With a dream of a day that was bright, colourful and full of their favourite people, the modern colour palette of white, pink and saffron yellow ticked all the boxes for Lauren and Alex’s bright & modern Perth wedding. Full of incredible Western Australian vendors (a nod to The Western Australia Issue of course!) and showing off everything WA has to offer – from bush to beach, Lauren and Alex just wanted to be surrounded by their family and friends.  And with many a guest jumping on a plane to witness their marriage, what better way to celebrate than with good food, good wine and a night of dancing? All the evidence you need is right here thanks to photographer We Are All Stardust who joined the celebration!

The couple first met at St George’s residential college at UWA during their first year of study. Explains Lauren “Both of us are from the country – Alex having grown up in Esperance and me in Broome. We probably wouldn’t have met without St George’s because we were studying two very different things! Our love story began like many other teenagers with a sweaty dance floor kiss at a midweek nightclub. I still can’t live this one down to this day.”

With both of the couple loving Margaret River, it was natural that Alex chose the spot to ask Lauren to marry him. “We have always loved the Margaret River region of WA, with Alex having spent some of his childhood on a dairy farm in Cowaramup. Lauren’s family often spent summer holidays on the beach in Dunsborough, and one of her favourite places in the world is the amazing stretch of Caves Road through the Boranup Forrest. Alex had planned a weekend away, a surprise picnic and a proposal at Boranup, but unfortunately the week before the region was flattened by a bushfire. He had to think on his feet and plan a last-minute proposal – which was a stroll around the beautiful bush block at our accommodation and a frantic moment of trying to find a scenic place to propose. It was made all the more special by Alex’s choice of engagement ring – his grandma’s 20th wedding anniversary ring, which he had expertly redesigned by Ruz at Behnam Diamonds. It was just the two of us, private and relaxed – perfect!!”

 

Lauren’s stunning gown was a creation by local Western Australian designer Harriette Gordon found at Noa Bridal Studio. She tells “I loved the understated elegance and simplicity of her gowns, and how they were designed to be layered. My fashion sense often falls between very simplistic and minimal and feminine, and Harriette provided a combination of both.

I purchased my dress from NOA Bridal Studio in North Perth, and lovely Liz helped me to put together the beautiful silk gown with the organza over the blouse. I humoured her suggestion to try the blouse backwards and that’s how I ended up wearing it – with a high boat neck and beautiful cross detail and bow at the back. I also loved the idea of having something I could reuse post-wedding – I hope that Harriette’s beautiful blouse will be that at special events and anniversaries in the future!
The lovely ladies at Studio Ilka did the alterations for me, and made my dress fit perfectly!”

“My “something blue” was also my something borrowed – my Bisnonna’s (great grandmother) sapphire bracelet that I had borrowed from Mum. We also had Alex’s grandma’s vintage ring box, which was purchased in Italy many years ago by his Grandpa.”

The bright and beautiful flowers are a standout detail of the day, all designed by Natalie of Fleur Societe. Remarks Lauren  “She was the first vendor we choose and was non-negotiable in our eyes. I had fallen in love with her florals a few years earlier when I was gifted a bouquet from Jess (MoH) for my birthday. I loved how her works were bright, architectural and not conventionally wedding. We knew that we wanted something bright and I loved the pink and red colour combo. In the lead-up to our wedding and during our initial planning and budgeting we were debating how to get the most out of our floral budget. We opted to do a statement piece, which was our hanging arrangement and keep everything else minimal.

We are so glad that we choose to do this and would recommend it to others if you have the capacity in your budget. Natalia was a breeze to work with – she got our vision and made it her own, and it came out better than what we could have ever envisioned. We have had non-stop compliments about her flowers, and so far everyone has been commenting on how different they were!”

The couple opted for a first look. “We loved having our special first look and time to cherish one another before the rest of the hectic day. We are both so glad we did this, it took away some of our nerves and gave us a moment to remember what our wedding was really about.”

The couple’s photographer received nothing but rave reviews. “Our photographer was Natalija of We Are Stardust and she was amazing! We found Nat through Instagram and loved her moody photographic style and the ability she seemed to have to capture natural moments. And that’s exactly what she did for us – she seemed to spot all of the beautiful candid moments and make these the focus of her photos. From us to our guests and the small details, everything she shot through her lens is gold.

We are so glad we went with Nat. She made us so comfortable in front of the camera and created absolute magic! Every time we scroll through our album we find more and more pictures that we adore, and it’s hard to choose a favourite.”

Alex wore a classic black suit, tells Lauren, “Alex and the groomsmen had their suits made at InStitchu. We decided on something more formal with a classic black tuxedo for Alex, and simple black suits for the boys. Again we were hoping that they would be able to use their suits again and again!”

Lauren’s bridesmaids each wore a white dress from Bec and Bridge. “My bridesmaids were my two younger sisters Izzy and Eva and my best friend Jess. We knew that we were wanting bright florals, and decided to keep the bridesmaid dresses neutral. My Mum and Dad had white bridesmaid dresses for their wedding and she wanted to borrow the idea for something sentimental. We struggled to find dresses for the girls, with all of them having very different personal styles. In the end, each of the girls chose a dress that they liked and would be happy wearing – we settled on three dresses from Bec and Bridge, Acler and Hexie! Shoes we got from Wittner and jewellery from Saint Valentine.”

The couple held their wedding at Quarry Amphitheatre. “Alex and I stumbled across Quarry Amphitheatre on our venue hunt when we initially got engaged” remembers Lauren. “We saw a beautiful photograph of a wedding from a few years ago where the couple had put candles up the amphitheatre stairs and were obsessed from that moment on. We also spend lots of time in Bold Park walking our dog Apollo, and having a Quarry wedding to us just made sense! The venue is beautiful, something different and we are really glad we went with Quarry.”

“We loved including our nephew Alfie who is one, and our cousin Lola who is also one in our ceremony. There is something so endearing about the unpredictability of little children. They were great, and did perfectly with no tears .”

Lauren walked down the aisle on the arm of her father. “We chose a song by Matt Corby “All Fired Up” which we both loved. It has a beautiful story and was perfect for the day. We struggled with the musical elements for the wedding and this was the only thing we were both certain about from the start!”

Luckily for Lauren and Alex, the celebrant Married by Flora also happened to be Alex’s sister! “We wanted our ceremony to be short and sweet for our guests, but still capture our love story! Alex’s sister Flora was our celebrant and this to us was extra special. She initially did her celebrant course for Alex’s brother’s weddings a few years ago and we were lucky to have Flora for our day. She personalised our ceremony to us and had the unique ability to weave in her own experiences of our relationship into the ceremony.

We had our ceremony at the bottom of the Quarry and our guests stood/sat on the steps. We were so worried about the weather on the day – it was an unseasonably cold April Perth day being 13 degrees and drizzly, but we were lucky to have perfect weather for our ceremony between the rain!”

“Despite my  week of stress about the weather in the lead-up, the sun shone through during our ceremony, and it was so great to have a beautiful outdoor ceremony in the gorgeous surrounds of the quarry.”

Lauren shares this advice for planning tour own big ay “Enjoy your wedding planning process. It can be stressful, but remember a wedding is about love and that’s all that matters at the end of the day! It’s so easy to get caught up in the small details.” Alex added, “Make sure you take some time to enjoy your wedding, be present at the moment, eat and drink and have fun.”

“We love the photos of us on the beach right before sunset, especially practising our lifts on the sand. We were both so nervous about how our dance was going to go in the wedding gown. The light, the movement in the veil, the smiles, everything in this picture is beautiful!”

The reception was held in the Quarry Amphitheatre in a clear marquee, adorned with signage made by the couple themselves. “We DIY’d all of our invites, signs, menus and thank you cards using Canva and having them printed locally. This was more difficult than we had imagined and in the process, we realised we were not the most creative of people!”

The most important part of the day for Lauren and Alex? The love from their surrounding family and friends. “Being surrounded by our favourite people, who we love dearly was so special. It was so important to us to have our family and friends by our side at our wedding. We had people travel from all over Australia and overseas to be with us. We both felt incredibly loved and cherished.

We both loved the clever way Alex’s mum wove some of Alex’s childhood into her speech. During primary school, he had made her a Mother’s Day coupon book, which she had held onto and never had to use. She very generously passed this on to me on our wedding night, and I cannot wait to cash in my 100 cuddles or make Alex keep his room clean for two weeks!”

“Our lovely friend Anais made our wedding cake and this was an absolute standout! Anaïs has always been the baker in our group of uni friends – she was in charge of tutorial baking years ago, desserts when we have girls’ nights and more recently the wedding cake extraordinaire. She made us the most delightful raspberry and white chocolate mud cake, which was an absolute hit with the guests. Not a single piece was left by the end of the night”.

For their first dance, Lauren and Alex wanted something fun, so they chose Franki Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You”. Explains Lauren “We were quite disorganised with our dance and two weeks before our wedding realised we had put it off longer than we should have. My sister Eva used to do competitive ballroom dancing as a teenager, and we roped her into giving us some moves and creative direction. We spent each night before the wedding practising in our living room and we had so much fun in the process.”

“We also loved dancing with our guests all night long. From the first dance to the last song, DJ Austy kept our dance floor going. Lauren’s 89-year-old Nonna was the last one standing.

A big congratulations to you both Lauren & Alex! Thank you for sharing your beautiful wedding day with us. Thanks also go to We Are All Stardust for today’s stunning images.