In today’s world, the abundance of fresh produce available year-round is easy to take for granted. But for generations, home-grown produce has been a staple ingredient in many wedding dishes and a source of pride for many agricultural farming families. From community-wide celebrations to historical recipes and more, home-grown produce has a special place in the hearts of many.

Today, the tradition of home-grown produce lives on in many rural and suburban communities and has provided a source of pride and communal celebration at weddings. At Isle Weddings, we cannot think of a better example of a wedding day that showcases this than one of the newlyweds, Sasha and Damien.

Bride Sasha shares their beautiful love story, beginning with their meeting. “Damien and I met in 2020, and it was a slow start. I wasn’t living in Tasmania then, and when I eventually moved down six months later, we were “just friends” for a while. It was probably longer than Damien would have liked, but that was it once I had figured it out.

We wanted to create a fun day that served as a (rare) opportunity to bring friends and family together in Tasmania. We wanted to showcase our local produce and celebrate what we grow in our family and the State. We hosted the event at our home, Lauderdale Cottage in New Town, Hobart, among the fruit trees in the orchard. Fortunately, we had perfect weather on the day, and dinner was served between the rows of cherry trees rather than in the backup marquee. The lamb and pork on the menu were grown by my sister and her husband (Westwood), and the fruits in the cocktail and dessert were grown at Lauderdale Cottage.

One of my favourite moments was making our own bouquets and arranging the flowers on the eve of our wedding day. My sister Annabel grew nearly all the flowers for the wedding and brought down a carload Friday morning. We made our own bouquet and, along with my mother, mother-in-law and friends, we created the remaining table decorations. Annabel did the large urns for the ceremony. Making our own bouquets gave them much more meaning; we all loved holding onto them throughout. There was definitely no bouquet tossing!”