Emma & Andrew

Urban and rustic, fun and relaxed, Emma and Andrew’s Melbourne wedding combined everything they love to make a day that truly represented them. Two Front Teeth captured the day which featured bundles of native flowers hanging from the ceiling, an epic dessert table and a most fortuitous yellow VW.

Bride and groom met and became friends while working at a wedding reception venue. When Andrew decided to propose, things didn’t go quite according to plan, which always makes for an excellent tale! He remembers, ”I organised a dog friendly weekend away and had planned to propose with Ned carrying Emma’s grandmother’s ring in a handmade wooden box, made by her brother James from recycled wood from their childhood home. I had planned to do it walking in the rain-forest where I would take off my jacket to reveal a shirt and tie. I was going to sneak a bow-tie on to Ned and attach the ring to his collar. Turns out dogs can’t go in the forest up there so after walking 45 mins to the forest walk and back to the beach in a puffer jacket on what was a pretty warm day I hid behind a rock and put Ned’s bow tie on. Before I could put the ring on him he ran straight into the ocean. Emma was pretty sus by this point and had pretty much worked out what was up anyway. So I threw off my jacket to reveal my sweat soaked shirt and tie and proposed while Ned had a swim. Close enough.”

Wearing a cathedral length veil with her intricately detailed gown from Zavana Bridal, Emma looked divine. She shares, ”My mum is a seamstress so originally we were planning on her making a dress, however when we went to try on some different styles at a local bridal store I fell in love with one of the dresses. It was way over what I wanted to spend so I held off ordering it until the last moment. Luckily, on the same day that I was going to order the dress, it popped up on a second-hand wedding dress website. I went to try on the dress, which was being sold only a short drive from my home, and it fit really well, with only some minor alterations needed. I was so glad that I held off ordering the dress brand new – what a bargain!” Andrew wore a navy tuxedo with a bow-tie.

Wedding photographer Two Front Teeth was on hand to capture the relaxed Melbournian day. Emma tells, ”We really liked the photos from our friend’s wedding a few years ago. We looked at heaps of photographers online trying to find one whose style was similar. Eventually we did the obvious and asked for details. We had a meeting and immediately knew he was the man for the job. He is very friendly and comes across as very genuine and honest. It also helped that he takes fantastic photos. On the day he went out of his way to help us and we are very grateful to him.”

Knowing what they were looking for, having worked in the wedding reception industry, The Post Office Hotel was perfect for Emma and Andrew’s urban and fun wedding. They share, ”We had our ceremony and reception there. We really wanted to have delicious food served in a feasting style to make the reception feel more like a family dinner and The Post Office Hotel delivered. They were so flexible and chill about all our different ideas and worked really hard to help us have a phenomenal day. All the staff were extremely accommodating, they were fantastic even when dealing with some of our merrier guests. Nothing was too hard or out of the question, they were always willing to try and make our ideas work.”

Chalkboards on the street directed guests into The Post Office Hotel, where the bride and groom said their vows. They share, ”We were lucky enough to have a close friend who is a celebrant marry us. As Meagan Carroll knows us, the whole ceremony felt personal. It also helped that Meagan was excellent and had put in a lot of work making sure our vows and stories were just right. We did our own vows peppered with a few jokes. She is so warm and joyful that she really made our ceremony special. I walked down the aisle with my dad to the song ‘Heartbeats’ by Jose Gonzalez. It was such a special moment to share with my dad, although we were both pretty nervous and spent most of the journey looking at our feet!”

Native flowers in abundance featured heavily throughout the day, thanks to a talented friend. For Emma, prepping flowers was a favourite part of the entire celebration! ”Our beautiful friend Rachel helped us with our flowers. We wanted to use lots of native Australian flowers with different colours and plenty of greenery. Rachel made our gorgeous bouquets and buttonholes. We spent the day before the wedding with our nearest and dearest preparing all of the table flowers and garlands to hang. It was such a fun day and everyone got creative.”

Some DIY touches created personal moments which enriched the rustic styling. Emma shares, ”The greenery hanging from the roof and the bouquets were all made with friends and family in our backyard. We hit up maybe 20 op shops collecting cool looking vases and jars for all the table flowers. We also grabbed some old mismatched picture frames to put up photos of our grandparents. Finally everything on the desert table was made by friends and family.”

Fun was high on the list of priorities for the relaxed reception, the bride saying, ”We wanted live music, lots of dancing and a relaxed atmosphere. We kept formalities to a minimum so no wedding cake, speeches were about 10 minutes TOTAL. We also did most of our photos before the ceremony so that we could just roll straight into the fun part without needing to disappear for a couple of hours. Our first dance was to the song ‘Mess Is Mine’ by Vance Joy. We didn’t have any rehearsed choreography, just the tried and true awkward waddling with a quick entrance by the bridal party.”

Thank you to our gorgeous bride and groom for sharing your magnificent wedding day with, and congratulations! Thank you also to Two Front Teeth for your stunning images.