Urban Garden Party Wedding - Polka Dot Wedding

May & Hugh

I love the sophisticated feel to this urban garden party wedding. From the bride’s knee length gown with matching cape, the amazing soul singer the couple hired to play their favourite song as they walked down the aisle together, the delicious food and colourful macarons. It’s a celebration to get you excited for long, beautiful days outdoors and Renée Stamatis was there to capture it all.

May tells their story. “We met at our friend Ed’s party, just as I was heading overseas. So much of initial contact was through silly intermittent emails. By the time I came back to Melbourne, Hugh had moved to Sydney. A classic tale of latent desire thwarted by a series of deferrals.”

May wore a dress and cape by Valentino . She remarks, “I’m half Italian and chose my dress because it reminded me of nonna. It’s elegant but relaxed which is how we wanted our wedding to be. I also loved that it had a cape which I thought would be nice to hide under. I saw it on Net-a-Porter when it was well beyond what I would consider spending on a dress. Nine months later it showed up on The Outnet at an extreme sale price, just one in my size, and I ordered it without thinking. Bargain bin wedding dress! Luckily it fit.”

Of their photographer, May and Hugh tell, “We first saw Renee Stamatis’ work when she shot a styled bridal shoot on site in one of our workplaces. We have an incredible hand painted wallpaper in that site that depicts a Brazilian bird jungle. It has been photographed many times. The colours, lighting and detail captured in Renee’s work were exquisite and really stood out amongst the many images we have seen of the same space. We knew she would be perfect to capture our summer garden wedding.”

May and Hugh chose Fitzroy Gardens (Lawn 21) for their wedding, noting, “The ceremony and reception were combined into a continuous garden party in the Fitzroy Gardens. The lawn we chose is both open and secluded with a magnificent line of towering trees. We both love the Fitzroy Gardens and the feeling of being lost in the beauty of the nature.”

Cecilia Fox created the floral arrangements for the day, the couple noting, “The flowers by Cecilia Fox were amazing. She captured the colours and feel of the day we wanted almost intuitively because we only gave her the barest brief. We loved having a dream garden party surrounded by flowers.”

The couple walked down the aisle together to Donny Hathway’s version of Song for You, performed live by Frank McComb .

Jo Betz officiated the ceremony, the newlyweds noting “We wanted the ceremony to be meaningful but short. We had a short reading from T. S. Eliot and included three moments for Frank McComb to perform live. Having an incredible musician like Frank play was an indulgence we allowed ourselves in light of the fact that we were otherwise having a relatively short, low key wedding.”

May remembers, “There was no dancing. Just garden frolicking. Frank McComb performed his version of Donny Hathway’s For All We Know at the end of our ceremony.”

Guests enjoyed champagne and canapes catered by Blakes Feast. “Blake’s Feast, our caterers, were incredibly professional to deal with and handled everything beautifully.”

“Our son made our day. He ran up during our vows and up to the microphone in all of our speeches.”

The couple remark, “We made sure the ceremony and speeches were short. Partly this is because we didn’t want to bore anyone but we also wanted it to be something our two year old son could take part in and enjoy. We also wanted to acknowledge and include our families so it was important that, although casual, there was enough formality to be respectful to the people we love and who love us.”

Along with a beautiful tiered semi naked cake by Innicka Dee Cakes, the couple also served up plenty of macarons from La Belle Miette, which they also gifted as favors to their guests.