Whimsical Pastel Wedding at Potters Reception

If you were on the hunt for the perfect storybook wedding vibe today, you’ve found it! Even though we’re coming to the end of the Joy Issue, it doesn’t mean we’re going to stop sharing all of these joyful weddings. Today’s feature is all about taking a chance, honouring our loved ones and heritage, all bathed in a beautiful purple and pastel colour palette. Set against the whimsical Potters Reception in all its spring wisteria bloom, and with vibrant Georgia Wiggs and Carousel Films behind the lens, we couldn’t be more excited to dive in.

With Alex studying film at Swinburne and Tamara studying digital media at RMIT, there shouldn’t have been any chance for their paths to cross. Thankfully, an end-of-exams party at La Di Da in Melbourne, and a mutual friend group, did the heavy lifting for them! “After the party, we took a tram and ended up at a late-night kebab joint – but we didn’t say a single word to each other the whole night. Thankfully, Alex was brave enough to add Tamara on FB and messaged the day after the party, since we were both too awkward to actually speak to each other in person. We spent a couple of weeks just messaging before having a first date, and as they say, after that everything is history!”

Fast forward six years, and they were engaged! Unfortunately, it was a few months after Tamara’s mother received a terminal illness diagnosis, and the pair wanted to get married with her involvement. So with a quick turnaround, they planned a commitment ceremony just four months after getting engaged so she could be part of the special day. “We had it just weeks before she passed away. Our commitment ceremony was every bit as real to us as our actual wedding and still a very special memory for us,” Tamara shared.

Alex is of Macedonian background, so on the morning of the wedding, his parents hosted a brunch at their house. Here, they held an axe-shaving ceremony for his close relatives. “So while I was busy getting makeup and hair done, his closest relatives were celebrating with some traditional dancing, food and of course, the main event – axe shaving!”

His actual outfit, however, was inspired by the look worn at their commitment ceremony, as well as a 70s style with pointed lapels and a stunning sky-blue colour. “I had seen old pictures of family members dressed up in their vintage clothes and always wanted to look like them. This suit was custom-made by The Gentry with all the details carefully chosen, from the buttons to the lining. The pocket boutonniere was made by Tamara!”

Alex’s groomsmen wore navy blue suits also tailored by The Gentry, with brown ties to contrast with his own suit. “They also each had customised monogrammed cufflinks and pocket boutonnieres.”

Originally inspired by Sarah’s masquerade gown from Labyrinth, Tamara kept coming back to the fluid movement of organza. “I went through a lot of different variations of what I thought I wanted my dress to look like in my head, originally a more traditional wedding dress with floral lace details, then various coloured and patterned dresses, before settling on a princess style dress with dramatic oversized puff sleeves,” she explained.

“The dress itself is from an online store called Fanciful Doll and is made from crystal organza. I already had a similar organza dress, and I love the way this fabric feels and moves, so this style really called out to me. I did actually go to a bridal store to try on dresses the traditional way, but nothing really stuck with me. By Arnnie did all my alterations.”

While the dress was simple, the overall look was all about the statement sleeves and additional accessories Tamara added. “As someone who loves colour, I chose to embellish it with a dramatic cathedral-length, purple cape-veil hand embroidered with florals and butterflies, from Meadow Sweet Bridal on Etsy. I also wore a pearl crown hand-decorated with butterflies, a very ornate necklace from Ayselia Jewellery, pearl-coloured shoes from Kitten D’Amour, and blue stockings from Snag. My look was carefully curated after hours of searching for the perfect accessories and my makeup. I went with a very alternative style with a colourful eye look in shades of blue and purple, my eyelids bejewelled with tiny rhinestones and butterflies.”

Her wedding party wore a mixture of pastel, whimsical dresses, all with the same fluid movement as Tamara’s gown.

Instead of relying on fresh in-season flowers, Tamara opted to use faux flowers – not only saving money but also perfectly bringing her vision to life. “The pastel colour palette is much more achievable in faux. I knew from the start I wanted to DIY a lot of the florals and actually ended up doing all of them myself – from the bouquets to the boutonnieres, centrepieces, arbour piece and more. The florals are very much wildflower and cottage garden inspired. I’m not a big fan of roses, so I only used them minimally. Hydrangeas featured heavily.”

Potters Reception in Warrandyte was the perfect whimsical venue for this pastel wedding. And since their wedding was in the spring, they had the beautiful wisteria-draped courtyard as the backdrop to their ceremony. “Purple is a big colour obsession for me, so this was perfect, and the whole vibe was amazing – dreamy, fairytale-esque but not too rustic. And just in case, they did have an indoor option as backup. The reception also had enough space for our 130-person wedding, and the all-in-one package meant we didn’t have to bother with different vendors for ceremony, reception, catering, accommodation, etc. The team at Potters was fantastic to work with and even included content creation for us with a bunch of beautiful shorts posted to their Instagram shortly after the wedding,” Tamara shared.

As her mum, Mikayla, passed away before their wedding, Tamara and Alex included pieces of her throughout the day. “We had a photograph of her from her wedding day set up at our memorial table. We also brought along a very important toy, ‘Baby Yoda’, who sat at the ceremony and reception in place of my mum. Baby Yoda was particularly special to my mum in her final years and served as a kind of physical symbol of my mum’s presence at the wedding. I also wore my mum’s wedding bands on my right hand.”

With her brother Nicholas on her arm, Tamara walked down the aisle to a violin cover of “Yellow” by Coldplay. “It’s a song that invokes a lot of special feelings for Alex and me. I kept this choice as a surprise from Alex since he expected a different song, and I knew he’d tear up as soon as he heard this start playing (and he did exactly that!).”

The main concern Tamara and Alex had in the few days leading up to their wedding was the weather, which, as any Victorian knows, can be fickle (and in spring especially!). “On the day, it actually didn’t end up being too cold, fairly mild in the low 20’s. But as the ceremony got closer, it was looking dangerously wet… the forecast was for rain right at 4 pm, when our ceremony was set to start. While I was none the wiser, safely nestled away getting my wedding dress on in the bridal gallery at Potters, Alex was outside nearly in tears because it had started raining and he was sure the perfect wedding I had planned would be ruined,” Tamara explained.

“The Potters’ staff quickly ran around to cover any important ceremony decorations, meanwhile I only even realised it had started raining when my assistant informed me the ceremony would have to be delayed by 5 or 10 minutes while we waited for the rain to stop. She was very reassuring and assured me there would be no issues with the ceremony going ahead as planned – her weather app showed the rain would be over in a few minutes. Sure enough, it eased almost immediately, and the team swept in and dried off the seats and quickly ushered the guests out of the bar area, where they had taken cover from the rain. As I walked down the aisle towards Alex, the sun came out just like a perfect fairytale, glittering off all the raindrops on the wisteria above us.”

Their ceremony was led by the incredibly talented Abbie of The Hitch Sitch. With some tear-inducing vows and a lighthearted backstory, it was the perfect mix of sentimental and soft. “We did include a candle lighting in memory of my mother and other loved ones who were no longer with us. We chose “The Whole of the Moon” by The Waterboys for our recessional and had two friends as our “bubble boys” blowing bubbles.”

One of their favourite shots is this one above! “At one point, Georgia had the wedding party ‘rush’ at us to do a huge group hug/tackle essentially, resulting in a really fun picture of us surrounded by some of our favourite people. It’s a really lovely moment with a lot of genuine smiles!”

Georgia Wiggs, loved for her colourful, candid style, was THE perfect photographer to capture Alex and Tamara’s whimsical pastel wedding. “From our very first meeting, we both felt so comfortable around her, which meant on the day we both felt at ease in front of the camera, rather than stiff or posed. She captured truly genuine photographs with the kind of vibrancy and colour we wanted – so many wedding photographers typically edit in a very washed out, sepia, warm way, which is exactly what we were trying to avoid,” Tamara explained.

“Georgia captured all the gorgeous details of the wedding day exactly as they looked. Her photographs are fun, full of energy, and full of laughter. She even worked overtime when we had a last-minute change of plan to include a sparkler exit at the end of the night – truly going out of her way to capture all the memories of our day.”

For Tamara, the top five things that made her and Alex’s pastel wedding so unique included:

“1. Marrying my best friend.

2. Expressing our love for each other in our vows.

3. Having our best friends and family celebrate with us.

4. We both looked amazing.

5. Our special day was captured exactly how we wanted it in the photos and videos.”

Have we mentioned the DIY part of this wedding yet? Let’s dive in! Tamara made the seating chart from an upcycled photo frame, with a custom background print inspired by Monet.

“I also upcycled vintage books and encyclopaedias into centrepieces for the tables, folding the inner pages in and using them to display flower arrangements and moss. Other centrepieces were made from lanterns filled with florals and moss. The centrepieces also doubled as decorations for the ceremony, lining the aisle and surrounding the foot of the arbour. The place cards were designed, printed and put together by hand with chiffon ribbon and a paper butterfly on each one made from plantable seed paper,” she shared.

“We also chose to create a wedding guest ‘scrapbook’ with photos and snippets from our relationship journey together scattered throughout the book. We set up a scrapbooking area for guests with stickers, papers, pens, glue, and washi tape, plus we had a Polaroid camera available for them to take photos and stick them in. Our guests made some beautiful and fun entries!”

Their first dance was to the Chris Lanzon cover of “Iris” by The Goo Goo Dolls. “It’s a song that holds special meaning to us from early in our relationship. We had lessons from Dance with Taryn.”

A last-minute addition to the reception was Tamara’s second look, bought only days before from Fanciful Doll. “It went on sale, and the price was too good to miss. This dress was covered in sequins, and the skirt went from knee-length at the front to a massive train in the back, which I bustled for dancing, giving the skirt a puffy, multi-layered effect. I paired this dress with lacy white stockings from Snag, white sneakers from Jane Debster, and frilly socks.”

They even had a traditional Macedonian band, Karamela, perform at the reception and got everyone involved in rounds and rounds of ‘Oro’ dances.

Not only was Abbie from The Hitch Sitch their celebrant, but she also doubled as their MC/DJ! “Abbie gets a special shout-out just for doing such an amazing job at not only being our celebrant but also the MC and DJ: what a multi-tasking queen! She was so good at keeping everything running on track and was just a really good support throughout the night as well.”