Melissa and Tom's Fremantle Heritage Wedding

Melissa and Tom

Shortly after moving into our first home together, Tom proposed to me on our nine-year anniversary. We decided to tie the knot on our ten-year anniversary and so we started planning right away.

We love Fremantle! It’s where Tom and I started dating when we were 15 and we spent many weekends together there. So choosing Fremantle as our wedding location was an easy decision. Fremantle has beautiful parks, beaches, historical sites, restaurants, bars, parking and plenty of accommodation options! No-one had to travel very far and there was lots of things to do in-between the ceremony and the reception.

Our invitations were letter pressed by Fenton Ink and they turned out beautifully! They’re definitely something we’ll frame and keep forever. This is one of my favourite photos, our wedding invitation…with ‘Something Old’ – my great grandmother’s watch, ‘Something New’ – my Swarovski necklace, ‘Something Borrowed’ – my father’s penny and ‘Something Blue’ – my mother’s sapphire engagement ring.

We sent our invitations out with a sprig of rosemary which tied back with the wreath logo and the floral arrangements I had in mind.

We printed schedules for the maid of honour and best man and name tags for the bridal party’s outfits. The contact numbers in the schedules were very useful when it was raining and the suppliers needed an update.

For the big day we booked two suites at the Esplanade Hotel Fremantle so we could get ready. The hotel was very accommodating (pardon the pun!); they provided us with extra amenities for the day and cleaned the rooms so they were ready for us that evening when one of them became our honeymoon suite.

Earlier in the day Tom treated himself to a close shave and ‘manscaping’ at Kennedy’s Barbershop.

We hired three stylists for the day. Cherie Nicole did my hair and make up as well as our mothers’. The bridesmaids’ makeup was by Dewy Beauty and their hair was by Teez Hair.

I invested in my own good quality lipstick so I could touch up during the day.

Our gifts to our mothers and bridesmaids were engraved champagne flutes which we ordered from Personalised Favours.

I also received some thoughtful gifts from my bridesmaids including the original sketch of my wedding skirt and a diamond pendant necklace.

All our floral arrangements were made by Wild Heart Flowers. Penny did an excellent job in interpreting the style I wanted.

My dress was made up of two pieces. My sister, who was living in Jakarta at the time, arranged for the skirt to be locally made by Smaradhana Indonesia; my bodice was purchased separately from Bridal Affair. I decided not to wear any shoes to the ceremony as I am not very confident in heels and you couldn’t see my feet anyway.

Our ceremony was held at Monument Hill and was styled by Heart Strings Hire and Style. Considering it rained all morning they did a great job setting it up in time for the ceremony and I thank them for being so patient on the day! Our ‘flower girl’ was our gorgeous pup. She was transported and looked after by Le Petit Dog.

We arranged smaller chairs for my two younger brothers so they could be in the front row with our parents.

Our celebrant was Heart and Soul Celebrations. Diane was recommended to us by a friend and she gave us some great ideas for the ceremony. Our bridesmaids recited a reading from the book “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” by Dr Seuss.

During the ceremony Tom and I each gave our mothers a rose corsage that they could pin on their dresses. We wanted to thank them and make sure they shared in a big part of our ceremony.

Our beautiful photographs were taken by Perth Photography. During the recessional, guests tossed rose and lavender potpourri from Atelier Emma Rose which we packaged into bags ourselves.

After the ceremony Tom and his best man shared a drink from their engraved flasks from Personalised Favours which we gave as gifts to our fathers and groomsmen.

Tom and I have a close group of friends and there just happens to be more men, so we did not have an even amount of bridesmaids to groomsmen. We didn’t see this as a big issue and because our friends are such good sports we were able to pair two of the groomsmen to walk back down the aisle together!

We travelled to and from the ceremony by tram with Fremantle Trams. The tram was big enough to fit the entire bridal party and our parents so we could travel together. We stopped for a photo at the St John’s Anglican Church in Fremantle – where my great grandmother was married in 1912. She was 103 on our wedding day and is still with us today.

We decided on a cocktail reception at Moore & Moore Café; we wanted to mingle with our guests straight away and had no need for seating plans! It is a heritage listed building with a lot of character and it didn’t need much decorating at all! We hired some items from Heart Strings and we used the bridesmaids’ bouquets as floral arrangements for the tables; the venue provided jars with candles for free!

I had a dress change so I would be more comfortable. I wore dress and sash from BHLDN, a stole from Sew U Designs and custom-made ‘something blue’ shoes from Shoes of Prey. My clutch is from the op shop.

Our guestbook was a polaroid guestbook from Liu My. Our wonderful bridesmaids whizzed around taking everyone’s photo at the beginning of the night and we used up the remaining film for fun!

I collected photos from the weddings of our parents, grandparents and great grandparents and framed them for display.

Tom and I have never had much of a sweet tooth and we love cheese so we had a cheese wheel tower from Say Cheese Towers instead of cake. We had a cheese knife instead of a cake knife. We took all the leftover cheese home, shared some with our parents and ate the rest ourselves!

Our favours were homemade Anzac biscuits using Tom’s late grandmother’s recipe; we baked and froze them ahead of time. These were put into kraft paper bags for our guests to take home. This was an affordable way to share something special to us and also give our guests a yummy midnight snack!

We organised the speeches and formalities earlier on in the night so we could spend more time dancing with our guests. Clive from Phat Bat Djs did a fantastic job keeping the party going all night.

At the end of the night Tom and I made our grand exit though an arch of our guests and simply walked around the corner to our honeymoon suite.

Everything went perfectly and it was the best night of our lives! Shortly after the wedding we ‘buddy-mooned’ in Koh Samui with our bridal party – a wonderful finish!