Lisa and Brendan’s Red Roses Wedding

Brendan and Lisa

Our story started back in 2004 when we meet whilst working part time university jobs, we had a long friendship but it was not until 2009 that we began dating and our romance blossomed from there. Our family and friends were not surprised when we told them we had starting seeing each other, they had longed picked that we were perfect for each other. Brendan proposed in June of 2012 while we were on holiday in the South Australian wine region.

I really didn’t waste any time and got straight into wedding planner mode. I already had the perfect venue in mind for us, The Gables in East Malvern, which is a lovely example Victorian architecture and the small gardens provided a stunning backdrop for our ceremony. We wanted something that was relaxed as well as elegant and this was the prefect venue to combine both ceremony and reception. The Gables were great to deal with and made things easy and were always on call to answer my many questions.

My bridesmaid carried short stemmed red roses and wore black dresses by Review. I loved how red and the ivory of my Anna Campbell dress complemented each other.  My mum helped my chose my dress, when I first went dress shopping I went with 2 of my bridesmaids and I found a dress which was a little out there and I thought this was the one, when I took my mum to see it, she didn’t quite feel the same about it as I had. I was also having second thoughts on this dress, she actually pulled a few more dresses for me to try on and the Sophia Dress was new to the Anna Campbell Ivory Range so I tried it on and loved it! It had this effortless style and knew this was the once. I wasn’t one for veils so I chose a gorgeous headpiece also from Anna Campbell.

One of my favourite things about our wedding was the flowers. I love red roses wedding flowers. Our wedding flowers were arranged by a talented friend. I chose long stemmed red roses for my bouquet as they were one of my Grandmothers favourite flowers and I wanted her to be a part of the day. I finished off the bouquet with a black velvet chocker my mother had worn on her wedding day in 1975.

We were very lucky to have a lot of our friends help out for our wedding. Violinists at the ceremony, our celebrant and videographer were all friends of ours and flowers and choreography were all provided by friends. We can’t thank them enough for all they contributed to our day. We took a DIY approach with our wedding.

Val McDonald was our celebrant for the day. I have known Val for 10 years, it was really nice to have such a personal touch with her knowing us personally and who had watched our relationship grow over the years we have spent together. She kept us extremely relaxed and was brilliant to work with!

Vanessa from Alexandra Bradley Photography did our photos for the day. I just love our wedding photos!  Vanessa’s style of photography made it an easy choice to go with her for the day. Vanessa captured the whole day beautifully and was prompt with her delivery of photos after.

We made all the wedding invitations and Thank You cards, with our supplies purchased from Officeworks and from The Paper Empire in Armadale . We handmade our bonbonniere of rumballs and we did all our own music for the reception with DJ equipment supplied by DJ warehouse. We have a great cake by Cake Passion in Ascot Vale, Dark Chocolate Coconut Rough!!! Delicious!

Our first dance was another favourite moment of the night. We danced to “You” by Amy Lee, our dance was choreographed by one of my childhood friends, Megan. I had a few nervous moments leading up with the “big dance” but it all came together on the night! This was followed by a disco themed dance medially choreographed by bridesmaid Miranda and involved all 6 members of the bridal party and some close friends. This was a great way to remove any stress from the day and kick off the dance floor in style with our old ‘nightclub’ moves.

All in all, we had a great day; it was relaxed just like we wanted and had the elegance we were looking for. We will always remember this day as it had everything we imagined.

Photography by Alexandra Bradley Photography

Ms Gingham says: Congratulations to Brendan and Lisa. It looks like you all had a fantastic day!

Lisa says: “I am 28 year old Melbourne girl,born and breed. I work in Medical & Social Research, I have worked in this industry for the 5 years. I enjoy thing all food and wine and love to travel. These are interests that I love to share and enjoy with my new husband. We married in April 2013 and have been together for 4 years. We had 6 year friendship before getting together in 2009.”