Nioka & Dyson's Modern Roof Top Wedding

Nioka & Dyson

I met Dyson through a mutual friend and after a few weeks I knew he was the right man for me. He proposed at home a couple of years later after I ruined his grand plans. I think it was nice getting engaged at home anyway and much more private.

I had always loved the look of a square diamond ring and I’m sure I had pointed a few out to Dyson at the time, but he ended up choosing my engagement ring (with some hints from my friend) after much research. I think it suits my hand perfectly; I love it, he did a great job!

I started dress shopping a little over a year before our wedding as I wanted to be super prepared and have lots of time in case I had a hard time finding something. I tried on some truly amazing dresses that I would have loved to have worn, but the one I ended up choosing was from The Bridal Atelier. I found my dress after about six months of searching.

I had decided I wanted a dress that was classic with long sleeves and that was backless. The shape I kept going back to was more of a column dress shape which I thought was a bit more sophisticated compared to the more flowy dresses which I felt made me look quite girly (and being short they overwhelmed my frame too much).

I originally thought I wanted lace, however when I tried some lace dresses on I felt like they were too traditional for what I wanted. When I tried my dress on I realised one more thing that I wanted – to have a dress that looked a bit ‘cool’ for lack of a better word.

I had fallen in love with some sequined dresses but felt there was something missing and I was very surprised to have ended up with a French silk dress. When I put my dress on I just knew it was the dress I wanted to marry Dyson in. I decided not to wear a veil, as much as l like them on other people they just felt too traditional for me.

For my jewellery I ended up wearing the most amazing earrings from Ben Amun– I looked everywhere for the perfect earrings and they didn’t disappoint!

I wanted to keep it simple so I just wore my earrings and also my mother in law’s mother’s ring, which had diamonds and sapphires so it doubled as my something old and something blue. This is probably the most traditional element I kept for our wedding!

I really wanted flowers that were not too feminine and incorporated what Dyson liked too. We went with a green and white palette with emphasis on a lot of greenery. On the day we ended up having some autumn leaves added in, as they were in season when we got married. The ‘theme’ we went with was Tuscan – so we wanted it to feel like a relaxed vineyard in Italy even though you were above the city in Melbourne.

I really wanted peonies, which were actually not in season at the time of our wedding so I chose David Austin roses. However, on the day my florist, Flawless Flowers, had some peonies in which I instantly grabbed for my bouquet!!! It was so perfect and I couldn’t have been luckier! I fell in love with the relaxed flower arrangements and wanted something with a similar feel for my bouquet.

Flawless Flowers did an amazing job at creating the perfect flower arrangements. I asked them do my bouquet, the corsages and button hole flowers as well as the table arrangements for our bar tables.

Dyson put so much effort into making so many things for our wedding. It was important to personalise it and to make it feel like ‘us’; he is also super crafty so that helped a lot! Dyson made the lights in the letters of our name that lit up to our music, the backlit bar menus and the chalkboard for our welcome easel.

Dyson even made his own cravat to go with his beautiful suit from Oscar Hunt.

Our amazing on the day event coordinator Steph from The Eventurer set up all of our cushions, welcome easel, flowers for behind the bar and on the bar tables as well as those in the bathrooms. Steph put all of the finishing touches on the styling and I completely trusted her decisions; it all came together better than I had ever imagined and I was completely blown away when I walked in.

We decided not to have a bridal party for a couple of reasons; one was that there was no way we could have chosen out of our friends and family who we would have had stand next to us. Also we didn’t want our most important people to feel like they had a job to do or couldn’t enjoy the day if they were in our bridal party. We did however have a lot of close friends helping us out on the day with their amazing talents which we are forever grateful for.

Our photographers were Frank and Sam from Tropica Weddings, who are very good friends of ours and I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else shooting our wedding. I knew I would be comfortable with them and I didn’t want anything really posed. They did an amazing job capturing the feel of the night, as it happened and without us feeling like we had to stop for photos.

I know everyone thinks they have the best celebrant but we literally did have the most amazing celebrant. Jo Betz felt like an old friend immediately and I feel like she just ‘got’ us and what we wanted. I feel so lucky to have had her marry us; she had the most fun-loving vibe and made us feel so relaxed on the day. I would recommend her to everyone!

Dyson and I really wanted a ‘non wedding’ wedding. We just wanted it to be a party with close friends and family that everyone could enjoy. We would have had it outdoors but with the unpredictable Melbourne weather it was too much trouble to have a backup plan for bad weather, so we decided on Alto Event Space above Melbourne GPO.

It was so lovely to have the ceremony on the balcony during the sunset and the city lights at night were amazing. I also love old buildings and the balcony looked onto the back of the GPO roof which has a very French feel; it was the most perfect day!