Alice & Cal

Wanting a relaxed and joyful wedding day, Alice and Cal chose the Royal Botanic Gardens for their ceremony. With the gardens as a starting point, the bride and groom then chose sweet and rustic florals and botanic themed styling to put together a beautiful celebration! Little Hurricane Photography captured every detail.

The bride and groom met through mutual friends, sharing, ”To make sure we didn’t miss our opportunity to cross paths again, the wonders (and algorithms) of eHarmony!” Cal spent time designing Alice’s engagement ring, saying,”We based the design on an art deco vintage ring I knew Alice liked, and I was pretty excited when it arrived. That night I asked Alice to help me in the garage where I was working on my racecar. I had her hold something in the car as I secretly put on a playlist and climbed under the car. When “Cockatoo, Malibu” from the Muppets soundtrack came on, I popped my hand up through the door presenting the ring, and asked if she’d marry me! Once she finished screaming in delight I pulled the champers from a box strategically placed in the car and popped it in celebration!”

Alice handmade her stunning gown. She shares, ”After working for a couture bridal label previously I never thought I’d make my own dress knowing how much it involved! But when it came to finding exactly what I wanted I made the decision to make it myself with the help of a lady I worked with (a huge thank you Branka!) I did a lot of research to create a long sleeve lace embellished tulle bodice with a detachable silk chiffon skirt, that I changed over to a shorter tulle skirt for dancing later at the reception. I sourced three different embroidered laces and used these to cut, place and individually hand sew each piece to create the design I envisioned. It actually made the whole experience even more special seeing it come to life from a flat sketch, to calico toiles to get the fit right and into the actual gown. It is something I will treasure and hope will be a family heirloom for years to come.” The bride also made their flower girl’s dress, with the same spotted tulle and appliqued lace flowers. Cal wore a classic white winged collar shirt with a black Country Road suit and a black bow tie. Alice bought him a pair of cufflinks with cog parts set in resin as a nod to his passion for engineering.

With the garden surrounding them, Alice and Cal planned their ceremony to be relaxed, yet heartfelt. They share, ”We wanted to share and enjoy the moment with our closest family and friends. Our 4 year old niece Niovi walked down the aisle carrying our weddings bands tied into a bird’s nest that Jeannine (Callum’s Mother) had carefully decorated with paper flowers and ribbon. These were then passed around to be blessed by everyone. Callum’s Uncle Ashley read a passage from ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ and two close friends Amy and Athina read ‘Union’ by Robert Fulgham which expressed our views on marriage. Our celebrant did a wonderful job of weaving in our story to the ceremony to make it unique to us.” The bride was walked down the aisle by her Father to ‘Magic’ by Coldplay, while the bride and groom’s Mother’s were asked to be witnesses during the ceremony.

Using Glasshaus as both their florist and reception venue, Alice was thrilled with their creativity. She tells, ”I took an inspiration image of a trailing bouquet to our florist and entrusted them to source and use the most seasonally appropriate flowers to achieve the look, including olive leaves, jasmine, roses and hydrangeas. For the bridesmaids bouquets we incorporated some lavender hydrangeas and sea holly to compliment the colour of the groomsmen’s shirts.”

Having Kristin from Little Hurricane Photography come to their engagement party to take some photos sealed the deal for the bride and groom! They share, ”We initially got her to do a one hour shoot for us at our engagement BBQ and she was so lovely! We connected with Kristin straight away. She promised less images than another photographer we had met, but we felt quality was much more important than quantity. She wasn’t formulaic in her approach and we liked her fly on the wall style, capturing the day as it happened and with not too many posed shots.”

Choosing the Royal Botanic Gardens, Blakes Feast for their ceremony set the tone, with Alice telling, ”We have always loved the botanical gardens! That started off the idea of a garden theme, then our choice of venue for the reception also reflected this and it naturally fitted in well with the floral motif stationary, wooden tree place holders and Alice’s floral dress. We did a lot of research online before going to Glasshaus Inside, but it was the only reception venue we looked at in person, once we saw it we knew this was the place. It is a 1920s industrial warehouse that operates as a nursery and florist during the day. The advantage of all the flowers and plants is that it doesn’t require too much more decoration, it already has so much!”

Happy to support a local business, the bride and groom chose The Farm Cafe to cater their reception. They share, ”They made the process of planning a wedding very easy as they offered event styling, catering and bar staff for the day. Our event manager went above and beyond to not only organise furniture for the reception, but also our ceremony which otherwise she was not connected to as it was booked through a different vendor. It was also great that she made the effort to come out with us and visit Glasshaus, bringing the chef who would be creating our menu to see the space.”

Getting a little bit crafty, Alice and Cal made CD’s for their friends and family. They tell, ”We made CD’s for our guests of our favourite songs, including what we walked down the aisle to, our first dance as well as a few fun hits. The CD sleeves were made by Etsy store ‘A lil bit Different’ who also made the name place cards, bar and wishing well signs all to match into the garden theme with a floral motif.”

Adding a lot of heartfelt touches to their day, the couple set up family photos of their grandparents and parents. They share, ”This made for a great talking point (as well as pretty props). Alice’s sister Sophie made their late Grandma Dolly’s shortbread from her recipe for guests to help themselves to with tea and coffee, and Callum’s 89 year old Grandad Warren flew over from New Zealand to meet Alice for the first time. The speeches were an amazing part of the day. We had 4 bridesmaids and 4 groomsmen, they all said a few words each. One of our bridesmaids Emer found a hilarious book from the op shop ‘Wedding Etiquette for all denominations’ published in the 1960s and she recounted to us a few key points! Sophie also quoted a favourite childhood book of theirs ‘Little Women’ when Amy said to Meg ‘You don’t need scores of suitors…you only need one if he’s the right one.’ As she welcomed Callum into our family as her Brother a few tears were shed.”

The newlyweds had their first dance to ‘Unchained Melody’ by The Righteous Brothers. Alice shares, ”We didn’t rehearse and just enjoyed the moment, some of our favourite photos of the day are from our first dance, we just look so in love and happy. At the reception a hot gin punch was served up in blue and white teacups,  everyone thought it was going to be a very sober night, why was everyone drinking tea already?! But it wasn’t long before people were trying sips of other people’s ‘gin tea’ and then dashing to the bar to get their own. The punch ran out a couple of times and the bar staff quickly made more!”

Thank you to our gorgeous bride and groom for sharing your stunning wedding day, and congratulations! Thank you also to Little Hurricane Photography for your beautiful images!