Summer Perth Wedding - Polka Dot Wedding

Anita & Angus

In an intimate, glamorous wedding in a beautiful Perth Garden, Anita and Angus married in front of their nearest and dearest. Taking the reception to the close by Old Brewery, photographer extraordinaire Amy Skinner was on hand to capture the aesthetic and feel that encompassed both Anita and Angus and their dreamy day. Lovely Bride Anita tells the story that brought her and Angus together!

Angus and I met online, and while dating we met every week usually for lunch or dinner to try new restaurants, go to markets and concerts, watch live comedy or go bike riding or for walks. Angus proposed while we were on a weekend away in Sydney. He originally planned to ask me at Mrs Macquaries Seat in the Royal Botanic Gardens, however he could see a tourist bus there, so he just stopped at a park bench on the way.

Angus didn’t propose with a ring, so when we returned to Melbourne after our holiday we went shopping together. We found an amazing jeweller, Ian at Ellissi Jewellery, who helped us find the diamond and setting we wanted. This was quite an easy step as Angus and I liked the same style. We went with a traditional solitaire cut diamond and yellow gold band, which our jeweller made for us.

I actually bought two dresses! My first one was bought online as I really don’t like shopping. It was lovely but I didn’t really feel comfortable or feel that it was me. I thought it would be better if I went and looked and tried on the bridal shop dresses. I narrowed down the number of shops I had to visit by looking at their online catalogue, and because I had a particular style in mind, this narrowed down the number substantially.

My goal was to find a dress with sleeves, was modest and very comfortable to wear. The first shop I went to wasn’t helpful at all, but then I found my second one by Wendy Makin Bridal Designs at Always and Forever Bridal, where the staff were amazing. I tried on other dresses just to make sure, but nothing compared. They also restyled my veil to a mantilla style. I was extremely surprised at how fun the experience was and how down to earth and helpful the staff were too.

We wanted a small wedding but also wanted our friends and family to be there, so we had around 60 people. This was very large for Angus, but considered small for my family, so it was a great compromise! As I have the larger family (Angus is an only child), we decided on Perth (my home town) and later had a smaller celebration in Brisbane (Angus’ home town).

We wanted friendly and professional vendors that were able to create the feel we wanted for the day. We had a budget, and we also needed people that communicated via email as we were organising everything from Melbourne. Some vendors that we originally contacted, took weeks to respond, or were quite rude as we only had 60 people and wanted a Saturday wedding. We didn’t choose these ones! Instead we chose vendors that loved what they do and made the day amazing.

We decided on a ceremony at Kings Park as we loved the gardens, and a sit down dinner reception nearby at The Old Brewery. About half of our guests travelled to Perth so we wanted to show off the city too. Claire from House of Primrose styled our wedding ceremony. She is extremely creative, friendly, and we were confident going with her ideas. We loved her style and idea of stacking books on the signing table and aisle runner.

Our ceremony went for about 20 minutes and our celebrant, Lisa Jones, helped us write our vows. They were simple and quite traditional. We didn’t want the ceremony to drag on, and we were also conscious that it would likely be quite a hot day so we also didn’t want our guests overheating. Also, I initially decided to change my name, but about 6 months before the wedding I decided to keep my own. Changing it just wasn’t me.

Upon arriving at the ceremony in Kings Park, our guests were welcomed with classical music from the Chromos Quartet. Angus chose the music as he only listens to classical music, so I walked down the aisle to Wagner’s Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin and we left to Mendelssohn’s Wedding March from A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Angus wasn’t fussed about the reception music, so I decided on the Baker Boys Band as I was really impressed when I heard their music. They were great musicians and really created the atmosphere we were after. I initially wasn’t sure if a live band would be worth it, however it really was!

I have three sisters who were my bridesmaids, and our ‘best woman’, was Angus’ best friend Georgie. The decision was really easy. They all wore dusty pink dresses that were really easy to wear and flattering. We gave them jewellery as thank you gifts that they could wear on the day too.

I had heard so many people became stressed about their wedding and they didn’t enjoy the day, so we just wanted it to be fun, relaxed, and with a few surprises. That was our goal. For example, we had That Little Gelato Cart serving ice-creams to our guests after the ceremony as it was summer. I actually found the organising quite easy, and the day went smoothly, which I attribute to our fantastic vendors. They were all great at what they do.

I absolutely love flowers and had to restrict myself quite a bit! Our photographer, Amy Skinner Photography, recommended our florist, Beans & Bunches, and ceremony stylist, House of Primrose. We wanted a relaxed feel to our wedding and chose Australian natives in a rustic free-form arrangement to make our invitations.

Proteas featured on our wedding invites, and although they were at the end of their season, Stacey even managed to track down a couple for us. I sent through inspiration photos and photos of our bridesmaid dresses to our florist, and she did the rest. The day before the wedding when we picked up the bouquets, I was so surprised how beautiful and large the bouquets were – they created the look I was after perfectly and we received many comments on them.

There was a particular style we were after, so I was really drawn to Amy Skinner Photography – her photos had a vintage appearance that others didn’t have. We immediately felt comfortable with her and she made it a very fun experience too. I cannot express how happy I am that she and her team photographed our wedding!

I spent a bit of time at home deciding on how the place settings were going to be arranged. We had sugared almonds and chocolate as our bonbonniere. By chance, I went to Italy a few months before the wedding, so I purchased sugared almonds from Confetti Pelino in Sulmona, Abruzzo.

They are one of the oldest Italian confectioneries and have been making sugared almonds since 1783. We gave each of our guests 5 almonds that traditionally represent health, wealth, happiness, fertility, and long life. Angus is a chocoholic, so our bonbonniere also included a bar of Winnow Chocolate with roast wattleseed and honey roast macadamias. The packaging was beautiful and really stood out on each place setting.

We wanted to have a wedding dance, and Angus chose the waltz from the opera by Charles Gounod: Faust, as he likes classical music. I couldn’t stop laughing throughout our wedding dance. In most of the photos I was pulling a face as I tried to not laugh as I felt it was so over the top. It was pretty challenging to pull off and we practiced for nearly a year at the Secret Garden of Dance. I am so glad we did it as so many people complimented us on it, and that I got Angus to dance at all!

Angus loves baking and made our wedding cake. We both love fruitcake so went the traditional route with a three layered cake covered with a layer of marzipan and royal icing. We weren’t too confident icing it to a professional finish, so we got Nikki’s Novelties Cakes to ice the cake for us, as my family has ordered cakes from her before. We wanted the cake to be lighter than a traditional cake, so Angus spent months developing and trialling the recipe. We bought it over to Perth, alongside all clothes and everything for the table setting, from Melbourne. Angus also organised the wedding cars, ceremony music and reception.