Steph & Aaron

The newlyweds sit down together to chat about their stunning and quintessential Melbourne wedding at the Panama Dining Room in September this year. They mused it was chic and intimate with a relaxed vibe, caught on camera by photographer extraordinaire, Dan Soderstrom. The unusually warm day provided the perfect reason for a costume change to head into a night of celebrations with friends and family! 

We met when we were at school as we had mutual friends. However, it wasn’t until the year everyone started turning 21 and we were seeing each other regularly at birthday celebrations that anything blossomed. At one particular party, Aaron made a comment after a few drinks to one of Steph’s friends about how good Steph had been looking recently and it took off from there!

To describe the day, it was chic, Melbourne, relaxed and intimate. The ceremony was small with only 30 of our immediate family and closest friends in attendance. Post the ceremony we were then joined by another 100 family & friends for dinner and dancing.

The beautiful bride Steph says she “refused to go wedding dress shopping (much to the dismay of her Greek mother) and was inspired by the simplicity of Megan Markle’s wedding dresses.” The day after the royal wedding she found and purchased an ivory Roksanda dress on Netaporter. The experience was not ideal to the mother of the bride as she was hoping for the big traditional wedding gown, however it was exactly what the bride wanted.

Due to the unexpected warm weather scheduled for the big day, the bride ended up purchasing a 2nd dress (at 4:00pm the day before) for the party time of the night which was a sequin dress from Veronika Maine.

Keen to keep it simple, the Groom, Aaron wore a navy MJ Bale suit with white shirt & bow tie.

Our bridal party consisted of Steph’s sister, Amanda and two of her oldest friends Tina & Juls. Aaron’s Groomsmen were his best mate Jake and two brothers Dan & Jaddan. The page boy was Steph’s nephew, Henry and flower girl was Steph’s niece Kiara.

We felt the venue didn’t require any additional flowers due to the vast amounts of greenery present, however we wanted to dress the window where we had our ceremony with some blossom (this proved to be a lot harder than you would think) and blush pink roses were used for bouquets & button holes.

Walking down the aisle to ‘Vance Joy – Alone With Me’ the bride made her entrance to the Panama Dining Room in Collingwood. Even better, the venue was chosen based on Steph’s love for the large windows which she first discovered during an episode of the TV show ‘Offspring’.

Our ceremony was a small affair with our families and some of our closest friends. We were going for a very relaxed affair and therefore had no formal readings. Rather, we had Amanda (Steph’s bridesmaid & sister) and Jake (Aaron’s best man) to each share a reflection about the two of us. Vows were very simple and true to us as a couple.

Having a Greek heritage and it being our only bit of Greek tradition, our first dance included the entire reception guest list joining us for the Zorba!

Although we had no DIY elements, Steph’s students made the cake toppers that sat on our wedding cake, which was lovely.

The most special parts of our wedding were Greek dancing, the beautiful and intimate ceremony, good food, drink & company. These were all the truly special things that have stuck with us from the night. For each of us, the morning spent with our families & friends was very important and something we will both remember for ever. We also had Steph’s brothers Matt & Simon say a speech during the reception about the both of us, as they are the two people in the world that know the both of us best as a couple.

Aside from the obvious happiness of getting married, the day was incredibly special to be able to bring all of our different family & friends that we love into the same room and to spend the night with us.

Again it should be about the two of us, but some of our favourite photos are of Steph, Aaron and Henry, our little page boy, in front of the blue brick wall on the street are some of our favourites!

The bridal procession started with Steph’s mum walking with the page boy, Henry and flower girl, Kiara. Once the page boy saw Aaron, he ran to him! They hugged and he demanded Aaron pick him up. Aaron remembers thinking he didn’t want to miss the first moment of Steph when she turned to walk down the aisle. He put Henry down, which Henry very much didn’t appreciate and therefore Henry was handed a piece of cake as bribery which he proceeded to drop and eat off the floor! Talk about a good start!

Our Photographer, Dan Soderstrom is a good friend of Aaron’s from high school and they also spent a year together abroad when first out of school. We loved having Dan a part of the day and night as he created a very relaxed environment during photos which put the both of us very much at ease.

We were extremely lucky and loved every single one of our vendors. Each is special is their own ways to the two of us. Our celebrant, Lara Williams was absolutely amazing as she understood and created the exact vibe that we wanted for our ceremony.

Bride Steph also wants to comment about her amazing glam squad Claire Gourlay for make up and Carmen Vitale for hair. They both made Steph’s morning of the wedding so calm and zen!

The top five things that made our day was definitely, family, friends, dancing, pampering & laughter.

If there’s any advice we can give to future couples, don’t sweat the small stuff when planning your big day! The day itself goes so quick and none of the small stuff means anything.