I proposed to Mel at the Variety Club’s Annual Themed Charity ball in 2012. That year’s theme was “A night in Paris” so I thought why not. She was completely surprised along with 20 of our close friends which made it a great way to start the next part of our journey together.
We spent 18 months making the hundreds and hundreds of origami flowers and other decorations for the day. People were encouraged to take them home with them as a bombarie. We bought the bouquets from Etsy, as they were too adventurous for us.
The book page back drop to the wedding was made up of old books we got from flea markets and garage sales. Shakespeare, sporting almanacs, poetry, readers digests, etc. Mel’s mum hole punched each and every page and put little hole reinforcers on each one. A labour of love for your only daughter!
The reason we chose to do the whole wedding ourselves was we wanted a wedding that was us and not a template that others had had before. With hotel weddings we were finding that you had a lot of ‘A or B’ choices and you had to leave by midnight. We wanted to be the last ones leaving and we were in the end. We turned off the music at 4:30am and ushered people out, only to be back at 10am to let the oven rental guy in.
I’d love to do it again but as a guest haha.
For the venue, we set the Queens up into three zones. The smaller part was for the wedding ceremony itself, then we moved into the front part of the larger space we’d curtained off from floor to ceiling. The main reception was set up behind the curtain in the large space. We had everyone in the smaller part for entree/canapes and then as we cut the cake and kissed, the curtain flew up revealing the rest of the venue with the tables and dance floor and band. We’d done the photos beforehand so that we could move with the guests from the ceremony into the reception. The ‘First Look’ was in Solomon St (Art Alley) and was a great way to see each other for the first time rather than at the ceremony.
Special mention goes to Glen from Dine as he was really amazing at helping us with the requirements of hiring in your own kitchen to make it work. As the Queen’s Theatre is literally walls and a ceiling, everything we used for the wedding was brought in. Ben Flett helped us to create an amazing space using lighting, and also helped us make the paper backdrop a reality.
CREDITS
Photographer – Allison Hernach Photography
Invitations – Kirsty Duncan
Stylist – Self styled
Florist – Paper table/decoration flowers made by us, Etsy for Bride and Bridesmaid bouquets
Catering – Dine Catering
Cake – Udder Delights and styled by Groom’s mum, Lynette Hoctor (It was wheels of cheese)
Ceremony Venue – Queens Theatre
Reception Venue – Queens Theatre
Photography Locations – Adelaide Arcade, East Tce Parklands, Leigh St, Solomon Place (Art Alley)
Table Styling – Self styled
Venue Styling Company/Lighting and Sound hire – Ben Flett (The then-lighting-designer for State Theatre Company, now at Patch Theatre)
Engagement Ring – Varoujan Jewellers Sydney
Bride/Groom Wedding rings – EverettBrookes Jewellers
Bridesmaid’s Dresses – David Lawrence
Hair – Krush Hair, Glenelg
Groom/Groomsmen – Stafford Ellinson
Shoes – Country Road
Honeymoon location/venue
Immediately following the wedding, Bali. But the registry was travel vouchers and money, so we went on a12 week holiday to Europe in 2014
Other notable suppliers
Waval Hire and Budget Party hire for staging/tables/kitchen/etc
Wedding band/entertainment – ‘The Special Guests’
Celebrant – Megan Cree
