Real Wedding – Em & Pat, West Melbourne VIC
Embracing a blank canvas to create their urban masterpiece, Emma and Pat nailed the planning for their city celebration.
Contrasting a warehouse backdrop with an elegant array of green and white florals, their modern approach to styling brought the party of their dreams to life.
Accompanied by a stylish crew of bridesmaids and groomsmen, this is one city party that will have you suitably inspired.
Tribe photographer Tony Evans was there to catch all the action.
In Emma’s words…
The meeting.
We had known each other through friends since school so we both don’t remember an actual meeting time as such! Pat does remember me coming up to him one night at Arcadia and interrogating him about his motives with one of my good friends (one of my bridesmaids actually!) so that’s a moment that stuck out for him!
The ‘one’.
We first kissed at 21 and then travelled separately after that for about a year (emailing back and forth throughout). Pat cancelled three dates when I returned from travelling so I was ready to write him off when Mum convinced me to agree to a fourth. Luckily he didn’t cancel that, and the rest is history. We both knew fairly soon that we had each found ‘the one’, although we had about eight years of dating before getting engaged – just to make sure!
The proposal.
Pat was living in Auckland for work and he had planned a weekend on Waiheke Island for my birthday. After a rocky start to the day (I refused to walk to the winery in the rain / he was freaking out and checking his pockets every five minutes for the ring – unbeknownst to me!), we had drinks and an amazing lunch at Cable Bay Winery then set off for our next stop. On the walk there we stopped to admire the view over the island, bay and across to Auckland City and when I turned around to keep going he was on one knee. Whenever we had talked about getting engaged he loved the idea of celebrating with friends and family that same night so I never thought that he would propose while we were away but the day was perfect!
The process.
We were engaged for about 18 months so had plenty of time to plan everything. We locked in the venue, photographer, videographer, and some other main things pretty quickly which meant we only had to do little jobs occasionally in the lead up which was really relaxed.
Style inspiration.
We had been to a lot of weddings and wanted somewhere a little different for our reception so when we found Gather & Tailor we knew it would be great – a blank canvas to do whatever we wanted. We kept everything fairly simple, a bit of a modern clean look to contrast with the industrial warehouse and shipping containers. One thing we were sure of from the start was that we wanted everyone to just have a really fun day so we kept that in mind throughout the process.
The dress.
I’d seen a picture of my dress on Instagram and loved it straight away. I went to a Melbourne stockist and as soon as I tried it on, it just felt right, comfortable and relaxed. I kept looking though, thinking it couldn’t be that easy, but every other dress I tried I compared it to that so after three or four appointments I went back and locked in the original.
Favourite moments.
Em: I relaxed as soon as I made it down the aisle and was standing next to Pat – that was definitely one of my favourite moments as my nerves vanished and I really calmed down (the aisle walk was terrifying – I hated being the centre of attention!).
Pat: My favourite moment of the day was the time we allocated to photos between the ceremony and the reception – getting to spend time with the bridal party, our best friends, and have an hour or so to relax and enjoy officially being married. Tony made the whole photo processed really relaxed and we had a lot of laughs. It was a calm moment in a fast paced day.
Meaning of marriage.
Life together with your best friend, laughing every day.
Wedding soundtrack.
Aisle: Promise by Ben Howard
Ceremony: The Girl by City and Colour Love Is All by The Tallest Man On Earth
Ceremony exit: (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher by Jackie Wilson
First dance: Fire and The Flood by Vance Joy
Funny stories (or near disasters).
The street that the church was in was actually shut down on the day of the wedding for the Moomba rehearsals so everyone got quite the welcome on the way in with a parade rehearsal in full force out the front of the church.
Pat also lost his ring down the plane toilet on our way to the ‘minimoon’ at Jervis Bay…not funny at the time but a great story to tell now! He managed to get it out luckily…lots of Dettol and wipes were purchased as soon as we got off the plane!
Words of wisdom.
Just relax and know that, whatever happens, your day will be amazing. Enjoy having all your favourite people in the same place. Don’t stress if things don’t go to plan – you are the only one who knows all the details so if things don’t work out as planned no one else will ever know!
Talented lensman Tony Evans nails a city celebration – for more urban inspo – see Anna and Tom’s perfect party here.
EM & PAT’S TRIBE
Ceremony venue / location: St Thomas Aquinas Chapel, South Yarra
Reception venue / location: Gather & Tailor, West Melbourne
Celebrant/Officiant: Fr Michael Sierakowski – Michael was fantastic; if you’re looking for a Catholic priest who is relevant, modern and a lot of fun he is definitely your guy.
Photography: The Best! Tony Evans – Tony was absolutely amazing – he made the whole process so relaxed and enjoyable, and all our guests commented on how great he was too!
Videography: The White Tree
Styling: We did the styling ourselves
Florist: Ange from Flower Jar
Hair: Renee from Studio 2 Hair & Make Up
Make-up: Mecca Armadale
The dress: Made With Love Bridal
Suit: The boys at The Suit Shop were amazing.
Veil / headwear: Veil from Bluebell Bridal
Shoes: Emy Sandals by Bianca Buccheri from Dolce Firme
Rings: Em – Engagement ring from JMS Diamonds and sourced my own wedding band through my business GMS Silver – we now do diamonds!
Pat: Pat has an amazing, rose gold custom ring from Lucy Folk
Bridesmaid’s dresses: Jess at Manning Cartell was so lovely, she helped us find all 6 dresses in the right sizes. The girls all wore GMS Silver jewellery.
Groomsmen’s suits: Ferrari Formal Wear. Pat also got each of the groomsmen, and his Dad, a pair of cufflinks with their initials engraved on them – from GMS Silver of course!
Bow ties / ties: David Jones
Catering: Pot and Pan
Cake / Cake topper: No cake, or dessert. My mum nearly died when we told her there would be nothing sweet…she ended up sneaking in bags full of Ferrero Rocher’s for everyone without us knowing!
Stationery / Signage: Invitations from State of Reverie and all our other print work was done by one of our amazing friends – Kate Rogers.
Entertainment: We had the best acoustic guitarist at the ceremony who also played when we had a couple of hours of drinks when the reception started – Fraser McFarlane – and a DJ for the reception, The Meehan Twins.
Transport: We had such a large bridal party (6 each!) that we decided to get a mini bus so everyone could be together – it was so much fun!
Décor: I found all our candles and glass votives on Gumtree, napkins from Kmart and fairylights from Ebay…and sold them all on afterwards – so worth the extra time searching to save lots of hire fees.
Hire: Cutlery from Gold Cutlery Hire
Linen: Di Simmons
Seating chart: State of Reverie
Honeymoon: Jervis Bay and Europe.
