Paige and Robert

When a stylist gets married, you know each aspect is carefully considered. Things have been seen so often before, that each tradition is looked at and analysed and the result is a wedding that is so reflective of the couple. SO beautiful in it’s details and a true feast for the eyes.

Bride Paige tells the story of how she and Robert came to be. “I spontaneously went out to see a friend’s band play one Friday night. It was a mellow gig where everyone was sitting on the carpet. I sat down near some of my friends. A while later Robert came in and found a spot on the carpet which happened to be right next to me. He gave a nod hello to the friends I was sitting with so he obviously knew them. We introduced ourselves and started chatting. Quite quickly I found myself giggling at everything he was saying and started thinking he was quite cute too. The band finished, Robert went off to buy me a drink and I was pounced upon by our mutual friends who enthusiastically asked if I liked Robert. Our friends continued to play ‘Cupid’ the rest of the night, telling me how lovely and available Robert was, meanwhile coaching Robert on the correct courting procedure. At the friend’s recommendation, Robert asked for MY number, and a day later he invited me to a comedy show. The rest is history.”

Jessica Tremp Of Brown Paper Parcel Photography is today’s wedding photographer, capturing the vintage inspired moments and emotion beautifully.

Paige wore a dress by Kuwaii . She explains “My dress was a special detail which was made by a friend of mine, Kristy. I knew I wanted a dress that was timeless and classic. I’d always wanted a dress with sleeves and a high neckline. Kristy suggested we use a dress from one of her collections for her label Kuwaii as a template. She then suggested some changes to create a more bridal appearance. So we chose to make the dress in a lovely silk fabric and a sheer overlay and also added drapey sleeves, all in a beautiful blush colour. I then found a French embroidered vintage style belt to finish off the dress, I found this at D’Italia.”

Kicking off the details, Paige explains the reasoning behind their wedding venue Northcote Town Hall.  “We had everything at the Northcote Town Hall in Northcote, Melbourne. We were trying to keep costs down and keeps things simple, we had an idea for an old scout hall and so began our search. We found the Town Hall, a beautiful Art Deco building that has floorboards, wood paneling, high ceilings with gorgeous deco pendant lights and wall sconces around the entire room. It’s been preserved so beautifully. There is also a lovely mustard colour stage curtain at one end.

My friend and florist Katie Marx also came on board to do the flowers. I wanted to have a very relaxed and abundant feel with lots of different colours and types (who can decide on just a few there’s so many lovely flowers out there) these were placed in white ceramic vases/vessels and placed at the centre of each table. Katie also went crazy and created a huge arch of greenery and hydrangea placed at the front of the mustard curtain for the ceremony.”

Paige walked down the aisle to Astral Weeks by Van Morrison. She recalls ” A really strong memory of mine of the day was walking into the room. I had an idea of how the room would look as I’d planned it all, but I was so blown away by how magical it was. I felt like I was walking onto a Baz Luhrmann film set. The Town Hall wall lights created a beautiful ambience which enhanced the art deco feel of the room. The afternoon light was still coming through the high windows. The tables, bentwood chairs and flowers looked stunning and then I saw all of our beautiful family and friends smiling at me. And then I saw a smiling Robert standing in front of this beautiful green archway set against a mustard coloured curtain. Just stunning!”

The vows were hand written, Paige recalling, “Robert and I knew we always wanted to write our own vows. We both felt that the traditional way of stating how’d we’d treat each other in the future wasn’t really us. We already knew that we’d do all of those things, so we chose to reflect on how we make each other feel instead. This felt more honest and true to who we are.”

Of their photographer, Paige says, “I had met Jessica Tremp a few years ago, I had seen her photography and thought it was so beautiful, honest, haunting, moody and fun. I told her back then that I wanted her to take my wedding photos. I wasn’t even in a relationship let alone engaged but I knew that when the time came she was the one to capture my special day. Luckily Robert came along very soon after, and I found myself contacting her sooner than I thought I would. Jess’ gentle and thoughtful nature was perfect for us. Robert and I felt so comfortable around her, but we also trusted that she would capture not only the big moments of the day but also the ‘little details’ which so often get missed by wedding photographers who focus on the formalities. Robert and I see Jess’ images as not just an album of our wedding day but also a snapshot of our life at this moment in time. And in 20 years when we look back we’ll get a real sense of the way we were living our lives at this time: the beginning of our life together.”

Paige remarks “We decided early on that we’d have everything in the one venue to save costs. And as I do prop/wedding styling for my job I wanted to keep my own very simple but still beautiful. So I had the idea to move through the room as the night went on, for example – starting at the curtain end where we had the ceremony and drinks, to the centre of the room where we had the tables for dinner, then to the other end of the room where we set the dance floor. Originally we wanted to have a country wedding but as we couldn’t afford this we decided we’d bring the country to the city, so we focused on creating a country vibe inside the hall with use of furniture, props and flowers/greenery.”

“I always knew I wanted to design the way the room looked myself and early on I was told by my work, The Establishment Studios, that I was able to borrow anything I liked for the wedding. This was wonderful and so generous of them. So I picked out some beautiful vintage sofas, bentwood chairs, vintage tables, old bottles, a standing chandelier, wooden crates, napkins and other props and called the help of my lovely fellow stylists. The girls spent a few hours setting up the room how I’d instructed and it looked magical.”

“I also found some beautiful tablecloths from Table Art, which had a country/rustic feel about them, sheer cream patchwork overlay with a beige underlay. We hired festoon lights and the girls hung them above the dancefloor. For our invites my bridesmaid, Min Vavala, had painted a watercolour pattern for us and we had another friend, Lauren Elise, design the invite using the watercolour as the background. We printed off simple A5 size postcards and popped them in envelopes.”

For their first dance, Paige recalls, “Robert was very insistent that he didn’t want a choreographed dance (being a lover of dance I thought it would be fun but as I had chosen many other things for the day I thought best to let the groom have this one). We decided we’d improvise a slow dance on the night. We danced to ‘At Last’ by Etta James which was a little awkward, but I think pretty cute too. We did have one move which we’d practiced many times in the kitchen at home – the dip! Soon after our friends/family joined in, and then the Rolling Stone’s ‘Everybody Needs Somebody To Love’ started up which got everyone dancing. It was so much fun!!”

Congratulations Paige and Robert! Thank you for sharing your stories with us! Thank you also to Jessica Tremp Of Brown Paper Parcel Photography for sharing today’s wedding with us!