Imagine a day filled with sparkles, sunglasses, and the vibrant colours of a sunset and that’s exactly what Libby & Charlie planned for their Melbourne wedding. Brace yourself for a tale brimming with magic, as we share every story of their dream for an intimate 70’s themed disco dream, centred around fun, sparkles, and love. If you’re seeking a wedding day that radiates pure joy and celebration, this is it!

Set in the heart of a classic Melbourne cityscape, Lulu & Lime captured all the beauty for this tale (including all the sparkles, right down to celebrant Precious Celebrations’ on-theme sequin mini dress!).

After meeting right before COVID in February of 2020 at retail managers meeting at work, the pair soon caught one another’s eye. Says Charlie, “The 11th of February 2020 was the day unbeknown to Libs and me, that would change our lives forever. In classic me form, I was running exceptionally late for an important managers’ meeting.

After arriving at the venue and promptly making my arrival known. I was directed to the only available seat left – directly opposite Libby. The day ensued with Libs stealing glimpses at me. To hint I was catching her checking me out every time I eventually smiled and Libs quickly looked away turning red! Both of us were magnetically being pulled to one another throughout the day and kept finding ourselves wordlessly pairing up for the activities we were being subjected to. Eventually, we ended up down the road at the pub on the corner where we continued the rest of the evening. We exchanged numbers and from that night forward we spent every day/night messaging and planning our next pub date.

Turns out, awkward team-building exercises, leadership workshops and long island iced teas from the pub down the road, are the recipe for love and a happily ever after. Fast forward to a couple of awkward first dates. A Saturday night of horror movies, snacks and wine; turned into 6-month long sleepover thanks to Covid and Melbourne Lockdown 1.0… …Fast forward some more! Through half a dozen lockdowns, 4 rentals, 3000 more gallons of wine, 2 fur babies, 4 broken bones (Libby), and a mutual enthusiasm for keeping UberEats in existence. We knew we both had found our person.”

And when finding one’s person, and surviving lockdown combine, you know this is going to be a match made in heaven. So of course, the proposal came as no surprise to either Charlie or Libby. Explains Libby “Our engagement story isn’t lavish or full of surprises – like us, it just sort of happened and it worked. We walked past the jewellery store one day and ended up looking at our ideal rings and in the end, walked out having purchased them. As we walked away up Swanston Street we looked at each and both realised “we’re engaged!”. Charlie noted “We had been brainstorming ideas and planning our dream wedding on Pinterest with all of our ideas for months during covid lockdown. So we both knew what we wanted and we knew we wanted to get married. It was naturally the next step for us and I love that it was just spontaneous but in the best (almost planned) way.”

Libby wore a sparkly white jumpsuit from designer Rachel Gilbert. “When out one day we happened upon Rachel Gilbert in the Melbourne Emporium” remembers Charlie. “Without realising we were going to find ‘the one’ we came across a jumpsuit with white sparkly beading all over. Libs tried it on and we both knew that was it! We had it altered to be more of a true ’70s-inspired halter neck style which just made it that more amazing!”

Charlie opted for a long white dress,  finding the beauty designed by E&W Couture at Moonstruck Bride. She explains “The story behind my dress was that of another unplanned occasion. After a few months of not being able to find anything that spoke to me, I’d set my mind to making something instead. Our Maid of honour however was not letting that happen, so she booked a consult for myself and her to attend at Moonstruck Bride in Fitzroy North. After I think about the 6th dress I’d tried, we came across the beautiful white daisy embroidered “Ilsa” dress by a Welsh brand, E&W. I fell in love and for the first time since dress shopping. I wanted to Facetime my mum and show her, knowing I’d also found ‘the one’ and that was that!”

“Some of Charlie’s favourite moments of the day were as the couple was getting ready. “Whilst together we found Lib’s outfit, Libs had no idea what my dress looked like apart from a small fabric sample I’d shown her.

On the day of, before the ceremony, we asked our families and our wedding party to meet us at our Air BnB. Libs and I got ready upstairs separately. Myself with my mum and our Maid of Honour Bonnie. Libs with her mum and our bridesmaid Jess. Libs then came upstairs to the top room to meet me and we did the big reveal! Once we’d wiped away the tears and fixed our makeup again. Anna our photographer had all our guests wait for us outside in the courtyard before heading off to the venue before us. We snuck up behind everyone and Anna asked everyone to turn around. It was such a fun moment to see everyone, surprise and the happy tears! I think the photos of those reveals are my absolute favourite.”

The wedding party, inspired by the song “Here Comes The Sun” by The Beatles had their wedding party dress in the colours of sunset. “We had two of my sisters and my best friend from back home (NZ) and Charlie’s best friend as our bridesmaids” explains Libby, “Our mutual best friends Bonnie and Steven as our Maid & Man of Honour. We wanted things to be as chilled and fun as possible for everyone so our bridesmaid’s each were given a brief to find something they could disco in, felt comfortable and potentially would wear again! The only rules were to find something in their allocated colour with no prints and sparkles were highly encouraged!

Charlie shared “Our colour inspiration was the sunset, so each bridesmaid was either yellow, orange, red or pink. Our Maid & Man of Honour had the brief to wear something black to stand out and honestly, it looks fantastic in the photos, I think it was the right choice. Steven (ManOH) had a pop of burnt orange with his bow tie and suspenders and Bonnie (MoH) had matching colours in her bouquet to compliment.”

There was so much joy in the decor for Libby and Charlie’s wedding “That was the most exciting part for me!” admits Charlie. “Our friend Hannah Best, painstakingly made our fab hanging streamer installations and I made all of our disco ball details and floral arrangements. The disco ball vases I made myself armed with my glue gun and bucket loads of mirrored mosaic pieces. The idea behind our disco ball vases was to add something unique and true to the theme of our wedding whilst also saving on costs where we could. All the flowers which were made up of Australian natives, Libs and I foraged, grew, bought and dried ourselves.

Our bouquets for us and our wedding party I put together from fresh flowers we all chose together at the Queen Victoria Market a few days before the wedding. I also designed our save the dates, invitations and our wedding website using Canva to keep everything digital. We both felt it important and necessary to avoid adding to the environment where we could avoid it. We also had a Polaroid guest book station and it turned out great! Our guests loved it and some of the photos turned out hilarious. A few of our guests took it upon themselves to go around and take photos of everyone as well which was great! We got some great pics and it was so much fun the next day, going through them all and the notes that had been left for us in our guest book.”

The couple chose St Kilda bar The George Lounge for their wedding. sharing  “We wanted to have our ceremony and reception at the one venue to avoid the stress for us and our guests, it just made sense! We came across the George Lounge, a basement bar in St Kilda. It was perfect, a moody, 70’s styled dungeon with velvet green, exposed bleached brick and pink salt lamps everywhere. Just the vibe we were already trying to channel!
The guests loved it, giving everyone the ability to be down and in our disco haze and come up for air outside for a drink. To then saunter back down for a boogie.

The venue was so perfect for the mood these two wanted for their day. “We had a grand entrance down the entry steps from the street after a 10-minute walk down with our wedding party in tow from the Air Bnb. The velvet green booths on either side of one end of the space served as prime seating for our parents and the wedding party and our guests gathered around to hear our vows and cheer us as we walked out as Mrs & Mrs. We signed the papers outside on the street level and disappeared with Anna to scope the streets of St Kilda for some epic intimate photos of just us!”

Both Libby and Charlie walked down the aisle with their fathers. “We walked down with our Dad’s keeping to traditions slightly, Libs went first and I last. Our wedding  party all walked in with the song “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles – we both love that song and it was always the plan – hence the sunset colours inspired brief!”

 

The couple were married by Precious of Precious Celebrations, in a ceremony that in Libby’s words was “Lighthearted & funny, the goal was definitely to make everyone cry though!” Charlie chimed in “We spoke with Precious about how important it was to us to have our ceremony be oh so LGBT+; Precious duly noted and dedicated part of her speech before the vows to recognise and acknowledge the progress and how far the community has come but also how important it is for it to continue to grow in support and love. It was a beautiful touch.”

One of Charlie’s most memorable moments? “We weren’t really too focused on the traditional sense of a wedding. We just wanted the whole event to be authentic to us. So our focus led us down a path of keeping things simple and keeping our guest count down to just the very nearest and dearest. We did do a ‘first looks’ moment, however, which I loved!

My parents, after we tied the knot, gifted us with a horseshoe. The traditional idea behind this is good luck. My parents met in the British Army, Mum in the catering side of things and Dad was in the Veterinary Corps. The significance in this case, was it was a horseshoe specifically and traditionally made by a farrier for a military horse that was trained to pull a cart just for my parents, at their wedding. They have one of the other horseshoes which were gifted to them. A super special moment that we both were not expecting. Adds Libby “We decided to make our own rules and not follow any particular traditions!”

Libby shared “My favourite detail of the day would be all the GORGEOUS flower arrangements that my talented wife put together! The dried flower arrangements in the handmade disco ball vases added so much colour, sparkle and life to our big day and elevated and complimented our venue’s aesthetics well.  Plus Disco Balls, all of the disco balls! Our pink ‘Fazeek’ daisy champagne flutes, Converse platform sneakers (comfy!) flower pocket posies for our Man of Honour Steven, Charlie’s dad, my dad and my stepdad!

Food was really important to Charlie and she spent hours scouring the internet for ‘the perfect’ grazing table. It paid off because The Grecian Kitchen nailed the brief and EVERYONE commented how delicious the food was. It was super easy and in keeping with the theme of just laid back and simple so everyone just picked and snacked throughout the night. Seriously, the food was so tasty!”

Says Libby “Honestly, the whole day was one big special story for me! I cannot pinpoint any exact moment; it still feels so surreal. I will happily tell this story of our wedding again, and again for the rest of my life. Having only our nearest and dearest there on our special day. We wanted to keep our wedding intimate and I think that made it more special.”

For their first dance, the newlyweds chose “Enchanted” by Taylor Swift. Remembers Libby “The song speaks to our relationship and it’s like it was made for us. I’m also obsessed with Taylor Swift and always have been. There is a T-Swizz song for every moment in life.” Charlie added “It is a fab song! We only really worked on a little choreography together and then just invited everyone on the dance floor with us, halfway through. We didn’t want the whole time just to be us dancing, we’re not those kinds of people!! It was great everyone joined in a scream and sang the rest of the song with us.”

A big beautiful congratulations to you both Libby & Charlie! Thank you for sharing your beautiful wedding stories with us. Thank you also to Lulu & Lime for the beautiful images and to Precious Celebrations for sending this one our way.