Ember + Myles by Damien Milan

The heritage sandstone cottage nestled in an urban bushland reserve was stunning.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…

We’re a pair of amateur parents, impulsive bookers of holidays and restaurant enthusiasts. In most couples, one is more tame and tempered than the other, but we’re both very outgoing and adventurous, which leads to overbooked schedules and a year like this one, where we had a baby, took her to Europe for an extended holiday, then got married and moved house!

We spend our weekends picking through vintage markets for Parker furniture, supporting our footy team at the game and always finishing off with a few rounds at the local pub. Myles works as a lawyer in the city, and Ember has a career in office management, but they’re both taking some time away from full-time work to share parenting duties and focus on their new family.

We both have a strong sense of style, not just in our wardrobes but in interiors, art, lighting and design. We have great respect for craftsmanship and originality, and want our home as well as our wedding to feel thoughtful and celebrate the natural beauty of the surroundings. We love our city and feel so lucky to have the beach and the harbour at our doorstep, not to mention countless world-class restaurants. There’s so much diversity across Sydney and so much natural beauty here, we knew we’d be able to find the perfect wedding venue close to home.

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?

We grew up together. Our mothers are old friends from university, and although we lived about an hour apart, there were frequent family dinner parties and camping holidays down the coast. We have so many shared memories from childhood, and our mothers obviously had a lot in common, so we were raised with very similar values. Having such an interwoven history has really enriched our relationship and helped us understand each other on the deepest level.

Myles was older than Ember, so she was always a little shy around him and slightly in awe. Of course, he always had eyes for her, too, so it was inevitable they’d end up together.

We started dating in our early twenties but broke up after about four years. It took a while to be friends again, but once we reconnected a few years later, our bond was impossible to ignore, and it was not long before we fell back in love, not that we’d ever really stopped loving each other.

What styling and visual elements worked best for you? (could be things, the florals, particular hire products or your marquee, etc., something the stylist created or simply just the scenic beauty of your location or the existing design of your venue).

We knew we’d found the venue the second we saw it. I don’t think we’d even seen inside the cottage before we committed to the location.

The heritage sandstone cottage nestled in an urban bushland reserve was stunning enough, but the waterfront views of the iconic ANZAC Bridge and the Sydney skyline across Blackwattle Bay turned the whole scene into a perfect blend of heritage, modernity, and natural beauty. It felt very Australian, and we wanted to honour that.   

We didn’t want anything to compete with the existing aesthetic, so we decided on minimal florals by a designer at September Studios, who we could trust to balance soft Australian natives with the colour palette of the cottage and surrounds. For the signage, we used vintage painting frames from a local antique warehouse to echo the Victorian cottage architecture. It was important that all the visual aspects felt cohesive and held a genuine connection to each other.

One backdrop we didn’t plan, but that our incredible photographer couldn’t resist, was the foreshore through the bushland away from the cottage. The industrial shipyards in the background are juxtaposed with the rest of the wedding for some really powerful images.

What did you enjoy most about the planning process, and do you have any tips for couples starting their wedding planning journey?

There are so many grand, romantic venues in Sydney; it was a real treat exploring them and envisaging what we could do with each space. From art galleries to colonial estates and sprawling botanical gardens, each tour was so exciting and full of possibilities. We turned each venue appointment into a date so we could discuss what each location could look like over dinner and a bottle of wine.   

Don’t be afraid to make big decisions on the spot. If a venue, dress, or florist feels right, don’t be afraid to say yes right then and there. It’s easy to over-research options and spend days or weeks weighing up the pros and cons of different vendors, but all that time won’t change your initial impressions.   

Trust your instincts and trust your team. We were happy to be guided by Antione on the menu and trusted him to deliver something spectacular. The canape selection was actually a surprise for us on the day because we (along with Antione) enjoyed a little too much French wine when we sampled the food at one of our planning meetings and couldn’t recall what we’d settled on!

Tell us about your vendors. Were there any standout suppliers you would like to make special mention of?

After researching and booking all our vendors, we had a trip to Europe that would get us back to Sydney without much time to plan the final details. We didn’t want to be stressing about logistics and run sheets while we were away, so we hired an event coordinator to tie all the loose ends together, and it was the best decision we made through the entire process.   

Tara (Vow and Vision) was the type-A angel we needed! She confirmed, followed up and finalised all the details we hadn’t even thought of. Our hats off to her and her team for wrangling some of our more eccentric vendors and smoothing over all the operations behind the scenes.

Another star on the day was our photographer, Damien Milan. Every second of our experience with him was easy and reassuring. From the initial emails and discussing our vision to receiving the photos after the day he encapsulated everything we wanted in a photographer; he was warm and approachable, organised and professional.  

We wanted a candid, documentary style photographer whose work would be charming and artistic rather than formal and rehearsed and that was exactly his style along with a touch of humour.  

Damien directed us through a brief shoot for some couple photos, then he disappeared into the crowd. He was like an undercover photographer; no one noticed him snapping away, but somehow we ended up with hundreds of stunning images of the whole evening.

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, and is there a story?

My mother made my dress. She sewed her own wedding dress and Myles’ mother’s wedding dress, so it was fitting that she sewed mine too. Ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted my mother to make my wedding dress. No designer or brand studio could have poured as much love into it as she. She also sewed her own outfit, my grandmother’s outfit and our daughter’s dress, taking time off work to concentrate on the wedding garments.   

My gratitude to her and appreciation of her skills and sewing brilliance know no limits and every time I see photos of the day I think of the labour of love that was that dress!  

She and I designed it together, drawing inspiration from Grace Kelly’s and Miranda Kerr’s wedding dresses. We also needed to make special considerations to the design so I could remove the lace overlay and slip off a shoulder to breastfeed throughout the evening. This was really important to me as a breastfeeding mother, and having my own mum help me achieve this was so empowering.   

The veil was the final piece of the puzzle, and we worked right down to the wire to get the length and gathering just right. It wasn’t until I was in the hair and make-up chair that we realised it had been sewn upside down, and my mum had to unpick and resew it with a needle and thread. But being the cool-headed pro she is, my mother didn’t break a sweat, threading away with a cup of tea and a biscuit.   

We had Myles’ tux tailored at P. Johnson in Paddington. This studio is a Sydney institution for menswear, and the tailors take such a relaxed approach to formal wear; each fitting felt like a catch-up with your most charming and best-dressed mate.

Tell us about your wedding and engagement rings.

Ember told me she wanted an emerald cut aquamarine, and that’s what she got, but I don’t think she expected such a big ring! I bought the stone from Rox in Sydney’s Strand Arcade and had it set in yellow gold with accent diamonds by a local jeweller.   

We bought our wedding bands separately; mine came from another goldsmith in the Strand Arcade, and Ember had hers custom-made by Opal Minded, a family-run boutique where she used to work, and they really looked after her.

What were one or two elements that were most important to you both that you were happy to spend a little more on? (food, photography, florals, the venue, your outfits?).

We always knew we wanted to make a big investment in our photography. Capturing the day so we can remember it clearly for decades to come was so important, not just for us but for our family and children, who we will want to share these memories with for years to come.

Damien, our photographer, also had a fantastic range of album and print options, and we were so happy to purchase more than we initially planned to after we saw the quality of the pieces we’d be receiving.   

Another element we splashed out on came much later in the planning process. We made a last-minute decision to spend the night before and the night of the wedding at Spicers Potts Point, a gorgeous boutique hotel in a neighbourhood we used to live in. Spending a couple of nights away from home gave us an opportunity to relax and pamper ourselves, and the team there were so delightful and excited for our big day; they really did make us feel like royalty.

Was there a favourite moment (or two) that you will treasure always?

We have very musical people in both our families, and they all came together to surprise us with a rendition of our song, God Only Knows by the Beach Boys. It was a really beautiful moment that caught us off guard. Three generations of both our families singing and playing music as the whole wedding gathered round to watch, it was so special that we felt truly touched.

Later in the evening, a very dear friend, Briana McKeough, pulled us both aside so she could show and explain her gift to us before she ran out of chances. She opened a box, and inside, on a bed of hay, lay two interlocked stone hoops the size of dinner plates, but organic and twisted in shape. Briana is an artist and stone mason, and she had carved the hoops out of a single piece of Wombeyan marble, which is a closed quarry about an hour outside of Sydney. The hoops represented the two of us, interlocked and inextricably linked. When we saw the stones, we both teared up It was such a generous and thoughtful gift; it now sits in pride of place on our mantlepiece.

What does being married mean to you, and are there any special rituals you have that you would like to share?

After we got engaged, we decided to have a baby first because growing our family was more exciting and important to us than getting married. Being partners as parents already made us partners for life. However, honouring our relationship with the tradition of marriage was a declaration of our commitment to each other that we still wanted to make, not just for our friends and family to witness but for the whole world to know.   

Being married means you are never alone. Never alone in your dreams or convictions, in your pursuits or ambitions. As husband and wife, we take on challenges together, hand in hand. Approaching any problem with a teammate like that makes you feel like you’ve already won.   

A ritual we enjoy that’s very close to our hearts is eating our meals together at the table away from screens and distractions. It could be outside on the patio or in the dining room, but we always treat each meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner as a moment to share as a family. It keeps us grounded and gives us time, even during the busiest periods, to pause and connect and be grateful for everything we have.