Tessa & Andrew
The vibe of Tessa and Andrew’s classic with a twist Melbourne industrial wedding captured by Motta Weddings is completely fun. From the “grand prixe” champagne moment, to the reception style, the bride wanting to mingle with guests as much as possible, it was a day for celebration and spirit.
Tessa starts us off with the story of how they met. “Andrew and I had been friends for a couple of years before we got together. We would usually see each other at larger gatherings but then our group of friends started to hang out a bit more and we grew closer. It was at a 90’s party when the penny had dropped and we realised that we liked each other. It then blossomed from there.”
The groom and groomsmen chose suits from Joe Black The Tailor.
Tessa wore a Pronovias gown, remembering, “I chose a Pronovias dress from Fairytales Bridal Boutique. Looking at bridal blogs and Instagram accounts, I was drawn to a fitted lace dress with a low cut at the back, however, I wasn’t sure if the idea I was seeing would suit me. When it came to bridal dress shopping, literally the first dress I put on was the one. It was everything that I had imagined. I then tried on quite a few others to be sure but I always kept going back to that first dress.
The ladies at Fairytale’s had given me a few options but they knew I had something else on my mind. I told them about the dress and one of the ladies came running out with the Pronovias dress. I tried it on and you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.”
Tessa walked down the aisle with her father to a Kingdom song that is called “Now We Are One”.
Tessa remembers, “I was so nervous leading up to walking down the aisle. As I got into the limo I was holding my dad’s hand the whole way (it was about a 30 minute drive) and just trying to take deep breaths so as to calm my nerves. When I walked down the aisle and looked straight at Andrew I was overcome by happiness, I couldn’t help but smile. I just focused my whole attention on Andrew and nothing else mattered; the look he had in his eyes were of complete love and all I wanted to do was get to the end and hold onto him forever.
As I let go of my dad’s hand I gave him a kiss on the cheek and gently rubbed his cheek with my thumb as if to say ‘I love you and I’ll always be your girl’. But then grabbing Andrew’s hand it was time to move on and grow up. This was forever.”
Tessa and Andrew wed at Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses St Kilda.
Of their photographer, Tessa remarks, “We decided to have our friend, Alex Motta who is also a professional wedding photographer for Motta Weddings do our wedding photos. Alex is quite relaxed in his style and also a bit alternative which was perfect as we didn’t want to go for the classic wedding look in our photographs. He definitely captured this on the day.”
“We only had one request when it came to photos – the Grand Prix Shot! This was when you open a bottle of champagne and then start shaking the bottle to spray champagne everywhere; like what the winner of the Grand Prix does at the end of the race on the podium. This is something Andrew loves doing and we also did this to announce our engagement. We wanted to capture this shot on our wedding and Andrew specifically wanted the entire bridal party to each have a champagne bottle to Grand Prix.
You can simply only smile when Grand Prixing so it what a perfect photo moment. The Grand Prix shot was definitely a highlight of our photo session. Walking into a South Melbourne bottle shop; the look on the shopkeeper’s face was priceless. He then sang ‘here comes the bride’ over the speakers and then changed the song to Taylor Swift “Love Story” – how appropriate which we all had a good laugh. And then of course all six of us spraying champagne everywhere was so much fun.”
Tessa and Andrew chose Showtime Events Centre for their reception, remarking, “Showtime Events Centre definitely captured this. Right in the heart of the city and with the flexibility to choose a style that suited us, Showtime was the place we wanted to have our Reception. The custom gold chandelier bar was a stand out feature and tied in with our theme nicely.
They had all the planning under control – of course we had to be organised also but they made it that bit easier by providing a list of suppliers, having regular catch ups to go through the event run-sheet and ensure I haven’t missed out on any details.”
Guests received custom favors from Lorenza Soy Candles and Brewtopia. Tessa notes, “We also decided to create our own ‘brewery’ for our beer favours called ‘Tubbs Brewery’. This was a mixture of Chubbs (Andrew’s nickname – even though he isn’t chubby) and Tessa. So we included a photo of us and named it Tubbs Brewery.”
“I had a vision of a relaxed, fun wedding and I wanted a venue that highlighted who we are as a couple. With the option of either a cocktail wedding or a sit-down wedding, we wanted to incorporate both. I loved the idea of the cocktail part of the wedding before the guests entered the main room of the reception to be extended. But I also wanted to be included in this part of the evening.
When I explained this to Andrew, he completely agreed. As we are both very social people, we wanted to be able to join our guests. So rather than being hidden away until the guests were seated and then introduced, we were a part of the whole thing and sat down when everyone sat down. There was no formal entry and introduction, but rather a quick introduction by the MC, Andrew’s brother Michael, followed by the cutting of the cake.”
Of their first dance, Tessa remembers, “Our first dance was to Frankie J’s Can’t Take My Eyes off You. It is an old classic that Andrew would often sing to me and would leave voice messages on my phone of him singing that song. So it was only fitting that we danced to this song at our wedding.”
The Motta Weddings team also captured a film of the day, that sums up pretty well the atmosphere of celebration!
Congratulations on your marriage Tessa and Andrew! Thank you for sharing your story with us! Thank you also to Motta Weddings and Showtime Events Centre for sharing today’s wedding with us!
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