The damp Perth heat pours through the branches of riverside trees as we sit in rows opposite two rustic style white arches, which rest on the manicured lawns of Western Australia's award-winning Mandoon Estate.
Perched at the end of a pathway leading past a restored 1905 homestead, thewooden structures have been put up at the winery especially for today, Valentine's Day, alongside pots of fragrant cream flowers and elegant shabby white tables and chairs.
Despite it being in the depths of summer, it's the first time in 10 years that Perth has experienced such high levels of rainfall and the Swan River, which rests just meters away, is swarming with life after the week's flooding.
A woven tan rug marks a standing point near the altar, where two rings sit in open boxes between the leaves of white roses, which fill a pot dangling from metal chains in the gentle lunchtime wind.
The setup, an intimate and contemporary pop-up style wedding hosted by Perth based business Iconic Pop-Up Weddings, was put together by owner Natalie Gasmier earlier this morning and by the night's end, will be tucked away.
The pop-up wedding, a relaxed ceremony with a focus on sophisticated modern décor and standard wedding romance, will fill a 90 minute slot and take place in front of around 22 of the couple's closest friends and family.
The bride, Laura Timpson, is a long-time Kapiti Coast local, who grew up in Otaihanga and went to Paraparaumu College, before escaping to Wellington City and then, six years ago, Western Australia.
Some of the guests, like myself, have travelled on last minute budgets and plans for this afternoon's event, which was won two months ago through an online competition by Laura and her partner Blair Lambert, an ex-Wellingtonian.
Photo / THE DAY Weddings/www.thedayweddings.com.au
Some of us are experiencing Perth's white sandy beaches and laid back suburban living for the first time; the weather a little cooler than anticipated but enough to dampen the tops of our foreheads.
The pop-up wedding concept, an all-inclusive wedding package that takes place at a venue specified by a pop-up wedding planner, emerged in Australia five years ago and found its place in New Zealand a year later.
Since then, pop-up wedding companies in both countries have married hundreds of couples wanting a balance between the full blown big white wedding and quick-stop registry office affair.
According to Natalie, who is running today's event with organisational mastery as we soak in the sun from the side-lines, this new age concept has also gained credibility because of its affordability.
"Couple's don't have to spend thousands of dollars to marry the one they love," she tells me, checking on the vintage glass canisters filled with iced water and fresh fruit.
Photo / THE DAY Weddings/www.thedayweddings.com.au
"All they need to do is show up on the day with their marriage licence."
In Australia and New Zealand, the average wedding costs $30,000, while a pop-up wedding is just under $3000.
Included in that price is a bouquet and buttonhole for the bride and groom, legal marriage ceremony with all paperwork taken care of, photographers, a champagne toast for each adult guest, a non-alcoholic drinks station, and light refreshments for after the ceremony.
Add in a box of children's toys, games and a cushiony seating area shaded below the trees and you have effortless romance that is sourced, booked and styled all on your behalf.
"Couples book a time to wed during the day, and although a number of couples wed on the same day at the same place, every couple has their own designated time and thus do not see each other."
Photo / THE DAY Weddings/www.thedayweddings.com.au
Essentially, she tells me, these couples share the costs of a beautiful marriage ceremony.
According to New Zealand pop-up wedding planners Jilly Taipua and Gabi Martin of Auckland's Skinny Love Weddings, lifestyle and priorities had influenced many couples' decision to choose a pop-up event.
The cost of young families and mortgages was taking precedence over an expensive wedding ceremony.
Skinny Love Weddings, the first pop-up wedding business to have launched in New Zealand in 2013, has so far married over 50 couples from around the country, Australia and as far as the United States.
The Swan Valley heat is rising as we wait patiently for the bride to emerge from a 1950s Jag, shinning in white on the scorching gravel of Mandoon Estate's carpark.
As the Israel Kamakawiwo'ole version of Somewhere over the Rainbow starts playing, picked as a surprise by Blair for his bride, she suddenly graces the concrete path, adorned with a floral head piece set perfectly amongst a gathering of long dark curls.
Her bohemian inspired wedding gown flows in loose lace from her arms, the delicate fabric cradling a growing pregnancy bump.
Photo / THE DAY Weddings/www.thedayweddings.com.au
The couple's first born daughter, Sophie, paces from foot to foot beside her mother and grandfather and towards the alter, a miniature white flower head piece gently falling above her eyes.
The late afternoon is now setting in and the newly married pair escapes with Perth photographers Courtney Holloway and Alana Blowfield of THE DAY Weddings, who take them for sunlit photos in front of ripened vines and the river's edge.
The photography services, included in the pop-up wedding package, will mark the day as longterm memories once overseas family and friends have returned home, and life quietly weaves back into routine.
Saying goodbye to the quiet pace of Mandoon, which will welcome another couple at 4pm, we head to the nearby Oakover Estate for a small reception, located on Perth's Yukich Close and co-run by head winemaker and Kiwi, Ragan Wood.
Other couples and their families gather for similar pop-up style weddings on a stretch of field behind Oakover's sheltered outdoor dining area; a young couple among them, eloping on their own.
Sitting around wooden tables lined with decadent canapés and the flow of pink bubbly, we watch as Sophie plays in softened sand covered by fresh lawn, the sun slowly setting on the afternoon.
