A s your wedding guests move into the church, the floral theme is continued with large, bountiful arrangements of fresh flowers in antique pitchers and vases. During Spring, when the church gardens are beautifully fragrant, swags of jasmine are placed behind the ribbons at the end of each pew, so the perfume fills the church during the ceremony.

At this time of year, the wisteria is also flowering, making an extravagant and unbeatable display as it twines over fences and pergolas, and climbs into the avocado trees growing behind the church.

However, having written so glowingly of the Spring garden, I must hasten to say that winter brings its own austere beauty to the churchyard. The wisteria that flowers so rampantly, making such a wanton display of itself through Spring and Summer now adopts an entirely different persona, which reveals the elegance of its tangled branches & canes.

On cold bleak winter days (which do occur, dear bride, even in Camelot and on Tamborine Mountain) there are as many beautiful and dramatic backdrops for those treasured wedding photographs as on the balmiest of spring days. Perhaps some of the loveliest photographs I have seen have been taken when the mountain has been enveloped in soft, moist drifts of cloud (no harsh sunlight to cause winking and blinking into the unforgiving lens of the camera).

At these times the greens and blues are so intense you could be forgiven for thinking that you were not in Australia but in rural Ireland.

Your guests' enjoyment of the wedding begins as they congregate on the gently sloping lawn in front of the church, awaiting the arrival of the wedding party.

In the style of country weddings of yesteryear, there is plenty of room for children to run about and for guests to mingle as they anticipate your arrival.