Michele & Will
I love so much of today’s vintage style art gallery wedding, which in the bride’s words is, “Classic modern with a vintage twist and a bit of Fremantle hipster thrown in.” A feast for the eyes of the most beautiful flowers, the widest smiles, an incredible venue and a couple who managed to share who they are through the details of their day. All so beautifully captured by Nicolle Versteeg .
Michele tells their story. “We actually met through Facebook. We both had a lot of mutual friends on Facebook but didn’t know each other. Will had seen my profile picture via a mutual friend and added me. Later on as it turned out I had already met his sister years before but didn’t know this at the time. We started chatting a lot on Facebook and ended up arranging to meet face to face. For me (Michele) it was probably not the right time as I has just come out of a long relationship but we arranged to meet up and from the moment that we met we just seemed to fit, not only was there a strong chemistry but we really developed a great friendship. Over the next couple of months we couldn’t get enough time together. So about three months later we moved in together and have been together ever since.
That was six years ago and we have had an amazing life together, traveling, camping, driving the whole way around Australia, spending time with friends and living and working in China (where we now live), celebrating five years together with an amazing holiday in Bali where Will surprised me and pulled out a beautiful ring and asked me to marry him at one of our favorite restaurants by the ocean and then coming home to Fremantle in April this year to get married.”
The groomsmen gifted the groom bespoke cufflinks from Solid Gold Jewellers which tied in with his tuxedo from Sam’s Tailor, Hong Kong perfectly.
Michele wore a gown from Tuscany Bridal , remembering, “My dress was a light Ivory, with heavy lace, sweet heart neckline, quite fitted, just slightly flaring out at the knees and it had a train. I also had a beautiful detailed belt with the ribbon being a light coffee ivory colour and a gorgeous head piece with a fascinator attached.
The experience of shopping for a dress was actually quite stress free. Because of living mostly in China I didn’t have time to change my mind as I needed to get a dress so it would be in Perth on time for the wedding. I would have loved to have a bespoke dress made by one of my favourite designers but not being at home too often just didn’t allow for this. The night I found my dress I had the right people around me (future mother in law, bridesmaid & future sister in law) that made the choice so easy and we had a great night.”
Michele and Will chose Kidogo Art Institute as their wedding venue, noting, “We only used one venue for the day and that was Kidogo Art Institute. We chose this venue because of the beautiful location and the fact that it was built in the late 1800’s and is built from beautiful limestone perfect for wedding photos. The venue has two galleries at the front, to the right which is a smaller gallery and all white is where we had our ceremony and to the right the main gallery where we had our cocktail style of reception.”
Michele describes the wedding as “Classic modern with a vintage twist and a bit of Fremantle hipster thrown in. ”
Michele chose Lana Del Rey “Video Games” for her walk down the aisle.
Jane Bartlett officiated the ceremony, Michele remembering, “I don’t think we remember a lot about the ceremony as I think we were both too excited and nervous. But what I do remember was the feeling of having such a small intimate ceremony, it made it much more personal for us both to be able to share this with our family and friends most important to us.
We had a few personal words that we said to each other along with asking our celebrant to read out to our guests: “Will and Michele would like to see in the near future the laws in Australia revised to recognize the rights of all devoted couples to legally marry in this country.”
Of their photographer, Michele remarks, “One of the things that attracted us the most when choosing Nicolle was that she was a Freo local like ourselves. We really loved all of her work on her website because a lot of her past weddings were photographed in our beloved Fremantle. And from our first Skype conversation to meeting up finally the week of the wedding we knew she was the right fit for us. She and her assistant were fantastic on the day despite my nerves and trying to relax enough for the photos and the proof is in the result which we are absolutely stoked with.”
SCS Weddings styled the wedding with Fox & Rabbit creating the floral arrangements for the day, Michele tells, “From the start we always wanted a bit of a vintage retro style for our wedding. So that’s why when looking for vendors we chose those who could reflect the style we like down to the food we enjoy the most. I think most of what we wanted was captured through the day from what we wore to the flowers, the decorations and even the venue that we chose. We really tried to include all of what wanted and looking back on our wedding pictures we are so happy with the result.”
The wedding favors were a mix of stainless steel whiskey rocks. wine with a personalised label and boxed seeds. Michele tells, “We had a few wedding favors that we had organized, and for two of these Will and his best man had to spend time to remove original labels and put on the ones that we had specially made.” The DIY touches didn’t stop there with “Will also organized the Edison bulbs that we wanted to use for the lighting at our reception to hang up festoon style and he and his best man put all of these up the day before our reception.”
Kent Street Deli catered a roving canape menu for the event. Michele noting, “We were really happy with everyone that we chose, we had to arrange so much via email because of being mostly in China and the process with everyone was just so easy. We never had any issues at all. I think we enjoyed planing all of it. We never felt stressed we were just looking forward to having a celebration with our friends and family.”
Michele tells “Apart from having an amazing day with friends and family, we loved having Will’s 86 year old Nan flying out from London and having our Chinese friends fly to Australia to share our day with us. For them this was their first western wedding and very different from what they are used to. But they really enjoyed their day they said to us that they couldn’t believe how relaxed we were and how much everyone just got in and enjoyed themselves. Our friend’s wife didn’t speak any English but she said she enjoyed herself a lot and the usually shy person that she is she got up and danced the night away with rest of us I think this will forever be etched in our minds.”
There was no first dance, but don’t take that to mean there was no dancing – these newlyweds got their dancing feet on! Michele tells, “We didn’t have a first dance, as soon as we cut the cake and the music ramped up I got straight out and danced for the rest of the night with everyone. Will did come and join me a few times but he was happy to keeping drinking, chat with his brothers and friends at the bar. Actually I think the first song to come on was Bubble Butt by Major Lazer!!! ” The groom spent months before the wedding putting together the perfect playlist for the reception which was sent to guests after the wedding on a USB as a thank you gift.
Congratulations Michele and Will! Thank you for sharing your stories with us! Thank you also to Nicolle Versteeg for sharing today’s wedding with us.
They sure looked like they had a lot of fun with their vintage style wedding!
Hey Michele here thanks for the great job of the blog it’s fantastic. Just wondering if you could give design credit for the cuff links that Will wore, although solid gold made them they were designed by “Crimes Against Art”
Cheers
Michele