Elegant & Fun Black Tie Melbourne Wedding

Taro & Tanya’s romance was born at work for Tanya and Taro who chose an elegant, sophisticated black tie wedding in Melbourne for their nuptials. The dashing couple admit they wanted music to be a highlight of the day as they took to the dance floor with their friends and family! Filled with so much beauty from the incredible dress of the bride to the dapper suit worn by the groom, hints of rose and subtle pinks adorned the flowers and cake. Tanya shares the details of their glamorous day as Jerome Cole Photography captured the moments that matter!

I had four bridesmaids, my sister, two best friends and sister in law and Taro had four of his best mates (one of which is my brother in law). We also had my nieces and nephews as the page boys and flower girls.

My dress was simple, yet grand. I chose it because it made me feel incredibly special, and it felt completely me. Con Ilio the designer was amazing, the experience I received was like no other. I felt comfortable, excited and in safe hands. We took a chance and changed the fade out of the skirt from white to bone, and he nailed it! He made the dress to me, and could not have been more precise and thorough. He dressed me on the day, and made sure it was absolutely perfect.

For our flowers I chose long stemmed white roses. Simple yet elegant which was the overall theme. The reception flowers were a combination of variations of pink and white florals.

Taro chose to wear a Hugo Boss dark navy tailored tux – he chose to wear this as he wanted to look elegant and timeless, yet stand out from his groomsmen who wore classic all black tuxedos.

We had so many great vendors, but our stand out was definitely our celebrant, Lara Williams. It’s rare that you get the opportunity to reflect and talk about the ins and outs of your relationship to someone for such a long period of time. It can be confronting talking about your feelings, but I loved re-connecting with the why’s and casting my mind back to when we first met, and hearing about what qualities my partner loves and values most in me. It’s quite beautiful really.

I walked down the aisle to a twist on “Simply the best” by Tina Turner. Tobi Tobi played this live for us, they were brilliant!

Our ceremony was on the lawns at Garden’s House. They are stunning and we were surrounded by so much greenery, beautiful plants and grand trees. The venue had a House we could access in the instance it rained which was just as beautiful.

Our reception was at Alto – the high ceilings, grand glass windows, bar, balcony and modern vibe is what attracted us to this venue. It’s surrounded by beautiful iconic Melbourne city buildings and we loved the idea of having two long tables and sitting amongst our guests. Tevany was our wedding planner at ALTO, she was incredibly helpful and made this a fantastic experience for us.

We wanted our ceremony to feel heart felt, funny but not cheesy. We laughed and cried when reading our ceremony for the first time, it was perfect. This is exactly the reaction our guests had too, who did not stop raving about all of the above.

Our photographer was Jerome Cole – we chose him because of the beautiful statement photos he takes, he was so easy to deal with. Energetic, hilarious and made us feel so comfortable to be around and have as part of our special day.

We had a few DIY elements. These included the menu’s, seating chart and welcome sign – my best friend has access to brilliant fonts, so we designed our own and printed these off ourselves.

A few of our favourite moments from the day are difficult to choose from and we can’t name just one! The combination of getting ready, the ceremony, speeches and music.

It was really important for us to have great music. We feel music sets the scene at any event, so it was important we got this right. We had TobiTobi play for us live at our ceremony, and we had a DJ, a saxophone player and a rapper at the reception. They were brilliant!

We slow danced for around 30 seconds before the chorus kicked in, which is where our guests joined in. Our first dance was to “Sky full of stars – Coldplay”.

If we have any advice for future couples, it would be to enjoy every part of the day! It’s a celebration of your marriage with the people you love most, that’s all that matters.