Classic Melbourne Wedding With Modern Details

Nicole & Scott

“We knew all along that we just wanted all of our family and friends to have a great day and night celebrating with us.” If there is one thing we’ve learnt about weddings, it’s that the family and friends factor always makes a party second to none. Nicole and Scott wanted a day that honoured tradition but was about so much more. After a classic church ceremony, they joined their guests for canapes and cocktails by the water, placing great importance on a venue that was all about good food, good wine and a dance floor that would be hard to forget. Tess Follett was there to capture it all.

The pair had met at work; a colleague, spying their not-so-secret strategic moves to be in each other’s company, set them up on a date. It was on Nicole’s 30th birthday that Scott finally proposed. She tells, “We had gone away to Port Douglas for the week and for my birthday he’d organised the most perfect day of brunching, massages, cocktails and we had a lovely candlelight dinner planned. I had noticed when we were heading out for dinner that Scott looked like he had something big in his pocket and I was sure it was a ring box! I’d prepared myself for the proposal to come but by the time dessert came around nothing had happened and I started doubting what I had seen. Just as I gave up hope he told me that he had one more birthday present for me and pulled out a small wrapped box. I opened it to find a diamond ring and the next thing I knew he was beside me on one knee asking me to marry him.”

Dressed in Benjamin Barker, the groom-to-be chose a classic suit with white tie.

Nicole chose Cappellazzo Couture to make her modern, off-the-shoulder wedding gown. “Sonia was the first stop on my wedding dress shopping journey and nothing I saw after her compared,” she tells. “She was able to read my personality and what would suit my body type within minutes of walking in, I was blown away. I knew I wanted an off-the-shoulder dress and, as we threw around ideas for material and shape, I started to create an image of what I wanted to look like on my wedding day; classic and simple. Sonia suggested neoprene and I fell in love, it was exactly what I had pictured in my head.”

Nicole and Scott chose St Peters & Pauls Church in South Melbourne for their traditional wedding ceremony. Nicole explained, “Our ceremony was a very traditional one, given it was in a church, but we chose not to do a full mass service. We wanted the theme of the ceremony and the whole day to be about love and the happiness it brings to the world so we made sure all of the readings we selected for our family and friends to share were based around the power of love.”

Nicole walked down the aisle with her father to John Mayer’s “XO”. “It was was definitely one of the most special moments of my life,” she remembers.

Says the bride, “Our favourite photo of the day was one of the two of us standing in front of a beautiful wooden door and brick wall, framed by greenery. I love the way this moment captured the smiles on our faces and how happy we were to have just gotten married!”

Of their photographer, Nicole remarks, “We chose Tess Follett to photograph our wedding. Tess had photographed the wedding of friends of ours of a few years earlier and we fell in love with her work and after speaking to her on the phone, we were sold. We didn’t want our photos to look staged like we were on a photo shoot and we knew this wasn’t Tess’ style either. She captured the emotion and happiness of our day perfectly!”

Nicole and Scott celebrated with their guests at a sit-down reception at the bayside venue of Encore in St Kilda. Nicole says, “Encore was the first venue we looked at and as soon as we walked in, it felt right for us. We checked out a couple of other venues but came back to Encore – we loved the beachside location and views across St Kilda. We knew we didn’t want anything too traditional and Encore is exactly that. We also loved the fairy lights draped across the ceiling and that we could have our bridal table in the middle of the room, among our guests. Our favourite part was the menu tasting at Encore. All the food was delicious and we were so excited to share it with our family and friends on the big day!”

Tillda Flowers styled the floral arrangements for the day in classic white with green. “We picked white as our colour for our flowers, coupled with a lot of greenery. We thought the colour matched the reception perfectly with the beach as the backdrop – crisp and clean. For the bridal flowers, we kept them simple in the same colour scheme,” says Nicole.

The newlyweds wanted to make the most of their guests’ presence, Nicole telling, “We decided to spend as much time among our family and friends as possible so we joined our guests for canapes instead of staying in the bridal room and also decided to have our bridal table in the middle of the room so we sat next to our closest family and friends – one of the best decisions we made!”

“Our favourite moment of the day came very late in the evening, a friend of ours grabbed us and took us outside the reception onto a part of the terrace that overlooked the dance floor. We weren’t really sure what was happening but he told us that when he had gotten married the year before, friends of his had done this for him and his wife so he was going to do the same for us. He told us to take a moment, while it was just the two of us, to look into the reception and see what a great time our family and friends were having before running off and leaving us. We stood there for a couple of minutes, looking into the packed dance floor and a wave of emotion just hit us. All of a sudden everything felt real, we were married, our day had been perfect and everyone we loved was in one room having a great time. The tears started rolling down! It was an incredibly special moment that we shared, just the two us.”

The dance floor kicked off with utter romance. “We chose ‘You & I’ by John Legend for our first dance – such a beautiful song! Slow dancing isn’t our forte so we decided to take a couple of lessons leading up to the big day so we felt a little more comfortable on the dance floor. It was one of the highlights of our night and a very special moment, even though the whole room surrounded us it was like we were in our own little world,” tells the bride.