Sometimes a wedding just warms your little wedding loving heart, and the story of Madeleine (Min) and Sergio, is just that. This is a couple that evaluated every idea of a wedding, and made decisions that truly reflected not only who they are, but the love and support of the family and friends they surround themselves with.

Set in the beautiful Mcclare Vale winery region, the couple and their guests, were joined by Luke Simon Photography for a day, just as Min describes of rustic, romance filled with love!” and from the bride’s sparkling silver, custom-designed wedding gown, to the pink dahlia bouquets, and the glorious outdoor ceremony, there are just as many reasons for you to fall right in love with this story.

The way these two first met? Just as romantic as the wedding! Says Min “It’s a bit of a cliche “love at first sight” story. I applied for a job at a hospitality venue that Serg was managing. Neither of us can remember what happened at the interview because we were too distracted. I ended up being offered the job on the spot and as they say, the rest is history.

Min admits she complete expected Sergio’s proposal, although sunset on top of a mountain, still sounds like an epic love story to us. “No surprises here, I knew it was coming, and when Serg picked me up after work in a hurry and drove me to the top of Mount Lofty (on my birthday), I knew exactly what was about to happen. Serg dropped to one knee and “pretended to do up his shoelace” and then popped the question as the sun went down. Of course, it was a resounding yes!”

The groom and groomsmen were dressed by Joseph Uzumcu. “Serg is not very fussy when it comes to clothes, however, wanted his suit to tie in well with my dress” remembers Min. “He had his suit, and all of the groomsmen’s suits, made by Joseph Uzumcu. These were French navy with bow ties in the same fabric. We jointly decided that navy would complement my dress, the autumnal colours of the vineyard and our flowers.”

Min started her wedding day look with very special pieces. “For something blue, I kept one of my grandmother’s handkerchief’s in my clutch and for something old and borrowed, I wore my grandmother’s engagement ring. My grandmother was the most loving person, and it was special to be able to have a part of her with me on our special day.”

The wedding invitations were designed by Magnolia Press. Min telling “We had a lot of fun designing and working with Sharon from Magnolia Press to create our stationery. Choosing all of the colours, paper and fonts was a great experience, and definitely one of the less stressful! Otherwise, watching it all come together in the final stages was very rewarding.”

Min’s incredible wedding gown was designed and created by local designer Paolo Sebastian. She explains  “I am a very indecisive person and took a while to decide on a dress. Mum and I shopped around before I realised that I would probably like something made. I ended up having my dress designed and created by Paolo Sebastian.

The experience was incredible and I feel immensely privileged to have been able to have had that experience. Paul and all of the Paolo Sebastian staff were lovely, forever accommodating and remarkably talented. The dress consisted of layers of French tulle and beading inspired by the East of the Sun and West of the Moon collection. Paul designed a truly magical dress that tied in perfectly with our autumnal winery wedding.”

Bouquets of pink dahlias were put together by Poppies Flowers. “We had a colour theme in mind for the day and knew we wanted the flowers to be a dominant feature” explains the bride. “In terms of selections of the actual flowers, we relied heavily on the advice of Sally from Poppies Flowers, who went above and beyond to create stunning florals for our day. Sally turned our somewhat vague and difficult brief into beautifully luscious arrangements.”

Min was supported on the day by some of her favourite people. “My Maid of Honour was my best friend from high school, and my two bridesmaids were best friends from various stages in life. I could not have made it through the wedding process without my beautiful wedding party – they are amazing individuals. We had the bridesmaid dresses made by a local dressmaker Vicky Harpas. The dresses were silk and silvery grey.”

The couple chose winery venue Coriole Vineyards for both their ceremony and reception. “We both love the McLaren Vale region, and Serg being part Italian, we loved the feel of the rustic winery. The wedding coordinator, Gen, was amazing to work with from when we first enquired and was one of the main reasons we chose to have our wedding at Coriole.”

Sergio’s favourite memory of the day, was the intensity of the moment he saw Min walking gown the aisle towards him, Min choosing an acoustic version of Louis Armstrong’s “Wha A Wonderful World”.  “The day was an absolute whirlwind from the moment we woke up to the end of the night! My favourite memory was standing at the end of the aisle watching my soon to be wife walking down it with her dad, and then looking back at all of our family and friends that were there to celebrate with us. The vibe at our ceremony was electric and there was so much love and happiness radiating between everyone – it was a very special feeling to be amongst that.”

“We had the most amazing celebrant for our ceremony – Camille Abbott. We knew from the moment we met Camille that she would create and run a ceremony that was perfect for us and our guests, with a balance of humour, sincerity and passion. As we, like so many other couples, had to postpone our wedding from April 2020 to 2021, we did not want the pandemic to feature in our ceremony.

We both have grandparents who are no longer with us, and we wanted to acknowledge them in both our ceremony and speech. The ceremony was full of happiness, love and tears.”

Min’s favourite moment? “Arriving at the end of the aisle, holding each other’s hands and looking back at all of our wonderful family and friends was pretty special. We have never felt so much collective love and happiness in a room/space before!”

The advice Min gives to you if you’re planning your big day? We’d say it’s golden! “Take the time to enjoy the day! It’s such a whirlwind and the day goes so quickly. Support your partner and work through the planning process together. There’s a lot to plan and coordinate and if you can work together it eases the stress.

It’s just one day. At the end of the day, you’re marrying the love of your life in the company of all of your closest family and friends. If a place card is out of place, or the bridal cars that turn up on the day are wrong (yes this happened to us!) no one will notice. Enjoy the chaos and celebrate love with your nearest and dearest.”

The couple love their wedding photographs and the sunset moments?  Part of what they loved about working with their choice, Luke.  “We found Luke after trolling Instagram in search of our wedding photographer” explains Min. “We fell in love with his candid and honest photography style. Once we met with Luke, we were sold! We felt 100% confident with Luke throughout the day and could not have asked for a better photographer. His other business, LikeWise Films, were our videographers and also did a fabulous job in capturing the special moments from our day.

We love all of the photos taken. The one that comes to mind is a photo taken at sunset just before we entered the reception. Luke whisked us away to catch the most incredible pink/purple sky over the winery. The colours are spectacular and we are so grateful that Luke managed to capture such a special moment.”

Even the wedding favours were carefully considered! “We also decided against the traditional bonbonniere/favours and donated on behalf of all of our guests to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. My parents both work in the field of breast cancer oncology, so the donation was meaningful to us and we hope, contributed to an area that my parents work so tirelessly to support and treat.”

Although they are happy to leave it up to the pros, Min and Sergio lent their hand to one special element! “The only DIY aspect we were confident in and ended up making, was a photo board for polaroids taken at the reception. In saying this, we purchased the board and pretty much just affixed string and pegs to the board! This turned out to be a great idea, and we now have a huge board of memories from the night sitting in our living room.”

The newlyweds chose a Bruno Mars number for their first dance, the steps were coordinated with a little help from Briony Dancing. Says Min “My cousin runs a side business as a dance teacher for first dances. We met with Briony who created a fabulous dance for us to “Just the Way You Are” by Bruno Mars (Serg is a huge Bruno Mars fan).

We practised it to death, but on the day we did not think about which direction we were facing when we started and ended up doing the entire dance with our backs to the audience! Nevertheless, it was great fun (and people said they didn’t notice)! We are both pretty terrible dancers anyway so at least we had a good time doing it.”

To cap off the day, Min and Sergio chose LikeWise Films to capture the moment on film. Settle in for this one! Says Min “Honestly, all of our vendors were fantastic. Special credit to Gen, our wedding coordinator from Coriole, Luke, our photographer, Charles from LikeWise Films, Sally from Poppies Flowers, Sharon from Magnolia Press (stationary), Fleurieu Event Hire, The Bake Space (cake) and Baker Boys Band (music). All were helpful, great to deal with and very understanding of us having to postpone a year.”

Congratulations to you both Sergio and Min! Thank you for sharing all the stories of your day with us. Thank you also to Luke Simon Photography for today’s beautiful images.