Intimate Italian Inspired Wedding at Farm Vigano

We’ve all been pretty knocked around with lockdowns, cancellations, rescheduling, the loss of family and friends on our special days, and so much more. Yogeeta & Mark decided to keep their day relaxed and small (also due to travel bans!) and bring together (almost all) those they love for an intimate Italian inspired wedding at Farm Vigano with a feast to celebrate their day and the end of one of those lockdowns. And what a wedding to remember! Yogeeta recalls their love story, and their beautiful wedding, captured by Zoe Eley Photography…

We met online 6 years ago via RSVP. Our first date was over crepes at Breizoz Creperie in Fitzroy and we’ve been together ever since.

We had planned a staycation in Melbourne CBD as we were going to spend the weekend watching the Harry Potter play and visit the NGV. Just after breakfast my husband casually asked if I would like to take a walk along the Yarra River and without realising what was going on, “I said sure why not!”. As we were taking a stroll along the river, he stopped, pull out a box, opened it and asked me to marry him. It was a total surprise and I loved every minute!

I wanted to support our local florist – Plenty Valley Florist. They were very understanding when I told them that I wanted something non-wedding type bouquet and something simple and elegant and if possible matches to colour theme of dusty pink and blue. I honestly felt like they captured it so well!

Mark wanted to go with a brand that he trusted and so we got his suit from Tarocash. We chose a navy suit to reflect the colour of my Ceylon blue sapphire ring. For his socks, tie and pocket square we went with Peggy Finn because we loved the flowering gum pattern and felt that it was in tune with where we were having our wedding.

My dress was inspired by a picture I found on Pinterest of a Valentino long sleeve and tea-length dress that was on Emma Stone. We were meant to have our wedding in winter so I thought that would be perfect (and it still was when we finally had our wedding in January). I wanted something that was simple yet elegant and reflected my personality.

I was never a fan of wedding gowns and ultimately what was more important to me was that it had to be comfortable, light and easy to move around in so that’s when I decided that wanted it to get custom made. Pala from d’Italia was amazing and helped me kick start the process. Apart from that Valentino dress photo, I was pretty clueless with everything else so thankfully Pala was there to guide me with the fabrics and sketching the design. And working closely with my dressmaker Dragana was just so inspiring and stress-free. I am just so in awe of their effortless creativity.

I think our favourite photograph from the day has to be the photo of us sitting on our bed holding hands and laughing. It was a conscious decision for us to start the day like any other day so we found that getting ready together on our wedding day was special. We had our regular banter and we made each other laugh which sums up our relationship and marriage.

We walked down the aisle together to “Promise” by Tracy Chapman.

We wanted our ceremony vows to reflect who we are as a couple and our commitment to each other. We included some trash talk and banter, plus 3 things that we would commit to each other in our marriage. We laughed and we cried and we were full of joy. It is something that neither of us will ever forget.

Because we had a small wedding, we only dealt with a handful of vendors and all of them were pretty damn amazing. However, I do think we picked the best celebrant in the universe! Precious Celebration is so respectful but at the same time hilarious and just full of great vibes and energy. She had the right balance of humour and sentiment when conducting our ceremony. Her process of engaging with us (as we both happen to be introverts) was smooth – from introductions, questionnaires, invoicing – everything!

We’ve always wanted a very simple, casual but meaningful wedding. We wanted the day for us to just have fun with our close family and friends especially after what everyone went through in 2020 and restrictions and lockdown being lifted, we just wanted our guests to have wine, dine, be merry and have fun. We could almost say we were celebrating the end of stage 4 lockdown! Our general colour theme for the wedding was rose gold and blue to match our Ceylon blue engagement ring. There were only 13 of us at our wedding so it was a beautiful and intimate affair.

We were married in January 2021 at Farm Vigano in South Morang. We hired Farm Vigano to have both ceremony and lunch. It was nice and near to us, and it is a beautiful heritage building with rich Italian history and culture around food and entertainment.

The food and drinks really were incredible. The dining experience was so special. I think we all underestimated how a simple act of dining together with family and friends over a delicious meal post stage 4 lockdown brought out so much joy in everyone. I mean, who doesn’t like a good Italian feast!!!

Our family and friends really made our day so wonderful. It was really hard not being able to share our special day with both our parents as they were all living overseas but we were still thankful that our family and friends based in Melbourne were able to join us. We missed them so much as we didn’t get the see most of them for almost 10 months! It was really special and emotional being with your loved ones.

The venue and scenery were one of our favourite parts of the day. Farm Vigano faces the beautiful Plenty Gorge Park and river and even though it was only 5 minutes from our home, being out there amongst natural and such a beautiful landscape was really special.

Zoe Eley is amazing. She captured the whole day so beautifully. Apart from our photos with family and friends, all the photos throughout the event were casual and relaxing which was reflected us and our day well. She was bursting with energy and made us feel so relaxed and we laughed so much, which is probably the reason why we looked so happy and relaxed!

I truly believe that your wedding should reflect who you are as a couple. So my advice would be to pick and choose elements that align with your personality and values. Our main motto when we were planning a wedding was if it was stressful then chances were that it was not worth the trouble.