Relaxed Garden Wedding At CERES Community Park

Eman and Conan chose a delightful community-run garden, not five minutes from their home for their beautiful summer wedding. The vision was clear – a cosy, relaxed atmosphere with family and friends, earthy tones of lavender and yellow on a day in nature with the summer breeze. And when we say they ticked all their boxes and more? Let the evidence, as captured beautifully by JM Photography do all the talking!

The couple met while they were both living in Granada, in Southern Spain teaching English. They tell “The first time we met we were seeing other people and got to know each other as friends. Neither one of us thought that we were meeting our future spouse!

It wasn’t until a year later that we met each other again as single people; I (Conan) had a broken leg at the time and was stuck in my overheating summer apartment when I saw Eman write a Facebook post in a group for English speakers living in Granada. I fumbled over my phone and immediately, accidentally called her like a dumbass. Then we met for breakfast and talked for hours. We had so much to talk about as we are complete opposites. We never stopped talking really – the rest is history.”

Conan had great plans to ask Eman to marry him on a weekend trip to Wilson’s Promontory, but that didn’t quite go to plan! “I (Conan) planned to propose to Eman while camping with friends at Wilson’s Promontory. We had been the previous year for Eman’s birthday and she loved it there, especially at the Whisky Bay beach.

I kept it a secret from everyone which ended up being a terrible idea because on the last day, everyone decided to pack up early to avoid some late afternoon rain and I had to make up tonnes of excuses to thwart them.

We escaped away to the beach at Whisky Bay and I surprised Eman with photos of all of the good times we had spent together, I got down on one knee and asked if she would do me the honour and then afterwards we shared a pomegranate (Granada in Spanish – the name of the city where we met in Spain) which was something Eman used to do with her late father.”

Both the ceremony and reception were held at the beautiful CERES Community Park. “The park is not five minutes away from where we live in Brunswick East” explain the couple. “It was a late summer afternoon on the 25th of February. It rained unexpectedly though but that just added to the cosy vibes and there was a backup space undercover. We know the space well from exploring during our 3 years living in the inner north of Melbourne. They have a gorgeous enclosed gazebo which was perfect for serving of food and to hear speeches from family and friends. Later after sunset we migrated to a bar in Fitzroy for some drinks and dancing until late in the night.”

Eman found her beautiful gown on Asos, sharing “We promised to keep the budget quite low and Eman found a dress she really liked on Asos. It was the first and only dress that she tried on. She got it altered to fit perfectly.”

The couple decided to meet before their ceremony for a first look, captured by their photographer to who they give all the golden reviews! “JM was amazing. He helped us to pose and understand our assignment so well. We were so thrilled with how the photos came out. He went above and beyond – even wiping down a bench so we wouldn’t get wet by sitting in the water himself and squidging up and down the bench. What a legend!”

For Conan, he chose a suit from MJ Bale. “I wanted to get a nice timeless grey suit with small details that would match Eman such as a golden tie, cufflinks and a lapel pin that would match the beautiful bouquet of native flowers.”

As casual as the day was, the couple did enlist the help of Oh Honey Weddings to keep everything on track. “Our wedding coordinator was invaluable for us to keep the day rolling and organise all of the other vendors before and during the day.”

With Conan’s mother by her side, Eman chose “What a Diff’rence a Day Made” by Dinah Washington to play as she walked down the aisle.

“Our wedding party consisted of Conan’s mother Delores, sister Elena, our closest friend and ex-housemate Sharifa who was the officiant and our MC Mark. We just advised on our colour scheme and allowed their personalities to shine through. We did ask Sharifa to wear a yellow dress inspired by the silhouette of a robe with long sleeves like a wizard- it just felt right.”

The ceremony was the most important part of the day for the couple, who share “Eman and I really put a lot of emphasis into our vows and it was important to us to really share our love for each other with our closest friends and family. We are so proud of our relationship and the obstacles that we have overcome together. We really bared our souls and left not a dry eye in the house.

We started with an acknowledgement of country because it was important to us to start this journey together on the right path towards understanding and we very much believe love to be an action that is transformative not only to us but to our communities and society. Sharifa, our friend guided us through the ceremony and we exchanged rings as symbols of our commitment to love and one another.”

The blooms on the day, styled by Art Stems on Lygon, were such a standout. “We wanted a native bouquet of flowers with bright colours with accents of yellow, white and gold to go with our attire. The florist Art Stems on Lygon really knocked it out of the park. We got matching flowers in vases for the guest tables and a lapel pin for Conan.”

“We had a friend gift us a guest book, and we purchased and lent some Polaroid cameras for the guestbook and reception. We also DIYed the organic confetti from Etsy with some decorative stamps and paper bags from Kmart. It was a great bonding activity with our friends pre-wedding. We also DIYed the sound system and it totally backfired – we recommend having someone on standby for the sound as it will be crucial for the speeches and music!”

The photos that are the couple’s favourites? “We had some power poses that we wanted to capture with our photographer JM. There was also a great photo of Eman and I sneaking a snack from the back of the food van from Shamiat post photo session. At twilight, the local bat colony stirred and we got some epic shots of the bats flying over our heads – so cool.”

The food, catered by Shamiat Restaurant, was a definite highlight of the night. “The food was very important to us – we went quite un-traditional for a wedding in Australia. We had a Syrian restaurant that we love called Shamiat do the catering with the most delicious buffet of all their best dishes. Our guests absolutely loved it and they were able to cater for all the dietary requirements that we had without a problem.”

Eman and Conan’s advice to you? “Don’t try and do it all yourselves on your big day. It’s a very busy day where you will be in high demand. Get help from friends and family to relieve stress and for those crucial things like music don’t skimp!”

The cake was a beauty by Pie-Curious. “We had a local cake place called Pie-Curious make the wedding cake which was served as our dessert. It was a vanilla sponge, with raspberry filling and white chocolate butter cream frosting. The people swooned!”

When it was time for the dance floor to kick off, it was also time for an outfit change. “Eman has always been more comfortable in more gender-neutral clothing so she had an outfit change into a champagne power suit from Shona Joy right before our first dance. Lucky for us, as the dress had become quite soiled from the rain and mud at the beginning of the day.”

The newlywed’s dance floor debut was to “This Must Be The Place” by Talking Heads. “We had a friend offer to give us dancing lessons as a wedding gift which we gladly accepted, and sorely needed. We chose the song “This Must Be The Place” by Talking Heads as we think it’s a gorgeous song both melodically and lyrically.

The idea of this song had been kicking around since we saw the Stop Making Sense musical documentary at the Astor Theatre in St Kilda for their yearly showing and dance celebration of the film. We helped with the choreography and made it into something our own – it was dorky, cute and fun. So great when the song comes on elsewhere now and we can try and remember the steps. The dance was probably our favourite part; it went so well we had never danced it so perfectly before.”