Real Wedding – Ali & Mitch, Ocean Grove VIC

June 5, 2023 In Beach, Black and White, Real Weddings, Victoria By Ivory Tribe

Real Wedding – Ali & Mitch, Ocean Grove VIC

Ali and Mitch’s wedding day is all about laid-back fun, timeless elegance and soft coastal vibes. Choosing one of our favourite ocean-side venues, The Dunes, made for an epic backdrop to their beautifully amped-up celebrations.

Kicking off the party in the best way, celebrant Kate Uren created a ceremony filled with laughter and poignant moments, setting the tone for the fun to come.

Letting the striking architecture and vista of the venue shine, Ali and Mitch chose to enhance rather than overwhelm, with decor in soft natural textures and a monochromatic palette accented with creamy florals. Their advice when choosing your dream day style? Trust your vendors; they’ll give the best guidance (we couldn’t agree more!).

As the sun went down, the dance floor heated up, with every epic moment captured by Colcheedas Photography. And to record every sweet, bold and loved-up audio message from the guests? Our fave, Off the Hook audio guest book.

Scroll on for every perfect party detail.

The meeting.

Mitch and I first met in 2014. One of my best friends, Emily, was dating one of Mitch’s best mates, Aaron. Emily and Aaron tried to set us up around that time, but neither of us was interested then! About two years later, I was umpiring mixed netball on a Monday night and happened to be umpiring Mitch’s team. Mitch definitely caught my eye (as well as his netball skills!). Emily played matchmaker again a few weeks later at a Halloween party we were all at, and we have been together ever since.

The ‘one’.

I think we both knew pretty early on that we had something very special.

The proposal.

Mitch had planned a few nights away in the Yarra Valley in the week after New Year’s Eve 2022 when we were both still on Christmas holidays. However, that was spoiled by a positive Covid exposure, which meant we had to isolate for a week, meaning our few nights away could not go ahead. On the day we were free from iso, Mitch suggested we still go out to the Yarra Valley to a few wineries. We stopped at Kangaroo Ground lookout on the way, a special spot for us where we went on one of our first dates. We went for a little walk when Mitch announced, “Yep, this is a good spot”, and popped the question. We then got to spend the rest of the day wining and dining as fiancés.

Planning process.

We had initially anticipated a long-ish engagement and were aiming to get married in late 2023. We had just moved into our first home, which we planned on renovating when we got engaged, so there was a lot going on! We didn’t want to rush into booking anything for the wedding.

We knew we wanted to get married down on the Bellarine Peninsula, as we spend a lot of time down there at my family holiday house in Torquay and love it down here. On the March 2022 Labour Day long weekend, we thought we would have a look at a few venues while we were down in Torquay.

The Dunes was the first place we went, and we knew as soon as we arrived it was perfect for what we had envisioned. The Dunes ticked all our boxes, being such a stunning architecturally designed building that fits perfectly in the landscape and captures stunning beach views. Once we met the team during our first meeting, we knew they perfectly understood us and the vibe of the wedding we wanted to have. There was a date available on the 2023 Labour Day long weekend, and we thought, stuff it, let’s do it! Being over the long weekend, we were hoping to have a bit of a ‘festival of Ali and Mitch’ and encourage our guests to stay for the whole weekend with a recovery day the day after.

Surprisingly, we found the planning process relatively easy. Once the big-ticket items were booked, the rest all came together. We were lucky enough to have a good friend of ours, Alex Colcheedas of Colcheedas Photography, as our photographer.

It also helped to have an amazing event team at The Dunes to make the process so seamless. From early planning to working out the finer details of how the day would run, to the day itself, Zoe and the Dunes team were nothing short of amazing. Nothing was too difficult, and there were no silly questions. The service on the day from the staff was exceptional and really elevated the vibes; I honestly cannot stress enough how grateful we are to the team. I can’t count how many of our guests told us how amazing all the staff were!

Style inspiration.

With such a beautiful venue like The Dunes, there was not a great deal we needed to do; the venue speaks for itself! We wanted a fairly classic and timeless style that would not overshadow the beauty and simplicity of the venue and views.

I got a lot of inspiration from looking at others’ weddings to see what I liked and didn’t like.

Rachelle, our florist from Posie Place, put together a mood board on the florals from a number of photos I had sent (some from Ivory Tribe Real Weddings!), and once we had that, everything else came together. Other than just the styling itself, it was really important to us that our wedding be super fun, with great music and lots of dancing and good times. Zoe and the team at The Dunes just got it and really helped us create the day we had imagined.

Lean on your vendors for advice/inspiration if you are feeling lost, as they will have seen it all and have a wealth of knowledge.

The ceremony.

Our ceremony was at a spot looking out to the beach that was located right near The Dunes. The weather gods looked after us, with the sun coming out just before the ceremony and no wind to mess up Mitch’s hair. Our celebrant, Kate Uren, was able to capture our personalities and set the fun and party vibes for the rest of the evening. There were lots of laughs and happy tears! It was also very important to us to have our families involved. My sister was my maid of honour, and Mitch’s brother his best man. We also wanted to include little spiels about each of our bridal parties and immediate families, which we really loved as well.

The outfit.

I never saw myself wearing a traditional wedding dress, and looking online; it was really difficult for me to picture myself in a lot of the dresses I saw. After going to a few try-on appointments at a few bridal designers and finding a few ‘just okay’ dresses, I saw a beautiful silk high-neck Mariana Hardwick dress online. I think I knew even before I tried it on it was the one, and luckily when we went to try it on, before I even saw myself in the mirror, I was saying, ‘Yep, we’re done; this is it!’. Mariana Hardwick custom makes each dress, so I went to several fittings over about ten months. The process was so amazing, and all the staff at MH were so amazing. I was so, so happy with how it turned out and how it was not quite like anything I had seen anyone else wear before.

Sticking with the classic style, I knew I wanted a traditional black tuxedo for the boys. The boys’ suits were from Mens Suit Warehouse, who were amazing to deal with.

Favourite moments.

I think we both agree one of our favourite moments of the day was entering our venue and going straight into our first dance. I could not imagine Mitch and me having a slow, lovey-dovey, blue-light disco shuffle first dance, and we wanted to do a first dance that was a bit out of the ordinary and got the vibes up for the rest of the night. Our friend choreographed a short Charlies Angels inspired dance to Heaven Must be Missing an Angel, complete with a lift at the end. We had a half an hour dance set before we sat down for dinner.

Meaning of marriage.

Getting to spend the rest of your life with your best friend.

Wedding soundtrack.

Aisle: You’re my best friend by Queen (Acoustic)

Recessional: This will be by Natalie Cole

Signing: Malibu by Miley Cyrus

Reception entry: Can’t get you out of my head by Kylie Minogue

First dance: Heaven must be missing an Angel by Tavares

Funny stories or near disasters.

About an hour before the boys had to leave to go to the ceremony, they were getting dressed and doing a last-minute iron of their shirts when the iron broke and leaked brown stuff all over one of their white shirts. A backup iron was found, which also didn’t work. So, they had to make a mad dash to Mitch’s dad’s Airbnb to find a working iron!

I was also supposed to have four bridesmaids. One of my bridesmaids (very excitingly) found out she was pregnant in July 2022. Doing the math in my head, I was a bit worried when she told me! And, of course, her due date turned out to be 11 March 2023 – the day after our wedding. We had planned for her not to be there, but with the odd chance she was not in labour on the wedding day, her partner and her would come down for the ceremony and post-ceremony cocktail hour. As fate would have it, she went into labour the morning of the wedding! While she couldn’t be there in body, she was with us in spirit and watched the ceremony on Facetime.

Words of wisdom.

Decide on your non-negotiables and work around that. Book the big things (photographer, music, florist) early to secure the vendors.

Working out how to word the tricky details on your invites can be a stressor of its own kind. We spoke to designers Mila + May to seek their advice on how to get a handle on your dream day wording, here on the blog.

ALI & MITCH’S VENDORS

Our venue had a useful list of recommended vendors which we got a lot of inspo from. We were lucky to have a good friend who is an amazing wedding photographer, so that was easy! And just looking online at pages like Ivory Tribe for inspiration!

Ceremony location: Mick’s Steps at Ocean Grove Surf Beach (adjacent to the Dunes)

Reception venue: The Dunes, Ocean Grove

Celebrant: Kate Uren

Photography: Colcheedas Photography

Florist: The Posie Place

Hair & make-up: Blondie Salon Geelong

The dress: Mariana Hardwick

Shoes: Naked Vice

Rings: Design, Manufacture, Deliver Jewellery

Suits: Mens Suit Warehouse

Cake: Sugar & Fleur

Stationery / Signage: Xela Studio