Modern Wine Store Wedding - Polka Dot Wedding

Bec & Blake

Bec and Blake decided they wanted a casual, fuss free wedding. So they met before the ceremony for photos, walked to the ceremony together, had the bride’s sister perform the ceremony and danced the night away. Their modern wine store wedding is going to enchant you from start to finish. They chose Ginger and Spice Photography to photograph their day.

The bride wore a red dress from Myer and painted her shoes herself with gold glitter.

Of their photographer, Blake remembers, “Louise is a friend of the family and went to school with Alison. They were one of the least stressful parts of organising the wedding. Before the ceremony and reception we went to Newstead House park (Newstead/Bowen Hills) to take the photos of Bec and myself. I (Blake) was very awkward/difficult in front of the camera, but they managed to get some great shots.”

The couple arrived to the wedding together, to their very excited guests who had been enjoying drinks and canapes before hand. Blake remembers, “We had a violinist, a friend of a friend of Bec’s who played for about an hour at the start of the evening, while guests waited for the Bride & Groom to arrive, providing a nice atmosphere.”

Bec and Blake chose Clovely Estate Cellar Door, Red Hill for their wedding, remarking, “Everyone we dealt with were exceptional but the standouts were Clovely Estate Winery Cellar doors. They were very helpful and understanding when designing the food menu. All the staff were friendly, professional and accommodating. The venue was lovely and they provided the majority of the furniture we needed.”

Blake remembers, “We had an Instax photo booth where guests could take photos of themselves throughout the night. They pinned them up on a display for us to take home. The display was made of some old window frames (three of them) which we sanded back, and tidied up. We connected them with bronze hinges in a concertina fashion. We tied string across each frame in rows, with tiny decorative wooden cloths pegs. We had names for each guest so they could take a photo of themselves and peg it up on the window frame for us to take home and look through.”

” My (Blake’s) mother made us an archway out of Star Jasmine plants, and flowers trimmed from her garden.”

“We had Alison (Bec’s sister) perform as much of the ceremony as possible. We had a great celebrant (friend of the family) who was happy to help us do this, and performed the key parts required by law. Blake’s sister also involved in the ceremony and was invited to say a few words.”

“By law in Queensland we have to say “Marriage between a man and a women”, but these are not our beliefs, so we included a separate paragraph explaining our definition of Marriage. We have LGBT friends and wanted them to know our beliefs and feel comfortable.”

“One of Bec’s best friends was living in Canada and wasn’t able to make it to the wedding. We had her Skype in so she could see the ceremony.”

Blake remembers, “We had the Ceremony in the Round/Oval room (down two steps). Once the ceremony was over everyone moved to the “top” room for the reception, with cocktail food, and small plated meals later. Clovely helped us create an all vegetarian menu because Bec & a lot of her friends are vegetarian. While food & drinks were happening the staff cleared away the bottom room which turned into a dance floor later in the evening.”

Bec kept the decoration simple, making gorgeous paper flowers herself. Blake notes, “A lot of the wedding was handmade or hiring people we knew. Bec designed and made all the flowers for the day out of tissue paper and tree branches (myself and parents and friends also helped). There were a few weekend “sweat shops” where we got together with family to make the flowers. We worked out a pretty good production line. We also paired these with vanilla candles to provide a nice aroma through the venue.”

Flame Tree Bakery created cupcakes for dessert, Blake telling “Instead of having the traditional multi-tired cake, instead we had multiple cupcakes (made by Flame Tree run by Lauren) of all different flavours. We also bought extra vegan cupcakes for the few vegan friends. For the cutting of the cake we had a large cake-sized cupcake that we cut.”

Of the first dance, Blake retells, “We did not really have a first dance. We started the music later in the evening at the dance floor. Bec and I did dance together early at the start, almost “First Dance” like, but it was very casual.”