Emily & James

Elopements are something we can’t get enough of around here. A tiny guest list, a private cocktail session and a stroll through town seem like just the most blissful way to celebrate for two that just don’t want any fuss. For Emily and James, they chose just seven guests to witness their “I Do’s” (the bride donning an amazing Carla Zampatti polka dot jumpsuit!) at the ocean view home of their celebrant before they ended their winter wedding day alone, cocktails in hand, relaxing. Just as they wanted.

Luckily they did invite one outsider, photographer Jon Gazzignato joining the couple to preserve their beautiful memories.

It seems the most beautiful next step for these two, who met at work and became engaged shortly after another wedding of magnitude! Emily tells their story, “James proposed on a Monday night (the Monday after the royal wedding – Megan and Harry). I think he got all romantic after me making him watch it on Saturday night. I was at work Monday night and I got a call asking when I would be home, we didn’t have plans so I was in the office trying to get on top of things. When I arrived home, the house was spotless, candles lit, dinner cooked – which was usual behaviour so I asked straight away about what was going on. He then poured me a glass of wine which I was annoyed about cause we had just committed to trying to cut back on drinking and not drinking at all during the week. He told me to relax and that he needed to speak to me about something – at this point, I knew something was up. He then started talking about how much he loved me and how important I was and it was at this point I knew exactly was happening. To cut a long story short, I said yes, we enjoyed a delicious dinner at home and spent the rest of the night calling close friends and family sharing the news. I couldn’t have asked for anything better, as I would have hated for him to have made a big deal.”

Although they initially had a garden wedding in mind, the weather had other plans. Emily explains “We wanted to get married in a garden somewhere but given the weather in July in Tasmania, not being predictable and very cold we decided to do it at our celebrant’s house. She had kindly offered when we first spoke with her and decided to take away any of the weather worries from the day and get married in her lounge room it was the safe option. She had a beautiful house in Sandy Bay that overlooked the ocean.”

“I arrived at the celebrant’s house first with my Mum, Grandmother and sister in law,” says Emily, “I think I was the first bride ever to arrive before the groom. Given we were in a house there was no ‘aisle’.”

Emily and James chose officiant Maura Kerr to conduct their ceremony. “Given we choose to do something very small, we asked our witnesses to do a reading. My sister in law chose and surprised us with a beautiful reading” remembers the bride.

“For us, it was more about not including things. At any point we didn’t want anything that was going to be stressful, we wanted the day to be relaxed and simply enjoy the moment,” explains Emily.

One special detail of the day was the floral details, created by Botanical Hobart. But even those were of minimal fuss says Emily. “To be honest, I had a cloud of pictures I liked from Pinterest and shared them with the florist and let her take control. I met her the day before and she spoke me through what she was thinking and on the day when she delivered them they were better than I could have imagined.”

Of their photographer Jon, Emily raves “Jon was fantastic. I told him we didn’t want a fuss and wanted some photos that captured the day that we could share with others. He really took control and took us to some beautiful places to get some photos as neither James or I knew where to go in Tasmania.”

Emily donned polka dots, choosing a black Carla Zampatti jumpsuit. She tells “I didn’t wear a dress, I wore a playsuit. We eloped and had seven people there in total (including us) I wanted to wear something I was comfortable in and found this playsuit and fell in love with it. Given we weren’t having a traditional wedding I didn’t care about it not being white.”

Emily finished her wedding day look with a leather jacket a last minute decision! “I had purchased a green fur jacket to wear with my jump-suit (to inject some colour into my outfit) however, as I was getting my hair done and my hairdresser (Amanda) told me how she’d done a wedding where the bride wore a leather jacket with her outfit. At first, I was a little sceptical but then tried it on with my outfit and ended up wearing it.”

 

Despite the rain, the photographs are treasured by the bride, who recounts one of the rain-soaked shots at the bottom of Kelly’s Stairs as her favourite. “We had just spent two hours having photos in torrential winds and rain. So when we saw the photo it was a complete surprise that it was both of our favourite photos.”

The newlyweds celebrated their nuptials with cocktails, before a dinner at Landscape restaurant. The relaxed feel of the day was important to Emily, who explains “I didn’t want any stress so would find one vendor person at a time and went into it with not much expectation. To me, the wedding was about James so I didn’t get too worried about the planning – if it happened it happened and if it didn’t it didn’t matter.”

Congratulations Emily and James! Thank you for taking the time to share the stories of your day with us. Thank you also to Jon Gazzignato for sharing today’s celebration.