Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love, what is unique about you and your relationship…
For us, timing was everything. We were in the same ceramics class in high school, although neither of us remembers much of the other at the time.
Over the next few years while our friendship circles overlapped, Jeff was invested in university, studying to become an engineer and I travelled around the world studying and working in the fashion industry. It wasn’t until ten years later when I moved back to Sydney that we officially met at a mutual friend’s dinner party and sparks flew. While we were dating, Jeff learnt early on that my family owned a Labrador which was actually a childhood dream of his. I probably should have guessed that when we eventually bought a yellow lab of our own named Charlotte, I unknowingly became the third wheel in the relationship haha. Charlotte was even roped into the proposal, walking in mid guitar serenade with a note tied around her neck saying, “Will you marry my daddy?”. Today, Jeff works full time as a Production Engineer and I run a dressmaking business, Unstitched Studio, creating custom made wedding and bridesmaid dresses. And although we work in two completely different fields – he builds machines and I build dresses – we are both very hands-on people and our wedding reflected a lot of that.
Tell us about your special day, was there a specific theme or style? Tell us a little about the setting, the styling and some of your favourite details…
If there was one theme for our wedding it was to keep it simple. We both wanted an outdoor ceremony and great food which was how we landed on Centennial Park and Porteno. Luckily, because both venues already had so much character, all we really needed beyond that was a neutral colour palette to style and polish them off. Emma from The Wild Side did an amazing job creating all the bouquets and floral arrangements with the most beautiful dried flowers and palm leaves. Because we kept to a smaller wedding size, we actually decided to DIY a lot of the stationery, signs and even growing our own succulent wedding favours, which took forever! Jeff made and painted the welcome sign which he assembled using two pieces of plywood, and I printed and guillotined the name cards and menus using an inkjet printer plus a few trips to the stationery store. It probably made our lives a little more stressful doing it this way but it meant we could keep to our budget without sacrificing the big ticket items that we wanted to spoil our friends and family with.
Tell us about your main outfits:
Despite the countless times I’ve heard that it’s best to minimise the number of DIYs at your own wedding, I couldn’t resist. I designed and sewed my own wedding dress as well as the bridesmaid dresses in the month leading up to the big day. While I’ve made countless dresses for clients in the past, it’s a different experience making one for yourself and I had a lot of help from family and friends to pull it off. My mum and sister did the pinning and fitting for the mock up and final dress and at one point even Jeff and a few of our bridal party were in my studio helping me cut the continuous piece of fabric that made up the ruffle and back half of the skirt. In hindsight, while I only put scissor to fabric in the weeks leading up to the wedding, I had imagined the design for months and to see it come to life the way it did, I wouldn’t have done it any other way. Dressing the bridesmaids though was a lot simpler. I created a minimalist dress design and chose a fabric colour that would suit their different skin tones and body types. Then with the boys, being a summer wedding, Jeff didn’t fancy wearing woollen suits so to keep things cool, we opted for a white button up linen shirt and tan chinos for the groomsmen with Jeff topping his outfit off with a beige linen jacket.
What were some of the most memorable/unique moments from the day?
In the spirit of keeping things simple we actually decided to sign the official marriage certificate two weeks before the wedding. We did things a little back to front because Jeff had asked one of his close friends, Josh, to officiate the ceremony. It meant a lot to him to have a trusted friend who has been through the ups and downs in life to be there alongside us to mark such a special occasion. As an added bonus it also meant we didn’t need to worry about the logistics of a signing table or have guests stand around in the heat. We always knew that having an outdoor ceremony was going to be at the mercy of the weather. In hindsight we were even crazier to organise an outdoor wedding in the middle of a heatwave but our theory was, if we planned for an outdoor wedding and the weather took a turn for the worst, we’d end up with an indoor wedding anyway, so why not shoot for the moon?
Any advice for other couples planning to spend the rest of their lives together?
I don’t believe that your wedding day is the best day of your life – because every day after saying forever to each other only gets better and better. With that in mind, the wedding day doesn’t have to be “perfect” so don’t be afraid to buck convention and make the wedding true to who you are as a couple. During the planning process we quickly learnt to ask ourselves why we wanted to include certain things, and if the only answer was ‘because everyone else does’, then we put it on the back burner.
Photography: Snaps by Tiffany | Ceremony location: Centennial Parklands | Reception location: Porteno Events | Celebrant: Friend of the Groom | Bride’s gown: Unstitched | Groom’s suit: InStitchu | Bride’s wedding band: Vrai | Groom’s wedding band: Staghead Designs | Bride’s shoes: Country Road | Groom’s shoes: Florsheim | Bride’s earrings: Sarah & Sebastian | Makeup and Hair: Amy Chan |Bridesmaid’s dresses: Unstitched| Groomsmen’s shirts: Uniqlo | Groomsmen’s pants: Country Road | Entertainment: Ben Fox Band | Planner: Solstice Events | Hire: Simply Seated | Flora: The Wild Side | Cake: Unbirthday | Table numbers: Artifact Uprising | Place holders: kikki.K
