Oh how I love it when couples abandon the traditional on their wedding day, in favour of something wow. Especially when the bride shies away from ivory and rocks a wedding dress in bold and beautiful color, like the beautiful Amy! Amy chose to walk down the aisle in a flower adorned, tea length dress in deep shades of pink and red, that couldn’t have been any more perfect for her city-garden venue…..

Amy & Patrick met through work after Amy assisted in the hiring of Patrick – although she assures me nothing inappropriate happened at work, as they were friends for many years before they started dating. The couple had a very short engagement after deciding in the April that they would get married in September – giving themselves just 5 months to plan their big day..

But, by having a clear idea of what was important to them it was more than enough time for this stylish couple to create the intimate celebration they dreamed of. Bride Amy explains “We love seeing our friends and family happy. So guest experience was the most important thing to us when planning, and to ensure that the wedding reflected who we were. We wanted a beautiful venue that wasn’t just a white room in a function centre that could be absolutely anywhere.” And I would say they couldn’t have found a more perfect spot than The Grounds of Alexandria, a garden event space in Sydney.

Both bride & groom also had a clear idea of what they wanted to wear – although finding it was another matter altogether. Patrick wanted a bespoke suit, but unable to choose between two materials he loved he ended up with two! Whilst Amy was firm that there were to be no white, cream, ivory or champagne wedding dresses! Finding her dress maker (magician) was somewhat serendipitous.

When looking for the perfect material for her wedding dress she stumbled across Bewitched Fabrics. There the staff were so helpful that before Amy knew it, they had taken her (with material) two doors down from their shop to La Bottega Di Barbara. After explaining what she wanted, Barbara sketched a dress that embodied it perfectly. Amy says “Barbara put in so much time and work on the dress, it looked better than I could have ever imagined.” 

“The florist was provided by our venue and I wanted to ensure that the flowers matched my dress. I also wanted ranunculus, roses and sweet peas, but no silver foliage or baby’s breath. The florists did an amazing job of the bouquet, head piece and table flowers which included the flowers I wanted, along with paper daisies, peppercorn tree and other native foliage.”

“Patrick loves dressing in a suit, so finding just one was always going to be a tough challenge. Patrick knew that he wanted something made just for him rather than a suit off the rack that gets worn to work by some people day in day out. When he approached Ron Bennett and their tailor making service all he was worried about was the unique materials and finishes they could offer. Hence he ended up with two suits that he wanted to wear on the day. Given he would be spending a lot of time in the shirt, he wanted to ensure that it fit him well across the shoulders, arms and waist and again, a tailor made shirt was the only way to go, along with cufflinks in the shape of roses.”

“The first thing we did when we started planning our wedding, was recall weddings we had been to before and what we remembered the most as guests – it became easy from there – number one and two were food and music! With that, we wanted to plan an amazing experience for our guests, so that meant delicious food, great music that we would love and a relaxed party feel that put all of our guests at ease. Everything was done with our guests in mind, from the food, blankets on seats for our older guests, a photo booth for those that wanted some happy snaps to remember the night by and evening organising a mini bus to take guests between the train station and venue.”

Skip or splurge…..

“SPLURGE – definitely the venue/catering and the music. We had two different styles of music in the form of a string quartet for the ceremony and cocktail hour while we had a four piece band for the reception.

SKIP – formal transport. Amy drove Patrick and some close friends to the venue  (in her wedding dress!) in a rental van that we had used to deliver items to the venue the day prior and the day of the wedding.”

Pearls of wedding wisdom from the bride…

“Don’t sweat the small details or spend a lot of money on things guests don’t remember, invest it on things people will remember.

Try not to take on too much DIY yourself. Now is not the time to be stressing about putting together flowers, order of service booklets or sewing dresses.

Try not to agonise over seating charts, it’s for one night only and sometimes people  just need to be polite to the strange person sitting next to them.

Don’t feel the need to do or not do something “because that’s what happens at weddings”. If you love a trend, run with it. It’s not about making anyone else happy other than yourselves, after all it’s probably the only time there will be a lot of time, money and effort spent on the celebration of your love, so make sure the majority of the decisions are about you.”

“One of our dear friends owns a cupcake business (with the best buttercream icing I have ever had) and we asked her to create us a small cake for the two of us to cut at the wedding and then enjoy (alone!) afterwards. Lisa created us a four tier six inch vanilla cake with her amazing buttercream icing throughout. It made for great snacking over the weekend! The cake topper cost me $3 from a craft shop and was spray painted the morning of the wedding!”

Tell us a little bit about your photographer…

“Bless Photography was the result of a google search! Once we had secured our venue we then looked for a photographer that had previously shot weddings there. Bless Photography stood out for all the right reasons! All of their  photos had a great feeling about them, people looked relaxed, candid, non-posy, as though they were actually having fun and made us think, “yeah, I would want that on display in my home”.

Tamar offered an “Engagement Shoot” prior to the wedding which allowed us to all get to know each other a bit more and assisted in us being far more comfortable in front of the camera. This definitely made things easier on the wedding day.

Tamar ensured that we got the best out of our day by suggesting we move the ceremony forward an hour so we could have daylight and night time photos – something we hadn’t even considered at the time of booking the ceremony, but this definitely made all the difference! We had asked that they almost appeared invisible during the reception, which they managed to do but we still ended up with the most amazing photos. We couldn’t have asked for a better photographic choice.”

VIEW THE GALLERY

Those smiles say it all don’t they? I am so completely smitten with Amy & Pat’s big day! A huge congratulations to them and a big thankyou to their photographer Tamar of Bless Photography for letting me share their beautiful wedding with you. If you love these photographs and would like to see more of Tamar’s work, pop and take a peek at Kristina & Josh’s romantic boho-vintage wedding, Holly & Brad’s bright and beautiful woodland wedding and Megan & Chris’s rustic vintage winery wedding right here on Chic Vintage Brides, or head over to her website www.blessphotography.com.au – and be sure to follow her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Amy

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Contributors & Credits

Photography – Bless Photography // Venue – The Grounds of Alexandria // Floral Design – The Grounds Florals by Silva // Stationery – Vistaprint // Wedding Cake – The Dessert Cupcakery // Hair & Makeup – Whooshka Hair // Barber – BHQ Barber Headquarters // Wedding Dress – La Bottega Di Barbara // Wedding Dress Fabric – Bewitched Fabrics // Groom’s Suit – Ron Bennett // Groom’s Shirt & Cufflinks – Shirt Bar // Tie – Peter Jackson // Groom’s Shoes – Politix // Bride’s Shoes – Diana Ferrari // Flower Crown – The Grounds Florals by Silva // Earrings – Swarovski // Catering – The Grounds of Alexandria // Ceremony Music – Salt String // Reception Entertainment – Twenty Somethings // MC/DJ – Fui Fobservations // Photobooth – In The Booth // Reception/décor props – Queen Street Vintage Prop Hire // Placecards – Beady Boo Bridal // Table Numbers – Wooden Letters Australia on eBay