This beautiful couple (who met through dating app Grindr) celebrated in style as they said ‘I do’ with a tropical twist at Meadowbank Estate. Their vibe and aesthetic was classic wedding meets art deco, Italian villa. Fab and Matt, who together are detailing their day, say they wanted a party but for it to have a relaxed feel – and we think they nailed it! This was certainly a party we would’ve loved to attend!! Their photographer, Kyra Boyer captured the fun, beautiful moments and pure love on the day.
Fab’s Nonno Antonio wore an ivory dinner jacket to a wedding many, many moons ago and it’s always been something that Fab liked, Matt just had to agree. Daniel from Institchu helped make this idea a reality and the bow ties came from Fab’s love of all things tropical.
We used Vistaprint to create our invitations, thank you cards, table numbers, welcome board and wedding favour cards, and we created our seating chart using a template from Etsy and had it printed at Officeworks.
Megs from Good Grace and Humour created two beautiful urns full of tropical greenery for our signing table and all the amazing buttonholes and corsages. Megs nailed our theme and was able to bring a point of difference by spray painting some of the greenery to really make it pop.
Precious tailored our ceremony to ensure it was light-hearted and playful, nothing too serious. She understood our vibe and kept our guests entertained, yet moved.
Our photographer Kyra was awesome! She wasn’t in your face or over the top, she captured the day perfectly and was spot on with the golden hour. Kyra also brought along a second photographer, Laura, who helped capture each special moment of the day.
We walked down the aisle together, hand in hand, to a round of applause.
We’d been looking for a while and nothing really said, “pick me, pick me”. We were sitting at Matt’s Nonna Filomena’s drinking coffee and his cousin Danielle mentioned she had been to an awesome venue over the weekend in Broadmeadows. We both looked at her puzzlingly as we hadn’t come across any venues so close to home. We Googled Meadowbank and were both very intrigued.
We rang and booked an appointment with Jim to see the venue and from the moment we drove through the wrought iron gates and saw the beautifully paved courtyards and fountains we knew we’d found the place. Meadowbank staff were easy to work with, nothing was an issue, the food was superb and they ensured our day ran smoothly.
We chose not to have a bridal party but instead selected key people to help us make our special day memorable. Our sisters, Giulia and Lisa, were our witnesses, Amy, Fab’s closest friend did our only reading and our friend Renee gave a ripping toast.
Our favourite photo’s from the day were the one we used on our thank you cards, Fab kissing Matt’s forehead, and an action shot of Fab popping a bottle of champagne flanked by Matt, Lisa, Daniel and Alanna!
For our wedding favours we did a donation to Minus 18 on behalf of each guest and attached the rainbow pin and Minus 18 card to a bag of traditional Italian sugar-coated almonds.
We actually didn’t intend for our first dance to be such a hit but what ended up happening was one of the most memorable parts to our day. We decided to walk in and have a dance to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”. We asked Daniel our DJ to invite our guests onto the dance floor after about one minute of the song as we didn’t want to boogie alone. All 200 guests got up and joined in and belted out Gaga’s tune with us. It was such an awesome vibe and way to start our reception.
A favourite detail or memory of our day was that our outfits were on point and our first dance that turned into a part-ay!!
We didn’t have just one stand out vendor. Everyone did an amazing job to make our day so special. But a special thanks to Meadowbank Estate for taking care of all our needs and for such delicious food.
Our advice for future marrieds to be? Do your homework and don’t be afraid to go with your gut instinct. Enjoy the whole experience, don’t argue about anything, just discuss and decide together; no bridezillas or groomzillas!
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