Eclectic City Conservatory Wedding

Emily & Logan’s eclectic city conservatory wedding, captured by Jack Chauvel, was the moody, dreamy wedding you need in your life today. As the couple explains, “Emily is a big plant lover (aren’t all 30-something year-olds?) so we wanted to keep it natural, green, and very small and intimate. There was no obvious colour theme, but we just wanted people to feel relaxed, wear what they felt comfortable in, jazz it up if they were feeling special, and dress for the cool Melbourne winter – it was August after all!” They tell us about their incredible day, and how they came to be…

We met through work! Emily’s workplace supplied products to Logan’s workplace, and a mutual friend who knew both of us said she thought we’d be great together. Logan found Emily on Facebook and started up a conversation and ask her on a date. He lived about an hour away, so the following Tuesday Emily drove up to meet this guy in a place she’d never been before, but Logan proceeded to show her around the city, sneakily pay for dinner, and then take her to a lookout over Newcastle beaches – it was the perfect first date.

The proposal was very special. We were talking about marriage one day and kind of asked each other if we wanted to actually get married, we said yes, and that’s it! We had been together for 10 years by the time our wedding rolled around, so marriage was previously spoken about – all that was left was the logistics of a wedding. But to make it officially official, Emily came out of the bathroom one morning and Logan was on one knee with a ring from her Grandma, to which she giggled and said, well obviously!

Logan worked with Suitably in Collingwood to customise his whole suit. He decided on a light grey rather than traditional black as he wanted something a bit different too. He also got a custom suit jacket and vest lining with Star Wars that Emily designed, to really showcase his nerd flag.

No special traditions or heirlooms on the day, but Emily was able to wear her Mum’s heart necklace and her grandma’s engagement ring which is really special.

Emily decided on a non-traditional black gown. She tried white, ivory, champagne, princess cut, a-line – everything! But white just didn’t feel quite right. She was always a little alternative at heart and came across the dress on Instagram. She found the designer, Teuta Matoshi, who was able to make the Prussian Blossom patterned dress to size, customise the off-shoulder sleeves, and of course, have pockets!

Emily found photographer Jack Chauvel a long, long time ago on social media, well before Covid, and had followed his work for many years before finally reaching out to make the first official inquiry in December 2018!! Immediately we were both long email writers and it felt like conversing with a friend. Emily worried about a lot leading up to the wedding – the only thing she knew she didn’t have to stress about was the photography. She knew they would be in good hands and that Jack would be as relaxed and calm as he was on the day and exceeded all expectations.

Emily had been following Lucy Loves Charlie Florist in Hawthorn for a while and thought their arrangements were gorgeous. She knew she’d receive a bouquet that was gorgeous and all she asked for were autumn tones and a ‘teardrop’ style. They also provided the cake flowers that Boutique Cake Art expertly used in their cake design.

Jack, our photographer, has a great eye, and as we were starting our city adventures he spotted a classic Melbourne alleyway with art on the wall saying “The End”. Logan and I went down for a twirl and he captured it so well.

We love the very much classic Melbourne street look – we loved that we got to have Gelato on DeGraves Street while in the middle of our wedding day. It was perfect to just be able to have fun and soak it all in. Enjoying the amazing gelato in the side streets of Melbourne was one of our favourite moments of the day.

The ceremony was at The Conservatory greenhouse at Fitzroy Gardens followed by the reception dinner at The George on Collins for some of the best and very generous serves of amazing food.

We didn’t have a wedding party – just us! We wanted to just make sure everyone felt welcomed and a part of a relaxed wedding without any additional expectations that can sometimes be had with being in a wedding party.

Emily wanted to walk down the aisle with both her mum and dad, this was super special as she has a close relationship with both of them and really felt honored to be able to share that moment with them, even if it meant dodging some plants on our way down the aisle! We chose an acoustic version of “Come What May” by Mateo Oxley and Beth; a perfect romantic track to get the emotions going to walk down the aisle to.

As with the rest of the wedding, we wanted to make sure our was pretty relaxed, had some humour, and didn’t go for too long, so we didn’t have any readings for our ceremony. Our celebrant Elisa Westein kept the vibes up, made sure everybody cheered and was an expert at directing people to happily pick up a sparkler after the ceremony!

The Conservatory is just the most gorgeous venue, no decorations are required as the floral display they have does the work for you. The display at the time of our wedding was the Cineraria/Cyclamen flowers.

The George on Collins had an intimate “Den” room that sat 24 people, with its own doorway for exclusive access, which felt beautifully intimate. The staff used our items to decorate immaculately, and we were so so pleased with how everything turned out when we walked in after the ceremony.

Not too many DIY details, but Emily did choose to customise the menu/name place for each guest along with a plant lapel pin and a personal sentence that represented each guest. She worked with Sophie at Sea and Paper Creative who was amazing, to create the design and print each menu.

Since we had a small guest list (22 guests in total), we just made sure everyone was full of food and drinks. We had an open bar with spirits, cocktails, mocktails, and a 9-dish menu catering to all of the dietary requirements which The George did with ease!

We didn’t have a first dance – by choice. We are both not exactly the greatest of dancers and didn’t want to subject anyone to an awkward watch haha, so we purposefully chose a reception venue with no dance floor!

Although it was quite stressful planning everything ourselves, most of our vendors were so amazing. The stand-out vendors would have to be Christina at Boutique Cake Art for her lovely demeanor, the most amazing tasting cakes, and sweet floral arrangement; and Sophie at Sea and Paper for being so accommodating with our menu customisations. Sophie even helped us write a personal message on each other’s menus which were hidden from us until we arrived at the reception and saw them on the table. Those special touches just make the day more memorable, and now we’re planning to frame them as keepsakes!

Communicate! We talk about everything; our loves, our grievances, our wants, and our dislikes. As a result, we rarely argue, and our relationship is so peaceful and easy because our communication is so open. Be silly with each other, slap the butts, and take trips together. We love spending time together by also doing our own things in each other’s presence, e.g. Logan playing the Xbox while Emily is playing the Switch!