A Brisbane city wedding set in a heritage-meets-modern luxe building? Yes please. Rachel and Matthew tied the knot and held their reception at the iconic, and truly gorgeous, High Church in Fortitude Valley. The couple opted for a classic and elegant ceremony, followed by a “party and unbelievable wine list” for the reception. Their day was also filled with emotion and featured the most incredible vows (make sure you watch their wedding video), as well as sentimental touches, stunning details (those flowers, that stationery!) and a bit of sparkle (thanks to Rachel’s dress) scattered throughout. There to capture the day unfold was dynamic duo, Trent & Jessie.

Rachel and Matthew first met at a 21st and bonded over tequila shots before going their seperate ways. The next day, they found each other on social media, quickly hit it off and met up again. After that, they were inseparable.

The proposal happened when the couple were on holidays in New Zealand. “We had a day of exploring areas just outside Queenstown and I had asked Matthew to plan the activities for that day,” says Rachel. “What I didn’t know was that he had a ring with him that he had brought over to New Zealand in his luggage (and nearly lost through a very close call with a backpack mix up getting off the plane) and that Matthew having to plan that day was the perfect outcome. Matthew had pre-planned a helicopter ride in Wanaka for that day, and proposed to me on top of Coromandel Peak overlooking Lake Wanaka. I said yes and after champagne at the peak, we headed back to Wanaka Airport and out to a nice winery lunch!”

On the morning of their wedding, Rachel and Matthew gave each other personalised gifts to open. Matthew’s gift to Rachel was a memory album with photos from their almost nine-year relationship. “He spent most of the week leading up to the wedding designing the album, sticking the photos on the album and writing the accompanying memories.”

Rachel wore the Cassie gown by Karen Willis Holmes. “KWH was the third wedding dress store I went to and it was by far my favourite,” she explains. “I went to the Paddington Brisbane store, and I liked how honest the staff were – they seemed really attentive to my facial expressions and body language and weren’t afraid to tell me if I didn’t come across as confident or excited about particular dresses compared to others. Cassie was one of six gowns I tried during my appointment and was the first of the day, and I found myself comparing every other dress to it and nothing seemed to come close. I loved how elegant and feminine it was, I loved the open back, and the beading was so flattering. I haven’t seen another dress like it!”

She paired her dress with the Callie earrings by Loving Label.

Rachel’s dog Luna was supposed to be part of the couple’s ceremony but unexpectedly passed away four months before the wedding. They still wanted her to be part of their day, so Rachel had a photo of Luna hanging from her bouquet and Matthew ordered customised cufflinks (from Capture My Art) with photos of her as a surprise for Rachel. When she saw them for the first time as they were signing the registry, she burst into tears!

Matthew wore a black tuxedo by Black Jacket Suiting. “I wanted something slightly different while retaining the classic tuxedo, so I opted for a faint pattern to give the tuxedo some texture,” he explains. “They sorted me out with a nice bow tie as well. Ryan and Charlie from Black Jacket Suiting know their way around a suit fitting to guarantee that a groom looks the sharpest he has ever looked in his life, and the combined quality of product and service is impossible to beat.”

He also went all out on shoes and bought a pair of Crockett & Jones Alex Black Calf from Double Monk in Melbourne.

Like so many weddings in the past two years, Rachel and Matthew’s plans were impacted by COVID. Pre-COVID, the couple’s guest list was roughly double so their reception was going to be held at a larger venue. But when they then had to postpone, they decided to make their day as easy on themselves and their guests as possible, so held their entire wedding day at High Church. “We were drawn to the beautiful interior of High Church right from the beginning for our ceremony and the simplicity of being able to host our guests on the terrace after the ceremony and completely transform the venue for our reception into what had a great atmosphere for a party was really attractive to us for our revamped day,” says Rachel. Their guests were also so amazed at how the staff at High Church were able to completely transform the room and a few even commented that it felt like a completely different location.

Rachel walked down the aisle with her dad, Michael, to the song ‘To Me’ by Jake Etheridge.

When it came to their ceremony, Rachel and Matthew wanted it to be apparent how much they loved each other and how genuinely excited they were to get married and have all of their favourite people there to celebrate with them. “We had waited so long for the day to arrive due to postponing the year prior, and everyone in our life has always said from so early in our relationship that they knew we would be together forever, so we expected it to be an overwhelmingly happy experience for everyone there,” says Rachel. “Even with all that excitement it was still far better than what we had dreamed of, and the beautiful styling of High Church amplified all of these feelings.”

The couple wrote their own vows and poured their hearts out in front of each other and their guests. “There isn’t really another time where you have the opportunity to let others into your relationship and it felt really special and vulnerable in a way to be that honest and open.”

As for their celebrant, they both absolutely loved working with David Webber. “Dave absolutely blew us and our guests away. The way he personalised our ceremony was perfect and he reflected us so well as a couple.”

The day was captured in photos and through video by Trent and Jessie, who the couple describe as simple the best. “We could never in our wildest dreams have imagined our day could be captured so perfectly, both in photo and in video, and we are blown away by how strongly their work evokes all of the emotions and feelings of the day. Not only are they extremely talented and passionate about their craft, but they are the kindest people you will ever meet.”

Their wedding party was made up of Rachel’s sister Anna as maid of honour, and Matthew’s oldest friend Jimmy as best man. Anna wore a forest green dress from ASOS and Jimmy wore a black tuxedo by Black Jacket Suiting.

Rachel and Matthew’s wedding day came together with help from an amazing list of dream vendors. High Church‘s in-house stylist organised all the flowers for the day (bouquets, boutonnieres, arbour, aisles and reception tables). The bouquets and arbour had eucalyptus gum, blush flowers and white orchids, and the long reception tables had greenery running down the centre.

Rachel loved working with Heidi from Evergreen Ink who created the couple’s stationery. “She is incredibly talented and created the most incredible personalised table menus and bar signage, and was such a dream to work with.”

The best part of wedding planning for the bride and groom was that they so quickly realised how easy it was because they both wanted the same things. They were also able to separate up the wedding planning tasks based on how important that particular aspect was. Rachel took an interest in the stationery so took the lead on that, while Matthew took an interest in the music so became in charge of it. “We definitely didn’t have the experience of a stressful wedding planning period, which is remarkable given we were a COVID postponed wedding.”

The couple were thrilled to spend time individually with all of their guests because of the intimate venue and the smaller numbers due to COVID. However, they missed all their important overseas guests terribly.

Their first dance was to ‘Evermore’ by Hollow Coves. “We didn’t want anything too coordinated or rehearsed, and after spending a few hours in fits of laughter trying to follow YouTube videos for first dance choreography we decided to ditch it all together and go with a classic slow dance.”

Rachel and Matthew also chose to have their day filmed, which was really special because they both had close family who weren’t able to attend due to being overseas or health reasons. “Being able to send our wedding video to them was important to us.”

Their advice for soon-to-be newlyweds? Make sure to take a breath during the day and embrace the little moments as a couple, because no matter how cliché it is and no matter how many times you hear it, your wedding day goes by so quickly.

A huge congratulations to the newlyweds! We loved hearing all about your incredible day – thank you for sharing it with us. Also a big thanks to Trent and Jessie for sharing their stunning photography and film.