It’s no secret that we adore colour here at Polka Dot Wedding (give us ALL the colours!), so today’s colourful coastal wedding on Phillip Island is so up our alley! Lidia and Isaac wanted a relaxed, coastal vibe for their wedding day, surrounded by their nearest and dearest, with lots of laughter and love. The day was perfectly captured by the fabulous Georgia Wiggs. Lidia wistfully remembers their beautiful day…
Isaac and I have known each other for years. He went to local schools near each other, so we always knew who each other was, but then our paths first really crossed at the 2008 Pyramid Rock Music Festival when Isaac was my New Year’s kiss (!). Nothing eventuated at the time, but we were really close friends for years – we even worked together for a while – and then we eventually started dating!
We were married in January 2021, at Silverwater Resort in Victoria, and our florists described the style as ‘Beachy Boho’, which we think summed it up really well! The venue has an amazing view over Western Port Bay, just before you get onto Phillip Island, so we really went for a relaxed, coastal wedding.
My bridesmaids arranged the most thoughtful inclusion on the day. One of our best friends passed away three years ago and they, along with her partner, organised for me to have her scarf and locket wrapped around my bouquet – my something borrowed and a very special tribute to our beautiful friend who should have been there.
I wore the Assouline Gown by Tara Lauren which I got from Bluebell Bridal in Melbourne. It was crazy how well it worked out! My mum, sister and I had a full day booked for me to try on dresses at various places and I ended up buying my dress at the very first store and cancelling the rest of my fittings. Even more amazing was that my dress was a sample and on a huge sale, so I got to take it home with me there and then. As I know everyone says, it was a style I would never have guessed that I would go for, but I loved it when I tried it on!
As soon as we picked Phillip Island for our wedding, Isaac thought navy blazer and tan chinos was the way to go. It was the perfect relaxed feel for our summer, coastal wedding and best of all, Isaac would be comfy! We ended up putting together the combo ourselves with the blazers from Industrie and the chinos and shirts from Uniqlo. We matched it with brown shoes and belts and awesome design bowties and pocket squares from Peggy and Finn, which tied the guys’ outfits in perfectly with the styling, flowers and bridesmaids outfits.
Isaac and I also chose to have a first look because we didn’t want the long gap between our ceremony and reception or to have to leave our party to go off and have photos. We did our first look and all couple, bridal party and family photos at Churchill Island Heritage Farm and it worked out perfectly! Having the most special moment with Isaac before the big event was the best. It took a way a lot of nerves and didn’t at all take away from the emotions of the ceremony. It was so special and we’d do it the same way again in a second!
We came across our photographer Georgia Wiggs in a wedding magazine I picked up at a Bridal Expo my sister took me to right after Isaac and I got engaged. All of the couples looked so happy and natural in their pictures and it just looked like so much fun that we booked her right away. On the day, Georgia was so incredible. She was so calm and chilled and made everything feel so natural, without any awkward posing, it was perfect! We loved Georgia so much and all of our guests did too. My sister and her fiance have since booked Georgia for their wedding too!
Getting married at Silverwater Resort is something I dreamed of well before the idea of me and Isaac getting married was even on the cards. I have always loved the view of the bay and you can get some of the best sunsets there! We had our ceremony and reception both at the resort. Our ceremony was on the lawn and our reception was in their Bay View Room which has three walls of windows so we could enjoy the view all night long.
I walked down the aisle to Firestone (Live Acoustic Version) by Kygo and Conrad Sewell which was performed by the amazing Dani and Mike from Logan Entertainment.
We wanted a very relaxed and light-hearted ceremony and our celebrant, Anna Smale, nailed it. We felt that the ceremony was a good reflection of us as a couple, with some laughs and a whole lot of love! We both wrote our own vowels and we did rock, paper, scissors to decide who would read their vows first. We had our Mums as our witnesses and the whole thing only took about 20 minutes, which was perfect for us.
The flowers were my favourite thing about our whole wedding! They were absolutely stunning and just perfect and made the whole day so beautiful and special. My amazing florists, Keahny and Clare from Started with Scarlett, basically put the whole look together based on one photo showing the colours I liked and that I’d told them I love proteas! I had full trust in them to know what would work and they absolutely pulled it off.
We DIY’d all of our signage and stationery – invites, welcome sign, seating chart, menus! As well as our petals and cones for the flower toss and our very special photo tables. We also did the styling and chose everything individually with the hope that it would all just come together on the day. We went to the resort the day before the wedding to drop off a couple of carloads of things we’d accumulated over the past 18 months – a rug for our ceremony (which is now in my sister’s loungeroom), we set out all 130 of the timber cut place cards, we placed all our signage and set up the little bits and pieces, and it was so much fun. Everyone knows I am wedding obsessed, so I loved every single second of planning our day!
Our first dance was “I Love You Always Forever” by Donna Lewis / Betty Who. Dani, Mike and Joe from Logan Entertainment nailed this too! Everyone was singing along and it was so much fun! Isaac and I are not known for our dancing and we definitely left it until the last minute and made up something resembling a dance on the Thursday night before our wedding. We were just so rapt that it worked out and we didn’t fall over each other’s feet!
Enjoy every second, it really does go by so quickly! Little things may not go to plan, but don’t let it ruin your day. Your guests won’t know the difference, they’re just happy to be at a wedding and you’ve put too much effort into planning the day, not to enjoy it! It was so amazing to have all of our favourite people come and stay down at our special place and celebrate not only the wedding but a whole weekend of celebrations. After not knowing if we would even get to have our wedding all year due to Covid, we wanted the whole thing to be one big party and reunion for everyone and we are so lucky that we got that.
Our wedding video was shot by Jar of Memories! We were stoked when we got our video back and saw how much fun everyone was having!
Lidia and Isaac – thank you both so much for sharing such a fun, beautiful day with us. And as always, the wonderful Georgia Wiggs with these stunning images.
this wedding looks fresh and elegant