Jessica & Aden

Pour yourself a glass of wine friends, because you’re going to want to toast the newlyweds, Jess and Aden as their beautiful wedding day story unfolds.
In the beautiful winery region of the Yarra Valley, the pair, who are known for their at-home dinner parties, knew they wanted a day that was a celebration right from the get-go. They invited Glass Slipper Photography to capture it unfolding.

The pair met through friends, a few false starts and two long years part of their story before they finally got it right and began their relationship on a New Years Eve holiday to Phillip Island.

It was with the help of their dog Dustee that Aden popped the question, the bride telling their story. “Aden proposed on November 17, 2017, the plan was to tie a note to our dog Dustee’s collar asking me to marry him. Unfortunately for Aden Dustee is a very energetic staffy. So when I arrived home from work rather than sitting nicely Dustee was far more interested in running around and playing games. She knocked the note off her collar and ran to the door to greet me whilst Aden watched it unfold from another room. I didn’t notice the note on the floor, left the room and went to the back of the house. So Aden made a mad dash to tighten the note on to Dustee’s collar once again. The scene was set, Dustee was sitting in the lounge room patiently waiting for my attention so that I would notice the note around his neck all while Aden took his post in the next room where he could watch it all unfold. However this time, I went in the other direction looking for Aden. I walked into the study where Aden was hiding. Aden’s eyes went wide, he dropped to his knee and proposed. I said yes, they kissed, and Dustee then, of course, ran over and started jumping.”

The groom and groomsmen chose their looks, with a help of Jessica’s friend at Bell and Barnett. Jess telling “Aden was much more relaxed about finding his outfit, whereas I am more of a fastidious person. Aden is a Painter so not well adapted to wearing full suits and he always wanted a more relaxed attire and feel about his outfit. Aden decided that Chinos with a shirt and suspenders were the way to go for the boys.”

Although she loved her gown, it was Jessica’s Christian Louboutin heels that were her true love, “I had wanted a pair of Christian Louboutin’s since I was young, and presumed I would never be able to afford such a pair of shoes. I dreamed of having the red soles poke out the bottom of my wedding dress. Conveniently my ten year work anniversary was the year before the wedding and my employer generously gave me a gift card which contributed to the purchase of my dream shoes. It was that gift card that also helped convince my husband to be that the Louboutins could fit into our wedding budget.”

The bride found her lace Essence Of Australia gown at Fairytales Bridal Boutique. It wasn’t her first choice though! She explains “I found a Martina Liana dress that I loved, however, was hesitant to buy the first dress I liked. So from there, I went to six other dress stores. I tried on at least 30 dresses across the seven stores (inc. Fairytales), but none of the dresses suited me quite as much as the Martina Liana. So I returned to Fairytales Bridal one night after work to try the dress back on. I decided that I couldn’t just put one dress on and I needed to at least put another dress on to compare and make sure it was the one. So I chose a dress from a new line that had just come in that week by Essense of Australia. This ended up being the dress I fell In love with. I loved the detail of the lace beading on the train and the “sexy” side cutouts that were still quite classy. The Essence dress was also quite lightweight in comparison to the Martina Liana and having a wedding in February, you can’t rule out a 40-degree day.”

Jessica and Aden were married at Immerse Yarra Valley. Jessica telling “We chose Immerse in the Yarra Valley because we instantly fell in love with it. It was the first venue we looked at and they were so accommodating on our first ever site visit; Aden got out of the car at Immerse when we arrived for our site visit and broke his thong walking to the door, he ended up having to walk around the venue and grounds barefoot. Kerrie who took us around the venue made him feel like it was completely fine to have no shoes and it was such a relaxing feeling for us we instantly felt at home. You can really tell that it is a tight-knit family at Immerse, they are just wonderful to deal with. Plus the grounds and chapel are stunning and the added bonus of accommodation really suited our relaxed wedding vibe.”

 Lark Music played the bridesmaids, flowers and the bride down the aisle to  “We’re going home” by Vance Joy and  “Shine” by Benjamin Francis Leftwich.

Jessica and Aden chose The Bearded Celebrant – Samuel Miller to marry them. “We were pretty keen for the ceremony to be short and sweet, so we could enjoy the party that follows with all our close friends and family” tells the bride. “We wanted our ceremony to be a fun ceremony, reflective of our love story which we think is a fun/never know what’s going to happen sort of love story. Aden is a funny guy, who makes awkward jokes when he’s uncomfortable so he wouldn’t have been comfortable in a serious wedding.”

The beautiful blooms on the day were styled by Seed & Sowed, the designer executing Jessica’s vision in a stunning way. “I had a lot of doubts about my styling visions throughout the preparations for the big day, and Shari was so helpful and supportive reassuring me that she was on top of everything and didn’t need to worry. She met up with me a couple of times for coffee in the months leading up to the wedding, and I felt like no question was too hard or silly for her. Plus her flowers were absolutely gorgeous and she captured exactly what I was after.”

Jessica put her own personal touch on the reception decor – making her own doughnut wall! “I made our doughnut wall. I purchased muslin cloth from Spotlight and cut lengths for table runners. I made our wishing well from a box at Ikea, which Aden and his groomsmen welded and painted, I then had a decal sticker made for it for. I designed our wedding invitations and “logo” used for all our stationery on InDesign, as well as the cufflinks for the groom and groomsman”

 

The wedding cake included one of the couple’s favourite past times together- Lego! The bride explaining “Aden was particularly fond of Lego growing up. Aden, unfortunately, broke his ankle playing football a year before the wedding which needed surgery and required him to be immobile for three months before having the screw in his ankle removed. We kept ourselves entertained by building Lego together during this time, so we made sure that we included something Lego in our day. We had a Lego “Us” sitting in front of our cake.”

There was just enough time for sunset portraits .”Steve and Markus from Glass Slipper photography were just amazing on our day” declares the bride. “We first met them at Aden’s brother Warren’s wedding, back in March 2018. Aden was a groomsman at this wedding on Daydream Island, which happened to be the last wedding on the island before cyclone Debbie hit the next day. It was the first wedding that Aden had ever been involved in and Steve and Markus made him feel so relaxed the entire day. This, in turn, made him pretty keen to have them photograph our wedding. They were the very next thing we booked after our venue, and we couldn’t be happier, the guys were so fun and really made us feel at ease in front of the camera.”

The newlyweds took to the dancefloor to a mashup of “Latch” by Disclosure. Jessica sharing “My husband’s nerves all the way up to the first dance were unlike anything I’ve seen in him before, I could tell he was loving everything about the day, but he was definitely hanging out for the speech and dance to be over so he could let his hair down.

The mashup started with the slow acoustic version of Latch performed by Sam Smith, and mashed into the original version of Latch which is more of a deep house track, more upbeat.”

Congratulations to the newlyweds! Thank you for sharing your beautiful day with us! Thanks also to Glass Slipper Photography for sharing today’s celebration!