Alice & Ian

Alice and Ian, today’s couple had such a beautiful wedding in Melbourne’s city centre. Filled with vintage touches (Alice describes it as Modern with a vintage twist) and incredible floral arrangements, it has the beautiful ease of elegance that Melbourne couples do just so well.

Alice explains how she and Ian met. “I’m originally from Melbourne and was living in Perth (Ian’s hometown), which is where we met about 8 years ago.  We vaguely knew each other from uni days, but officially met a few years after graduating. We relocated to Melbourne a couple of years ago and we’re now happily settled here.”

Photos are by Louisa Bailey who always captures weddings with her own style of relaxed, beautiful glamour.

The celebration kicked off with custom stationery designed by Rojo Robin. Alice explains “One of my closest friends has a custom stationer business called Rojo Robin.   Rojo Robin designed and printed all our stationary, from the invites to menus and placement cards.  It was really fun working with Rojo because we developed the ideas together.  We liked the idea of a motif and this inspired the idea of a tandem bicycle which was a common theme in all the stationery elements.”

Alice chose a stunning custom made gown from Peter De Petra. She recalls “After searching endlessly for the perfect wedding dress, I finally settled on having one designed and made by Peter De Petra, who was lovely to work with.  All I knew was that I liked simple, art deco styles, delicate beading and didn’t want flounce! A design was drafted and the dress evolved from that.  It was a bit strange not knowing how it would turn out, but I think Peter did a good job interpreting my vague, initial description!”. Alice wore her grandmother’s pearl earrings and vintage pearl bracelet she found at Chapel St Bazaar 03 9529 1727.

Flowers Vasette did beautiful flower arrangements for both the ceremony and reception.

Alice remarks “The boys suits and shirts were tailor made from Bespoked.  Their shirts had their own initials sewn into the cuff, which was nice!  Their ties were from Herringbone.”

Alice and Ian chose The Chapter House for their wedding ceremony. Alice explains, “I’d always loved the idea of being married in a garden, but we opted for indoor venues since Melbourne’s weather is unpredictable at the best of times. We didn’t want to marry in a church as we’re not religious, but I had my heart set on a sweet chapel-type setting and Chapter House fit the bill perfectly.  It’s a heritage listed building in the Melbourne CBD with high panelled ceilings, mosaic windows and sandstone walls.” Alice walked down the aisle to ‘Moon River’ played by a string trio.

Alice remembers “During the signing, one of my close girlfriends sang a rendition of Elvis Presley’s ‘I Cant Help Falling In Love With You’, while another friend accompanied on guitar.  It was really lovely and a bit of a tear jerker!”

Alice’s bridesmaids wore pale pink gowns from George and jewels from Mimco. The girl’s makeup was done by Jo Young, a theatrical makeup artist who was a good friend of the bride’s sister.

Alice recalls “We chose March 3 for our wedding as this is usually a beautiful time of year, but on the day it rained (no, poured!) from daybreak and didn’t relent . Thank goodness we’d booked indoor ceremony and reception venues!  We’d planned to have photos in St Vincent Gardens after the ceremony, but weather didn’t permit so last minute we relocated to The George in South Melbourne.  The pub was good enough to lend us their very sweet function room upstairs, which had a lot of character – it was like a private little party and the champagne flowed freely!”

Of their photographer, Louisa, Alice says, “She was recommended by a close friend and I loved her different take on photos.  She was really relaxed and fun to work with on the day too.   “

The reception was held at Luminare and catered by The Big Group. Alice remembers ” We held the reception at Luminare which is an amazing venue with beautiful views out over the city.  It’s a good blank canvas so can be decorated as you like.  We’d looked at about 10 venues and immediately knew this was ‘the one’ when we walked in and saw the twinkling Melbourne skyline!

We both like good food and wine, so this was another bonus with Luminare – the food and service was incredible.  We had a sit down entrée and main, followed by a roaming dessert of little treats – we chose panna cotta, lime curd tartlets with blueberries and warm brioche filled with chocolate, banana and hazelnut cream.”

Alice explains “We didn’t have a specific theme – I wanted vintage elements and Ian likes modern, so we aimed for ‘modern with a vintage twist’!  We didn’t want a traditional wedding in every essence of the word, so we liked being able to pick and choose the finer details of the day to suit our taste.”

Flowers Vasette brought in masses of beautiful blooms for the reception. Alice says “Luminare was filled with masses of pretty flowers, foliage and candles. Each table had a mix of vases, bottles and jars containing yellow, soft pink, green, apricot and cream flowers to match the colour theme.”

Towers of cupcakes greeted guests. Alice explains “We didn’t want the official ‘cutting of the cake’ so decided to have a cupcake tier with different flavours – caramel, chocolate and vanilla. ”

Alice loved the speeches. “The speeches were definitely one of the highlights.  I loved Ian’s speech where he recounted our holiday to Tassie, which was where he popped the question (on the wharf in Hobart).  The proposal didn’t go quite as planned, so made for a funny story.”

Of their first dance, Alice recalls “We weren’t very keen on doing a traditional first dance (I have two left feet), but we knew that guests were expecting it.  In the end we compromised with a very unrehearsed and awkward 30 second shuffle to ‘Wink And A Smile’, before asking everyone to join in. It truly was an embarrassing moment…!”

Congratulations on your marriage Alice & Ian! Thanks so much for sharing your wedding with us! Thank you also to Louisa Bailey for sharing today’s photographs!