Colourful Community Hall Wedding

Emma and David

There’s a common misconception that a wedding with a black tie dress code has to be boring and stuffy. Let’s lay that to rest with a bang and use Emma and David’s colourful community hall wedding as evidence that a black tie dress code can mean plenty of fun, plenty of beauty, plenty of quirkiness and plenty of chants of “best wedding ever!” when guests leave the dance floor! Their day captured by Benny Jewell!

Kicking off the story of the wedding day is the tale of how the newlyweds met, they tell ,”We went to boarding school together (David was a few years older than Emma) and she thought he was a bit of a dream boat. We had a brief romance and once that ended we didn’t see each other for 13 years. A random mutual friend realised she knew us both and encouraged Emma to get in touch with him, which she was hesitant about, but once she did we were inseparable.”

Aireys Inlet was chosen for the wedding because of its significance to the couple, who remarked “We decided to get married in Aireys Inlet as Emma’s parents have a holiday house there and we spent a lot of time there in the early part of our relationship. We also holiday there each Christmas so it has a special place in our heart. ”

Emma wore a strapless lace gown by Amaline Vitale with her bridesmaids in gowns from Zimmermann.

The couple’s daughter Florence was the star of the show, even walking (or rather) toddling down the aisle before her mother.

Emma and David chose Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church Lorne for their wedding ceremony and Father Steve Sinn to perform the ceremony. Emma explaining, “We chose that church as I wanted to be married by the man (Father Steve Sinn) who married my parents 40 years ago. He flew in from Sydney for the wedding and it was really special.” The decorations at the church were kept simply with pretty floral arrangements by Sinikka Floral Design.

Emma walked down the aisle with her parents to “‘She’ by Charles Aznavour (and Elvis Costello) played on cello by David Koczkar.”

Their photographer tells of his background. “I grew up on a beach in Queensland. At an early age I employed photography, and other creative outlets, to record and reflect upon my ever-changing surroundings. I studied photography at the International College of Creative Photography in Melbourne, and went on to work throughout Europe and Australia. I now live and work in Melbourne, but travel all over the world to shoot weddings from Byron to Bali and find inspiration in fashion, dreams and memories, colour, movies, the people around me, music and the natural world.”

Simply Georgeous Ocassions planned and styled the wedding, meeting Emma’s brief of wanting ” lights, bright florals and colour at the hall “. A board stitched with coloured yarn welcomed guests to the reception.

Emma and David chose Aireys Inlet Community Hall for their reception, Emma noting, “The Community Hall is quite sweet however I was gravely concerned the first time I saw it and noticed the basketball hoops attached to the walls! Thankfully we used the fabulous Aleisha from Simply Georgeous Ocassions to style and manage the wedding and she assured them that we could work with them.”. The styling team added brightly coloured furniture from Dann Event Hire, lights from Geelong Party Hire, linen from Table Art and napkins from Shilo Engelbrecht to add plenty of colour to the hall.

Paper cups spelled out the couples initials and sweet messages.

Sinikka Floral Design continued her floral designs throughout the reception.

Good food and wine was important to Emma and David, so they chose Truffleduck to cater a feast for their guests, telling, “We knew they wanted a fun wedding with yummy food and good booze. We used Truffleduck caterers from Geelong and they were sensational. The food was so good and people still talk about it now. One of my bridesmaids, Jessica, has a string of bottle shops in Melbourne (Blackhearts and Sparrows) so I asked her to choose the wine.”

Of their first dance, Emma remembers, “We danced to ‘Can’t help falling in love’ Elvis Presley and it went pretty smoothly. We’d had a couple of lessons from a glamorous dance instructor who would have been very disappointed with (our) lack of practice. It was lots of fun though.”