Rowan and Andrew’s Melbourne Commitment Celebration

Rowan and Andrew

The Melbourne commitment ceremony of today’s couple Rowan and Andrew made sure they chose venues for their wedding day that truly reflected their personalities, was captured by Matthew Parkes Photography and coordinated by Jodie of Girl Friday Weddings. The day takes place in three wonderful Melbourne spaces and reflects the love of Rowan and Andrew and their story together.

On how they met, the story goes, “We met by being introduced through mutual friends, so fairly stock standard. Though it was virtually love at first sight and we saw each other every day for a week after meeting one another, which we think is a pretty good start!”

The grooms wore outfits from Calibre with white Converse shoes. Rowan’s shirt was a special piece from Italy.

Rowan and Andrew held their ceremony at 1000 £ Bend. They tell, “Our venues were perfect: inner-city, urban and masculine. Thousand Pound Bend is a cafe at the front, and a warehouse gallery space at the back which we used for our ceremony with guests walking down a quintessential Melbourne alley to enter though the rear door. We’re so glad that we didn’t settle. There are so many options in Melbourne so we knew if we were patient we would find the perfect places that matched our personality as a couple. All the venues gave excellent assistance, the staff were great and the way they coordinated everything with Jodie at Girl Friday Weddings took all of the stress and pressure on the day away from us. Could not have been more impressed!”

Most of the guests traveled for the wedding. “We’re both from Perth originally, and so about half of our guests, including our closest family, traveled from interstate to be with us. Not a small ask during spring racing carnival.”

The music selections were important to Rowan and Andrew, each song carefully considered. “We searched and searched for processional, recessional and first dance songs that we loved, and we’re glad we landed where we did. And we had a DJ friend in Canada who couldn’t be with us mix together music for the time pre- and post-ceremony which was a mixture of our favourite songs from the 80’s to today (and no ballads!!) so it was fun from as soon as guests arrived. We’ll remember the music forever, and the best part is we can listen to it over and over again for the memories.”

“We walked down the aisle to James Morrison’s “I Won’t Let You Go”, and our recessional was Natasha Beddingfield’s “Unwritten”. Our Best Men walked together arm in arm with our Maids of Honour, and then we walked in together. When everyone stood up to applaud us, the tears flowed!”

Kirk Samuel performed the ceremony. “Kirk was so lovely to deal with. He was professional and completely in control of the ceremony.”

“Our day was unique in so many ways. Not being a traditional wedding made some things easier, and some things harder. We could be a bit creative on the ceremony and what we wore. We liked that we had 3 inner city venues which were all walking distance from each other. That made the travel between venues a memorable part of the day and a lot of our best pics are from the walk. Overall, we thought our day was loving, relaxed and a huge amount of fun.”

The couple loved, “The ceremony readings and the speeches – we each asked a friend to perform a reading during the ceremony, which we kept secret from one another so they were a surprise to each other on the day.”

As for DIY, Rowan and Andrew tell, “We did the save the dates and invitations, and were so glad we did. They were exactly what we wanted. We also DIY’d some of the table decorations (we had a choice of charity donations as our wedding favours), and we made our commitment certificate ourselves! We also prepared all the music so it was spot on to what we wanted.”

Guests enjoyed post ceremony treats, including cupcakes. “After the ceremony we served champagne and G&T cocktails.”

As for advice for future couples, Rowan and Andrew say, “In terms of love and life: Just never stop communicating and laughing. Never stop being individuals, together. In terms of the big day: Be prepared to let go on the day – and GET A WEDDING COORDINATOR!”

The ceremony was held at 10.30am, and guests wandered through the Carlton Gardens for the lunchtime reception.

Of their photographer, Rowan & Andrew tell, “Our photographer, Matthew Parkes, matched our personalities and the style of our day perfectly. Matt is a great professional, but really fun and was great with our guests. Most of all we wanted candid shots and pictures of us enjoying ourselves, and he certainly delivered! ”

Rowan and Andrew celebrated with guests at The Pumphouse Hotel. They remark “Our reception was at The Pumphouse Hotel in their Conservatory function room, and the space was brilliant, especially during the day! We had so much light coming through the glass roof, the staff were amazing and the food was delicious. We had our after party upstairs at The Gertrude Hotell.”

Muesli & Yoghurt styled the floral arrangements for the day.

Ab Fab Cakes created a three tier wedding cake decorated with navy and white ribbons.

“The speeches by our Best Men, Andrew’s Mum and Rowan’s Dad were just perfect – not too long, funny, heartfelt and so loving.”

Our first dance was actually at our after-party following our reception, which was held on the top floor of The Gertrude Hotel. We danced to a cover of Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody” by an artist called Matt Beilis.

Congratulations Rowan and Andrew! Thank you for sharing your day with us! Thank you to Matthew Parkes Photography and Jodie of Girl Friday Weddings for sharing the day with us!