Ruth and Benn’s Melbourne Museum Wedding

 Ruth & Benn

There is something wildly magical about marrying at a museum. Especially Melbourne’s Musuem with it’s incredible exhibits like Phar Lap, Forest Secrets, The Melbourne Story – imagine getting free reign to pour over history after you say your vows? Who said a wedding can’t be educational? Ruth and Benn did just that, marrying at Melbourne Musuem and had their day captured by Lizzy C Photography.

Ruth tells the story of how they met. “We were introduced through a mutual friend and just hit it off instantly! The rest as they say, is history.”

Ruth wore a V neck slinky gown designed by Baccini and Hill  who also created her hairpiece. She paired it with satin blue ballet flats from BHLDN. With her bridesmaids in white lace gowns from Forever New, the look was fresh and Summery.

Ruth and Benn met before the ceremony for photographs, Ruth telling, “We had our photos at the beginning of the day so that we could spend more time with our friends and families.”

“Our ceremony was later in the day and we had many guests from overseas and interstate and wanted to be able to spend as much time with everyone as possible (plus, we love a party and didn’t want to miss out on anything!). Despite being a bit non-traditional I couldn’t recommend this highly enough to other couples. Seeing your partner before the ceremony is really special, and definitely helps ease the nerves!”

Ruth quickly slipped into her comfort zone upon their first greeting, she laughingly recalls, “So much of the day went past in a big blissful blur. We saw each other before the ceremony and I do remember the first thing I said to Benn was “Oh, your tie-clip is on wrong – it’s too high and looks funny” and then proceeded to take it off and fix it while he told me off for being so fussy! I think he was expecting a loving moment. My parents and our bridal party just stood around laughing. It really summed us up in a nutshell and it was so nice to know that despite everything else that was going on, we were just us.”

With the couple choosing Melbourne Museum as a wedding venue, it gave them endless options for pre wedding photographs before heading into their ceremony and reception. Ruth remembering, “We wanted our wedding to be fun and when choosing a venue were keen to find somewhere that was all inclusive so our guests didn’t have to move between venues. We were also keen to find a venue with a slight point of difference, so what better place than the Melbourne Museum? We went to view it with our parents about a year before the big day and instantly knew it would be perfect.

We were married inside the Museum courtyard. Being a typical Melbourne summer we were gifted with very warm (38 degree) weather so we were very glad our ceremony was towards the end of the day!”

Of their photographer, Ruth says, “We used Lizzy C Photography to capture our big day. Our photos are natural and beautiful and Lizzy is such an amazingly easy person to get along with. She made us look so good! Many of our guests commented on the night about how discrete and friendly she was (some even thought she was a guest) and we hardly even knew she was there. It was exactly what we wanted. “

The flowers on the day were styled by Fowlers Flowers. Ruth remembering, “I love flowers, and Fowlers Flowers did an absolutely amazing job with all the floral arrangements on the day. My breath was taken away when I entered the reception space, as I couldn’t believe just how many flowers we had and how beautiful they all were!”

Ruth walked down the aisle to Pachelbel’s Canon in D, played by Four Seasons String Quartet.

Ruth describes the day as, “An amazing, loving and busy day with our closest family and friends.”

The post ceremony agenda involved cocktails and a little bit of learning. Says Ruth, “Following the ceremony we went straight into pre-dinner cocktails and canapés in the Melbourne Gallery where guests were free to wander around the various exhibits with a drink (mojito) in hand.”

Ruth remarks, “I loved having free-reign in the museum for our photographs. Our Event Coordinator was really helpful and let us in during opening hours so we could get photos with some of the exhibits we hadn’t booked – i.e. photos with the dinosaurs!”

Guests were gifted spices from Gewürzhaus as a wedding favor. Ruth remarking, “We made all the thank-you tags on our bonbonnieres which were a mix of spices from Gewürzhaus and a friend of ours wrote out all the place cards by hand.”

The wedding cake was an extra sweet touch. Ruth tells, “The same friend who introduced us also made our delicious wedding cake as her gift to us. It was the best!”.

Dinner was served amongst the treetops, catered and styled by Peter Rowland. Ruth remembering, “Our three  course dinner reception was held in Treetops and we opened up the space alongside this, the Te Pacifica gallery, as our dance floor. Most of my night was spent dancing with guests under traditional Pacific Islander canoes. “

Ruth recalls, “Our food was delicious and we had a sit down entrée and main but decided to have wandering canapé style desserts instead of sit-down option. This was a great idea as it meant we had more time to mingle with all of our guests.”

The first dance was a highlight – right amongst the exhibits! Ruth remembers, “Neither of us are dancers but we wanted to make sure that we got our guests in the dancing mood so we took dance lessons together to learn a few basic moves before our big day. Our first dance was to Can’t Take My Eyes Off You from Jersey Boys.”

Congratulations Ruth and Benn! Thank you for sharing your wedding day with us! Thank you also to Lizzy C Photography for sharing today’s photographs!