friends who lived interstate had already applied for leave so they could travel down during the week. The estate was already booked out for the Friday and Saturday, which left only Thursday and Sunday for us. Whilst the cost would have been less expensive for us on these dates, our friends and family would have had to take a day off work on Thursday to travel to our wedding and perhaps even Friday, and for a Sunday wedding they would have to take Monday off. A cost-saving for us would have meant one or two days of loss of income for our guests, which is also not ideal.
And so there you have it, some pros and cons of choosing a wedding venue outside of your city. Did we end up choosing Bendooley Estate as our wedding venue? You'll have to stay tuned to find out!
What was your wedding planning journey like? Did you have any other considerations when booking your wedding venue? Share down in comments below or if you have any questions let me know. You can also DM me on my Instagram @choco_petitestyle.
Thanks for reading and see you guys back on the blog for my next post!
Choco
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