We’re back today to share part two of Ruby and Andrew’s wedding celebrations with their dance party reception! Their motto for the day? “Let’s Dance!”. The first part of their wedding (which you can find here) was all about family, and now is their time to kick back and let loose. They kept it simple – focusing on yummy food, celebrating their community and having plenty of time left for dancing. This time, their celebration was captured by the talented lens from All My Wednesdays.

For round two of their celebrations, Ruby and Andrew had originally picked Craft & Co. as their venue. However, with five weeks left, the venue announced they were closed down, so the couple had to scramble to find a new venue available for their date. “We ended up at Gather & Tailor (upstairs). G&T offered a big wooden dance floor which was important for dancing and had a nice feel – sort of a blank canvas but not without character.”

Instead of flowers, they opted to bring in the tinsel hangings from Bangin Hangins, with some disco balls sprinkled throughout.

Andrew repurposed his outfit from the Feb celebrations with a pair of blue chinos, a white linen shirt and an off-white suit jacket!

Ruby too repurposed her dress from February, with considerable alterations to make it new and fresh. “I had it taken up and the sleeves altered to make it more dancing-friendly. I also wore the same accessories. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! I also bought a second dress from Rebecca Vallance – red and pink because I wanted a different vibe dress and because I was concerned the sequins on the dress would rub my skin when I danced, but in the end, I wore the blue dress for a lot longer than I had imagined.”

For this party reception, Ruby and Andrew hired Mardy Bridges from All My Wednesdays to capture the celebrations in their signature laidback, natural style.

Both Ruby and Andy came from creative backgrounds (find Ruby here!), and did a lot of the design tasks themselves. “I designed our invites, and using that as a loose style guide, the two of us designed all the signage for the event. My sister organised for my invitation artwork to be made into temporary tattoos, which was so much fun; we loved seeing our friends with their tattoos on for days after the event. We also DIY’d all the props for our photo wall – my mum contributed scarves, our friend Mae made cutouts of our cat Ron and Hester contributed items from home such as hats and crowns. Andy and I also bought some bits and pieces.”

With such an incredible dream time of vendors, it was hard for Ruby to pick her absolute favourite – but the title had to go to her sister, Hester as the all-star celebrant, MC and organiser for both events! As a side to Hester’s celebrant business, she offers a Wedding Bestie Service with the help of her best friend Emma! “For us, Em helped liaise with the venue, helped to greet the guests, carried my phone since I didn’t have a pocket, took additional photos, wrote notes for our speech, set up and packed down some of our displays/setups and brought me water at regular intervals so I wouldn’t forget to stay hydrated. She did any odd job that needed doing so that minimal tasks fell on us or the family, which was wonderful.”

An impromptu / unplanned speech is something of a nightmare for Ruby. So it was unfortunate that their wedding speech fell through the planning cracks, and Ruby and Andy had to adlib on the spot. “In the end, our wedding bestie Em wrote us notes for the general structure of the speech, and then we just made it up on the spot. We kept it short and sweet, though, so I think the guests were generally amused rather than frustrated by our lack of preparedness.”

A beautiful detail from the night was the kid’s choice dance floor. Andy and Ruby coordinated with all of their favourite songs early on in the night. “With this event, we were juggling our desire to have a raging party and wanting to include our young relatives and friends. We had the families of any of the kids contribute a song or two from each kid, and then our DJ Eddy selected songs from that list to play in the half an hour or so we had allotted. Plenty of adults joined in, so it was really special to share the dance floor with kids and adults alike. The kids had really good taste!” Ruby explained.

“On that note, we are so glad we booked Eddy. We only booked him in the last two weeks when we found out the audio setup at the venue probably wasn’t going to be adequate for our needs, but it was the best choice. He did a great job setting the mood and keeping the dance floor full until the end of the night.”

As a swing dancer, Ruby was elated when Andrew agreed to learn swing for their first dance! After searching for the perfect song, they settled on Madeleine Peyroux’s “Don’t Wait Too Long”. “It’s a song I love, and we saw her perform it live the year before. We didn’t want anything too intensely romantic – that’s not really our vibe, plus we kind of liked the irony of a song about not waiting too long when we always do things last minute. Our dance was choreographed by Sarah Wheaton, and she did a wonderful job of making the steps fun but challenging. As a result of learning this dance, Andy fell in love.”

Some of their favourite shots from their party reception are of the dance floor, capturing all the pure joy guests had throughout the night. “We also love the pictures of Aiya (Andy’s cousin’s kid) holding hands with the dance teachers whilst they try to teach and then holding hands with her cousin instead in the middle of the floor.”

As we mentioned earlier, Ruby had her dress altered for the reception, and those offcuts were created into a gorgeous dress for her youngest niece. “We had our swing dancing teachers from Swing Patrol Melbourne teach a lesson during the event. There were some really fun memories from that – seeing friends and family giving swing dancing a go and our cousin’s kid taking a shine to the dance teachers and not leaving their side for the entirety of the class, haha.”

The two things that made their party reception and their intimate garden wedding so special were:

“1. That we had it over two days, so that we could focus on each part and make them right for us – an intimate family-only ceremony and a big dance party with friends.

2. That we were able to have such an intimate but beautiful wedding day, where most elements were contributed by family members. Andy and I wanted a no-fuss event, but some of our family really wanted to contribute certain elements, and it worked out remarkably well. I feel like there was a risk that family members might want to contribute things we didn’t like or want, but with just a little input from us, everyone was on the same page, and we were happy with everything that was contributed and appreciated their efforts.”

The final piece of advice Ruby and Andrew want to leave for future married couples is this: “Just make sure you’re inviting people because you want them there not because you think you’re supposed to.”

Congratulations, Ruby and Andrew, on both of your incredible wedding celebrations! And thanks to All My Wednesdays for capturing this wonderful event and sharing it with us. You can find part one of this couple’s journey here!