November 11, 2025 • 51 mins
Welcome to Episode 71 of the Wed.Co Podcast. Today, Toga sit’s down with Sarah and Rhys, the owners of Maroon Hill Estate.
The conversation explores the common perceptions surrounding wedding venues, particularly the belief that they are primarily the domain of the wealthy. The speaker shares their personal journey of purchasing land and building a wedding venue, emphasizing the financial sacrifices and time invested in the process.
Takeaways
- It took six years to develop the venue.
- The journey involved saving and building from scratch.
- Family and friends often have misconceptions about this industry.
- Building a venue is a significant financial commitment.
- The speaker's experience challenges stereotypes.
- The process was gradual and required patience.
- Investing in a venue can be a fulfilling endeavor.
Your support enables us to bring more enriching conversations and insights to both engaged couples and wedding professionals.
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Catch our episodes on major podcast platforms like Apple, Spotify, and IheartRadio, all under WedCo Podcast.
Join us for our next episode on the Wed.Co Podcast, where we continue to explore the
mesmerizing and ever-changing landscape of weddings.
Toga xxx
Chapters
00:00 Welcome to Wedco Podcast 00:08 The Unique Journey of Venue Ownership 00:38 Future Plans and Aspirations for the Venue
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to the Wedco podcast, your ultimate guide to the wedding world.
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(00:24):
If you're enjoying the Wedco podcast, please hit that follow button on Apple, Spotify orYouTube.
It might seem small, but it makes a huge difference in helping the podcast grow and meansI can keep bringing on amazing vendors to share their insights with you.
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truly means the world.
and welcome to the word co podcast.
I'm Toga.
And today we are at maroon Hill estate.
Thank you so much for having us here.
(00:45):
We've got Sarah and Reese on the couch with us.
Thank you so much for hosting us.
This has been like an absolute dream.
Um, I remember I was out here maybe about a month ago for a wedding and just like watchingthe sunset kind of across the hills.
There's just.
Every time I drive up here, just like seeing the hills and everything in the background,it's just stunning.
it's great to finally meet you and yeah.
It's absolutely amazing.
Like we usually kind of start, I guess, a little bit of a backstory.
(01:07):
Um, so we know when you grow up, like from three or four, you knew you wanted to have awedding venue.
Is that right?
Yeah.
Very different, actually.
Yeah, well we um, so Sarah and I were both in the army for long time um and we bought thisland while we were in the army and we didn't buy it with the intention of a wedding venue
at the time.
We actually had a bit of a bit of an idea of putting glamping tents on here.
(01:32):
So really nice luxury glamping tents.
um So we bought the land with that in mind but once we started getting into what thatactually involves and
what glamping tents require and driveway and power, septic, all that kind of stuff.
um It kind of wasn't realistic to do those cabins.
(01:52):
So we started looking at building a house and then we thought, well, you know, we're justgoing to build a house for Airbnb or are we going to do something different?
um So we thought we'd do a wedding venue and, you know, it was kind of...
uh
At the time we thought, oh yeah, it'd be a great wedding venue.
Our friends have been out here and they love it and they think it'd be a great venue.
And the neighbors who we bought the place off, they said they were thinking about doingweddings up here at one stage.
(02:16):
So it just kind of developed that way.
So we went and built the place.
We built the place with weddings in mind and hope for the best really.
We never actually like planned how we would run the venue.
Like that's a great idea.
Like we love a project.
Let's like work on this project together.
But I think we only thought up until the point of project completion.
We never thought beyond that.
(02:38):
Like what's running a wedding venue actually gonna look like, feel like, and how are wegonna do it?
But yeah, it's all worked out.
um It's all worked out really well.
Like everything has just fallen into place.
And we still don't really know what running a wedding is like.
We're still figuring that part out.
Yeah.
(02:58):
So far, so good.
How long ago since the first wedding here?
So the first wedding as Maroon Hill Estate was in...
July, last year, 2024.
Yeah, that's right.
Before that, we got married out here in May.
So we thought before we officially launch it as a venue, we'll get our wedding in thereand do the first one.
(03:20):
But even before that, our friends actually got married out here before there was a houseor anything here.
um
before there was even a proper driveway.
It was just a bit of a dirt road on the way up.
They got married out here because they came out camping with us out here one weekend andloved it and wanted to get married here and they put a TP up and just hide everything and
brought it all in and it was unreal.
(03:40):
How good.
Like even when you're talking about camping up here, I'm like, that would be the dream.
That was our weekends for quite a few years.
um In one of the ceremony areas over the trees there, we had a fire pit and sort of ourcamping spot there.
uh Eventually we upgraded, we built a shed and we used to camp.
First it was on the shed slab, we'd just sleep on the slab and then we'd had a shed andwe'd be like, this is great, we're in a shed now, we're camping in a shed.
(04:08):
Then for a while we could come out here and just stay in bedrooms.
uh
is it?
was all pre-kids though, know, like when we bought this land in 2018, we were like, wewould take on the world, we'd take on anything, like, let's do this.
And then we ended up having our first child in 2021.
(04:31):
And then 2024 was our first wedding.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, but we opened for bookings, I think a little bit over a year before our firstwedding.
Well, it's definitely something's going right.
Cause every time I open Instagram, all I see is Bruniel come through.
Like there's so many like starting weddings that have already happened.
(04:53):
And there's definitely a lot of people in, even within the industry talking about it.
um I feel like a lot of people would kind of put the effort into starting their own, youknow, wedding venue.
And then the traction part of it is a really hard part to get.
But I feel like as far as like even just launching it, that launch has gone so well withyou guys.
Yeah.
Robin, we've got, we've got.
Drew and me from the White Stag and Bruce, those guys to thank for a lot of just, I guess,rather than us starting at the start line, they put us a little bit in front as far as
(05:23):
just being exposed to the wedding industry.
they just, Drew's worked with a brand new venue before and it wasn't the first timesitting down with two people who knew nothing about it and saying, here's some things to
think about.
And it really shaped a lot of the way we, I mean, he organized a style shoot for us.
And at the time,
I didn't know what style of shoot Even on the day I'm like, how much do I pay all thesepeople to be out here?
(05:49):
yeah, I didn't really get it.
yeah, know, having those guys on board from the get go, well before we did our firstwedding, we were working with them.
That was absolutely a hit the ground running advantage for us.
How is even the design process?
(06:09):
like weddings are so aesthetically based.
Like when you're coming together, like you worked, did you work with an architect as faras the house goes?
uh
I was really inspired by New Zealand architecture.
They have pretty much what we've designed.
A lot of that over there in the mountains.
definitely.
Like around Wanaka and everything, like I've done a lot of time around there, stunningexactly like this.
(06:30):
uh
seen much of it in Australia yet.
There's a little bit of it in the cooler climates, like down south a bit, but nothing inQueensland.
um So, and I thought that would be so amazing for our, like, venue and the white, youknow, it would be.
Yeah.
(06:50):
So we just designed it ourselves um through a builder.
uh I uh think we went back to our very first sketch of the place.
It's so similar to what actually we've ended up with.
first sketches, there was probably some pretty out there sketches to begin with.
Some of our first sketches, um yeah, to what we have now, like, yeah, know, certainmeasurements and door sizes and all that kind of things, you know, it's our first time
(07:14):
ever building anything, know, um the, yeah, we, you know, that kind of shaped it a bit,but it was actually really similar to what we first.
uh
envisioned.
And then, you know, we love the look of this place, but I guess there's certain designaspects that have um posed their own challenges, you know, it's, you know, to get that
really nice um sort of no Eve look on the house.
(07:38):
Obviously, as soon as there's a bit of rain, you got to close windows and close doors andyou know, don't get that.
um
Yeah, benefit of like a standard house design is a reason they do it that way.
there's a few things that, you know, we just didn't think about the time, but you know,we've just kind of work around now and it's a, it's a worthwhile, um, does, you design
choice because it looks a certain way and we like it.
feel like it is so iconic already.
(07:59):
Like as soon as you see photos of the front facade, everyone knows where it is.
And I mean, that's only a short amount of time, but everyone already knows that.
Yeah, yeah, I think we've done something right as far as the simplicity and the way it'sall worked out in the end.
That design was so important to me, like to have the double peaks.
during actually during the build our builder, we originally had some plans done up througha different design company.
(08:25):
And it was a matter of they redrew the new builder redrew the plans and there was a matterof a dotted line that was supposed to be a no other way around solid line that was
supposed to be a dotted line.
And when they redrew it, it was drawn up wrong.
And when they built it, came out here one day and I looked at that side of the house andwe're like, that doesn't look right.
(08:47):
Something doesn't look right.
We're like, have to change it.
yeah, we were.
the frame stage, it was going to completely change the whole look at the front of theplace.
And here as well, there was a bit of a, the way the trusses were at the front.
Yeah, we had to get the builder to pull trusses back to redo it.
(09:07):
Yeah, was a, yeah, it wasn't going to work.
were very lucky that he was so flexible and that he knew it meant so much to us to havethat shape and that look.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Stay, stay far.
So was the builder that did it.
And yeah, he was great.
Yeah.
He builds a lot of houses out here.
uh
then even like, okay, so obviously, there's been a lot of forethought as far as likeceremony spaces and everything like that goes back up when you were kind of back in the
(09:33):
camping days, had you already had a kind of those earmarked of like, this is where youknow, we would love to get married.
Like, did you get married down the back?
Yeah, you did.
Okay, cool.
You just knew that was a spot.
Yeah, we call it the circle of trees.
Yeah.
Because it's like there's not many trees on top of this hill.
Yeah.
Apart from that circle.
And when you look at it from bird's eye view, looking down like on a drone, it's a circle.
Yeah.
There's someone back in the days planted this circle of trees.
(09:55):
Anyway, looking out towards the mountain, like obviously the mountains, the focal point.
in that circle of trees, you get like this really nice um sort of like a whimsical feel,but also you've got that grand mountain background.
But a lot of people just like the open mountain view as well.
We've got a larger flat open area and a lot of people like that.
(10:20):
Yeah, it's probably 50 50.
I think the way things are done so far between those two spots.
Yeah, okay.
And then I reckon there's a there's a huge different hugely different feel between thetwo.
You kind of get the birds chirping a bit in the trees and you can hear the wind throughthe trees.
But then the other open area it's kind of feel a bit on top of the world and everything'sunobstructed.
So it's a different feel but
Do you notice a difference in the type of weddings those weddings are?
(10:43):
Like whether someone chooses like one or the other spot?
No, not really.
Maybe this year we will.
I'm sure a lot of it comes down to the personality of the couple getting married and youknow, what connects with them.
Yeah.
Do you want to talk a little bit about like say accommodation options?
Okay.
So say someone, you know, a couple of just booked in here, like what would theyessentially expect from coming to get married up here?
(11:09):
Are they, they checking into your accommodation the night before or like how?
Yeah, so you check in here and you've got the place for um almost three days or two nightswith basically a full 24 hours on the property before you have your ceremony.
So most of our couples are checking in sort of 2pm the day before.
They've got 24 hours on site to do as much as they want themselves as far as styling andsetup goes.
(11:34):
They've got a chance to unwind and relax and they're not just arriving at the ceremonystraight into let's do our vows.
They've got time.
They can do their walk down to the aisle.
Yes.
They can get here and they can stand, you know, where they're at.
Their sort of ceremony is going to be the 24 hours before and they can see where the sunis, see where the shadows are and they can, you know.
their vows.
(11:56):
I did it.
That's so rewarding though, like you talked about like sun position and just knowing like,cool, if I'm here at this time, I'm going to be staring into the sun.
So even just knowing that, like how far forward or how far back do we want to be here aswell?
And I feel like a lot of couples are really, they are wanting that whole kind of weekendexperience.
Like the more people we talk to, they don't want the...
check in, check out, you know, like they want to have family and they want to be able toexperience it.
(12:20):
And maybe they got a dinner the night before.
Um, and it works so much better from, from a photo video kind of point of view wherepeople have had the night before to say hello, to hang out, know, to do all that and do
all the small talk prior.
Cause then they can actually really enjoy the actual wedding day.
uh
to like say hello to every single person and catch up on wedding day.
Yeah, for sure.
(12:41):
I think it's like eight o'clock and they're still going around to a circle and you'relike, when are you going to relax?
Like when you can actually enjoy your wedding day.
Yeah.
I think that was a big thing on our wedding when we got married here.
And also some couples have done it where they've either gone into town or had like alittle bit of a breakfast here afterwards when we can sort of facilitate it.
um And it's good because for us, all our family coming back the next day, we didn't haveto spend much time saying goodbye on the night.
(13:06):
It was just like, I'll see you in the morning.
Yeah, yeah, I'll make a coffee or something.
It was way more, yeah, you didn't have to spend that time saying goodbye to everyone.
could, yeah, that was awesome for us.
And also the day before as well.
The night before we had some family over and yeah, just talked and had a beautiful dinner.
Yeah, was good.
Yeah, woke up the next day and it was go time.
(13:31):
Game on.
How many people would you have on say a typical wedding at the moment?
Like is there a capacity of people you can have on site or anything like that?
Yeah.
Also our limits 120 for the guests.
yeah.
And then in this room we can dine 120.
It doesn't give you a massive amount of space for anything else like a dance floor, butyou know, we can sit down 120 in here.
(13:52):
I think for those bigger weddings, know, our venue really lends itself towards more of acanopy relaxed dining experience for those, you know, numbers up around 120, but we can
definitely sit people, sit those people down.
But then, you know, to use this room,
you know, for your dinner and dance floor and have plenty of space.
I think 90 or below is a nice sort of setup for this area.
(14:16):
Yeah.
And then so if you're even 60, it's really a nice sort of use of the space.
we've had one of our first weddings was 20 guests and they had a beautiful, you know,small intimate ceremony and reception.
They used a local caterer in town.
um
the chef at Bloom restaurant.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(14:36):
Um, you know, he does incredible food.
I'm done.
amazing.
How good's that?
It's really good for such a small little wedding.
Yeah.
Yeah, anyone who comes through and mentions that they've sort of, you know, got thosesmaller numbers, you know, I definitely put, I mentioned him as an option just because
yeah, the dining experience that he would provide is unreal.
Yeah.
(14:57):
Even like coming from the ceremony.
like you've got the umbrellas, you've got the festoon lights and everything.
It's so nice.
like everyone kind of talks about spaces now.
So it's like, cool.
You're going to move from the ceremony space and then everyone's going to come up here forthe canapes.
And like the last wedding I was at, um, I think it might've only been maybe 40 or 50people, but like you said, it still feels like you don't want it to feel too big for the
amount of people there as well.
Like it's a real balance between like, yes, you've got this massive, like beautiful spacethat you have, but it still feels really intimate as well.
(15:23):
And like kind of people out there and they'll go in their canapes and everything outthere.
And then there's like the little fire pit down there too.
Like it just felt super homely.
But you can feel just everyone felt like they belonged there.
Yeah, it is more of a relaxed venue.
Like I feel like that's what we want people to experience here is like they come in, theyget to be here the day before.
um It's like easing into it, but they also get to soak up that, like the views and thefeeling of being here.
(15:48):
um Because it is quite peaceful and just look out onto the mountains and yeah, it's just,there's something really special about it.
I think that's why we bought this locker land in the first place and didn't look at thedriveway or no power or no water.
We just like, yep, this place is something.
Once we had the plan to buy some land, um Sarah was in Tasmania.
(16:12):
She was working down there at the time and I was, um I was up here and she sent me outwith three addresses on one weekend.
um Yeah.
So I, I'm navigating my way to these three addresses and I didn't contact any real estateagents or anything to view them.
just thought I'll just go check it out.
And then one, I was like looking around, you know, in hindsight, what I was looking atwouldn't have been anything useful for what we ended up doing.
(16:34):
was like, yeah, this has got potential, but it was maybe three acres or something.
um And then I looked at another block of land and uh it was, think it must've already beensold because was a house half under construction.
then I came here and apologies to the previous owners.
I just jumped the fence and started having looking around.
(16:55):
um
Yeah, I started walking up the hill and I remember I've still got the videos on my phonesomewhere that I was sending Sarah because I was halfway up the driveway, you where our
current driveway is and I'm sending Sarah some photos and videos back like, this isunreal.
There's a road down there.
Look at these views here.
And I hadn't even got to the top of the hill and seen Mount Maroon or any.
And then I got to the top and I was just like, yeah, this is, this is, I think I've seenyou like 15 minutes worth of videos.
(17:22):
Like I'm sold.
It's good.
I'm good.
uh
we did look at other places afterwards, but I think we just, eh
Yeah, something special about this place.
Even on real estate.com, I was like, that's the one.
Like, I know nothing's going to compare that one other one that we went to.
(17:42):
It had its own mountain.
Yeah.
Okay.
And it looked really cool on paper.
But when we got there, there was no phone reception.
The gates were all shut and it was like, beware, don't enter, like keep out privateproperty.
we're like, place feels like there's something.
about it doesn't feel right.
uh
I didn't.
Not that tranquil feel that you want coming up.
(18:02):
it was like, what's going on in there?
But also like no phone reception.
Like no one wants to go out somewhere with no phone reception and like, you know, not beable to contact people.
I mean, sometimes that's nice, but um generally like people like to be able to be intouch.
um
Where do you find a lot of couples coming from at the moment?
(18:25):
Is it like kind of Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast?
Where are lot of couples coming from currently?
I'd say mostly Brisbane.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Definitely mostly Brisbane.
um
and even some from Sunny Coast.
Not too many, um surprisingly a few, yeah.
I drive the route from sunny coast down here regularly.
(18:49):
But yeah, it's surprising people are willing to drive and, you know, set up somewherefurther away.
Well, even from Brian, I was saying it was like two hours for me this morning.
It's like, can take me more than two hours to get to Brisbane.
So like even from there, it's like, I'm probably about an hour to the gold coast, butanother hour from there.
It's like, yeah, it's actually really close.
Especially like so many people do want that kind of, it's almost like destination.
(19:12):
Like they kind of do want to get away.
They don't want to be going 10 minutes from their house because it kind of loses a bit ofthat like special feeling when you can kind of just go past your wedding venue again.
like, find, like, I mean, would you have any weekends free where people can
book here without a wedding or are they kind of all taken up now?
No, all without it.
(19:33):
We did that for the first year, like we did accommodation.
m And when we started weddings, we were still doing weddings and accommodation, butflipping the house between Airbnb, because obviously this room that we're in now is set up
with couches and ah yeah, like four massive couches.
um And it's just too much for us to be, we feel like removalists.
(19:58):
And you're that route from Sunshine Coast here like every day.
and our kids like, it's really hard because we bring the kids out too.
So, you know, they're, juggling them and trying to move the furniture around.
We've made it work for a little while, but it was good to kind of close the book on justdoing accommodation and we know weekends away and just doing weddings.
(20:21):
Yeah.
It's been good to make that jump.
maybe in the future, if they got married here, they could bring a tent and they can, know,during the week or something like that, come for a night and they could just stay out
there.
I just relive, you know, wedding day.
uh Did you ever imagine you'd be wedding venue owners?
No, we just love a project.
I think we always need to be doing something and it's like a creative outlet for us.
(20:45):
um we've really enjoyed like the six years that it's taken to get to this point inbuilding the venue.
All the, you know, choosing designs and like imagining what it would be like.
um
that's why we work well together as well because Sarah's got, know, Sarah's uh much betterat design than I am and aesthetics and you you know, he looks at it really well through
(21:09):
the lens of a couple getting married here and what they want it to look like and feel likeand everything.
Whereas I'm very practically minded as far as, oh know, I'm measuring, I'm measuring howlong extension leads need to be and you know, what's the output of generators, all this
kind of stuff.
You know, I'm sort of the practical uh one.
which sometimes uh form and function sort of butt heads a bit.
(21:35):
We meet in the middle.
A lot.
Like really meet in the middle because yeah.
got to, but it's worked so far.
We've managed to maintain the look that we want, but also provide as much practicality andmake it all work.
Last I was here and even like, think with the generator, feel like you can monitor fromyour place or something like that.
Like think you were saying you can monitor like power, right?
(21:57):
And like even all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, well completely off grid here.
it's all, we're not connected to the grid at all as far as um electricity goes or anythingreally, but yeah, we're completely off grid just because the cost of connecting to the
grid is cost prohibitive.
and then you pay a power bill on top of that.
insane.
like, yeah, by the time you get a road up here and then utilities, you're like, like,yeah, it's not feasible.
(22:22):
But it's had its upsides.
um We just had um Cyclone Alfred.
um The locals all lost power and we wouldn't have known.
If our neighbors didn't tell us that they lost power, we wouldn't have known.
And that's a benefit.
And we've got multiple layers of redundancy.
If certain parts of our own off-grid system goes down, we can keep it going.
(22:43):
ah
the The middle of the night like why is there so much power still?
That is good because that's happened at weddings I've been to before and they've beenbeautiful venues and the power has gone out and I'm sure they do have redundancies of some
sort as well but it has happened in the past where especially reception the lights go outthe music goes out and everyone's kind of just like cool like you know so.
(23:10):
Yeah.
Yeah, we've got it set up now so that if there's, if we fully lose power, we can just runthe whole venue off a generator.
We just upgraded our generator so that also because we got air conditioning now, so weneeded a little bit more power to support the batteries and the usage.
Yeah, and we'll keep upgrading the system and stuff as we go and adapting it.
(23:34):
Has there been a lot in the last year, like where you kind of set up, have your firstwedding, you're like, that's perfect.
Has there been a lot since that point where you're like, cool, we should add this, weshould add this.
single wedding.
Every single wedding we learn a new lesson, which is amazing.
um Because yeah, like little things that you're like, oh, I wish that didn't happen.
Or like, I wish I could have done something, but we just learn and then we implementsomething for the next time.
(23:59):
um
I find that even with our house, used to airbnb our house over Christmas.
same thing, like there's so many things that are fine for you, but then other people comein and you're like, oh, I didn't know I need that, that, that, that.
uh
helped us when we were Airbnb in this house.
It helped us a bit with like learning what people need and stuff, just staying here.
And how they interact with the place.
(24:19):
Yeah.
Yeah, that was that was a benefit.
I mean, yeah, throughout weddings, you know, this house used to this room used to be setup with couches and a dining table and, you know, big rugs and that kind of stuff, which
absorbed a lot of the echo, which is why we put these sound panels up.
Yep.
Because as soon as you take all that away and you just got the hard surfaces of tables andfloor ceiling walls, the echo in here was, you know, it was noticeable.
(24:44):
Yeah.
Sarah put all those up?
Yeah.
told him to do it and he just magically appeared.
You still got to sew back today the shoulders.
I owe a lot of cartons of beer to my mate Alex.
Most of the projects around this place he's had his hands in.
(25:05):
I owe him and a few others a uh lot of beer I reckon.
It is a noticeable difference though walking in today, like how big a difference that'smade.
It's like night and day kind of difference, which is amazing.
And just like, but that you are willing to do those things.
Cause there's like a lot of people with wedding venues that will like it all comes down tothe dollar figure.
And you're like, well, that is a lot of money to do that.
(25:25):
We can get away with it for another year.
It's fine.
But like to actually action the things that people want.
It's not really heard of that often.
Yeah.
Same with aircon, know, being off grid, guess aircon was more of a challenge for us thanthe standard sort of, you know, get aircon put in.
it was the biggest, the biggest, I guess, driver for it was when you got 80 people on adance floor inside here, all that, you know, body heat is a lot.
(25:49):
You generally the house is pretty good.
You we made sure we got all the insulation and stuff put in when we built it.
But, but yeah, I guess the dance floor is when it was, we were like, okay, we've got toaircon.
It's supposed to be hot and sweaty.
fine.
warmer months.
So take the edge off.
Yeah, for sure.
Just a couple of plunge pools outside or something like that.
(26:10):
That has been on my list, but I don't know.
could be just a damn.
Yeah, exactly.
It'll be fine.
So do you have regular caterers that come up here a lot?
um Like how is building up the relationships with vendors been so far for yourself?
Yeah, yeah, we've, we've had we've had a few that sort of, you know, regulars, Italianjob, we come back a few times.
(26:33):
wood fired pizza and
Gareth Keenan, MCs, they all know the place very well, so we trust them a lot.
it's an open book really, anyone can choose whatever caterer they want.
If they want pizza or an ice cream van or...
Yeah.
people enjoying the outdoors here, you know, they can have their entire ceremony andreception or, or, know, canapé style food outside.
(26:57):
Um, there's quite a of people that that are looking to set up like a mini eat street, havea food truck, have a drinks, a drinks van, a Zert van, know, like, um, create a bit of a
festival up around the cocktail area.
Yeah.
I think that's awesome.
Yeah, definitely.
I can see it from here.
yeah, like just having like a little owl shape around it and like having everything there.
Everyone can hang out in the middle.
(27:18):
We even had, yeah, like a first dance out underneath the festoon lights and it just looksso beautiful at night time.
Like people having out there, especially like a beautiful night.
It's kind of everyone having a circle around it, like gelati cart in the corner.
Yeah, it's a real chill vibe out there.
Yeah.
Even after the sunset.
It's just nice to be outside, some fresh air and mingle.
(27:40):
We got married and I think we came inside to dance and for speeches and we were out therest of the night.
kids were running around everywhere.
Fire.
was really nice.
Even like going to the family thing, it is nice to be able to have kids on site.
You know, there's so many venues where you go to in Brizzy, Gold Coast, you're like, oh,like, yeah, we can bring kids, but they're just going to be on a table in the corner
(28:00):
there.
They're going to have some iPads under the table.
It sucks.
Whereas like, yeah, when I was up here and like, there was, I there must've been about 20kids and they're just running around.
They're the best time.
The parents don't have to worry.
They can still go and have fun and just see that the kids are like, just there, they'refine.
And so I feel like, yeah, like leaning toward this type of family, this time a couple.
it's just to be like you said a bit more of a relaxed vibe but people are going to reallyappreciate the family and friends kind of aspect there.
(28:24):
Yeah.
that was one of the biggest reasons we had um a canapé style, like cocktail style weddingoutside, uh or reception, sorry, is because of the kids.
didn't know how they were going to sit down for a few hours inside.
And um we actually brightened the festoon lights outside because previously you couldn'tsee quite out to the swing or, you know, if the kids ran off, you might not have been able
(28:49):
to see them.
So that was another improvement that we did where you can just...
see a bit more light.
The kids can be 30 metres away and you can still see them.
They're not just off into the abyss.
Yeah, because it does get quite dark out here.
There's no city lights or anything.
Give them a couple glow sticks.
The kids love it.
We used to bring our dog out here, had a collar that strobed red so we could see himrunning off around.
(29:15):
Just bounding around the property.
Just like how many kids you're to have?
we'll get 20 of these.
uh That's the next improvement.
Are you guys out on site during the weddings?
And so um we're in before and after for the set up, pack up and um the white stag, they'reout of venue managers.
So Drew and me, Bruce, they're out here um doing the venue management and on-daycoordination.
(29:40):
So we can offer on-day coordination for people as well.
Cool.
And that's pretty much a free record set that they would kind of get the wide sag.
Like would anyone come out here by themselves at all?
Or you kind of always need...
For the ceremony, we've always got venue manager here.
and reception.
Yeah.
Um, never not have the monocyte.
The party will just turn into a big doof.
(30:02):
They got a couple of swags out the back.
But no, we specifically don't allow camping because the party will just, people will justwrite themselves off and um it becomes a bit of a mess.
And also, yeah, our rules are um music off by 11, guests off by 11.30, which is prettygood for out here.
(30:28):
Yeah, we want them to make the most of it, but then yeah, we can't do camping because forthat reason.
But yeah, there's plenty of accommodation around that people go to and yeah, it's, it'sbeen, it's really good actually.
A lot of our neighbors have jumped on board with accommodations, setting up cabins andAirbnb's and things because they've, you know, they've really supportive of us as a venue.
(30:50):
So it's been great.
That's so good.
I see that a lot around regional areas where there's like a kind of a central hub ofwedding venue.
And then, like all the Airbnb's get spread out around them as well.
And it's really cool to see like you are feeding into the local towns.
And it's like, all of a sudden there's, know, every weekend there's 80 more people thatare coming here that all need accommodation.
And it's so cool how it starts feeding out around the area.
(31:10):
m
it's unreal.
Every time you find out about a new cabin or something we can add to our website is like,know, the accommodation list.
It's awesome.
When we first opened or pre-opening, we were a little bit worried about not having enoughaccommodation in the local area.
And now it's not a worry at all.
Like, we definitely feel like there's plenty of accommodation for people and their gueststo stay.
(31:35):
I this area, the scenic room in general is just not a wedding destination, know, like inMalayne and Mount Tamborine, that kind of areas where they're really set up and really
mature sort of destinations for weddings.
But yeah, I guess here is a bit of an unknown spot.
(31:56):
I think one day it will be.
I think it will with attraction you guys already getting.
It's feels like it's definitely, yeah, people like it's such a big draw cards coming outhere.
And like you said, like you get outside and it's dark and the stars are bright, you know,you don't get to see that anywhere else.
It's so special to just get away and be like, you feel like you're in the wilderness, butwe're experiencing this amazing day as well.
(32:16):
How do most people find you?
it like through Instagram or like, how do you?
Yeah, so I do all the Instagrams and advertising.
I've kind of just fluked it.
But we started off on like all the Facebook groups.
So Facebook was a big one to start with.
But then, yeah, I do a lot of Instagram too.
I think Instagram right now would be our biggest, where people find us.
(32:40):
I am a little bit slack sometimes.
It's hard to keep up with it all the time.
It's a full time job, just social media by itself.
It's like on top of everything else.
It's hard to dedicate that time to that.
Yeah, I just like pre-schedule everything in advance and I kind of forget about it andthen I'm like, oh, it's time to do that again.
two weeks go past and I haven't posted anything.
Yeah.
(33:00):
But yeah, we'll get there.
It's like an ever evolving thing too.
know, got to adapt to social media trends and, and, um, you know, different platforms and,um, I don't know.
We've ventured into tick tock yet,
Oh, created an account, I think I have one follower.
Just another thing to post on and learn about.
(33:21):
But yeah, I am like doing a few courses on social media and SEO and stuff like that so Ican improve our website and improve our Instagram and yeah, learn a bit more about it
because everything that we currently do is just, I don't know, just go with the flow, makeit up on the fly.
It seems to be working.
(33:43):
Are you doing open days or like, like if someone actually wants to come out and see thevenue, like how would they go about that?
We've never done an open day.
um think, you know, there's, different things around like, you know, wedding trails wheremultiple venues open at once, but there's, there's not a lot of venues around us, you
know, and if we jumped onto one of those wedding trails, we might be the one venue that'sreally out of the way of, one of those other spots.
(34:06):
we're not too sure if people would, would go and see three or four venues, but then drivethe extra way to come to this area.
or vice versa for other venues that might come to us and not go onwards.
There are other venues around and I guess if it worked out that we could get some onesclose by to do open days, that would work for us.
But we run regular viewings, it's at least every fortnight and we've got a weekend spot todo some viewings.
(34:33):
So yeah, we'll just open Saturday and Sunday this week for viewings.
yeah, that's where we can sort of get in our website, book themselves in and come out andsee the place.
So you're to have like three or four more venues yourself and then start your own trail?
that what it's like?
(34:54):
I'd love to start designing another one.
We've learned so much.
ah Like that would be the smart thing to go and build another venue, but do it with allthe knowledge that we currently have.
If anyone wants to build a venue, know, don't just go blindly into it like we did.
Although that's been a blessing.
um Yeah, reach out to other venue owners, reckon.
(35:16):
I'd be more than happy to sit down with anyone who wants to start a venue and they can,what limited things I've learned in the last, I don't know, uh year or whatever.
You know, tell them about it.
But like I said, I think it's a blessing that we were so naive going into it all becausewe didn't.
We didn't already have this big long laundry list of all the challenges we were gonna haveto come up against.
(35:38):
We didn't know what a council application was.
We didn't know how to develop a driveway, car park, septic system, off-grid electricalsystem, none of that stuff.
All the practical things that I think about.
The social media that Sarah had to learn, the website that Sarah built, all that kind ofstuff.
We were naive to all of those challenges.
Council application, that was the biggest one.
(36:02):
You really put yourself out on the line financially and um we built all this in hope thatwe would get it approved and we were so lucky that it did get approved.
One thing after another just like admin admin admin
They were just, they nicely spread themselves out.
So it was just like, okay, we're gonna get around this challenge.
(36:23):
then, and then we got past that challenge.
We're like, sweet.
But now we've got a wedding venue on up.
This is the next challenge.
um it was just, yeah, they were nicely spread out.
We could just sort of tackle them one by one.
um
actually wish that we got in touch with the White Stag sooner, like before we evendesigned the venue, because at that point we were just making up, you know, room sizes and
(36:44):
we didn't actually think about the way that like a wedding functions or, you know, theflow of people or anything like that.
And that would have been something that would have helped us getting in touch with someonein the wedding industry, someone who goes to so many weddings and can have a little bit of
input.
into the space or the spaces.
(37:06):
And not to give you more roadblocks, but just little bits of insight.
Yeah, just tweaks.
mean, there's definitely, there's definitely things in hindsight that we would have donedifferently up until this point.
But that being said, you know, there's, uh yeah, I don't, I don't think it's, it's workedout too badly, but.
Yeah.
exactly.
My wife and I were similar.
We moved like an old Queenslander from Ipswich down to where we are in Byron.
(37:31):
And same thing, like if we had been builders, the amount of friends I had like, don't dothat.
Like don't do it.
And we're like, we're photographers.
Like it'll be fine.
And that exact same thing.
Like where you're just like, it'll be great.
It'll be fine.
And you just do it and you kind of go to get those hurdles as they come along and it justworks for them.
And it's like, whereas yeah, if you knew too much about it, you probably wouldn't haveundertaken it.
But that's all the best things are like that, you you get to through the other side andyou you didn't take the easy road.
(37:57):
You accidentally took the hard road, but it was was a, you know, it's a journey you learnso much.
uh
talking to other venue owners, have other venue owners been pretty forthcoming?
Like have you met many other venue owners?
Yes, or specifically all the venues that the White Stag work with.
Ah, cool.
they're all, everyone's unreal.
Yeah.
You know, everyone's, you know, super approachable, super open about, you know, to talkabout how they run things and you know, what works well and doesn't for them.
(38:25):
oh
Like, okay, so me looking at the both of you, like not typical, what I would picture as awedding venue owner.
Like, do feel like that when you've met the other owners as well, similar to that?
Um, I don't know.
They've all been great.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think like, you know, there's, there's like a perception that like,even a lot of our family and friends must have of like, like how, you know, that, you
(38:57):
know, doing doing a wedding venue is this.
It's, know, normal people don't do it.
It's the, it's the hobbies of like the rich and famous that can put together weddingvenues.
Yeah.
You know, we bought this piece of land for, um, less than a uh one bedroom apartment inBrisbane.
It was all like, we'd saved up and built a shed.
And, you know, there was, there was different things and it just all sort of happened in,know, it was just, like I said, it took us, it's taken us six years or so from buying the
(39:25):
land to here.
Yeah.
Closer to seven years.
But even like the deposit for the land, was like, earned like...
It was a big risk, but like we didn't have kids.
We were just like, I think, yeah.
I had about $45 in shares that I had to sell.
(39:51):
But yeah, I guess there's no like typical venue owner and it's nice to see the differentvenue owners and where they come from and their backgrounds and their stories about their
venue and how their venue came about.
Yeah, like us having never been in the wedding industry and just thinking it would be agreat idea and a great project and yeah, thinking we could share this place with so many
(40:14):
people for such beautiful times of their lives and really make an impact on, you know,
that day they remember forever.
Exactly.
Even if it's like 50 weddings a year, a hundred people, like 5,000 people every singleyear are going to remember our place.
For the 20 years later when they're telling their kids about their wedding day, it's goingto be here.
But that's so cool.
(40:35):
It's hard to like think about like moving it on at any stage because like this venue hassuch a story for us and it's been such a journey that yeah.
If we ever sold this place, I think it would be hard to say goodbye to it.
We might have to write into the terms and conditions that we're allowed to come back.
(40:59):
um Obviously we've got our own memories here.
Not only our kids sort of growing up and spending weekends out here, us getting marriedhere.
Do you have many of your own events here like Christmases or anything like that where youwill bring the family up here and actually get to enjoy the space yourself?
Yeah, we have.
We've had Christmas here.
My sister also got married here.
(41:19):
um We try and get the family out when it all aligns and everyone can come out and have abit of a weekend.
It's really nice.
Just got to move the furniture around.
Any exciting plans for the future we should know about?
we've got dreams.
(41:40):
We got dreams that evolve on a, I was about to say daily, but I thought it's more regular.
I mean, we talk about, you know, like Sarah said earlier, we love a project so much thatwe are always looking for the next one.
And I think if this venue ever got to the point where we were like, you know, there'sreally nothing else for us to do.
(42:01):
wouldn't be able to sit still and not.
I don't know, not have something.
We've got a little bit of a home reno to distract us at the moment.
Yeah.
A bit of a creative outlet, but.
um
to build cabins.
That was the original plan.
And I think it would really complement our venue to have a little bit more accommodationon site.
(42:23):
And we've thought about another structure, but we also don't want to take away from thisstructure because this is what people are drawn to.
know, this shape, this building is what they love.
And being on top of a hill, it's so hard to build any other structure because it blocksviews.
Like, cause we have...
360 degree views, we can only build like on lower ground.
(42:44):
Yeah.
So that we're not obstructing a beautiful view.
it's, like hard to choose which one's going to, you know, which one are we going to block?
not Mount Maroon.
I think there was a, we went through a couple of months of like debating to put a littlebit of storage next to the house because we knew that one bedroom is going to lose its,
going to lose its view.
(43:05):
Three bedrooms can still save it.
the one, we knew the one region was going to lose.
And that was, that was a big deal to like, Oh, okay.
You know, we've to sacrifice, you know, bedroom number three, it's gonna, it's gonna loseits view.
Um, but it was a necessity, you know, having that storage under the house, you know, torun the practicality of
furniture and bits and pieces that you need for the day.
(43:26):
was where the practical and the, yeah, I had to envision it and imagine it.
Sarah was just saying, why don't you just put it underground so it doesn't lock in withyou.
Just dig it in the ground.
Just real quick.
Some kind of basement.
That's the next one.
That's a wine cellar.
(43:46):
then like for how, how far in advance currently should people be getting in contact withyou?
Like say they want to book the venue.
Like how far out are they kind of booking currently?
look, I think most fair inquiries now for 2026.
um
still for 2025, but we're pretty booked for 2025.
Yeah, know there was.
Yeah, like September, October, all of a sudden, and it was early, it was, it was earlylast year.
(44:14):
think Drew or Mick messaged and said, Oh, that's the last weekend in September done.
And I was like, what?
And it was, okay, what, that was all booked out.
And then, you know, people that are asking, you people come through for viewings or, um,
and say, want to weekend in September.
I'm like, Oh, how does late November sound?
how does, how does all this sound?
(44:35):
But, know, so it was surprising.
Those just all filled up.
Now there's popular months, you know, they filled up quick.
So.
May.
Everyone wants May.
I think it's the winter wedding with the around the fire.
Yeah, they're if people want May, August, September, October.
Yeah, they're probably they probably need to start booking in now for 2026.
(44:56):
A lot of that.
Probably half of those spots for 2026 are already taken.
Yeah.
But yeah, generally people are booking about 12 months out.
Okay, not too far.
I think in the past they used to book a lot further out, but yeah, we're noticing about 12months out now.
we're getting the odd 2027 inquiry and yeah, which is kind of scary to.
(45:19):
when you get one, just had one for Feb, 2027 and you're like, I don't know.
You know, like exactly.
m
it's hard to forecast actual changes to the venue because like you've got a limitedperiod.
We shut down for December, January each year just to conduct maintenance, groundwork or ifwe did want to build cabins or something like we could put something in place over that
(45:45):
period.
ah
grass just grows that fast.
um
That's difficult when people are like, no, we want to book you and you're like, no, weclosed for December, January.
And they're like, yeah, but we got this money.
you're like, it's hard.
We closed for December and January.
We're so protective of that because like, yeah, also the team needs a break.
Yeah.
(46:05):
It's nice to have that little spot where you can go.
can, we can go on a holiday or we can, yeah, build something, do something.
Yeah, if you do end up doing any of those things down the track, that's our chance.
We'll have to get all of our ducks in the line very early to make sure that, you know.
(46:26):
I guess even with the builders, like December to January, like you're to be cooking themway in advance to try and get that spot too.
We'd have to prefab something off site and just get it like do the ground prep and get itdelivered.
ah
But that's a, you know, who knows when that'll happen.
Yeah, if it'll happen.
Beautiful.
(46:47):
All right.
Well, we've got 50 minutes you guys.
It's awesome.
That's really good.
Like do you have any other like, would you have any hints and tips for kind of brides orgrooms looking for married in the area?
Come and spend some time at the place.
Like come do an early viewing on a Sunday, walk around, imagine the day, um get to knowthe different seasons of when you want to get married.
(47:12):
Like in winter, it's the sun sets earlier.
So you might want to bring your ceremony forward a little bit so you get that extra timeoutside.
Yeah.
Yeah, think, yeah, that's, that's a, that's a big thing that like, don't think about oftenis, when like people come to view, know, people came to view, uh, on the weekend.
And I think the majority of them were looking at winter 2026 weddings.
(47:35):
and it was, and it's kind of, you know, explaining the seasons and the climate around thattime of year.
And, and it's really hard to imagine when it's kind of, you know, pretty humid weekendhere and just after summer.
It's hard to imagine.
if anyone who books with us, we encourage them to come back and spend a viewing planning.
um I think most times we open up, someone will come who's planning, just doing their finalplanning for their wedding, timing their walk to the aisle and all that kind of stuff.
(48:03):
um
can't understand why the May would be so busy because it just feels like so romantic.
we just kind of have a blanket around us.
Like you said, the fly piece down there and even the accommodation as well.
Like so cozy in there.
Like they can just imagine themselves just like.
We got married in May.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But yeah, I'd say have a look at the vendors on our website.
It's obviously not an extensive list of everyone, but they ask people who have worked withus previously.
(48:30):
So that could be a first spot to go to, to start getting quotes or inquiring about whatthey envision for their wedding day and if the vendors can achieve that for them within
their budget.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's lots of ways you can save money here.
You can do a lot yourself or you can do not much yourself.
It depends what your budget is.
(48:50):
But yeah, having that flexibility to check in 24 hours prior and style your tables or goto the local flower market uh for those people who do want to be a bit more hands on or do
it with their family.
Yeah.
And that's something we share with, with, you know, people that inquiring at our venue isSarah, and her mom and grandma all did florals, um, together for our wedding.
(49:13):
Yeah.
And, um, you know, was, yeah, everyone got involved.
Like they all got involved and it was like a special, special thing for them all to do.
Yeah.
Um, I I was out there with your grandpa picking weeds out.
Yeah.
uh
(49:35):
Yeah, they're the parts you really remember.
Yeah.
As well as the wedding day, those special, everyone's here for you.
Yeah.
I love that.
I would say our wedding day was the best day of our lives.
you know, I think, yeah, there's, you know, I kind of thought weddings were overrateduntil I got married.
(49:55):
And then I kind of drank the Kool-Aid then I thought, you this is a special day.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I encourage people to, you know, lean into their weddings a bit more.
to celebrate my wife and I were saying we wouldn't together nine years beforehand.
And same thing like we'd had three kids and you're like, Oh, it's just going to be thesame.
(50:17):
And then it to your wedding day and you're like, this is really good.
It is different.
And we only had, we only had 20 people.
was really intimate.
just had immediate family.
Um, but it does, it's a different feeling and like everyone is there and like you, youkind of like, yeah, the speeches, but then you actually hear the speeches for you.
Everyone truly is there for you and celebrating your love.
(50:39):
Yeah.
All right.
Well, where can people find you on socials and website and all that kind of thing?
We're at Maroon Hill Estate or www.maroonhillestate.com.
Beautiful.
And they can organise um viewings and everything like that through the website.
website.
Yeah, there's a phone number that on there that'll get through to Drew.
Yep.
And you know, I'm glad it goes through to Drew because he knows a lot more about weddingsthan we do.
(51:03):
Yeah.
yeah, Reach out.
Beautiful.
Thank you so much, guys.
It's been beautiful.
And thank you so much for hosting us here as well.
It's absolutely stunning.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks for tuning in to the Wedco podcast.
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(51:26):
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Until then, have you planned in and we'll see you soon.
Welcome to the Wedco podcast, your ultimate guide to the wedding world.
Whether you're a bride, groom or wedding vendor, this is the place to be.
Join us as we dive into real stories, expert advice and behind the scenes insights to helpyou plan the perfect day.
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(00:24):
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truly means the world.
and welcome to the word co podcast.
I'm Toga.
And today we are at maroon Hill estate.
Thank you so much for having us here.
(00:45):
We've got Sarah and Reese on the couch with us.
Thank you so much for hosting us.
This has been like an absolute dream.
Um, I remember I was out here maybe about a month ago for a wedding and just like watchingthe sunset kind of across the hills.
There's just.
Every time I drive up here, just like seeing the hills and everything in the background,it's just stunning.
it's great to finally meet you and yeah.
It's absolutely amazing.
Like we usually kind of start, I guess, a little bit of a backstory.
(01:07):
Um, so we know when you grow up, like from three or four, you knew you wanted to have awedding venue.
Is that right?
Yeah.
Very different, actually.
Yeah, well we um, so Sarah and I were both in the army for long time um and we bought thisland while we were in the army and we didn't buy it with the intention of a wedding venue
at the time.
We actually had a bit of a bit of an idea of putting glamping tents on here.
(01:32):
So really nice luxury glamping tents.
um So we bought the land with that in mind but once we started getting into what thatactually involves and
what glamping tents require and driveway and power, septic, all that kind of stuff.
um It kind of wasn't realistic to do those cabins.
(01:52):
So we started looking at building a house and then we thought, well, you know, we're justgoing to build a house for Airbnb or are we going to do something different?
um So we thought we'd do a wedding venue and, you know, it was kind of...
uh
At the time we thought, oh yeah, it'd be a great wedding venue.
Our friends have been out here and they love it and they think it'd be a great venue.
And the neighbors who we bought the place off, they said they were thinking about doingweddings up here at one stage.
(02:16):
So it just kind of developed that way.
So we went and built the place.
We built the place with weddings in mind and hope for the best really.
We never actually like planned how we would run the venue.
Like that's a great idea.
Like we love a project.
Let's like work on this project together.
But I think we only thought up until the point of project completion.
We never thought beyond that.
(02:38):
Like what's running a wedding venue actually gonna look like, feel like, and how are wegonna do it?
But yeah, it's all worked out.
um It's all worked out really well.
Like everything has just fallen into place.
And we still don't really know what running a wedding is like.
We're still figuring that part out.
Yeah.
(02:58):
So far, so good.
How long ago since the first wedding here?
So the first wedding as Maroon Hill Estate was in...
July, last year, 2024.
Yeah, that's right.
Before that, we got married out here in May.
So we thought before we officially launch it as a venue, we'll get our wedding in thereand do the first one.
(03:20):
But even before that, our friends actually got married out here before there was a houseor anything here.
um
before there was even a proper driveway.
It was just a bit of a dirt road on the way up.
They got married out here because they came out camping with us out here one weekend andloved it and wanted to get married here and they put a TP up and just hide everything and
brought it all in and it was unreal.
(03:40):
How good.
Like even when you're talking about camping up here, I'm like, that would be the dream.
That was our weekends for quite a few years.
um In one of the ceremony areas over the trees there, we had a fire pit and sort of ourcamping spot there.
uh Eventually we upgraded, we built a shed and we used to camp.
First it was on the shed slab, we'd just sleep on the slab and then we'd had a shed andwe'd be like, this is great, we're in a shed now, we're camping in a shed.
(04:08):
Then for a while we could come out here and just stay in bedrooms.
uh
is it?
was all pre-kids though, know, like when we bought this land in 2018, we were like, wewould take on the world, we'd take on anything, like, let's do this.
And then we ended up having our first child in 2021.
(04:31):
And then 2024 was our first wedding.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, but we opened for bookings, I think a little bit over a year before our firstwedding.
Well, it's definitely something's going right.
Cause every time I open Instagram, all I see is Bruniel come through.
Like there's so many like starting weddings that have already happened.
(04:53):
And there's definitely a lot of people in, even within the industry talking about it.
um I feel like a lot of people would kind of put the effort into starting their own, youknow, wedding venue.
And then the traction part of it is a really hard part to get.
But I feel like as far as like even just launching it, that launch has gone so well withyou guys.
Yeah.
Robin, we've got, we've got.
Drew and me from the White Stag and Bruce, those guys to thank for a lot of just, I guess,rather than us starting at the start line, they put us a little bit in front as far as
(05:23):
just being exposed to the wedding industry.
they just, Drew's worked with a brand new venue before and it wasn't the first timesitting down with two people who knew nothing about it and saying, here's some things to
think about.
And it really shaped a lot of the way we, I mean, he organized a style shoot for us.
And at the time,
I didn't know what style of shoot Even on the day I'm like, how much do I pay all thesepeople to be out here?
(05:49):
yeah, I didn't really get it.
yeah, know, having those guys on board from the get go, well before we did our firstwedding, we were working with them.
That was absolutely a hit the ground running advantage for us.
How is even the design process?
(06:09):
like weddings are so aesthetically based.
Like when you're coming together, like you worked, did you work with an architect as faras the house goes?
uh
I was really inspired by New Zealand architecture.
They have pretty much what we've designed.
A lot of that over there in the mountains.
definitely.
Like around Wanaka and everything, like I've done a lot of time around there, stunningexactly like this.
(06:30):
uh
seen much of it in Australia yet.
There's a little bit of it in the cooler climates, like down south a bit, but nothing inQueensland.
um So, and I thought that would be so amazing for our, like, venue and the white, youknow, it would be.
Yeah.
(06:50):
So we just designed it ourselves um through a builder.
uh I uh think we went back to our very first sketch of the place.
It's so similar to what actually we've ended up with.
first sketches, there was probably some pretty out there sketches to begin with.
Some of our first sketches, um yeah, to what we have now, like, yeah, know, certainmeasurements and door sizes and all that kind of things, you know, it's our first time
(07:14):
ever building anything, know, um the, yeah, we, you know, that kind of shaped it a bit,but it was actually really similar to what we first.
uh
envisioned.
And then, you know, we love the look of this place, but I guess there's certain designaspects that have um posed their own challenges, you know, it's, you know, to get that
really nice um sort of no Eve look on the house.
(07:38):
Obviously, as soon as there's a bit of rain, you got to close windows and close doors andyou know, don't get that.
um
Yeah, benefit of like a standard house design is a reason they do it that way.
there's a few things that, you know, we just didn't think about the time, but you know,we've just kind of work around now and it's a, it's a worthwhile, um, does, you design
choice because it looks a certain way and we like it.
feel like it is so iconic already.
(07:59):
Like as soon as you see photos of the front facade, everyone knows where it is.
And I mean, that's only a short amount of time, but everyone already knows that.
Yeah, yeah, I think we've done something right as far as the simplicity and the way it'sall worked out in the end.
That design was so important to me, like to have the double peaks.
during actually during the build our builder, we originally had some plans done up througha different design company.
(08:25):
And it was a matter of they redrew the new builder redrew the plans and there was a matterof a dotted line that was supposed to be a no other way around solid line that was
supposed to be a dotted line.
And when they redrew it, it was drawn up wrong.
And when they built it, came out here one day and I looked at that side of the house andwe're like, that doesn't look right.
(08:47):
Something doesn't look right.
We're like, have to change it.
yeah, we were.
the frame stage, it was going to completely change the whole look at the front of theplace.
And here as well, there was a bit of a, the way the trusses were at the front.
Yeah, we had to get the builder to pull trusses back to redo it.
(09:07):
Yeah, was a, yeah, it wasn't going to work.
were very lucky that he was so flexible and that he knew it meant so much to us to havethat shape and that look.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Stay, stay far.
So was the builder that did it.
And yeah, he was great.
Yeah.
He builds a lot of houses out here.
uh
then even like, okay, so obviously, there's been a lot of forethought as far as likeceremony spaces and everything like that goes back up when you were kind of back in the
(09:33):
camping days, had you already had a kind of those earmarked of like, this is where youknow, we would love to get married.
Like, did you get married down the back?
Yeah, you did.
Okay, cool.
You just knew that was a spot.
Yeah, we call it the circle of trees.
Yeah.
Because it's like there's not many trees on top of this hill.
Yeah.
Apart from that circle.
And when you look at it from bird's eye view, looking down like on a drone, it's a circle.
Yeah.
There's someone back in the days planted this circle of trees.
(09:55):
Anyway, looking out towards the mountain, like obviously the mountains, the focal point.
in that circle of trees, you get like this really nice um sort of like a whimsical feel,but also you've got that grand mountain background.
But a lot of people just like the open mountain view as well.
We've got a larger flat open area and a lot of people like that.
(10:20):
Yeah, it's probably 50 50.
I think the way things are done so far between those two spots.
Yeah, okay.
And then I reckon there's a there's a huge different hugely different feel between thetwo.
You kind of get the birds chirping a bit in the trees and you can hear the wind throughthe trees.
But then the other open area it's kind of feel a bit on top of the world and everything'sunobstructed.
So it's a different feel but
Do you notice a difference in the type of weddings those weddings are?
(10:43):
Like whether someone chooses like one or the other spot?
No, not really.
Maybe this year we will.
I'm sure a lot of it comes down to the personality of the couple getting married and youknow, what connects with them.
Yeah.
Do you want to talk a little bit about like say accommodation options?
Okay.
So say someone, you know, a couple of just booked in here, like what would theyessentially expect from coming to get married up here?
(11:09):
Are they, they checking into your accommodation the night before or like how?
Yeah, so you check in here and you've got the place for um almost three days or two nightswith basically a full 24 hours on the property before you have your ceremony.
So most of our couples are checking in sort of 2pm the day before.
They've got 24 hours on site to do as much as they want themselves as far as styling andsetup goes.
(11:34):
They've got a chance to unwind and relax and they're not just arriving at the ceremonystraight into let's do our vows.
They've got time.
They can do their walk down to the aisle.
Yes.
They can get here and they can stand, you know, where they're at.
Their sort of ceremony is going to be the 24 hours before and they can see where the sunis, see where the shadows are and they can, you know.
their vows.
(11:56):
I did it.
That's so rewarding though, like you talked about like sun position and just knowing like,cool, if I'm here at this time, I'm going to be staring into the sun.
So even just knowing that, like how far forward or how far back do we want to be here aswell?
And I feel like a lot of couples are really, they are wanting that whole kind of weekendexperience.
Like the more people we talk to, they don't want the...
check in, check out, you know, like they want to have family and they want to be able toexperience it.
(12:20):
And maybe they got a dinner the night before.
Um, and it works so much better from, from a photo video kind of point of view wherepeople have had the night before to say hello, to hang out, know, to do all that and do
all the small talk prior.
Cause then they can actually really enjoy the actual wedding day.
uh
to like say hello to every single person and catch up on wedding day.
Yeah, for sure.
(12:41):
I think it's like eight o'clock and they're still going around to a circle and you'relike, when are you going to relax?
Like when you can actually enjoy your wedding day.
Yeah.
I think that was a big thing on our wedding when we got married here.
And also some couples have done it where they've either gone into town or had like alittle bit of a breakfast here afterwards when we can sort of facilitate it.
um And it's good because for us, all our family coming back the next day, we didn't haveto spend much time saying goodbye on the night.
(13:06):
It was just like, I'll see you in the morning.
Yeah, yeah, I'll make a coffee or something.
It was way more, yeah, you didn't have to spend that time saying goodbye to everyone.
could, yeah, that was awesome for us.
And also the day before as well.
The night before we had some family over and yeah, just talked and had a beautiful dinner.
Yeah, was good.
Yeah, woke up the next day and it was go time.
(13:31):
Game on.
How many people would you have on say a typical wedding at the moment?
Like is there a capacity of people you can have on site or anything like that?
Yeah.
Also our limits 120 for the guests.
yeah.
And then in this room we can dine 120.
It doesn't give you a massive amount of space for anything else like a dance floor, butyou know, we can sit down 120 in here.
(13:52):
I think for those bigger weddings, know, our venue really lends itself towards more of acanopy relaxed dining experience for those, you know, numbers up around 120, but we can
definitely sit people, sit those people down.
But then, you know, to use this room,
you know, for your dinner and dance floor and have plenty of space.
I think 90 or below is a nice sort of setup for this area.
(14:16):
Yeah.
And then so if you're even 60, it's really a nice sort of use of the space.
we've had one of our first weddings was 20 guests and they had a beautiful, you know,small intimate ceremony and reception.
They used a local caterer in town.
um
the chef at Bloom restaurant.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(14:36):
Um, you know, he does incredible food.
I'm done.
amazing.
How good's that?
It's really good for such a small little wedding.
Yeah.
Yeah, anyone who comes through and mentions that they've sort of, you know, got thosesmaller numbers, you know, I definitely put, I mentioned him as an option just because
yeah, the dining experience that he would provide is unreal.
Yeah.
(14:57):
Even like coming from the ceremony.
like you've got the umbrellas, you've got the festoon lights and everything.
It's so nice.
like everyone kind of talks about spaces now.
So it's like, cool.
You're going to move from the ceremony space and then everyone's going to come up here forthe canapes.
And like the last wedding I was at, um, I think it might've only been maybe 40 or 50people, but like you said, it still feels like you don't want it to feel too big for the
amount of people there as well.
Like it's a real balance between like, yes, you've got this massive, like beautiful spacethat you have, but it still feels really intimate as well.
(15:23):
And like kind of people out there and they'll go in their canapes and everything outthere.
And then there's like the little fire pit down there too.
Like it just felt super homely.
But you can feel just everyone felt like they belonged there.
Yeah, it is more of a relaxed venue.
Like I feel like that's what we want people to experience here is like they come in, theyget to be here the day before.
um It's like easing into it, but they also get to soak up that, like the views and thefeeling of being here.
(15:48):
um Because it is quite peaceful and just look out onto the mountains and yeah, it's just,there's something really special about it.
I think that's why we bought this locker land in the first place and didn't look at thedriveway or no power or no water.
We just like, yep, this place is something.
Once we had the plan to buy some land, um Sarah was in Tasmania.
(16:12):
She was working down there at the time and I was, um I was up here and she sent me outwith three addresses on one weekend.
um Yeah.
So I, I'm navigating my way to these three addresses and I didn't contact any real estateagents or anything to view them.
just thought I'll just go check it out.
And then one, I was like looking around, you know, in hindsight, what I was looking atwouldn't have been anything useful for what we ended up doing.
(16:34):
was like, yeah, this has got potential, but it was maybe three acres or something.
um And then I looked at another block of land and uh it was, think it must've already beensold because was a house half under construction.
then I came here and apologies to the previous owners.
I just jumped the fence and started having looking around.
(16:55):
um
Yeah, I started walking up the hill and I remember I've still got the videos on my phonesomewhere that I was sending Sarah because I was halfway up the driveway, you where our
current driveway is and I'm sending Sarah some photos and videos back like, this isunreal.
There's a road down there.
Look at these views here.
And I hadn't even got to the top of the hill and seen Mount Maroon or any.
And then I got to the top and I was just like, yeah, this is, this is, I think I've seenyou like 15 minutes worth of videos.
(17:22):
Like I'm sold.
It's good.
I'm good.
uh
we did look at other places afterwards, but I think we just, eh
Yeah, something special about this place.
Even on real estate.com, I was like, that's the one.
Like, I know nothing's going to compare that one other one that we went to.
(17:42):
It had its own mountain.
Yeah.
Okay.
And it looked really cool on paper.
But when we got there, there was no phone reception.
The gates were all shut and it was like, beware, don't enter, like keep out privateproperty.
we're like, place feels like there's something.
about it doesn't feel right.
uh
I didn't.
Not that tranquil feel that you want coming up.
(18:02):
it was like, what's going on in there?
But also like no phone reception.
Like no one wants to go out somewhere with no phone reception and like, you know, not beable to contact people.
I mean, sometimes that's nice, but um generally like people like to be able to be intouch.
um
Where do you find a lot of couples coming from at the moment?
(18:25):
Is it like kind of Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast?
Where are lot of couples coming from currently?
I'd say mostly Brisbane.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Definitely mostly Brisbane.
um
and even some from Sunny Coast.
Not too many, um surprisingly a few, yeah.
I drive the route from sunny coast down here regularly.
(18:49):
But yeah, it's surprising people are willing to drive and, you know, set up somewherefurther away.
Well, even from Brian, I was saying it was like two hours for me this morning.
It's like, can take me more than two hours to get to Brisbane.
So like even from there, it's like, I'm probably about an hour to the gold coast, butanother hour from there.
It's like, yeah, it's actually really close.
Especially like so many people do want that kind of, it's almost like destination.
(19:12):
Like they kind of do want to get away.
They don't want to be going 10 minutes from their house because it kind of loses a bit ofthat like special feeling when you can kind of just go past your wedding venue again.
like, find, like, I mean, would you have any weekends free where people can
book here without a wedding or are they kind of all taken up now?
No, all without it.
(19:33):
We did that for the first year, like we did accommodation.
m And when we started weddings, we were still doing weddings and accommodation, butflipping the house between Airbnb, because obviously this room that we're in now is set up
with couches and ah yeah, like four massive couches.
um And it's just too much for us to be, we feel like removalists.
(19:58):
And you're that route from Sunshine Coast here like every day.
and our kids like, it's really hard because we bring the kids out too.
So, you know, they're, juggling them and trying to move the furniture around.
We've made it work for a little while, but it was good to kind of close the book on justdoing accommodation and we know weekends away and just doing weddings.
(20:21):
Yeah.
It's been good to make that jump.
maybe in the future, if they got married here, they could bring a tent and they can, know,during the week or something like that, come for a night and they could just stay out
there.
I just relive, you know, wedding day.
uh Did you ever imagine you'd be wedding venue owners?
No, we just love a project.
I think we always need to be doing something and it's like a creative outlet for us.
(20:45):
um we've really enjoyed like the six years that it's taken to get to this point inbuilding the venue.
All the, you know, choosing designs and like imagining what it would be like.
um
that's why we work well together as well because Sarah's got, know, Sarah's uh much betterat design than I am and aesthetics and you you know, he looks at it really well through
(21:09):
the lens of a couple getting married here and what they want it to look like and feel likeand everything.
Whereas I'm very practically minded as far as, oh know, I'm measuring, I'm measuring howlong extension leads need to be and you know, what's the output of generators, all this
kind of stuff.
You know, I'm sort of the practical uh one.
which sometimes uh form and function sort of butt heads a bit.
(21:35):
We meet in the middle.
A lot.
Like really meet in the middle because yeah.
got to, but it's worked so far.
We've managed to maintain the look that we want, but also provide as much practicality andmake it all work.
Last I was here and even like, think with the generator, feel like you can monitor fromyour place or something like that.
Like think you were saying you can monitor like power, right?
(21:57):
And like even all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, well completely off grid here.
it's all, we're not connected to the grid at all as far as um electricity goes or anythingreally, but yeah, we're completely off grid just because the cost of connecting to the
grid is cost prohibitive.
and then you pay a power bill on top of that.
insane.
like, yeah, by the time you get a road up here and then utilities, you're like, like,yeah, it's not feasible.
(22:22):
But it's had its upsides.
um We just had um Cyclone Alfred.
um The locals all lost power and we wouldn't have known.
If our neighbors didn't tell us that they lost power, we wouldn't have known.
And that's a benefit.
And we've got multiple layers of redundancy.
If certain parts of our own off-grid system goes down, we can keep it going.
(22:43):
ah
the The middle of the night like why is there so much power still?
That is good because that's happened at weddings I've been to before and they've beenbeautiful venues and the power has gone out and I'm sure they do have redundancies of some
sort as well but it has happened in the past where especially reception the lights go outthe music goes out and everyone's kind of just like cool like you know so.
(23:10):
Yeah.
Yeah, we've got it set up now so that if there's, if we fully lose power, we can just runthe whole venue off a generator.
We just upgraded our generator so that also because we got air conditioning now, so weneeded a little bit more power to support the batteries and the usage.
Yeah, and we'll keep upgrading the system and stuff as we go and adapting it.
(23:34):
Has there been a lot in the last year, like where you kind of set up, have your firstwedding, you're like, that's perfect.
Has there been a lot since that point where you're like, cool, we should add this, weshould add this.
single wedding.
Every single wedding we learn a new lesson, which is amazing.
um Because yeah, like little things that you're like, oh, I wish that didn't happen.
Or like, I wish I could have done something, but we just learn and then we implementsomething for the next time.
(23:59):
um
I find that even with our house, used to airbnb our house over Christmas.
same thing, like there's so many things that are fine for you, but then other people comein and you're like, oh, I didn't know I need that, that, that, that.
uh
helped us when we were Airbnb in this house.
It helped us a bit with like learning what people need and stuff, just staying here.
And how they interact with the place.
(24:19):
Yeah.
Yeah, that was that was a benefit.
I mean, yeah, throughout weddings, you know, this house used to this room used to be setup with couches and a dining table and, you know, big rugs and that kind of stuff, which
absorbed a lot of the echo, which is why we put these sound panels up.
Yep.
Because as soon as you take all that away and you just got the hard surfaces of tables andfloor ceiling walls, the echo in here was, you know, it was noticeable.
(24:44):
Yeah.
Sarah put all those up?
Yeah.
told him to do it and he just magically appeared.
You still got to sew back today the shoulders.
I owe a lot of cartons of beer to my mate Alex.
Most of the projects around this place he's had his hands in.
(25:05):
I owe him and a few others a uh lot of beer I reckon.
It is a noticeable difference though walking in today, like how big a difference that'smade.
It's like night and day kind of difference, which is amazing.
And just like, but that you are willing to do those things.
Cause there's like a lot of people with wedding venues that will like it all comes down tothe dollar figure.
And you're like, well, that is a lot of money to do that.
(25:25):
We can get away with it for another year.
It's fine.
But like to actually action the things that people want.
It's not really heard of that often.
Yeah.
Same with aircon, know, being off grid, guess aircon was more of a challenge for us thanthe standard sort of, you know, get aircon put in.
it was the biggest, the biggest, I guess, driver for it was when you got 80 people on adance floor inside here, all that, you know, body heat is a lot.
(25:49):
You generally the house is pretty good.
You we made sure we got all the insulation and stuff put in when we built it.
But, but yeah, I guess the dance floor is when it was, we were like, okay, we've got toaircon.
It's supposed to be hot and sweaty.
fine.
warmer months.
So take the edge off.
Yeah, for sure.
Just a couple of plunge pools outside or something like that.
(26:10):
That has been on my list, but I don't know.
could be just a damn.
Yeah, exactly.
It'll be fine.
So do you have regular caterers that come up here a lot?
um Like how is building up the relationships with vendors been so far for yourself?
Yeah, yeah, we've, we've had we've had a few that sort of, you know, regulars, Italianjob, we come back a few times.
(26:33):
wood fired pizza and
Gareth Keenan, MCs, they all know the place very well, so we trust them a lot.
it's an open book really, anyone can choose whatever caterer they want.
If they want pizza or an ice cream van or...
Yeah.
people enjoying the outdoors here, you know, they can have their entire ceremony andreception or, or, know, canapé style food outside.
(26:57):
Um, there's quite a of people that that are looking to set up like a mini eat street, havea food truck, have a drinks, a drinks van, a Zert van, know, like, um, create a bit of a
festival up around the cocktail area.
Yeah.
I think that's awesome.
Yeah, definitely.
I can see it from here.
yeah, like just having like a little owl shape around it and like having everything there.
Everyone can hang out in the middle.
(27:18):
We even had, yeah, like a first dance out underneath the festoon lights and it just looksso beautiful at night time.
Like people having out there, especially like a beautiful night.
It's kind of everyone having a circle around it, like gelati cart in the corner.
Yeah, it's a real chill vibe out there.
Yeah.
Even after the sunset.
It's just nice to be outside, some fresh air and mingle.
(27:40):
We got married and I think we came inside to dance and for speeches and we were out therest of the night.
kids were running around everywhere.
Fire.
was really nice.
Even like going to the family thing, it is nice to be able to have kids on site.
You know, there's so many venues where you go to in Brizzy, Gold Coast, you're like, oh,like, yeah, we can bring kids, but they're just going to be on a table in the corner
(28:00):
there.
They're going to have some iPads under the table.
It sucks.
Whereas like, yeah, when I was up here and like, there was, I there must've been about 20kids and they're just running around.
They're the best time.
The parents don't have to worry.
They can still go and have fun and just see that the kids are like, just there, they'refine.
And so I feel like, yeah, like leaning toward this type of family, this time a couple.
it's just to be like you said a bit more of a relaxed vibe but people are going to reallyappreciate the family and friends kind of aspect there.
(28:24):
Yeah.
that was one of the biggest reasons we had um a canapé style, like cocktail style weddingoutside, uh or reception, sorry, is because of the kids.
didn't know how they were going to sit down for a few hours inside.
And um we actually brightened the festoon lights outside because previously you couldn'tsee quite out to the swing or, you know, if the kids ran off, you might not have been able
(28:49):
to see them.
So that was another improvement that we did where you can just...
see a bit more light.
The kids can be 30 metres away and you can still see them.
They're not just off into the abyss.
Yeah, because it does get quite dark out here.
There's no city lights or anything.
Give them a couple glow sticks.
The kids love it.
We used to bring our dog out here, had a collar that strobed red so we could see himrunning off around.
(29:15):
Just bounding around the property.
Just like how many kids you're to have?
we'll get 20 of these.
uh That's the next improvement.
Are you guys out on site during the weddings?
And so um we're in before and after for the set up, pack up and um the white stag, they'reout of venue managers.
So Drew and me, Bruce, they're out here um doing the venue management and on-daycoordination.
(29:40):
So we can offer on-day coordination for people as well.
Cool.
And that's pretty much a free record set that they would kind of get the wide sag.
Like would anyone come out here by themselves at all?
Or you kind of always need...
For the ceremony, we've always got venue manager here.
and reception.
Yeah.
Um, never not have the monocyte.
The party will just turn into a big doof.
(30:02):
They got a couple of swags out the back.
But no, we specifically don't allow camping because the party will just, people will justwrite themselves off and um it becomes a bit of a mess.
And also, yeah, our rules are um music off by 11, guests off by 11.30, which is prettygood for out here.
(30:28):
Yeah, we want them to make the most of it, but then yeah, we can't do camping because forthat reason.
But yeah, there's plenty of accommodation around that people go to and yeah, it's, it'sbeen, it's really good actually.
A lot of our neighbors have jumped on board with accommodations, setting up cabins andAirbnb's and things because they've, you know, they've really supportive of us as a venue.
(30:50):
So it's been great.
That's so good.
I see that a lot around regional areas where there's like a kind of a central hub ofwedding venue.
And then, like all the Airbnb's get spread out around them as well.
And it's really cool to see like you are feeding into the local towns.
And it's like, all of a sudden there's, know, every weekend there's 80 more people thatare coming here that all need accommodation.
And it's so cool how it starts feeding out around the area.
(31:10):
m
it's unreal.
Every time you find out about a new cabin or something we can add to our website is like,know, the accommodation list.
It's awesome.
When we first opened or pre-opening, we were a little bit worried about not having enoughaccommodation in the local area.
And now it's not a worry at all.
Like, we definitely feel like there's plenty of accommodation for people and their gueststo stay.
(31:35):
I this area, the scenic room in general is just not a wedding destination, know, like inMalayne and Mount Tamborine, that kind of areas where they're really set up and really
mature sort of destinations for weddings.
But yeah, I guess here is a bit of an unknown spot.
(31:56):
I think one day it will be.
I think it will with attraction you guys already getting.
It's feels like it's definitely, yeah, people like it's such a big draw cards coming outhere.
And like you said, like you get outside and it's dark and the stars are bright, you know,you don't get to see that anywhere else.
It's so special to just get away and be like, you feel like you're in the wilderness, butwe're experiencing this amazing day as well.
(32:16):
How do most people find you?
it like through Instagram or like, how do you?
Yeah, so I do all the Instagrams and advertising.
I've kind of just fluked it.
But we started off on like all the Facebook groups.
So Facebook was a big one to start with.
But then, yeah, I do a lot of Instagram too.
I think Instagram right now would be our biggest, where people find us.
(32:40):
I am a little bit slack sometimes.
It's hard to keep up with it all the time.
It's a full time job, just social media by itself.
It's like on top of everything else.
It's hard to dedicate that time to that.
Yeah, I just like pre-schedule everything in advance and I kind of forget about it andthen I'm like, oh, it's time to do that again.
two weeks go past and I haven't posted anything.
Yeah.
(33:00):
But yeah, we'll get there.
It's like an ever evolving thing too.
know, got to adapt to social media trends and, and, um, you know, different platforms and,um, I don't know.
We've ventured into tick tock yet,
Oh, created an account, I think I have one follower.
Just another thing to post on and learn about.
(33:21):
But yeah, I am like doing a few courses on social media and SEO and stuff like that so Ican improve our website and improve our Instagram and yeah, learn a bit more about it
because everything that we currently do is just, I don't know, just go with the flow, makeit up on the fly.
It seems to be working.
(33:43):
Are you doing open days or like, like if someone actually wants to come out and see thevenue, like how would they go about that?
We've never done an open day.
um think, you know, there's, different things around like, you know, wedding trails wheremultiple venues open at once, but there's, there's not a lot of venues around us, you
know, and if we jumped onto one of those wedding trails, we might be the one venue that'sreally out of the way of, one of those other spots.
(34:06):
we're not too sure if people would, would go and see three or four venues, but then drivethe extra way to come to this area.
or vice versa for other venues that might come to us and not go onwards.
There are other venues around and I guess if it worked out that we could get some onesclose by to do open days, that would work for us.
But we run regular viewings, it's at least every fortnight and we've got a weekend spot todo some viewings.
(34:33):
So yeah, we'll just open Saturday and Sunday this week for viewings.
yeah, that's where we can sort of get in our website, book themselves in and come out andsee the place.
So you're to have like three or four more venues yourself and then start your own trail?
that what it's like?
(34:54):
I'd love to start designing another one.
We've learned so much.
ah Like that would be the smart thing to go and build another venue, but do it with allthe knowledge that we currently have.
If anyone wants to build a venue, know, don't just go blindly into it like we did.
Although that's been a blessing.
um Yeah, reach out to other venue owners, reckon.
(35:16):
I'd be more than happy to sit down with anyone who wants to start a venue and they can,what limited things I've learned in the last, I don't know, uh year or whatever.
You know, tell them about it.
But like I said, I think it's a blessing that we were so naive going into it all becausewe didn't.
We didn't already have this big long laundry list of all the challenges we were gonna haveto come up against.
(35:38):
We didn't know what a council application was.
We didn't know how to develop a driveway, car park, septic system, off-grid electricalsystem, none of that stuff.
All the practical things that I think about.
The social media that Sarah had to learn, the website that Sarah built, all that kind ofstuff.
We were naive to all of those challenges.
Council application, that was the biggest one.
(36:02):
You really put yourself out on the line financially and um we built all this in hope thatwe would get it approved and we were so lucky that it did get approved.
One thing after another just like admin admin admin
They were just, they nicely spread themselves out.
So it was just like, okay, we're gonna get around this challenge.
(36:23):
then, and then we got past that challenge.
We're like, sweet.
But now we've got a wedding venue on up.
This is the next challenge.
um it was just, yeah, they were nicely spread out.
We could just sort of tackle them one by one.
um
actually wish that we got in touch with the White Stag sooner, like before we evendesigned the venue, because at that point we were just making up, you know, room sizes and
(36:44):
we didn't actually think about the way that like a wedding functions or, you know, theflow of people or anything like that.
And that would have been something that would have helped us getting in touch with someonein the wedding industry, someone who goes to so many weddings and can have a little bit of
input.
into the space or the spaces.
(37:06):
And not to give you more roadblocks, but just little bits of insight.
Yeah, just tweaks.
mean, there's definitely, there's definitely things in hindsight that we would have donedifferently up until this point.
But that being said, you know, there's, uh yeah, I don't, I don't think it's, it's workedout too badly, but.
Yeah.
exactly.
My wife and I were similar.
We moved like an old Queenslander from Ipswich down to where we are in Byron.
(37:31):
And same thing, like if we had been builders, the amount of friends I had like, don't dothat.
Like don't do it.
And we're like, we're photographers.
Like it'll be fine.
And that exact same thing.
Like where you're just like, it'll be great.
It'll be fine.
And you just do it and you kind of go to get those hurdles as they come along and it justworks for them.
And it's like, whereas yeah, if you knew too much about it, you probably wouldn't haveundertaken it.
But that's all the best things are like that, you you get to through the other side andyou you didn't take the easy road.
(37:57):
You accidentally took the hard road, but it was was a, you know, it's a journey you learnso much.
uh
talking to other venue owners, have other venue owners been pretty forthcoming?
Like have you met many other venue owners?
Yes, or specifically all the venues that the White Stag work with.
Ah, cool.
they're all, everyone's unreal.
Yeah.
You know, everyone's, you know, super approachable, super open about, you know, to talkabout how they run things and you know, what works well and doesn't for them.
(38:25):
oh
Like, okay, so me looking at the both of you, like not typical, what I would picture as awedding venue owner.
Like, do feel like that when you've met the other owners as well, similar to that?
Um, I don't know.
They've all been great.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think like, you know, there's, there's like a perception that like,even a lot of our family and friends must have of like, like how, you know, that, you
(38:57):
know, doing doing a wedding venue is this.
It's, know, normal people don't do it.
It's the, it's the hobbies of like the rich and famous that can put together weddingvenues.
Yeah.
You know, we bought this piece of land for, um, less than a uh one bedroom apartment inBrisbane.
It was all like, we'd saved up and built a shed.
And, you know, there was, there was different things and it just all sort of happened in,know, it was just, like I said, it took us, it's taken us six years or so from buying the
(39:25):
land to here.
Yeah.
Closer to seven years.
But even like the deposit for the land, was like, earned like...
It was a big risk, but like we didn't have kids.
We were just like, I think, yeah.
I had about $45 in shares that I had to sell.
(39:51):
But yeah, I guess there's no like typical venue owner and it's nice to see the differentvenue owners and where they come from and their backgrounds and their stories about their
venue and how their venue came about.
Yeah, like us having never been in the wedding industry and just thinking it would be agreat idea and a great project and yeah, thinking we could share this place with so many
(40:14):
people for such beautiful times of their lives and really make an impact on, you know,
that day they remember forever.
Exactly.
Even if it's like 50 weddings a year, a hundred people, like 5,000 people every singleyear are going to remember our place.
For the 20 years later when they're telling their kids about their wedding day, it's goingto be here.
But that's so cool.
(40:35):
It's hard to like think about like moving it on at any stage because like this venue hassuch a story for us and it's been such a journey that yeah.
If we ever sold this place, I think it would be hard to say goodbye to it.
We might have to write into the terms and conditions that we're allowed to come back.
(40:59):
um Obviously we've got our own memories here.
Not only our kids sort of growing up and spending weekends out here, us getting marriedhere.
Do you have many of your own events here like Christmases or anything like that where youwill bring the family up here and actually get to enjoy the space yourself?
Yeah, we have.
We've had Christmas here.
My sister also got married here.
(41:19):
um We try and get the family out when it all aligns and everyone can come out and have abit of a weekend.
It's really nice.
Just got to move the furniture around.
Any exciting plans for the future we should know about?
we've got dreams.
(41:40):
We got dreams that evolve on a, I was about to say daily, but I thought it's more regular.
I mean, we talk about, you know, like Sarah said earlier, we love a project so much thatwe are always looking for the next one.
And I think if this venue ever got to the point where we were like, you know, there'sreally nothing else for us to do.
(42:01):
wouldn't be able to sit still and not.
I don't know, not have something.
We've got a little bit of a home reno to distract us at the moment.
Yeah.
A bit of a creative outlet, but.
um
to build cabins.
That was the original plan.
And I think it would really complement our venue to have a little bit more accommodationon site.
(42:23):
And we've thought about another structure, but we also don't want to take away from thisstructure because this is what people are drawn to.
know, this shape, this building is what they love.
And being on top of a hill, it's so hard to build any other structure because it blocksviews.
Like, cause we have...
360 degree views, we can only build like on lower ground.
(42:44):
Yeah.
So that we're not obstructing a beautiful view.
it's, like hard to choose which one's going to, you know, which one are we going to block?
not Mount Maroon.
I think there was a, we went through a couple of months of like debating to put a littlebit of storage next to the house because we knew that one bedroom is going to lose its,
going to lose its view.
(43:05):
Three bedrooms can still save it.
the one, we knew the one region was going to lose.
And that was, that was a big deal to like, Oh, okay.
You know, we've to sacrifice, you know, bedroom number three, it's gonna, it's gonna loseits view.
Um, but it was a necessity, you know, having that storage under the house, you know, torun the practicality of
furniture and bits and pieces that you need for the day.
(43:26):
was where the practical and the, yeah, I had to envision it and imagine it.
Sarah was just saying, why don't you just put it underground so it doesn't lock in withyou.
Just dig it in the ground.
Just real quick.
Some kind of basement.
That's the next one.
That's a wine cellar.
(43:46):
then like for how, how far in advance currently should people be getting in contact withyou?
Like say they want to book the venue.
Like how far out are they kind of booking currently?
look, I think most fair inquiries now for 2026.
um
still for 2025, but we're pretty booked for 2025.
Yeah, know there was.
Yeah, like September, October, all of a sudden, and it was early, it was, it was earlylast year.
(44:14):
think Drew or Mick messaged and said, Oh, that's the last weekend in September done.
And I was like, what?
And it was, okay, what, that was all booked out.
And then, you know, people that are asking, you people come through for viewings or, um,
and say, want to weekend in September.
I'm like, Oh, how does late November sound?
how does, how does all this sound?
(44:35):
But, know, so it was surprising.
Those just all filled up.
Now there's popular months, you know, they filled up quick.
So.
May.
Everyone wants May.
I think it's the winter wedding with the around the fire.
Yeah, they're if people want May, August, September, October.
Yeah, they're probably they probably need to start booking in now for 2026.
(44:56):
A lot of that.
Probably half of those spots for 2026 are already taken.
Yeah.
But yeah, generally people are booking about 12 months out.
Okay, not too far.
I think in the past they used to book a lot further out, but yeah, we're noticing about 12months out now.
we're getting the odd 2027 inquiry and yeah, which is kind of scary to.
(45:19):
when you get one, just had one for Feb, 2027 and you're like, I don't know.
You know, like exactly.
m
it's hard to forecast actual changes to the venue because like you've got a limitedperiod.
We shut down for December, January each year just to conduct maintenance, groundwork or ifwe did want to build cabins or something like we could put something in place over that
(45:45):
period.
ah
grass just grows that fast.
um
That's difficult when people are like, no, we want to book you and you're like, no, weclosed for December, January.
And they're like, yeah, but we got this money.
you're like, it's hard.
We closed for December and January.
We're so protective of that because like, yeah, also the team needs a break.
Yeah.
(46:05):
It's nice to have that little spot where you can go.
can, we can go on a holiday or we can, yeah, build something, do something.
Yeah, if you do end up doing any of those things down the track, that's our chance.
We'll have to get all of our ducks in the line very early to make sure that, you know.
(46:26):
I guess even with the builders, like December to January, like you're to be cooking themway in advance to try and get that spot too.
We'd have to prefab something off site and just get it like do the ground prep and get itdelivered.
ah
But that's a, you know, who knows when that'll happen.
Yeah, if it'll happen.
Beautiful.
(46:47):
All right.
Well, we've got 50 minutes you guys.
It's awesome.
That's really good.
Like do you have any other like, would you have any hints and tips for kind of brides orgrooms looking for married in the area?
Come and spend some time at the place.
Like come do an early viewing on a Sunday, walk around, imagine the day, um get to knowthe different seasons of when you want to get married.
(47:12):
Like in winter, it's the sun sets earlier.
So you might want to bring your ceremony forward a little bit so you get that extra timeoutside.
Yeah.
Yeah, think, yeah, that's, that's a, that's a big thing that like, don't think about oftenis, when like people come to view, know, people came to view, uh, on the weekend.
And I think the majority of them were looking at winter 2026 weddings.
(47:35):
and it was, and it's kind of, you know, explaining the seasons and the climate around thattime of year.
And, and it's really hard to imagine when it's kind of, you know, pretty humid weekendhere and just after summer.
It's hard to imagine.
if anyone who books with us, we encourage them to come back and spend a viewing planning.
um I think most times we open up, someone will come who's planning, just doing their finalplanning for their wedding, timing their walk to the aisle and all that kind of stuff.
(48:03):
um
can't understand why the May would be so busy because it just feels like so romantic.
we just kind of have a blanket around us.
Like you said, the fly piece down there and even the accommodation as well.
Like so cozy in there.
Like they can just imagine themselves just like.
We got married in May.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But yeah, I'd say have a look at the vendors on our website.
It's obviously not an extensive list of everyone, but they ask people who have worked withus previously.
(48:30):
So that could be a first spot to go to, to start getting quotes or inquiring about whatthey envision for their wedding day and if the vendors can achieve that for them within
their budget.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's lots of ways you can save money here.
You can do a lot yourself or you can do not much yourself.
It depends what your budget is.
(48:50):
But yeah, having that flexibility to check in 24 hours prior and style your tables or goto the local flower market uh for those people who do want to be a bit more hands on or do
it with their family.
Yeah.
And that's something we share with, with, you know, people that inquiring at our venue isSarah, and her mom and grandma all did florals, um, together for our wedding.
(49:13):
Yeah.
And, um, you know, was, yeah, everyone got involved.
Like they all got involved and it was like a special, special thing for them all to do.
Yeah.
Um, I I was out there with your grandpa picking weeds out.
Yeah.
uh
(49:35):
Yeah, they're the parts you really remember.
Yeah.
As well as the wedding day, those special, everyone's here for you.
Yeah.
I love that.
I would say our wedding day was the best day of our lives.
you know, I think, yeah, there's, you know, I kind of thought weddings were overrateduntil I got married.
(49:55):
And then I kind of drank the Kool-Aid then I thought, you this is a special day.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I encourage people to, you know, lean into their weddings a bit more.
to celebrate my wife and I were saying we wouldn't together nine years beforehand.
And same thing like we'd had three kids and you're like, Oh, it's just going to be thesame.
(50:17):
And then it to your wedding day and you're like, this is really good.
It is different.
And we only had, we only had 20 people.
was really intimate.
just had immediate family.
Um, but it does, it's a different feeling and like everyone is there and like you, youkind of like, yeah, the speeches, but then you actually hear the speeches for you.
Everyone truly is there for you and celebrating your love.
(50:39):
Yeah.
All right.
Well, where can people find you on socials and website and all that kind of thing?
We're at Maroon Hill Estate or www.maroonhillestate.com.
Beautiful.
And they can organise um viewings and everything like that through the website.
website.
Yeah, there's a phone number that on there that'll get through to Drew.
Yep.
And you know, I'm glad it goes through to Drew because he knows a lot more about weddingsthan we do.
(51:03):
Yeah.
yeah, Reach out.
Beautiful.
Thank you so much, guys.
It's been beautiful.
And thank you so much for hosting us here as well.
It's absolutely stunning.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks for tuning in to the Wedco podcast.
If you love this episode, don't forget to subscribe, follow and share it with yourfriends.
We'd love to hear your thoughts, so leave a review or connect with us on social media.
(51:26):
New episodes drop every week, so be sure to join us next time for more weddinginspiration, tips and stories.
Until then, have you planned in and we'll see you soon.
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