Scott and I met just over two years ago. I was living in Margaret River in the south west of WA, and he was in Bunbury, a city about an hour away. We bonded over a shared passion for Bruce Springsteen  and the Fremantle Dockers, and our connection was pretty much instant.

The proposal story… After 6 months together I gave up my Margaret River life (reluctantly!) and moved up to Bunbury. Our engagement was very unexpected – I’d made it clear I was not all that keen on getting married (quite happy to stay together just without all that paperwork), but he clearly had other ideas!

It was NYE, my sisters and their hubbys had come down from Perth to spend a few days and we had a BBQ with cocktails at home. We all climbed on the roof with champagne to watch the fireworks and at midnight, Scott gave me the biggest surprise of my life by getting down on one knee with a ring and asking me to be his wife. I just cried and cried and cried, and eventually remembered to say yes!

The location… Scott is from a small country town called Pemberton and I am from Perth, and we chose Perth solely for our ceremony location. My dad passed away unexpectedly almost 7 years ago, and the place we tied the knot is where Dad’s ashes are scattered. I would have loved nothing more than for Dad to be there on the day to walk me down the aisle, and by doing it this way it meant that he kinda was. We got married on the river at Freshwater Bay in Peppermint Grove, Perth.

The big day details… In the morning getting ready was soooo much fun – I was lucky enough to have Lisa Thomas (@facesbyLisaThomas) paint our faces (she is HILARIOUS!) and Steph from the Pretty Parlour style hair. We had the tunes going and Champagne flowing, it was just really enjoyable!

The dress… My wedding dress was custom made by Paula and Jo in Perth, who designed my twin sister’s gown for her wedding two months earlier. It was so special having our dresses made at the same time and being a part of each other’s fittings. My twin sister was my maid of honour and I hers and it was certainly a big love-filled year for our family! For my dress I wanted something simple, classic and not too bride-ish. Paula completely understood my vision and going for fittings was like catching up with an old friend.

There to capture the day was Alannah Liddell, I came across Lana on instagram and fell in love with her work,  just the beautiful, delicate way she captured light and feeling in many of her landscape and portrait pics. Lana is extremely chilled and her photography is effortless. She is also just a really lovely human!

We chose Kristy Wright (@marriedbyKristy) as our wedding celebrant and she was hands down, one of the best decisions we made. Kristy is not your run of the mill wedding celebrant. She is fun, hilarious, warm, silly, serious, and she is all about the L-O-V-E.  We wrote our own vows as we wanted them to really mean something, our promises were pretty hilarious and the whole ceremony was full of laughs. Our guests were raving about her all night and so many said it was the best ceremony they’d ever been to!

Here comes the bride… My brother in law Pete did me the honour of being the one to give me away which I know Dad would have loved. I walked down the aisle to a Tracy Chapman version of ‘Stand by Me’.

Scott’s wedding band is a family heirloom, once belonging to his late grandfather Leo. Scott and his grandad were close and it’s really special for Scott to now wear the same ring his grandad wore.

After the ceremony our bridal party headed to Como the Treasury in Perth – we were lucky enough to stay there for the weekend and had our wedding photos taken within the hotel. The Como is super luxurious and elegant, the perfect backdrop for our wedding style, which kind of evolved organically as classic, moody and modern. Even though I’d lived in Margaret River for 5 years I am still a city girl at heart, which was only realised during the planning process with my choices being very city-esque! Scott is very much a country boy and not a huge fan of the ‘big smoke’, but he and our country-boy groomsmen do not look out of place at all in the glamorous hotel with their sharp suits!

Our reception venue came about pretty much by accident, we had already booked a venue in the city and we happened upon Lalla Rookh one day in between appointments and stopped in for a drink. Lalla Rookh is famous for it’s fine-dining authentic Italian food, the decor is very moody and intimate and it just has this great feeling about it. It sits underground from St Georges Terrace right in the heart of the city but feels secluded and intimate. We got chatting to the staff that day and they were so friendly and amazing we basically booked it on the spot!

Party time… Upon arrival our 100 guests enjoyed an ‘Aperitivo Hour’ (cocktail hour), with espresso martinis, aperol spritz and grazing boards. I am a notorious cocktail lover so starting the night right was essential and certainly got everyone in the mood to party! The majority of our friends and family had travelled from all over – Sydney, Melbourne, Margaret River, Pemberton and Bunbury so it was imperative that we show them a good time!

Our ceremony and reception styling was by Rachael and the team at Maisey Collections, who were an absolute dream to deal with. My brief to Rach was absolutely no greenery (I’m just not a big fan), nor anything ‘rustic’, but rather dark moody florals and lots of candles! She definitely delivered as did the incredible Emma at Styled Notion, who created my dream bridal bouquets. My bridesmaids had stunning long stemmed, peeled back roses and my bouquet was black baccara roses, orchids and ranunculus with long black ribbons.

Scott and I were keen to incorporate some of ‘us’ into our reception, and we had the guys at Nestle & Porter who designed our wedding stationery, also create some bold black & gold decorative signs with lyrics from our fave Springsteen songs (me: Dancing in the Dark, him: Thunder Road). These were hung in the dining area and by the dance floor, they were a really nice personal touch that represented us as a couple.

The food at our reception is still spoken about to this day! Lalla Rookh’s head chef Alexandra Haynes’s food is exceptional, and our families enjoyed dinner there together a few weeks before the wedding to try our wedding menu. It was so good that Scott’s very-country father insisted on returning with deliveries of avocados and marron from Pemberton as a thank you!

The food on the night included shared entrees of three dishes – salami boards, a salad of tomato, stracciatella and watermelon, and grilled squid with fennel & orange. Mains were a choice of paccheri with zucchini flowers, roasted pork belly with peach & hazelnuts or chicken with sweet corn & fregola.

For dessert we served our wedding cake, which in itself was truly a work of art! Nermin from Sukar Bespoke Cakes + Treats outdid herself with her decadent and majestic two-tiered creation, which was made up of two flavours (one picked by each of us), coconut, lychee + passionfruit, and chocolate, vanilla + salted caramel.

Favourite moments… The best part of the night for me was definitely the speeches. It’s quite overwhelming to hear your favourite people speak of you with such emotion, and my cup was well and truly runneth over that night with love! As a surprise to my groom, friends & family, I had also arranged for a good friend to read a speech on my behalf, so that I could share some sentiments of my own without breaking the ‘brides don’t speak at weddings’ tradition.

The music played at our wedding was quintessentially ‘us’ which equates to lots of Bruce Springsteen, and lots of daggy pub rock! The dance floor was full of country boys singing their hearts out and girls getting down to a bit of Beyonce.

Our first dance as husband and wife was to a Bruce Springsteen song called ‘Happy’, a bit of an unknown tune but one that is very special to us. For our second slow song we chose the one that was playing when Scott popped the question, ‘ Someone Like You’ by Van Morrison.

When the night was over we headed back to our room at the Como, and a beautiful note from the concierge was waiting for us with two flutes and a bottle of Taittinger. The perfect finish to a truly magical day!

Scott and I flew out the next day for our 3-week honeymoon. We spent 11 love-filled nights in New York City, followed by a week in Las Vegas and a couple of nights in LA.

Ms Zigzag says: We are so thrilled to share this exquisite example of a black-tie wedding in celebration of our black-tie month! Thank you to Michelle and Scott and their uber-talented photographer Alannah Liddell for sharing this beautiful celebration with us! Every photo and detail is simply breathtaking.