Contact Info
Q1: Tell us about your wedding! What was the inspiration behind your day? Did you have a specific theme, style or color palette? Did you incorporate any cultural or religious traditions in any part of your day?
We wanted our wedding to be a big celebration full of all the people we love. Our plan all along was to keep the formalities short and sweet so that we could catch up with all our family and friends and dance the night away. We chose Stones of the Yarra Valley as our venue as it reminded us of all the beautiful buildings and landscapes that you would often find across Europe. We were blown away on our first visit and knew straight away that we needed to lock our wedding in. Having the ceremony and reception in the one place was a must for us. Stones ticked all the boxes with the chapel, barn and beautiful locations for photos. We knew it was the place for us. We didn’t any particular theme in mind, we just wanted the overall style to be classic, elegant and romantic. We went with classic black and white styling with flowers in all shades of pink. My favourite colour (Emily).
Q3: What were the florals like in your wedding? Did you use flowers in any of your design elements like the bridal bouquets, centerpieces or ceremony backdrop? Did they play an important part in the overall style of your wedding?
Our flowers were all shades of pink. We were originally supposed to get married in November which was during peonies season however we unfortunately had to postpone due to COVID. Although we missed out on peonies we had beautiful bouquets full of roses, dahlias, hydrangeas and pops of greenery which were a stand out against the bridal parties black and white attire.
Q5: Let’s talk fashion. How did you both choose your wedding day look? Describe the looks in detail.
We both wanted to keep it classic, romantic and timeless. I bought my wedding dress from Raffaele Ciuca in Brunswick. The dress was from the Atelier Wu collection by Jessica Couture. I remember seeing it on another bride-to-be’s rack to try on. When I saw it from a distance I immediately wanted to try it on too. Sure enough this dress was ‘the one’ The bridesmaids wore black grecian style gowns which were absolutely stunning.Paul and his groomsmen decided to go with classic black tuxedos, white shirts with black buttons and black bow ties from Bell and Barnett.
Q7: What was the most anticipated or special moment of your wedding day?
There was no particular moment. The whole day was absolutely incredible we honestly can’t pin point a single moment. Our day was so special because we got to spend it with all our closest family and friends. We had members in our bridal party travel from WA & NSW, so we were incredibly lucky to be able to have them there. Especially during a time where border restrictions were constantly changing.
Q2: Let’s talk wedding decor. How did you decorate your space for the ceremony and the reception? Was any part of the decor DIY?
We had the wonderful co-ordinators at Stones and the amazing Youki at Sugarbee flowers style the chapel and barn for our wedding. We had two tall floral stands at the altar which were later moved to the barn for our reception. We also had an amazing hanging floral centrepiece which really looked incredible.
Q4: Did you personalize the day in any way (food trucks, guest entertainment etc.)? What were some of your favorite parts of your wedding?
We wanted something different and fun at our wedding, so we decided to book a DJ Saxophonist for our wedding entertainment. We booked Nathan Op de Coul from the Melbourne Entertainment Company and we can honestly say it was one of the best choices we made for our big day. We were absolutely blown away by Nathan’s performance. All the guests fell involve with him and are still talking about him to this day!
Q6: How did you meet? Tell us about the proposal.
We both knew each other through work. One weekend back in 2016 we were supposed to go to a football game with a bunch of work colleagues, however everyone pulled out at last minute. We both decided that we would still go to the game, ended up going drink for drink and got along really well… the rest is history.In 2018, Paul and I were saving extremely hard for a house. We hardly had any date nights. On October 13th Paul organised a surprise date night. We went out for wine and cheese, followed by a private boat cruise along the Yarra River. The boat docked at one of the smaller piers along the river as we were “running ahead of time” Paul told me he needed to stretch his legs and asked me to go for a walk with him. I told him that I wanted to stay on the boat. When Paul repeated his request for me to get off the boat with him, I realised what was about to happen. We got off the boat, our favourite song started playing and Paul got down on one knee. He asked me to marry him and of course I said yes. We got back on the boat and had a romantic cruise back to Southbank where Paul had organised a surprise celebratory dinner with both our families. It was the most amazing night.
Q8: Do you have any wedding planning or marriage advice that you’d like to share with other couples planning their day?
Take in every moment at your wedding because the day goes by so fast. Take time out alone together during your wedding, even if it’s only for a couple of minutes. Don’t stress over the small things and never go to sleep angry.
