With a relaxed inner-city vibe, Michaela and Tim wed in Melbourne on a gorgeous autumnal day, narrowly missing border closures. Leaving the details up to the new venue, the bride and groom were thrilled with the blush flowers and ease of planning, bringing cheeseburgers onto the dancefloor to celebrate! Nick Skinner Photography captured the day.

Wearing a structural dress from One Day Bridal, the bride chose the Harris gown. She shares, ”I knew that I didn’t want a lace dress but I didn’t anticipate how hard that would be. One Day Bridal was the fifth place I went to and I knew as soon as I put it on. I loved the boning and the slight blush colour to the bodice, it was structural but so comfortable and I felt so good in it. I added buttons all the way down the back and then it was perfect. Tim and his groomsmen wore black suits from MenzClub. Tim knew that he wanted his to be a little different so he had satin lapels that really made him stand out. With his bow tie added he looked so handsome.”

The styling and design of the day stemmed from Michaela’s chosen colour palette. She remembers, ”We wanted our guests to have a good night together so it was important to have it all in the one venue with big share tables so everyone could meet and be together. I knew that I wanted the palette to be terracottas and blushes and then everything flowed from there.”

Booking their wedding venue before it was even completed, the couple chose The Wool Mill for both the wedding ceremony and reception. They tell, ”It had the perfect inner-city Melbourne vibe. We viewed the venue while it was still under construction and loved the concept so much we signed up! The Wool Mill is incredible, they can do as much as you like, so for us, we used their vendors for everything apart from the band and a friend organised our cars. We had a wedding coordinator help us the whole way and we honestly didn’t feel stressed at all. We had meetings where we only had to do fun things like tastings, choosing colours, flowers and floor plans. We would do it all over again with them if we could.’

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A blush archway covered in roses and dahlias in blush tones framed the ceremony. The bride shares, ”We wanted it to be light but meaningful. We kept it simple and had no readings. I was super nervous about reading my vows in front of everyone but it went so well and you forget everyone else is there. I’m from New Zealand and my favourite song is a heavy drum and bass song called ‘One’ by Shapeshifter. Drum and bass isn’t the usual way to walk down the aisle so Tim’s amazing cousin, Rebecca, rewrote the music and sang me down the aisle. It was so special and I still get goosebumps thinking about it.”

Flowers were very important to Michaela, as she shares, ”I love them and think that they add so much to a wedding. The Wool Mill has an amazing in house florist, Anatomy of Flowers and this was part of the reason we chose to go with The Wool Mill. Kim blew me away, my flowers were more than I could have expected. We chose to have a hanging installation as well as bud vases on the tables and a large contemporary version of an arch at the altar. I told Kim the colour palette and it was all so beautiful. I still have all the bouquets dried around our house.”

Photographing the city wedding, Nick Skinner Photography captured the industrial vibe beautifully. The bride remembers, ”They were great. They were so easy and able to direct us as we had no idea what to do. We did a range of photos including some later in the night in the laneway at the venue, and we also used some smoke bombs and sparklers, we love our photos so much! The Wool Mill also made the whole process so easy and stress-free, we cannot recommend them enough. We kept waiting for that wedding stress everyone talks about to hit, but we just enjoyed the whole process.”

There were many sentimental touches sprinkled throughout the day, and a lot of special heirlooms included, with the bride telling, ”I had one of my Poppa’s medals pinned to my flowers. And I had one of my Nana’s rings so that they were both a part of the day with me. We also were lucky enough to be gifted our wedding rings by Tim’s family. They were his grandparent’s rings so they were a very special part of our day. We were also surprised by our friends getting up to do an impromptu Haka after the speeches, that was so humbling and special and something we will always remember.”

Before we knew what a lockdown wedding would be like, these two snuck in their superb wedding celebrations just before border closures. They tell, ”Being able to have our wedding with all of our guests and with so many travelling internationally made it so incredibly special. Especially as the next day New Zealand announced their border closure, so we would not have had the day we had if it was a week later. We know how lucky we were and feel so much for others that were affected by COVID.”

The newlyweds had their first dance to ‘Simple Things’ by Ziggy Alberts, sharing, ”We chose it very close to the wedding and wanted a version he had done live and the band did an amazing job recreating it for us. We both love food so including special touches made it special to us. We had a gelato cart for dessert and then later in the night we had McDonald’s cheeseburgers brought on to the dance floor. They were a big hit!”

Thank you to our gorgeous bride and groom for sharing your beautiful wedding day with us! And thank you also to Nick Skinner Photography for your stunning images.