Rochelle & AJ’s Chic At Home Wedding

Rochelle & AJ

Rochelle and AJ married at Rochelle’s parents’ place in Caversham. The celebration, truly a family affair was a chic at home wedding filled with handmade touches and elements that Rochelle and AJ both loved. No first dance? They set off fireworks instead! They ate icecream, had caricatures drawn and celebrated it all with Carla Atley photographing every bit!

Rochelle tells the tale of how they came to be. “We met 11 years ago at Steve’s in Nedlands, back when it was still a student pub and the place to be on Wednesday nights. We had a mutual friend who introduced us, cheap beer, and the rest is history!”

Rochelle wore a stunning lace gown by Pallas Couture  with a crystal hair clip from Jenny Packham . She tells, “My dress was by Pallas Couture, who are exceptionally talented at what they do. To have a dress made for me by such clever couturiers was a real treat, and something I’ll probably only do once in my lifetime. The ladies at Pallas have a real eye for what suits you, and this was the first dress I tried – they were spot-on. I loved my dress and felt incredible in it – it really did its job on the day!”

“The whole wedding took place at my (Rochelle’s) parents’ place in Caversham. We had the ceremony under a beautiful old Moreton Bay fig tree and the reception in a marquee on the lawn. Having it at home made the wedding all the more special, but we totally underestimated just how much work it would be. We really relied on the generosity of family and friends to help us pull it all together, and we were all working pretty much right up until lunchtime on the day! That said, having our wedding at home gave us total flexibility to finish late, decorate however we liked and even set off a few fireworks.”

“Our wedding was very much a family affair, and there’s no way we could have done it without them. From mowing lawns and hanging fairy lights, to filling eskies and compiling playlists, everything was done by family members. We loved having everyone involved – it made the day so much more personal.”

Rochelle walked down the aisle to I Will’ by The Beatles.

Although a friend put together most of the floral arrangements, Matthew Landers created a floral heart that marked the ceremony spot.

“Our two dogs, Inja and Bella, were the ring bearers at the ceremony. We absolutely love our dogs so it was important for us to incorporate them into the day somehow, especially having it at home. They were shaking as my cousin walked them down the aisle, but we wouldn’t have done it without them, and we had a family friend waiting at the end to whisk them away for treats while the ceremony happened!”

“Having Rev Frank Sheehan conduct the ceremony was very special to us. Though AJ is not religious, Frank was one of his favourite people from his school days, and it was great to have an existing rapport with the person who married us. It’s quite calming on the day to have an officiant you already know.”

Of their photographer, Rochelle notes, “Carla Atley was our photographer, and we couldn’t recommend her more highly. When we met for coffee, we knew straight away that she was the photographer for us. Carla is really approachable, friendly and most importantly, patient and understanding with people who don’t really like having their photo taken! Carla put us completely at ease and the photos are even better than we’d hoped. Her documentary style captured details that we missed on the day, and we absolutely love the candid shots of our guests.”

“Having the wedding at home meant we had to DIY pretty much all the decorations, which made the planning really enjoyable. I (Rochelle) scoured Etsy, eBay and countless party supply websites for decorations – internet shopping is a passion of mine, and I definitely indulged it in the lead-up to the wedding!

Guests loved the gift truck, which was decorated with fairy lights, pom poms and tassels. The decorations were mostly done on the cheap and I loved transforming bargain finds – glass milk bottles made the perfect table vases when tied with grosgrain ribbon, simple name badges made a cool seating plan, and we used wooden lettering, spray paint and fake flowers to make our signage. Again, we had incredible help from family and friends.

A dear friend of mine did all the floral arrangements, and my aunty made the 70m of bunting that hung so gloriously in the trees where we held the ceremony – I will treasure this piece forever.”

Echo Creations  created fun stationery for the day which guided guests around the evening, Rochelle telling, “We loved having different things for the guests to do, and we had a caricature artist, photo booth, La Paleta ice cream cart and, of course, the dance floor! We didn’t want anyone to feel stuck in their seat or not being able to talk over music. There had to be something for everyone.”

Rochelle remembers, “The speeches were a very meaningful part of the day and weddings are such a great opportunity to exchange a few heartfelt words. My dad’s speech blew me away, and though he’s a quietly spoken person, he has a real knack for finding just the right words for occasion – always sincere, never cheesy. There were high-fives all round when he got back to the table!”

Guests received custom tea towels from Uptempo Design as their wedding favors.

A beautiful cake from Made by Marnee was topped with a marquee light topper from Grain & Co

“We were incredibly fortunate that our family in London made it to Perth for the wedding. We both lived with them for a couple of years and became very close. It just so happened that our wedding day was also one of our relative’s birthday, so we surprised her at the end of our speech by getting everyone to sing happy birthday and bringing a cake out. It was a real highlight.”

The night had only just begun when the fireworks came out to play! The bride remembering, “We skipped the first dance – it’s just not ‘us’ and we weren’t comfortable doing it. We loved being able to choose whether to keep or ditch certain wedding traditions. Instead, we had a fireworks display after we cut the cake, set to the tune of ‘My Girl’ by The Temptations (not that it was remotely synchronised to music).”

Congratulations Rochelle and AJ! Thank you for sharing your day and it’s story with us! Thank you also to Carla Atley for sharing today;s celebration!