Lucinda and Andrew

Seaside towns are beautiful palces to get married, but I think I now have a penchant for seaside towns with a little, or a lot of rain after seeing Lucinda and Andrew’s vintage, rainy Lorne wedding.

Lucinda recalls how she and Andrew met. “Andrew and I both moved to Melbourne from the country to study at university and met while living in the same residential college.

We chose Lorne because we travel there as often as we can for time away from the city. It’s such a lovely place to relax and unwind and we have made many special memories there over the 8 years we have been together. We hoped that our wedding would also be a chance for our closest friends and family to have a lovely seaside outing and it was so lovely to share with them a place which is so special to us.”

Photographs today are by Harvard Wang. I love the unique and interesting perspective Harvard captures in his photographs.

There were plenty of DIY touches at the wedding, to coincide with the beautiful, almost vintage style of the day. Lucinda remarks “The biggest task we undertook was designing our wedding stationery which involved save the dates, an invitation suite, a welcome card with a custom made map of Lorne, place cards, menus, thank you cards and lots of little signs and stickers which were used on the day. While neither Andrew nor I have backgrounds in design, we loved being able to use our creativity and have the flexibility to make everything look just as we wanted it.”

Di Baker (03 52896516) styled Lucinda’s hair and her and her bridesmaid’s makeup while  Lisa Schrier (0429784455) styled the bridesmaid’s hair. Portobello Jewellery created Lucinda’s crystal hair comb.

The florals were styled by Sinikka Floral Design . Each girl wore a wrist corsage. Lucinda notes “We did not have a specific theme for the day which allowed us the flexibility to pick and choose whichever traditions and details felt most relevant to us. Above all, we wanted the day to be about love: our love for each other, for our friends and family, for Lorne, for the seaside and for all the things in life which make us happy.”

Lucinda, who wore a gown designed by Amaline Vitale and Stuart Weitzman shoes, found herself inspired by bygone eras when it came to planning the wedding. She explains  “Unlike many women, when Andrew and I got engaged I had no idea what my wedding would be like and it was somewhat overwhelming to look at so many beautiful weddings on blogs and in magazines and to try and decide which of all the beautiful details, ideas and options I would choose – I wanted to do everything! To help with this stage of the planning, I took the advice of many brides and closed my eyes to try and ‘imagine’ my own wedding day… only when I did this, the wedding that I imagined was not my own, but those of my grandmothers and great grandmothers! In some ways, this did help ground my vision for the day – while the day would not necessarily have a particular ‘theme’ of specific ‘colours’, I now knew it would be small, country Australian wedding which would echo those of my grandmothers and great grandmothers. In many ways, this gave way to lots of vintage details and a focus on old fashioned rather than modern wedding traditions.”

Lucinda says “Our ceremony was held at St Cuthbert’s Church which is on the main street in Lorne. It’s a beautiful little weatherboard church which was originally built in 1892. The moment we stepped inside the church we knew it was the perfect place for us to marry – it has such a cosy, warm feeling inside which was fitting for such a raining wedding day!”

Lucinda walked down the aisle to a recording of Cat Power’s ‘Sea of Love’ and the recessional was a recording of ‘Home’ by Edward Sharp & The Magnetic Zeros.

The music was a crucial part of the ceremony for the family. Lucinda notes “Some close friends of ours performed during the ceremony which was very special for us. They opened our ceremony with a special wedding song which had been sung by my great grandmother in eisteddfods in the 1920’s, as well as Sally Setman’s ‘Harmony to my heartbeat’ during the signing. Unfortunately my grandparents, who had given me the sheet music for the first song a couple of years earlier, were too frail to travel from Western Australia to Lorne for our wedding, so for this reason, my brother Angus arranged for the whole ceremony to be recorded and when the first song was performed he even placed an iphone next to our musicians so that my grandparents could hear this special song being sung ‘live’ at our wedding.”

I swear the above photo looks like I have pulled it from a very old wedding album.

Lucinda remembers “In lieu of confetti or rice, we had guests wave little papel picado tissue flags from Ay Mujer! once we were announced as wed, and although they got a little damaged in the rain, it added a fun and festive feel to the day.”

The post ceremony refreshments carried on despite the rain. Lucinda explains “St Cuthberts Church also has a lovely garden area at the front of the church and we had intended to serve drinks and sweets in the garden following the ceremony. However, this was not possible because of the rain so the church caretakers were kind enough to let take shelter in the church following the ceremony, where guests were served mineral waters, meringues and cupcakes. I was so happy it turned out this way, because it was so special to relax and celebrate the very space where we had just said our vows, and it was lots of fun to walk out of the front of the church and pop back in the back door in time to catch the end of our own recessional! Thanks to the umbrellas we had hired for the day, we were still able to take photos in the gardens in front of the church, in between refreshments inside the church. The umbrellas were also used for guests taking the short walk from the church to the reception venue.”

The rain? Not a problem in the slightest for Lucinda and Andrew who hired umbrellas for the event from Hire An Umbrella. Lucinda says “It rained all day on our wedding day… and it was beautiful! While rain is usually the one thing all couples want to avoid on their wedding day, for us it was a defining factor. It gave the day a warm, cosy feel and the misty rain which surrounded us on the day only added to the atmosphere.”

Lucinda’s bridesmaids wore gowns from Alannah Hill & Natasha Gan.

A little Lorne restaurant hosted the intimate reception. Lucinda explains “The reception was held at Ba Ba Lu Bar and Restaurant which has long been a favourite place for special dinners for Andrew and I. The restaurant was just the right size for our intimate reception and our guests adored the delicious Spanish, Mexican and Middle Eastern food served up by BaBaLu as well as the comfortable and inviting atmosphere of the venue.

At each guest’s seat was a ceramic bud vase with a name tag attached. These were filled with various flowers by the florist for guests to take home at the end of the night. Guests were also offered boxes of wedding cake to take home at the end of the night too.”

The sweet touches at the reception were largely styled by the couple. “We made, collected and arranged a lot of decorations ourselves. The fabric bunting was a huge team effort thanks to my family, friends and largely Andrew’s mother who sewed almost every flag onto the some 200 metres of bias! I also held a couple of ladies ‘craftanoon teas’ where we worked on decorations such as the bunting, the glitter gold ‘just married sign’ and preparing vases, candle holders and other decorations.”

Lucinda’s mother made the cake. Lucinda recalls “One big DIY project was the wedding cake, which was made and decorated by my mother. My mum has always been known for her amazing fruit cakes and with the help of some of her friends, and lots of practice cakes (which we got to sample) she taught herself how to assemble and decorate a wedding cake! It was so special so have a cake made from the heart and it was just perfect and looked stunning when presented on a green glass cake stand and surrounded by framed photographs from the weddings of our parents and grandparents, backed by the bridal bouquets.” The cake was topped with blooms from Sinikka Floral Design.

As my parents buy and sell antiques, I was very lucky to have them look out for certain bits and pieces for me and I also undertook many ‘wedding buying missions’ at the antique fairs that they sell at. In particular, I purchased a large number of crystal and glass antique candle holders which were used on the tables at the reception as well as lots of vintage (but unused!) handkerchiefs which were offered to guests as they entered the ceremony. Other things I collected at the fairs were antique frosted glass ring holders which were used to hold our rings at the ceremony, as well as vases and linens which were all used throughout the day.

(As a side, the two biggest antique fairs in Victoria are Fryerstown Antique Fair and Maldon Antique Fair which are each held once a year in the summer. Both are a lovely short drive from Melbourne and the prices are very reasonable, especially if you are prepared to bargain! I highly recommend them for brides and grooms wanting to collect vintage and antique items for their wedding!) 

The first dance, although made up, was incredibly special. Lucinda explains “Andrew and I did our first dance to ‘Love Serenade’ by The Waifs. We made up the dance ourselves the weekend before our wedding and it included everything from waltzing to dosey does! We expected all our guests to laugh at our dance but all we heard as we bounded around were cheers and clapping and it was one of the best moments of the night! Our first dance and speeches were very special to us because they were a way for us to express our love openly and uniquely to all our friends and family, in the ways which were most meaningful to us.”

The couple bought extra long sparklers from The Wedding Sparkler Company to make for a magical send-off. Lucinda remembers “Our send-off was so special to us! Our wonderful band announced that they were playing one last song and asked everyone to go outside to the courtyard and light extra-long sparklers. We then walked and danced our way between all the twirling sparklers and wandered into the mist of the evening. As we looked back through the mist, we could hear the band’s fading music and see the last of the light of the sparklers being held by all our closest friends and family – it was a very special moment!”

Congratulations on your marriage Lucinda and Andrew! Thank you for sharing your wedding day with us! Thank you also to Harvard Wang for sharing your images!