Colourful Pattern Wedding in Melbourne

A snail, a worm, a trip to the zoo and an $80 suit from Depop. Just a few of the wonderfully unexpected details in Alyssa and Pete’s colourful wedding! The creative pair brought their love of illustration and games into two Melbourne celebrations, from their intimate Old Treasury Building ceremony to their party at Welcome to Thornbury. With Bec Matheson behind the camera, every colourful detail and handmade creation had its moment to shine!

In her first week teaching at RMIT, Alyssa spotted Pete from across the auditorium and was immediately smitten. “It became a many-month-long question of ‘Is he just a really delightful colleague, or is he crushing too?!’,” she shared.

So she devised a little animation task to help bring them together… but Pete was so excited about it that he finished it immediately and sent it over email before Alyssa could properly organise something together. “Friday after class, Pete, can you help me get some footage aaaaat… the zoo! – That’ll be a great place to get stock footage of… something,” She asked.

“I don’t remember how long we spent at the zoo, but we didn’t get any footage. Our first date turned into two days, which turned into eight years, and we haven’t looked back!”

Fast-forward to the surprise DnD session Pete planned for the two of them, featuring the two characters that brought them together, a snail and a worm! “We went out for breakfast, and unbeknownst to me, Pete had arranged for a friend to sneak into our house and rearrange the living room with a big game table, dramatic lighting, posters and DnD dice ready to roll,” Alyssa explained.

“We then played a campaign together for the rest of the day, which culminated in the final treasure, inside a little 3D-printed chest of the ring.”

Alyssa fell in love with this beautiful cream-and-rainbow floral Gorman dress at first sight. When she went dress hunting, all she knew was that whatever she picked wouldn’t be the traditional white bridal look. “We went into Gorman for a quick look on the way to a book launch, and there she was. I tried it on, and it was perfect. Looks like room to move. Formal but not too formal. Fun, comfy and featuring DEEP POCKETS! Paired with a simple white shoe and some exceptional bespoke hand-painted resin earrings, job done!”

Once Alyssa’s dress was set in stone, they worked backwards to create Pete’s look to match. Originally, they were going to settle for an orange suit with custom-embroidered lapels to fit that comfy, colourful brief. Luckily, a quick scroll on Depop came to the rescue! “The most perfect suit – floral but in a Monet kind of way, with colours that connected to the dress. $80 including postage?? YES PLEASE! The fit was almost perfect, with slight sleeve alterations, and she’s a stunner. Paired with a floral Paul Smith shirt and cream pants for the ceremony, and a full-colour ensemble for the party. And for those wondering, it’s a Lowes suit! Who knew??”

Most of the flowers in Alyssa’s ceremony bouquet were grown in her mum’s garden, plus a few handmade additions. “She picked them that morning and brought them down for me to arrange in the registry office. I had a couple of my own to add from the bunches we bought from our local florist, to do the table decorations for Sunday,” she explained.

“You may also spot some pompoms with googly eyes, or as I have dubbed them: our silly billy buttons. These were just for fun because why not?”

There’s truly nothing like a Melbourne registry wedding in the gorgeous Old Treasury Building! “We decided to have a quiet and simple ceremony at the registry office, just for us, our parents and my grandma. As a registry office wedding, we had a 150-word limit (other than the legal bit), which really kept us both on point. It was beautiful to hear each other’s vows for the first time in the room and realise just how in sync we both are.”

Bec Matheson was the photographer who captured both of Alyssa and Pete’s celebrations – and we’re so glad they picked her! “I hate photos. Since a young age, I’ve hated having my photo taken. Bec is someone I’ve known for a long, long time and have always loved her photography. When Pete and I first started talking about getting married, Bec was the photographer. That was the one thing we knew,” Alyssa shared.

“She made us both feel so safe and comfortable and not at all silly despite the silly, silly things we decided to do for our intentionally awkward photos. She has captured so many WONDERFUL moments; we are utterly over the moon with the huge selection of incredible photos she got. She also managed to capture EVERYONE. We didn’t really want to do much of the formal photo taking, other than a couple that you really just have to get, so this was particularly impressive.”

After the ceremony, the party moved to a pub across the road to celebrate with their broader immediate family and favourite people. A taste of the party coming a few days later.

Welcome to Thornbury was the backdrop for their party reception. It’s a beautiful venue that they kept coming back to until they finally locked it in. “They were so great, really accommodating and exactly the low-key chill vibe we’re after. Having the arcade was also a major bonus and something we were excited for our guests to be able to partake in!”

There are so many incredible handmade details that Alyssa and Pete poured their hearts into, and we’re so excited to share all their goodies with our Dotties. “Our guest book was a giant game of Jenga. We’re over the moon by how involved people got in it. We each wrote our vows on a block, so now we have a special memento of the day to reflect on at every garden party. We plan to write or illustrate a little something each anniversary until all sides of the blocks are fully covered!” Alyssa explained.

“We illustrated our own invitations and used these designs to inform our party favours – a custom deck of cards. We illustrated a different image for each card (yep, all 54), with the suits matching the fluffy critters in our lives: hearts for our cat Hazel, Diamonds for our dog Gregasus, Spades for our fluffy chickens, and Clubs for our bees!

We also had a little animation featured on the screens. Our relationship really started over a little animation, so it felt fitting to bring it full circle and animate something old, borrowed and new for the special occasion. The animation features little animated versions of ourselves, and our original characters from our first date, composited onto footage from our adventures at home and overseas.”

And while all of those huge DIYs individually were well worth it, it’s the combination that really brought their celebration to life. Alyssa also made the adorable cake toppers to sit atop the incredible cake made by Marnie’s Cakes! “She just got the brief. We had such an ordeal finding the right person to make our cakes. It was very Goldilocks: the first one just couldn’t do the simple flavours we wanted; too elaborate. The next we couldn’t get ahold of to order custom ahead of time; we could only order a week out – too stressful. The next couldn’t do gluten- and dairy-free. Then Marnie, oh, the queen that is Marnie. She could do it all!

The look: 100%

The service: 100%

The taste: 1000%”

With so many beautiful details scattered throughout their colourful celebration, Alyssa was barely able to narrow it down to her favourite five. But here they are:

“1. Marrying my person.

2. Sharing the love with our nearest and dearest

3. The overwhelming support from the people in the room for us as individuals and as a pair

4. Sharing in a big trivia game with all our favourite people

5. Photos that captured so many moments.”

One of Alyssa’s favourite shots that Bec captured is one of her and Pete in the arcade having the time of their lives. “There’s one particular photo in the arcade when we’re fully in the moment, I think Pete had just overtaken another car coming up the the finish line and we’re both just loving it!”

For Pete, being surrounded by all of their favourite people and sharing the love he and Alyssa have with everyone was the best part of their colourful wedding. “I remember the colour, the decorations, the giddy feelings, the countless smiles and the warm fuzzies of being surrounded by so many loved ones,” he shared.

“Truly it was so uplifting to feel the love Alyssa and I have for each other in that room, and to find the quiet of our beaming smiles connecting in amongst the chorus of cheers. Also to see our numerous circles of friends, niblings, cousins and colleagues all mingling over giant Jenga, arcade games and ultimately fun, silly, joy. Yeah, that was pretty darn special!”