A fun styled shoot today with Savannah and Tom – a couple who married in a quick and casual ceremony in Melbourne’s CBD, and were spotted by photographer Samara Clifford who not only took some photos for their wedding day spontaneously, but also worked with the couple as models for this fun retro garden party wedding inspiration shoot.

Samara tells, “Savannah and Tom were the inspiration for this shoot! I met them by coincidence on the day they got married at the Old Treasury building, Melbourne, and I took a snap of them as I thought they looked super cute! (image included) They only had a couple of family members there as the rest of their family are in America. So this shoot was kind of the wedding reception they didn’t have. When we got chatting about their ideal wedding we were talking about garden parties, the colour palette from the Kirsten Dunst film of Marie Antoinette, and all things vintage! So I guess the overall theme was a mash of vintage periods translated into an ornate garden party, following the amazing yellow in their outfits.”

Samara pulled together a pretty talented team to make this idea come to life including Brittany Phillips, Justine O, Foxglove Botanicals, Miss Ladybird Cakes and Mickey Loves Jacqui Letterpress.

“We found beauty in everyone else’s junk. We raided mum’s and grandma’s cupboards and gave the charity shops a good working over to make a beautiful setting. His ‘n’ Hers popcorn cones made from paper doilies to match the lace in the bride’s dress, and pages from old books, with mini bow ties to match the Groom. All sat in a battered old wooden box beautifully.”

“The flowers had a lovely wildflower feel to them, which suited the overgrown garden setting beautifully. Bunches were displayed using an old urn for a vase, a bird cage, and some were hung as garlands over the doorway. We even snuck more flowers in around the table settings. All sticking to a yellow / cream / green colour palette.”

“Savannah and Tom met in a southern Californian Highschool, when Tom was an artsy, angsty, angry Senior, with dyed black hair, he spent his weekly allowance on American Spirit cigarettes and Big Red cinnamon chewing gum (Savannah tells me that’s what their first kiss tasted like). Savannah was blonde and quiet and read too much. They would meet for coffee, always black, and Tom would pay for 25 cent refills. The first summer they were together they spent six glorious weeks hiding out in an apartment in LA while Savannah’s sister was away studying. They went to the LA film festival, stayed up late and drank bottles of cheap red wine, made pot after pot of coffee, but mostly they just talked. They spent two years in Southern California together, taking road trips to LA, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. They fell in love with the tree lined, sometimes smelly streets of Portland and moved there in 2011. They had the TINIEST apartment you could imagine, and Savannah cried the first night they were there as they had so little space. It was cold and they were hungry and pretty broke, but they loved the city and each other! In 2012 they took the big leap to move to Australia together. They had talked of marriage but had no concrete plans, but when Savannah agreed to come to Australia Tom figured if she liked him enough to move across continents she would be pretty keen to say “yes” . AND HE WAS RIGHT. It wasn’t possible for Savannah’s family to come for the wedding, so they had a quick and fabulous ceremony at The Old Treasury Building so no one would be too heart broken about missing it.”