Jess & Dan
Jess and Dan were keen on having a relaxed wedding day – from their beach side ceremony to their Sydney restaurant wedding venue. Each element was considered so that it was reflective of their own relaxed lives, the way they love to live and their life together. They invited Fable & Fuss along to capture their day.
Jess tells their story. “We met by chance at the Sydney Opera Bar and ended up having a really fun night out together. Music is a really big part of our lives (we went to see Groove Armada on our first date) we incorporated some of our favourite lyrics into our wedding decorations and stationery.”
Dan chose a purple mod suit from Ben Sherman with a patterned shirt, braces and skinny tie. His groomsmen wore their own suits.
Lily from Toni&Guy and Hayley Dutton styled the bride and bridesmaid’s hair and makeup, Jess remembering, “Our hair was done by Lily from Toni & Guy. I had soft curls and a half up style, the bridesmaids all had their hair up and chose their own style on the day. Our makeup was done by Hayley Dutton who does absolutely stunning makeup. Hayley was a pleasure to have with us on the day getting ready and I loved the looks she created for myself, the bridesmaids and my lovely mum.”
“The theme of the wedding evolved into a beautiful colour palette of bright pinks, apricot, greens and purple. I chose a vintage inspired lace dress and wore the same veil that both my sister and sister in law wore on their wedding days. I had matching silk shoes made from Shoes of Prey that had had glitter gold heels with a blue lining for ‘something blue’. ” The bridesmaids wore apricot gowns from Sheike.
Nelder Jones created Jess’ bridal gown using French lace, she tells, “I had my dress made at Nelder Jones. The ladies there are just lovely and made the dress experience such a fun one! My dress was adapted from one of the samples I had tried on and was made from french lace and silk. I changed the neckline after one of the fittings and they happily did this for me.”
“I had a gold locket with photos of my Grandma, Grandad and Nanny who have passed. They were really special to me so it was a lovely way to have them with me on the day.”
Jess and Dan chose Balmoral Beach for their wedding Jess remembering, “We were married under a tree at the south end of Balmoral Beach on the shoreline in Sydney. We were really lucky that it was a sunny day as we didn’t have a backup plan!!”
The couple’s love of music was infused throughout their wedding day, Jess telling, “We both designed our wedding stationery (I’m a graphic designer which helped!) and developed the theme together. We are really into our music so we used lyrics from our favourite songs on our invitations, decorations and place cards. The main lyrics that we used was by The National – ‘I dreamed about you 29 years before I saw you’. Instead of having flowers on the altar chairs we made heart cutouts which had the lyrics in them.”
For the processional, Jess remembers, “We had an acoustic band from Baker Boys Band play Stevie Wonder ‘You Are The Sunshine Of My Life’.”
“My mum helped me make some picnic style table cloths for our signing and drinks table at the ceremony.”
Jess found the bridesmaid gowns at Sheike, telling, “The bridesmaids wore a stunning apricot floor length dress and a soft gold floral necklace”.
“One of the best parts of the day was when Dan and I went and had some photos taken just by ourselves. It was such a magic time where we got to step back from the day and take it all in. Suellen (our photographer) got us to do some photos on a round about which was fun (and the images were phenomenal!) Some of our guests walking past were wondering what we were up to!! ”
Of their photographer, Jess remarks, “We wanted some candid photographs of the day and we didn’t want to spend half the day doing staged poses, we just wanted to be ourselves and have an amazing, relaxed time! We saw some of Suellen’s work on a website, after which we arranged to meet her while she was visiting Sydney in a pub.
We got along really well with her and loved her journalist approach to capturing a wedding day. When we received our wedding images from her we were so happy with them, she really captured so many of the emotions of the day, we felt like we were re-living the day when we saw them!! My advice would be to find a photographer who you trust and let them do what they do best and capture the day.”
Jess and Dan chose The Public Dining Room, Balmoral for their reception celebrations, Jess remembering, “The reception at the Public Dining Room was just a couple of minutes walk up the road. We got a really good vibe when we visited this venue, it’s relaxed (like us) with an amazing view of the water. Dan’s family came out from the UK so we really wanted to show off one of our favourite places in Sydney. We decided to do five long tables and sit in the middle amongst our family and friends instead of having a traditional bridal table, this made the night feel like an intimate dinner party.”
Guests received cupcakes as wedding favors created by Sparkle Cupcakery who also made the wedding cake. The finishing touch was a silhouette cut out cake topper made by Dan.
The first dance was a highlight of the night, Jess recalling “The song we chose for our first dance was ‘Sundress’ by Ben Kweller. We didn’t practice we just improvised and had a lot of fun.”
Congratulations on your marriage Jess and Dan! Thank you for sharing your day with us! Thank you also to Fable & Fuss for sharing today’s wedding with us!
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