Madge and Jared’s Art Deco Inspired Indian Wedding

Madge & Jared

What a mix of cultures and love today’s beauty of a wedding is! Madge and Jared’s wedding art deco inspired Indian wedding wasn’t just about a day – it kicked off two days earlier with a bright and colourful Indian ‘Sangeet’ evening full of dancing and food before the more western ceremony. The two events allowed for maximum fun and maximum guest time says the bride, “Having two functions, both the Indian and the regular wedding allowed us time to see and talk to all of our guests and see them dressed up in Indian outfits! It was so special having all the people we loved in the one place, we wanted to make the most of it!” It was captured in all it’s colour and glory by Natalija Brunovs – I Heart Weddings

Madge tells the tale of their love. “We locked eyes across the smoke-mist haze of a classy Perth establishment during the wee hours of an October morning. Some questionable dance skills were employed and must have worked because Jared got my number, asked me out, we discovered we had lots of shared history and friends in common and that we both loved good food, drink and travel and the rest, as they say, is history.”

The day kicked off with a passport style wedding invitation in an envelope made of a map of Western Australia made by Papelurich Crafts and Souvenirs.

Madge’s bridesmaids wore dresses from Alannah Hill “The bridesmaids to choose their own dresses within the broader ‘Gatsby’ theme and in similar colours.”

Madge chose a wedding gown by Anna Campbell  recalling, “Olivia from Anna Campbell designed my dress – I looked everywhere for the perfect dress and then fell in love with everything Anna had. Olivia just understood and created my dream dress.”

Perth Tram Company transported the bridal party between venues. “In India, it is traditional for the bride to arrive with her family, so we hired the old Perth tram, which picked up all of my overseas family and took them on a tour of Perth on the way to get me and then we all travelled to the ceremony together.”

Madge and Jared chose The Sunken Garden, University of Western Australia, Crawley  for their wedding ceremony, telling, “We loved that the Sunken Gardens was within the University (that we both attended) but felt like a secret garden oasis in the middle of nowhere and could still comfortably accommodate our 250 guests. Even on a 36 degree Perth summer day, it was beautiful and cool. I also knew I wanted to walk over the adorable little wooden bridge and marry Jared under the beautiful drooping tree – though negotiating the treacherous rocks before the bridge in heels was not ideal!”

Heart Strings and Pretty Things styled the ceremony and reception, the bride remembering, “Heart Strings and Pretty Things did an amazing job with both the ceremony and reception decor AND she did all the ceremony flowers, including parasols with orchids hanging from the trees, and my bridesmaids and flowergirls’ bouquets. No request was too crazy, she just made it happen and sourced everything we asked for!”

For the processional, Madge remembers, “The bridesmaids walked down the aisle to Bonfire Heart by James Blunt and I walked with my dad and two uncles to ‘Fools Rush In’, the Ingrid Michaelson version, both performed acoustically by an extremely talented friend, Kate Gilbertson.” Walking down the aisle with your uncles is another Indian tradition the bride honoured.

“We had parasols for any guests who felt the heat at the ceremony and used a carpet from my mum and dad’s home as our aisle runner.”

Of their photographer, Madge tells, “Natalija Brunovs from I Heart Weddings was recommended to us by a friend and she was amazing both during our engagement shoot and then on the big day(s) themselves. We had lots of catch-ups beforehand, usually accompanied by wine! and it helped us to get comfortable with her and talk through what we would like on the day. Negotiating the crowds at our Indian ‘Sangeet’ function two nights before the wedding and having to wrangle our wedding guests into a group photo were no small feats, but somehow Nat managed to keep the guests, our overexcited bridal party and timing in check and we ended up with a selection of amazing shots that captured all of the excitement and fun memories of the day, as well as the beauty of our surroundings.”

The Western Australian Museum, Perth Cultural Centre hosted the reception, the newlyweds noting, “The reception was in the Hackett Hall Gallery at the Western Australian Museum. We fell in love with the venue, which used to be the old State Library, instantly – there was something about being surrounded by the beautiful vaulted roof, historical exhibits of Perth and floor to ceiling bookshelves while we created our new story together that spelled ‘us’.

Again – it was also big enough to accommodate our large guest list, a bar and dance floor (essential) and held something special for our overseas guests. The venue and the library feel also inspired some of our deco choices. It was pure coincidence that guests were also able to access the latest feature exhibit – an exhibition of one of Madge’s favourite designers, Aurelio Costarella. Cassandra from the WA Museum was wonderful and did all she could to make sure we were able to do everything we wanted on the night, including using one of the museum rooms as a babysitting room for those with babies.”

Guests received small bottles of chilli oil as favors, says Madge. “Our friend Greg designed us a monogram early in the planning and we used it on everything, which tied the whole day together, including on the bonbonierre, which were little bottles of chilli oil and scotch (whiskey). We had an assembly line day to put the scotch into bottles and then Greg and I spent an evening making a secret recipe chilli oil – the process still haunts me… coughing and had watering eyes for days after! We used Jared’s grandma’s 1960’s secretary typewriter as our guestbook and stacked old books as centrepieces, topped with my grandma’s antique teacups filled with flowers. We hung old pictures of Jared and I as kids on the bathroom doors.”

The reception was a group affair – styling by Heart Strings & Pretty Things with Megavision and Eluma Events. “Ben from Megavision did all the lighting and AV for the reception and after several tireless attempts of him testing out bits and pieces in the hall, it blew us away when we saw the final result. Eluma Events, organised our illuminated bar and chill out area and even managed to get a personalised decal made for us for the bar to Gatsby-fy it! Fleur from Heyder and Shears was an absolute saviour and the food/drink was incredible.”

The Cake Factory created an incredible wedding cake with sweet cake pops by Cake Pop Creations. Madge telling, “One of our favourite details was the scotch and cigar bar (in tribute to our grandfathers) rolled out later in the night and the table of our favourite assorted desserts: red velvet cake pops, salted caramel and chocolate cups, profiteroles and large wheels of cheese.”

Of their first dance, Madge remembers, “We are both quite uncoordinated and so had one dance lesson from a (very patient) friend just to ensure we didn’t step on each other’s toes. We can also never agree on music but both love David Gray so we chose ‘This Year’s Love’ for our first dance and our band, Libby Hammer’s quintet, actually learnt the song and sang it for us. Somehow our friend managed to choreograph a dance to part of the song and somehow, including lifts, we managed to remember it and pull it off on the day!”

Madge tells, “Our DJ, my former colleague and lawyer-by-day, Dan Butler did a phenomenal job gauging and pumping up the crowd. There was a ‘Thriller’ flashmob, then a ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ hoe down and a solo Smooth criminal breakout! My dad was definitely the star of the dance floor, though.”

Madge remembers, “At the end of the night, our plan for our presents and how to get back to our hotel completely disintegrated when we realised my mum and some friends that we had recruited for the job in advance had left. We ended up carrying all our presents through the city in search of a taxi, then took that back to our house, dropping off the presents on the way, and we had to semi break-in because neither of us had our keys!”

Congratulations Madge and Jared! Thank you for sharing your celebrations with us! Thank you also to Nat of  I Heart Weddings for sending today’s photos our way!