Real Wedding Elise & Tim, St Kilda VIC
Elise and Tim’s special day was truly a family affair – the long-time lovers were lucky enough to have their loved ones step in and plan their beautiful celebration on their behalf.
The high school sweethearts had the time of their lives at their fun-filled Luna Park celebration, even managing to squeeze in a roller-coaster ride before the party kicked off!
Captured by Tess Follett, this day was definitely filled with love and laughter, the perfect beginning to Elise and Tim’s ever after.
In their words…
The meeting.
We met in a Year 12 Maths Methods class in high school 16 years ago and have been together ever since.
The ‘one’.
It seemed like things were serious fairly early on piece. We’ve since grown up together and have spent the last 16 years laughing at each other’s bad jokes.
The proposal.
Tim proposed during White Nights in St Petersburg Russia two years ago. He surprised Elise with tickets to the Russian Ballet to see Swan Lake and after the performance proposed in front of the Church of the Savior on Blood.
We spent the rest of the evening dancing in a small bar with some great live music before sitting at the Annunciation bridge, waiting for it to close so that we could go back across the Neva river for some breakfast and some sleep! It was beautiful to watch the bridges open up along the river during White Nights – it’s such a gorgeous time of year and St Petersburg is an incredible city.
The planning.
Our family did most of the planning for us. Our parents and siblings organised different parts of the big day. Elise’s mum and dad created most of the decorations, made succulent potted centerpieces, created the bouquets and dealt with the wedding suppliers and venue. They organised most of it! Elise’s dad and sister built and decorated the wedding arch that we were married under (which was a surprise on the day –it was the first time we saw it, and it was incredible!). Tim’s sister helped to find the wedding venue and organised run sheets, and event timings, and the cake – which was absolutely delicious. Elise’s brother and sister in-law organised printing, the ring bearer lunchbox case (which was also another surprise on the day) and did a lot of the sound and visual logistics.
Thanks to our families, we managed to shirk a lot of the planning responsibilities and had some lovely surprises on the day.
Style inspiration.
The first thing we decided on was the outfits for the kids. As we had a six month old son, shopping for his clothes seemed much more fun. We chose some little overalls and hats for the kids in the bridal party our son and then found some groomsman outfits to match.
We really liked the idea of a white wedding and the bridesmaids managed to find some nice white dresses for themselves, as well as some lovely dresses for the flower girls.
The dress.
Having recently had a baby, I wasn’t really in the mood for dress shopping but my mum encouraged me to start looking. I’m glad she did.
Because I’d left it so late we were told by a lot of shops that we needed to buy off the rack, which actually worked out really well! I ended up buying a Watters dress off the rack from Brides on Collins. It was the right length and needed only a few small alterations to fit nicely on the day. There was no waiting, no complications on getting something made to measure, and I just loved the simplicity and quality of the dress on the day.
Favourite moment(s).
We were able to squeeze in a roller coaster ride just before the reception. It was just the two of us and it was quite romantic – contrary to what you might imagine a roller coaster to be. Having a wedding is fabulous because you get to celebrate with your friends and family, but it was also really lovely to have some time along together to laugh, watch the sunset and celebrate the fact that we’d just gotten hitched.
Traditions.
We had a slightly different version of the bouquet and garter toss. It can be quite isolating to be made to ‘get up for the bouquet/garter toss’ when you’re unmarried, so we decided to do bouquet/garter toss for prosperity with all of the girls and boys up. The bouquet was filled with lottery tickets, and the garter also had some attached. It ended up being quite fight for the flowers!
Wedding soundtrack.
Aisle: Perfect Day by Lou Reed
Entry: Playground Love by Air
Planning surprises.
Run sheets. We didn’t realise you had to script out the whole day. It really is like a theatre production.
Words of wisdom.
- Outsource it your friends and family. Our family came up with incredible ideas that were lovely surprises on the day. They did a better job than we would have!
- Get a great photographer and a videographer! Several friends repeatedly told us to get both a photographer and a videographer. We are so glad we did. Our wedding photos are just gorgeous, and it was so lovely to watch our wedding video with our family and remember some of the great moments we might have been a little to drunk to recall! Our photographer Tess and videographer Gregory blended right in and felt like friends. It didn’t feel contrived or time consuming, but was actually a really fun experience getting candid photos and video footage of the day.
Last words.
We really enjoyed the process of designing the wedding invitations. Maybe because we didn’t do too much on the wedding organisation, it was great working with an illustrator to create our wedding invites.
Rollercoasters and amusement parks tickle your fancy? Lydia and Trent got hitched on a private property, that was also once a theme park. Check out the fun here.
ELISE AND TIM’S TRIBE.
Ceremony and reception venue: Luna Park
Celebrant: Rachel Manik at One Great Day
Photography: Tess Follett
Videography: Gregory Kazantcev at Once and for All
Styling and florals: Mum!
Hair and makeup: Kim Tavares
The Dress: Brides on Collins
Shoes: Prada
Bridesmaid’s dresses: Cue
Groom’s suit: Trevor West
Catering: Going Gourmet
Cake / Cake topper: Janelle Ghys at The Cake Guys
Stationery / Signage: Aimee Paints
Entertainment: Kobi Grant (acoustic singer) and Reeva from Pulse DJs
