Modern Garden Party Wedding

Bess & Will

I love so much about Bess & Will’s modern garden party wedding. From the bagpiper that led the guests from ceremony to reception, the let your hair down first dance, espresso martinis served in coffee cups, it was a night to remember captured by Aparat.

Bess and Will met at university at a student camp – their story beginning way back when evolving into this gorgeous wedding day in Melbourne.

Bess chose a wedding gown designed by Carla Zampatti . She tells “I wore a Carla Zampatti dress (bought from David Jones and tailored by Brides of Brighton). I really loved it. It was absolutely trashed by the end of the night (too much air guitar on the dance floor – plus one of my friends spilled a full glass of red wine down the front of it towards the end, which I found hilarious). It all came out with a good dry clean!”

Bess walked down the aisle to “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds Five. The couple chose to marry in Bess’ childhood park.

Allys Andrews who happens to be the bride’s mother officiated the ceremony, Of their ceremony, Bess remembers, “We wanted a nice simple ceremony conducted by my mum. Our readings were ‘Travelling’ by William Wordsworth and ‘I do not love you…’ by Pablo Naruda (actually about being in love with someone, despite the title). Poems we have both loved for a long time.”

Following the ceremony, Ian (Will’s dad) led the procession of guests up the hill to Bess’s parents’ place, where the cocktail reception was held in the backyard.

One man band Uptown Brown set the scene for an evening of fun and music.

Of their photographer, Bess tells, “Aparat were fantastic. We met Jakub and Zosia a few months out from the wedding and straightaway felt very comfortable they understood what we wanted. We’ve both been to weddings where the bride and groom are commandeered by the photographer for long periods of time, but we wanted a more low impact approach. I remember seeing only glimpses of Jakub and Zosia on the night, but they were there, moving through the crowd capturing hundreds of beautiful, natural moments of us and our guests. We ended up with the most amazing photos without ever being taken away from the party.”

Blakes Feast catered the cocktail style affair, Bess remembering, “Blake’s Feast were amazing. There were a few hiccups from our end (like running out of beer at about 9pm) but they smoothed them over without a word. They even held umbrellas over our guests as they walked from the marquee to the deck in the rain. Plus the food was incredible! We couldn’t recommend them highly enough, for the food and professionalism.”

“We had to have the obligatory Melbourne wedding espresso martinis. We served ours in coffee cups. We also had other homemade cocktails that Will and our friend Kee from the Keg King brewed up in our garage in the week before the wedding.”

Of their first dance, Bess tells, “We danced to Love is in the Air from Strictly Ballroom (John Paul Young). It was one of the best moments of the wedding – when everyone joined us on the dance floor with maracas and feather boas.”

“it was the best day we’ve had. It started at 4pm and finished at about 5am, we had everyone we loved there and we’d go back and do it over again as many times as we could in exactly the same way. We wouldn’t change a thing.”