We’re not really sure where to start with the wedding of Katie and Alex. Is it the rainbow of colour, (which quite frankly is always something that makes us over the moon), the way that Katie and Alex’s consciously made decisions, like female/female-identifying vendors where possible, ditching the traditions that meant nothing to them (like bouquets and a wedding party) and instead making it theirs- wearing frocks filled with colour (from size inclusive labels), serving roaming pizzas for dinner?

“It was really important for us to be “spending the pink dollar”,” explain Katie and Alex, “We stuck to our plan. We knew early on in the planning of our wedding, that we wanted something relaxed and fun, just like a big get-together with all of our friends. It’s so easy to feel like you need to buy all of these things to have the perfect day. For us, we knew that it was always more about getting married than the wedding itself (although that was fantastic as well!).” With photos by Elle DS Photography (who pops up on Alex and Katie’s story well before the wedding day), might we advise you to pick up your piece of pizza and settle in for the story?

Having been in the same friendship circle for about 15 years, there was nothing more to their friendship until 2017,  when Alex, who had been living in the UlK returned to Adelaide, and Katie, who was working FIFO in the mines, was spending more time in the city on her weeks off, they share  “At a ‘Girls Night’ dinner, both of us remember seeing the other one and thinking “I like it whenever she’s at dinner, she’s cute and funny”.

Fast forward a few months, and some friends organised an afternoon out at the Women’s AFL at Norwood Oval. We were both there and there was definite chemistry. The banter was flying, we were ribbing each other, shouting at the footy, on the beers. All round the perfect day. The night finished at the pub and a little memory from Alex, I remember sitting next to Katie and our legs were so close they almost touched and all I wanted to do was move over a couple of centimetres (Katie said she wanted to do that too. After months and months of texting and chatting, we found ourselves at a friends quiz night, and our close friends who we had each been confiding in about our crush on the other person, finally put 2+2 together, and the rest is pretty much history!

The proposal? An entire story within itself! “If we got asked once we got asked a million times, “Who proposes if there is no man involved?”  Katie and I had spoken about this before getting engaged, and we had agreed that we thought it was silly that only one partner had the opportunity to ask the other one a really important question and put their heart out on the line, so agreed that we would each like to propose to the other person in our way. While the plan to get married wasn’t a surprise, and we even designed our engagement rings together, the engagements themselves were a surprise!

Alex proposed to Katie in July 2020 at home. She pretended to go to work but had secretly taken the day off, and had asked some friends to keep Katie busy for the morning. I filled the house with balloons and flowers and little notes from our life together. When Katie got home I was waiting in the living room with a bottle of champagne, a huge smile, and an engagement ring.

At the end of August of the same year, Katie proposed to Alex, back at the scene of the crime where their first sparks flew, at Norwood Oval. Katie had organised to use the oval one evening and lured Alex there thinking they were going for dinner with some friends. On the walk from the car to the imaginary dinner, Katie redirected Alex into the middle of the oval, where they projected a slide show of photos of our time together. Katie popped the question, to which Alex replied “lock it in, Eddie!” (anyone who is a Kath and Kim fan will hopefully get the reference!). Our beautiful photographer Elle Dawson-Scott was also there to capture the moment, and we knew that she had to be the one to photograph our wedding.”

The day clicked off in the way Alex and Katie treasured- together! “Booking a big lovely AirBnB for all of us to gather in just made sense. We wanted to share all the emotions of the day with our nearest and dearest, and saw no merit in isolating on such an important and wonderful day. We loved waking up with each other on the day of the wedding and spending the morning together with our families getting ready. While the day went quickly, there was no rushing or stress.”

Katie and Alex worked with hair and makeup artists Carly Dabinet and Krystal Menzel on their hair and makeup. “Every one of our vendors genuinely all so amazing, Everyone was so easy to communicate with, and played their part on the day. It’s so important to have a good team of vendors around you and to choose people who align with your vision and values for your day.
We would like to mention our hair stylist and makeup artist, they did such a beautiful job getting us ready before the ceremony. Katie and I don’t wear a lot of makeup normally, and our brief to Carly was to make us look like us but on a really really good day and she knocked it out of the park. Even after bawling my eyes out during the ceremony I still looked flawless! And Krystal worked magic on our hair. It was so lovely having them at the house the morning of the wedding and us all getting ready together.”

Sentimental details for Katie and Alex? Oh so many, right down to this sweet bag. “We did include a few traditions – old and blue – Katie’s Mum Rhonda gave Katie her silver chain from when she was a baby, and Jane gave Katie a blue handkerchief to stuff down her bra for the ceremony tears (Alex’s, not Katie’s).
We also did a ring warming as a part of our wedding ceremony, where our wedding rings were passed around our guests to allow them a moment to impart their good wishes and love to the jewellery. Our friends loaned us an organza bag to use for this purpose, which had been used at a number of our friends’ weddings and holds great sentimental value. It was really special to us to be included in that tradition and be a part of the legacy.”

The dresses for Katie and Alex, let’s be honest, almost steal the show! Katie chose to wear  Kholo while Alex turned to designer Tiff Manuell. They tell “”We both knew early on in the planning process that we didn’t want to wear a traditional white wedding dress.

Alex’s initial idea was for a tulle/mesh slip style dress with colourful beading or embroidery. I knew I wanted to support an Australian designer, and it was really important for me to find a designer who offered a size inclusive range. Enter Kholo the Label. Karishma was amazing to deal with from the first email. Karishma had an existing style which I saw on her Instagram page (The Goddess Dress) which she had manufactured in beige and black, and was totally sold out! I reached out asking if she was planning to release anything similar in the future, and Karishma emailed back to set up a phone call, and said she was so excited to be a part of our wedding, and would happily organise for an additional one off to be made for me, and she said they could even do a white base. I felt so amazing, with the beautiful detailing and was just so comfortable. When I found the Charlotte Stone shoes (Lenu in colour Kortman) I knew they were the ones! They are just so fun, and have gotten a lot of wear. The final touches for me were Gorman Love hair clips designed by Luke John Matthew Arnold, some Gorman daisy hoops, and my Grandma’s ring on my right hand.

Katie was struggling to find something which she loved, and Katie’s sister Michelle asked if she had looked at Tiff Manuell’s designs, and one of our close friends had one of her skirts for her wedding. Katie reached out to Tiff’s team, and the whole process was so beautiful and easy. They made Katie a one-of-a-kind painted tulle skirt, and used the colours of Alex’s dress as a guide. Katie’s sister sewed a slip for the skirt, and she paired it with a simple white cami. Katie found the most perfect earrings from Aberline Belle and shoes from I heart Billie at StyleTread.”

These two really wanted things to be simple and easy, so they limited the DIY. “The weather was beautiful, but was perhaps a couple of degrees hotter and more humid than we would have liked. We organised colourful fans to be available for our guests at the ceremony, and because our ceremony location and venue were so close, the venue brought out glasses and jugs of water for everyone. It was the little touches that made the day so easy and fun.

We tried to keep things as simple as possible in the planning of the wedding. We both knew we didn’t want to be up at 1 am the night before folding napkins or making placeholders. There were a few items that we did spend some time creating before the wedding, including the signs which were cut out by our super handy pal Brent, and we painted them and added the vinyl lettering with Katie’s Christmas present Cricut.
We also had friends help out on the day with the decorations, our wonderful friend Jasmin added all of the paper fans to our arbour, and Maddi & Kate created the instax photo booth backdrop out of the same fans and set up all of indoor decorations.”

The couple had such a vision in mind for their day, the perfect venue they found in Victoria Park Social Club.  “Victoria Park Social Club is located at the East End of Adelaide’s city fringe. We specifically chose a centrally located venue because we didn’t want our guests to have to travel too far and have a hard time getting home (especially after a few sherberts!). The parklands themselves are beautiful and located next to a gorgeous old grandstand that looks out over the old racecourse. Adelaide City Council were helpful in securing the ceremony location for us.
We loved that the Social Club is owned and run by the most amazing catering company, La Dolce Vita. We booked in for a Sunday lunch one weekend and knew it was the venue for us. Having good food (and plenty of it) was important to us in the wedding planning process.
The Team that worked on the day were fantastic, so attentive and kept the food and drinks coming! The canapés were served while Katie and I were off having some photos taken, and when we arrived back at the venue, they prepared a special plate with one of everything for us to have. It was a really small gesture which meant a lot.”

Katie and Alex both walked down the aisle accompanied by their parents. “We both wanted our parents to be involved with this part of the ceremony, and had a few practices runs the week before the wedding to get the timing right.

We chose Lucius’ cover of The Kinks ‘Strangers’. The lyrics are so beautiful and it’s one of Katie’s favourite songs. It was such a special moment to have both of our parents involved with. We hadn’t decided who would go first until shortly before the wedding started – we almost flipped a coin to decide!

Alex ended up going first with her parents Jane and Ross, and then followed by Katie with her parents Rhonda and Stuart. We all took some time to have a hug before our parents took their seats. We made the decision to have our parents sit on the opposite sides of their daughter, so they could see us and we could see them during the ceremony. To us it just made sense, and we’re really glad we did it that way.”

Of course, the ceremony being the most important part fo the day, meant these two carefully considered how they wanted it to play out. “When we met Lauren a year or so earlier, we knew right away we wanted her to be our celebrant. We just clicked with her immediately. She is loud and vibrant and full of love and honestly just one of the best people.
We wanted our ceremony to be engaging, fun/funny, genuine, and emotional, and the time for Katie and I to just celebrate our love and commitment to each other in front of our friends and family. The weather was stunning on the day, and Katie picked the most perfect spot under the trees next to the grandstand in Victoria Park.
Alex’s Mum Jane was a celebrant for many years, so we asked if she would like to be involved in the ceremony and do a reading. Jane wrote her reading, based on the beautiful poem ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling and cracked a few jokes. There is a great photo of Jane and our Celebrant Lauren laughing. We wanted it to be as relaxed as possible, fun and thoughtful.”

Acknowledging the importance of the role their parents play in their lives, Katie and Alex sat their parents on the opposite sides to where they stood so that they could see their daughter’s faces clearly.

The duo opted out of a wedding party. “We chose not to have a wedding party. Katie and Alex have close friends and amazing family who supported us throughout the wedding planning and set up on the day but having a formal wedding party just didn’t click for us. Katie’s sister Michelle was the designated ring bearer, walked down the aisle first, and was in charge of starting the ring warming ceremony.”

Katie and Alex knew of photographer Elle well before they even knew she shot weddings! “Elle has been involved from the moment Alex reached out and commissioned an illustration for her’s and Katie’s one-year anniversary. Fast forward a few years and Katie is on the hunt for a photographer to capture her proposal to Alex, not realising that Saskia and Shadow and Elle Dawson Scott are the same person, reaches out and organised Elle to be at Norwood Oval. Elle realises that Katie’s face is familiar (seeing as she’s drawn it) and they put 2 + 2 together. Obviously, Elle was the perfect person to capture our wedding day, it simply couldn’t have been anyone else.”

Neither Katie, nor Alex wanted to carry a bouquet, but they did have florist Sunday Bunches create something beautiful. “Our flowers were simple & colourful keeping with the theme. Having a bouquet was a tradition we dropped almost immediately, as neither of us saw the value in holding onto a bunch of flowers briefly before setting them down somewhere. We were also very happy to let the colour in our dresses shine. We chose Lucy because we loved her work, and we pretty much gave her free reign with flowers for the reception and they were beautiful.”

Even the decor and favours paid homage to what was important. “Having pictures of our grandparents there was something we both wanted to include, as sadly none of them is with us anymore.

As a same-sex couple, being able to get legally married is something we have only had the option to do since 2017, so when we were considering what we wanted to do in terms of wedding favours, we both agreed very quickly that we wanted to donate to SARAA Rainbow Alliance on behalf of our guests.

We knew it was cheesy – but stubby holders were on the must-have list for us! We created a design that matched the theme of our website and our signs and had it printed onto stubby holders. They were a hit on the night, and since the wedding, have had photos from friends enjoying a Friday night beer in our wedding coolers!”

The food was as well received as the rest of the day. “We chose to have roaming pizzas as the dinner option, and at the end of the evening, the venue boxed up all of the leftover food for our guests to take home! We had so many messages the next day of our friends waking up to delicious cold pizza and sore feet from dancing!”

What. a. cake.! This beauty was made by The Bake Space, cake tasting the very best part of planning for Katie and Alex. “(I feel like you can tell how important food was to us for our day!). The Bake Space was lovely to work with – we gave her a general vibe, showed her our dresses and let her go to work. The cake was incredible, so fun, and so delicious.
It was a nice feeling knowing that we had coordinated this day and locked in this great team and we could just look forward to the day itself.”

One of the special moments of the reception was breaking bread with their guests. “Alex’s Dad is from the Czech Republic, and they have a wedding tradition there where you take a loaf of bread and break it between the two newlyweds, to symbolise cooperation and sharing your life together. He brought out a bread roll at the speeches and talked us through the tradition and it just felt really special.”

The song that kicked off the dance floor for Katie and Alex? A bit of good old Barry! “Neither of us is particularly well coordinated, so having a slow first dance did not fit with both our theme and our capabilities. We chose Barry White’s ‘You’re the First, My Last, My Everything. The starting few lines of the song are instantly recognisable and require nothing more than some spinning and jumping around.

We inflicted our dance moves on our friends for about a minute then invited everyone onto the d-floor. We also just love the sentiment of the song – we are each other’s everything, and since then whenever we have heard the song either at home or when out food shopping, we look straight at each other and get transported back to that day.”

Oh and that was just the beginning, DJ Ruby Chew making sure the dance floor did not stop. “Ruby came highly recommended by both Lauren and Elle. They were not wrong – Ruby took our vibe and ran with it, so easy to work with. The music on the night was top-notch, full of our favourite cheesy dance tracks, sentimental faves and crowd pleasers.

Getting everyone together on the dance floor after two years of restrictions was one of our favourite memories (the dancing restrictions were lifted a week or two before our wedding).  Katie just said one of her stand-out memories from the night was Ruby ending the night with Jacqui by B.Z. ft Joanne and everyone going nuts!”

A bright and beautiful congratulations to you both Katie and Alex! What a celebration we’re honoured to be able to share! Thank you both and thank you to Elle DS Photography for sending this one our way.