Melissa and Anthony

Good morning lovely readers! We’ve been a bit quiet on the Polka Dot front but we’ve been working feverishly behind the scenes to get some finishing touches and brand new features completed!

Now that we have our brand spanking new site, I can show off some of the weddings that were waiting just for this moment. It is SO exciting having such a gorgeous site to show them off!

First up is the wedding of Melissa and Anthony which took place in Gundaroo in New South Wales. It’s so beautifully Australian- glamorous, laid back with that beautiful country backdrop.

Melissa and Anthony met through a mutual friend. “A good friend introduced us.  The first time we met it was a set up but she didn’t tell either of us so it just didn’t work out.  A year or so later she decided to be much less covert and arranged for us to go on a date.  The rest is history!  We married a week short of our first date three years earlier.”

Today’s photos are by Candice Ottaway for O Photography.

Melissa wore a black and white, one shouldered, Lisa Ho gown with a custom headpiece made by Christina Waring Millinery. She says “One of the few traditional things about the day was the something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.  My old were my grandmother’s earrings, new was my dress (shoes and headpiece), borrowed was an antique lace hankie and my blue was a blue bird broach of my mother’s which I had pinned to my bra.”

Melissa and Anthony hired buses to transport everyone from Canberra and back, Melissa says “It was very important that our wedding have a relaxed atmosphere and we wanted our guests to enjoy the day and not have to worry about logistics so we provided transport to and from the wedding.  Many of the traditional aspects of weddings didn’t appeal to us but we did insist that the trip on the way out was strictly gender specific – we had a bus for the boys and a bus for the girls!”

Melissa and Anthony has a string quartet (Just Add Red Quartet) who played Pachelbel’s Canon as she walked down the aisle with her parents to the ceremony in the grounds of the Royal Hotel which is a beautiful, historic restaurant in a restored 1865 pub about 30 minutes out of Canberra.

Melissa says “It was important for us to have our parents play central parts in the ceremony.  My mother and father (Florence and Terry) accompanied me down to Anthony which was along a rose petal path.  Jennifer (Anthony’s mother) was his witness (Sarajane, my best friend, was mine).  Anthony’s youngest brother (Paul) did a reading at the ceremony.”

The ceremony was officiated by Anthony’s cousin, Liz Little, who traveled from Queensland for the event. For the wedding, Anthony wore a Bespoke by Italian Taylor suit in charcoal with a Ted Baker tie.

Melissa’s Christian Louboutin Carnaval shoes got almost as many comments as her stunning black and white gown!

Check back later today for more of Melissa and Anthony’s Australian country wedding!

Photos by Candice Ottaway for O Photography