One day, Bianca and I watched a television show in which a CIA director suddenly has to get his wife to safety. She’s waiting in a restaurant, but instead of turning up himself, he has a letter delivered that says, “pretend you need to make a call and leave the cafe now. Walk 40 steps left — there’s a grey SUV on the corner. Get in.”
Watching this scene, Bianca said, “I wish someone would go to those lengths for me”. Sometime after, she arranged dinner out for my birthday. Instead of turning up, I had asked the maitre d’ to pass a letter to Bianca along the lines of, “something’s happened. Everyone is safe, but I can’t explain until I see you. Once you finish reading this, a friend will come into the restaurant and invite you to leave. Follow his instructions. I’ll see you shortly.” A few ‘secret service agent’ changes later, Bianca was brought to a room at the Grand Hyatt where I was waiting on one knee. I asked her if she
would marry me.
We wanted an informal wedding with moments that would bring smiles to people’s faces — we put names in a hat and asked our grandparents to choose the two witnesses’ names during the ceremony, with game show music playing.
Also, we both grew to love oysters together, so we had people walking around after the ceremony shucking fresh oysters. Our oyster “butlers” even had a tool-belt of sauces!
Bianca: We come from a mix of cultures and wanted to bring this to life through the flowers and decor on our wedding
day. We worked with Sophie Panton from Made For Studio on the styling, to ensure it was bright and colourful. She did an amazing job bringing the space to life. She created a set of huge linen lanterns to light the room up and worked with our florist to create a beautiful arrangement that filled the room with colour and the beautiful scent of jasmine. Flowers were scattered across the room, between coloured candles.
We both wanted to wear something classic. I went to Le Louvre and tried one of the only dresses they still make themselves – a pleated ivory silk dress that they’ve been making for more than 90 years. As soon as I tried it on, I knew it
was the dress I was going to wear. My mother suggested wearing her grandmother’s diamond and sapphire necklace, which went perfectly with the dress and was a lovely sentimental piece from grandparents who always loved family celebrations.
Photography: @briarsatlas | Venue: @halfacre_melbourne | Celebrant: @three_rings_celebrancy | Bride’s dress: @lelouvre_melbourne | Groom’s suit: @pjohnsontailors | Planning and Styling: @madefor_studio | Flora: @studio.hollingsworth | Best Man’s Suit: @pjohnsontailors | Maid of Honour’s Dress: @scanlantheodore | Fragrance: @lelabofragrances | Hair: @creammelbourne | Bride’s shoes: @dear_frances | Groom’s shoes: @paulsmithdesign | Catering and Beverages: @foodanddesire and @blackmanbay_oysters
