Emma & Steven

Emma and Steven’s classic and elegant city wedding is simply beautiful! We adore the gown with its split and pockets, we are crushing hard on the gorgeous white long stem rose bouquet, and we are head over heels for the modern styling at the inner city venue. The day was captured beautifully by Merge Photography.

Meeting 5 years ago at Perth hotspot Hip-E Club, Emma tells of how they hit it off. She shares, ”We met after a mutual friend introduced us and we spent the rest of the night by each other’s side. After exchanging numbers on the night, it took a little bit of persistence but I eventually granted Steve a first date, and the rest was history.” Steven proposed after organising a lunch at the couple’s favourite Cottesloe restaurant, with a ring he had chosen himself.

Love at first sight was on the cards for Emma when she went wedding dress shopping. She tells, ”I went into the dress experience with an open mind, but after following Karen Willis Holmes on Instagram I had a feeling that I might end up with one of her dresses. It was the second bridal store I visited with my mum and I fell in love with the dress immediately. I went to a few more bridal stores but nothing compared to this dress. I loved the simplicity of it and the modern twists – the split in the skirt, the pockets, the neckline.” Emma had her sister, Amy, as her maid of honour, plus three close friends, two of whom she spent time with whilst living in London. They wore Sass and Bide and carried bouquets of mixed roses and hydrangea by Rose and Bud.

The groom and the groomsmen kept it simple with navy suits from MJ Bale and white shirts from Gibson. Emma shares, ”It took me weeks to search for peach coloured ties to match the bridesmaid dresses. After almost giving up I stumbled across the OTAA website where I found the perfect tie and pocket square. Steven wore his Grandfather’s watch who passed away in 2010.” The groom chose three close friends in Daniel, James and Ian to be in the bridal party, one of whom introduced the couple! A stunning ceremony venue was fortunately close by, with Emma telling,”The church is about a five minute drive from my childhood home. I have driven past this church at least once a week for the past ten years and love the street it is located on. The Sacred Heart Church, Highgate has a beautiful courtyard out the front where we had family photos after the ceremony.”

The bride and groom chose to add no decoration to the already beautiful church. Emma shares, ”As Steve is not Catholic we chose to not go with a full mass. The church is beautiful as is, so we had no florals or other decorations. We had three readings read by two close friends and my Uncle/Godfather. The priest who married us has been known to my family for many years. He married my parents and he baptised me. The bridesmaids and myself walked down the aisle to ‘I Won’t Give Up’ by Jason Mraz. We had a live acoustic music performed by Adrian Wilson, and my father walked me down the aisle.”

Loving all of their chosen vendors, Emma and Steven were thrilled with Jodie from Merge Photography. Emma tells, ”We first saw Jodie when she was the photographer for a friend’s wedding. We loved how she was almost invisible throughout the day. We didn’t want a team of photographers in our face all day. Jodie was such a pleasure on the day.” The bride and groom brought the wedding together as a team, and thoroughly enjoyed the process! Emma tells, ”I had a lot of fun planning the wedding. Steve was very involved in the planning which I loved. Making the decisions together made the day even more enjoyable and seeing all the planning come together was a great feeling.”

With decor perfect for this classic and elegant wedding, The Flour Factory was an instant hit! Emma shares, ”We looked at a few venues around Perth but we absolutely loved The Flour Factory. We loved the exposed beams, the wooden floorboards, the little courtyard.” In choosing flowers, Emma kept to theme, saying, ”I’m not a big flower person but I love roses. I chose classic long stem white roses for my bouquet, and the bridesmaids and groomsmen also had roses. At the reception, the tables were decorated with lush greenery down the centre with hints of blooms and scattered candles. Our seating chart had corner floral pieces framing the chart. The cheese wheel cake from Little Sister Delicatessen had small scattered blooms and greenery. Rose and Bud nailed my theme – white roses, soft pinks and latte pops. Soft and romantic feel with wild dark green foliage.”

Arriving at the reception, the newly married couple chose to have their first dance straight away. The bride shares, ”We chose ‘With or Without You’ by U2 for our first dance. We did our first dance as soon as we walked into the reception and were introduced as husband and wife. We didn’t have any dance lessons or choreograph a dance but it was romantic just staring into each other’s eyes and enjoying the moment together.”

With one of Emma’s favourite items at the wedding listed as being soda water, we now know why! She tells, ”At the reception I suffered a slight wardrobe issue courtesy of what Steve describes as an exploding arancini ball. I bit into the ball and it exploded onto my dress! It happened just as we were about to sit down for dinner. Steve went to our seats and couldn’t find me until he saw Mum and I at the bar. He wandered over and said, ‘Enough you two, there’s champagne on the table’, only to find Mum feverishly scrubbing my dress. Luckily, thanks to soda water, you could barely notice the orange stain.”

Congratulations to our gorgeous bride and groom on your wedding, and thank you for sharing it with us! Thank you also to Merge Photography for your magnificent photographs!