Feast your eyes on this delightful AND colourful wedding! We’re obsessed. The vibrancy of Amy and Malen’s beautiful day definitely captures your attention, but it’s the thoughtful, handmade touches that hold it. From the pom poms and the shiny streamer installation to the crafted flowers and stunning DIY stationery and signage, you’re in for a treat. There to capture all the joy? Photographer Tanya Volt.
Below, the bride Amy, who is the brains and talent behind Make Parties, details how their wedding came together and how it was made even more special by being surrounded by the people they love.
Our wedding took place in winter last year at a fab industrial warehouse space called The Line in Footscray, Melbourne. It was fun, happy, colourful and relaxed.
I’m a craft teacher as well as a graphic designer, so I handmade my pom pom crown which felt like a no-brainer! I couldn’t help myself really.
When it came to my dress… Trying to be chill, I thought, “I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself, and I’m going to find something simple closer to the day.” Lol. Wedding dresses on racks just didn’t seem to suit me and time was running out, so with panic mode activated, I put the feelers out to find someone who hopefully had my vision.
Fate smiled kindly down on me – Grace from Twelve South Bridal appeared on her white horse and arranged the whole thing. She had literally just opened her new atelier when I contacted her, and it was just such a dreamy process. She was so kind and open about everything – never pushing me into any decision – and we ended up designing a whole dress, within a budget, and quickly! Legend.
I handmade the flowers! In a state of sheer craft ambition, I decided I wanted to handmake as much as I could for the day (HAH!) so I got started early on a whole bunch of paper roses, while I roped my mum into some fun little filler flowers that sort of resembled carnation buds. Then I just went nuts and made loads of other things to chuck in there. I grabbed a whole load of foliage and some extras from a flower wholesaler and put it all together. We had these in our bouquets, on the backdrop arbour in the ceremony, and then a whole lot of little vignette touches throughout the venue.
Malen surprised me with his bold choice of a velvet green blazer from M.J. Bale! Like I already knew he was a weirdo, but I didn’t think he’d ever go for something cool like that – and he looked soooo amazing. He accessorised with some great boots from Country Road and a bow tie from Peggy & Finn. I helped with those bits…
Something we loved that we’re so glad we did, was the sneaky meet-up before the ceremony. After everyone was dropped to the venue, I was dropped to a little secluded spot around the corner where Malen was waiting, and we had a nice little intimate moment before it all kicked off. It really helped to relieve the nerves of the day, just chilling with each other (and our photographer!).
We were lucky enough to be able to spend the whole day in the one venue – The Line in Footscray, Melbourne. It was a totally blank canvas, and we could do whatever we wanted with it, which was so fun/terrifying. I’d never planned an event this large before, and I dream big, so while it was daunting to try and execute the million ideas I had, it was thrilling too!
The thing that really made this venue super worth it was the team behind it – Fourside Events. They were so helpful and just really great companions for my crazy text messages wondering about like the exact dimensions of the plates they would be supplying!
We got one of my craft mates (Brooke Clarke of Sugar Republic) to be our stylist on the day. As a bride, there’s seriously only so much you can get done yourself – you really need a hand getting everything to come together like you’d imagined! So Brooke did absolutely all of the setup and pack down, at ridiculous hours of the day and night, and never told me my nonsense ideas were nonsense hah! She was seriously the best woman for the job – she thought of things that I didn’t know were a thing and just did them. Love that!
My grandmothers were our flower girls (massive crowd pleaser!) and they nearly set the paper petals alight when they threw them into the candle lanterns that lined the aisle! You’ve always got to keep things spicy you know.
We’re both really into punk, so I walked down the aisle to ‘Happy in Love’ by Dear and the Headlights – one of those bands that we kind of discovered together. Gorgeous!
We were pretty nervous about the ceremony bit. Not because of cold feet or anything, mainly just the whole ‘proclaiming your love in front of a hundred people’ thing. That’s so intense! So first and foremost, we wanted everyone to be super relaxed – especially us!
We made sure that more than just the wedding party, everyone involved in the ceremony were people we knew and loved. Our celebrant (Ry Kennedy) was our mate from years ago, and I don’t think a more chill and calming guy exists. He can also really work a crowd!
Our mums both did readings for us – ‘How Falling in Love is like Owning a Dog’ by Taylor Mali, because we LOVE dogs, and an excerpt from ‘The Amber Spyglass’ by Philip Pullman because it’s one of my fave books.
Malen forgot which pocket he put his vows in – so that was the longest minute of our lives while he searched his jacket and chinos! But he found them! Our vows were equally hilarious and sentimental (we’ve got proof that some of our mates cried and I’ll never let them forget it).
We walked back down the aisle to ‘This Will Be Our Year’ by The Zombies, which felt just so right.
For our wedding party, we had my two best mates (both called Lauren!) and Malen’s two best mates, Matt and Mark. We couldn’t have had a funnier pack of idiots by our side.
Tanya Volt, our photographer, was gorgeous. We knew right from the start that she was on board with our vision. She’s a music photographer as well as other things, and she’s really able to capture the mood of something. I let her know right from the get-go that there would be none of this misty, beige coloured, romantic looking nonsense – this was going to be an assault to the eyes of colour and ridiculousness, and she was ready to get stuck in immediately! She suggested the coloured smoke bombs before I even said the next sentence. Kismet!
With the venue, we held the ceremony in one half of the space, had some drinks in the foyer section straight afterwards, and then moved in to the other half that was set up for the reception. After dinner, the Fourside team had cleared the ceremony bits and pieces away and we used the first half as a dancefloor. Swiss-Army venue! Fourside Events were a standout – I get overwhelmed pretty easily, and Katie was there every step of the way, making sure I was okay with everything as it was happening. Such a comfort. Wedding planning is fun, but it is really full on!
I designed the invites, menus, signage and stationery, which was SUCH a pleasure. I’ve designed invites for my friends before which is always so lovely to be able to do for them, but designing for yourself means you can be as WEIRD and wonderful as you like! I chucked confetti into a handmade transparent envelope, stuffed with a blind-embossed save the date to really let people know what kind of day it was going to be.
My favourite of the DIYs was the pom pom badges I made for every guest and vendor – some people took more convincing than others to wear theirs, but boy did they all look amazing together! I popped one on every place setting as a wedding favour too.
The most show-stopping detail would have to be the incredible streamer installation by Bangin Hangins! Sarah is a champ, and got it up and down like a ninja.
We had wedding PIE instead of wedding cake!
If I could send a message back in time to past me in the lead up, I’d say, “Stick to your original vision, but don’t let it overwhelm you. None of it will matter on the day, because you’ll be having the time of your life.” I remember stressing LOADS about all the little details during preparations, but in the end, all I really cared about was getting to be in a big room full of people that I love.
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