Local winery and wedding venue, Harcourt Valley Winery recently won ‘Best Wedding Venue’ in the Ballarat and Bendigo Wedding Industry Awards.
This is the third year in a row the beautiful winery has won the best venue and the first year their wedding coordinator Marie Bourne has won ‘Best Wedding Coordinator’.
“I didn’t even know I was nominated,” said Marie who began her career as a wedding coordinator after her own wedding ten years earlier.
“After my wedding in 2012, I coordinated a couple of friend’s events and it just kept growing. I was working as a teacher at the time and after a while, I thought I really like doing this. I could do this for a living.”
Mother of two boys aged three and eight, Marie said the hardest part of the work is the late nights and weekends but seeing the happiness of the couples at the end of the night makes it all worth it.
“My husband does so much behind the scenes, he quite literally does all the heavy lifting and I couldn’t do it without him,” she commented.
Marie is in the final throes of the season which involved an incredible 42 weddings, with two weddings a week during January.
“It was hectic! I’ve only got two more to go and then we’re closed for the winter break.”
Other winners of the Ballarat and Bendigo Wedding Industry Awards in the region include; Sandy Creek Clydesdales who won ‘Best Wedding Transport’, Makeup by Inez which took out ‘Bridal Hair and Makeup’ and a high commendation was awarded to Shedshaker Brewery as a Bucks and Hens Venue.