Katie & Jamie

If it’s one thing I hope we’ve proven on Polka Dot Bride, it’s that rainy day weddings are never a bad thing. Katie and Jamie moved their wedding ceremony in to one of Sydney’s best restaurants and the result was an elegant, beautiful Sydney wedding.

Katie remembers how she and Jamie met. “Jamie and I worked together. You could say it wasn’t love at first sight…He hired me and nearly fired me before we realised we fancied each other. ”

Photographs are by SugarLove Weddings who captured the sophistication and elegance of Katie and Jamie’s wedding beautifully.

Katie wore a lace gown from Pallas Couture and carried a bouquet designed by Rococo Flowers. Katie and her bridesmaid’s hair and makeup was styled by Jennifer Worger .

The couple started the event with personal stationery from  Mr Boddington. Katie explains, “We designed our own invitations, using Mr Boddingtons website. Mr Boddington’s is bespoke stationer in New York. We couldn’t come up with a good excuse for a trip to NYC but they have a fantastic website which we used to design our own from here. They then make them in their studio in New York and send them over. We were so happy with how they looked.”  Katie’s bridesmaids wore floor length gowns from Wayne Cooper.

Rain meant Plan B was executed. Katie explains “An outdoor garden ceremony was planned to be held at Arthur McElhone Reserve, Elizabeth Bay. However mother nature was against us and it turned out to be the wettest April day in 10 years.  This meant a last minute change of plans and the ceremony was also held at Est Restaurant.”

Katie remarks “Est is such a beautiful restaurant, high ceilings, antique chandeliers and iron columns we knew it would look fantastic for a wedding without needing much “wedding-esque” decoration.  It is a 3 hatted restaurant so we knew the food and wine would be a highlight. We added white flowers and let the restaurant do the rest.

The staff at Est were fantastic and went above and beyond to make it a special night, including reconfiguring the room at the last minute to fit in the ceremony! And as we had hoped, the food and wine was out of this world. We still get comments from our friends and family about how it was the best meal they have ever eaten.”

Katie walked down the aisle to “Fields of Gold” by Eva Cassidy sung by Georgia Barlow. Katie remembers “There were plenty of tears. I choked up during the ceremony…our best man choked up during his speech and Jamie choked up at the end of the night while singing along to the Piano Man at our after party at the Menzies Hotel.”

The ceremony was personal with the officiant, Reverend Peter Laurence being the bride’s uncle reminding the couple of a forgotten memory. Katie recalls, “My uncle who married us, told a story during the ceremony about a special moment we had shared with him at our rehearsal in the park two days before. The rehearsal was the same time of day as our ceremony would have been if it was sunny and we were sitting in the park running through the details. It was a picture perfect Sydney afternoon looking out at the harbour and Jamie said to him  “I wish we could just get married right now.” We had both forgotten about that moment, but it was nice to be reminded of it…we felt we had our sunny day ceremony  as well as our real “Wet weather” ceremony..”

Of their photographer, Katie says “Bradley and everyone from SugarLove were fantastic. We didn’t want to spend too much time away from our guests and had warned him how terrible we were at posing for photos.  This was even more so, when it was pouring with rain outside…He did a great job overcoming these obstacles and the photos have really captured the features of the wedding that we love.”

They made use of the backdrops that the Sydney urban landscape provided. Katie remembers “We had fun with our bridal party taking photos. Bradley did a great job, taking us downstairs through to Tank nightclub where we got some of the group shots of us in front of the 60’s wallpaper and on the red chaise lounges.. they are really quirky shots and you can tell that we having fun with our closest mates.”

The reception was decorated with masses of white blooms styled by Rococo Flowers.

Katie describes the wedding as, “The dinner party of our dreams.” Thanks to “The subtle sophistication and glamour of the Est. dining room, guests said ‘You could be mistaken for thinking you had spent the night in New York, London or Paris’ and it felt like we were one of the Kennedys for a night. Exquisite service from the best wait staff in Sydney, from each guest being greeted at the door by the maître’d and his assistant and the almost ballerina like movement of 12 waiters synchronize the placement and removal of plates at exactly the same time at each table.”

As a special treat, Katie and Jamie’s wedding guests made something personal for the couple. “Two of closest friends organised, designed and put together a “Jamkat” cookbook for us. In the cookbook each guest had provided a recipe and there was a photo of each of them cooking their recipe…. including our grandmothers. We were given this cookbook on the night and it was a really special moment.”

The first dance was instigated by the groom. Katie explains “In a reversal of roles, I am the one with two left feet who needed dance lessons. So Jamie dragged me along to a few lessons before the wedding and we managed to pull off a first dance to Ben Harper’s “Forever”.” Guests partied on, Katie recalling  “I loved our friends singing their hearts out at the after party spent around the piano at the bar at the Menzies Hotel.”

Congratulations Katie & Jamie! Thank you for sharing your wedding day with us! Thank you also to SugarLove Weddings for sharing today’s images!