This magical, intimate wedding at Sid at The French Cafe will be one that friends and family look back on and smile for years. May-Lee and Mitch planned a wedding in a few short months to celebrate with those closest to them before they moved from New Zealand to Sydney.

Because of the upcoming move, all of their friends and family dressed up in their Sunday best to celebrate May-Lee and Mitch’s intimate wedding. “As this was a very last-minute wedding, we kept it casual with no specific theme – as long as we had our closest friends and family there.” Kasia Kolmas was there every step of the way, capturing this beautiful day with her stunning photography.

“We met like most modern couples do; via a dating app. Mitch was fresh on the scene, and May-Lee had just decided to dip her toes in the dating pool after a long hiatus. Sparks flew, and it turned out we had a lot of friends in common, but somehow we had never crossed paths!”

May-Lee and Mitch are that quirky couple with a thousand in-jokes and are constantly in tears from laughing. The magic of their relationship only escalated with Mitch’s proposal. “Mitch being the frugal man that he was didn’t want to shell out for a helicopter, but also wanted it to be a surprise May-Lee wouldn’t see coming. Mitch invited May-Lee to their local pub, The Horse & Trap for a $20 steak night – what a deal! Another win of the $20 steak night was that they have a magician Harry who does the rounds entertaining the bar flies with card tricks. It was our turn for the magician to visit our table and he had us floored by his card tricks. But weren’t we lucky, he wanted to try a new trick on us for the first time ever. He waved his magic wand and produced a sparkling diamond ring. May-Lee was so surprised she wasn’t totally certain a proposal was happening when she first saw the ring. The rest is history and we even had Harry the Magician attend our wedding to entertain our guests. Thanks for making it happen Harry!”

Mitch wore a classic navy blue suit from Frank Casey with a matching navy and red floral bowtie. “I always had a suit that I’d earmarked for my wedding but decided to look around for something that might be a bit different. As soon as we tried on the suit, we were convinced, this is the one for me!”

Wearing a stunning beaded lace number from Temple by Bo & Luca that she had spotted on Instagram years ago, May-Lee glowed with old-world glamour. “I liked the flattering high neck with the open back. During the last Black Friday sale I had an Instagram ad pushed to me featuring this dress, it was the last one they had. I was a wee bit tipsy from drinking prosecco and thought YOLO, got the groom to take my measurements and bought it without trying it on! Luckily it was every bit as beautiful as I thought when I finally tried it on. It hung in the closet for a few months and when we decided to get married with a 2-month deadline, that was the dress to go with, I was off to the tailors first to ensure they had enough time to alter it to be just right.”

Prior to the ceremony, the couple had a first look and photo shoot with their photographer Kasia Kolmas. “She was just fabulous. We realise that probably everyone says this about their photographer but we can’t fault Kasia. Her communication was great, she was personable and kept us smiling the whole day and in the lead-up to it. We kept saying to each other “Man I wish we could hang out with Kasia and be friends with her!” We’re so happy about how the photos turned out, she captured the essence of the day so well and everyone in their element had a great time.”

These photos are where you’ll find May-Lee’s favourites. “My favourite photo is our pre-wedding boogie where we were getting psyched about getting married.”

All of these stunning flowers were done by Naomi at Leaf and Honey. “I didn’t have a specific theme or colour in mind but wanted a playful, whimsical vibe that wasn’t too uniform or constrained. Naomi nailed the brief perfectly. I particularly loved the dahlias, hanging amaranths and water lilies,” May-Lee explained. “They absolutely stole the show. In the build-up to our wedding, Mitch could not believe the cost of flowers from the vendors in the market, but as soon as he saw the flowers in person that Naomi and the team had prepared, he felt that we were worth every penny.”

The reception and ceremony all took place at Sid at The French Cafe. “They have a beautiful courtyard that sits right next to their private dining room where we could have our wedding ceremony, meaning we could have the whole day in the same spot. May-Lee is a local foodie and amateur restaurant reviewer so food was high on the priority list, and from prior experiences, we knew Sid at the French Café would provide the goods. We could not fault the food or wine or the amazing service and care to attention they provided, it was the cherry on top of our day.”

This stunning cake was made by Fran from Delicioso Treats, perfectly matching the magical atmosphere May-Lee and Mitch created for their reception.

Her wedding party, Jess and Becky, wore sleek forest green dresses from BLAK. “They were both recycled bridesmaids’ dresses; Jess had worn hers at another wedding and we sourced a similar but not identical dress for Becky. I hate the idea that bridesmaids’ dresses can only be worn once!”

The aisle song was the thing they spent the most time planning for their wedding. “We are huge (HUGE) Oasis fans and after a few vetoes from each side, May-Lee and her dad Bert walked down the aisle to “Champagne Supernova”.”

Reflecting their quirky personalities, the ceremony was injected with plenty of humour and stories. “We didn’t want it to be too soppy but still come from the heart. Our vows certainly reflected this, there was a lot of laughter and maybe an F-bomb thrown around. Our celebrant was Mitch’s old flatmate; we ran into him at a show and he mentioned that he was training to become a celebrant. Of course, we asked him, and got to be the second ever wedding that he had officiated, his first being just the night before.”

The hardest part of planning their wedding was the music choices – and choosing the perfect backing track for their big day. “From a list of about 30, we managed to reduce and refine this to around 10, of which 4 made the cut. Unbelievably a hard rap song about getting married called “I Do” by Jeezy, JAY-Z and Andre 3000 made the cut at May-Lee’s insistence and became our ceremony walk-out song!”

For the post-ceremony entertainment, the newlyweds brought out Harry – the magician from their engagement! “We also thought it would be nice to include Harry the Magician, who was instrumental in our engagement. Harry wowed our guests with card tricks after the ceremony during the drinks and canapés.”

Unfortunately, their venue had one rule: no dancing! Which is too bad because Mitch was planning to surprise May-Lee with his incredible break-dancing and worm manoeuvres. And May-Lee was going to surprise Mitch with a Silver Linings Playbook-style ballroom dance. Alas! They will just have to keep those moves in their back pockets for a rainy day.

As the night continued, they arrived at their favourite part – speeches! “It was absolutely fantastic hearing from our friends and family. There were tears, laughter and some great opportunities for people to hear something they might not already know about us. We were especially appreciative of our Master of Ceremonies; Baz. Baz came from the other side of the world just to make sure our special day ran smoothly and it certainly did.”

There was one thing that threw a spanner in their plans, and that was a request from Bert (father of the bride) for an evening Tea Ceremony. “We are both very schedule-oriented and had timed the wedding down to a T, so when a last-minute request from May-Lee’s father came in for a Chinese Tea Ceremony, both of us went into full panic stations!” Mitch described. “As soon we started the ceremony, however, we were glad we did, it was such a great addition to our day. It was easily one of the most memorable parts of our wedding and gave a unique cultural twist to our night. Thanks for the nudge to include it, Bert!”

The parting advice from these newlyweds? “Take the ‘good enough’ option. On reflection, we were actually very lucky that we went for a rushed wedding. If we had years to plan we would have obsessed over every tiny detail and subsequently lost our minds; the flowers, the napkins, the music, the food. Having to take what we could due to the short timeframe of organising everything actually made the process much easier for us. The short timeframe made us prioritise what is actually important.”

A huge congratulations to May-Lee and Mitch – your intimate wedding was magical (figuratively & literally!). And thanks to Kasia Kolmas for submitting this beautiful day.