Real Wedding – Alice & Ryan, Collingwood VIC
Intimate, impactful and stylishly stunning are our impressions of Alice and Ryan’s inner-city micro-wedding. Proving that a small guest list still conjures up all the feels, this celebration is equal parts genuine, heartfelt emotion and huge doses of fun.
The new husband and wife nailed their look, with Ryan in a custom-made kilt in his clan tartan and Alice a vision of dreamy romance with a chic contemporary edge. An on-point headpiece by Clair Hahn and artful floral arrangement by Brett Matthew John complemented to perfection her softly layered gown by Brooke Tyson Ritual. Soft accents of cornflower blue add a touch of timelessness to the overall effect.
The portrait shoot throughout the streets of inner Melbourne unfolds like an arthouse film, captured to perfection by Elsa Campbell photography.
We fully get behind Alice and Ryan’s plan – locking in a mid-week wedding only three months out, choosing their dream photography and following her vendor recommendations to create a superstar team. Low stress, big feels and a look to love for many years to come! Scroll on to see all the dreamy details.
The meeting.
We met twelve years ago at a mutual friend’s party (shout out to Kate and Jono). We were 17 & 19 and have grown up together.
The ‘one’.
Neither of us can think of a specific moment this happened, but it’s always been a given for both of us that we’d get married one day.
Planning process.
We’ve been engaged for a long time and had gone through a few variations of plans, then covid happened, and we had to delay even further. We finally just decided to make it happen and chose a mid-week date three months in the future. We are both wedding vendors ourselves (in New Zealand), so we’ve been to hundreds of weddings. We really wanted to separate our wedding from our work, so we looked further afield and settled on Melbourne.
We spend so much time at gorgeous wineries, farms and beaches for our couples’ weddings that we really wanted a different vibe for our own wedding. We are also really not centre-of-attention kind of people! So, we kept the guest list really small, with only our immediate families. This made wedding planning really easy and mostly stress-free.
We started off with the idea of having the ceremony at Fitzroy Gardens and dinner afterwards at Rupert on Rupert. The first vendor we settled on was the most important to us – the photographer. We found Elsa Campbell on Instagram and absolutely loved her work and vibe. My plan had always been to pick a photographer and then follow their recommendations on everything else, which is exactly what we did! We ended up with such a fantastic team of vendors.
Style inspiration.
We both have a bit of an eclectic style and added things and ideas as we went along, with no general direction of where we’d end up. We didn’t need to do anything at all for the ceremony and reception venue (which ended up both being at Rupert due to the weather); Rupert is such a cool spot we didn’t think we needed to add anything, also keeping with my motto of simple and easy. I had never been to the venue in person until I walked down the aisle!
For inspiration, we definitely looked at real weddings! I love to see how people bring together a whole day and all the little things they choose that show off their personalities so well.
The ceremony.
We didn’t settle on the ceremony location until 10am the day of the wedding! Rain meant we had to find a last-minute indoor option, and we were so lucky that Rupert were able to accommodate us so perfectly.
Our ceremony was our favourite part of the day. We didn’t expect to feel so emotional and to enjoy it so much. Ryan had tears in his eyes when I walked in (I’ve never seen him cry before, apart from once when he watched The Notebook – lol). It was really special to celebrate our relationship after so many years together. Lisa, our celebrant, was amazing! Our ceremony was funny, nostalgic and romantic.
The look.
Ryan is Scottish, so it was really important for him to wear a kilt; the colours are his clan tartan, so they were picked for him. He had his whole outfit made to measure in Edinburgh and had it sent over.
I had seen a fun mini dress by a designer I loved, Brooke Tyson Ritual, so I made an appointment to try it. I loved the mini but ended up trying on a long dress with silk organza sleeves just to see how the material felt. I changed my whole vision and went for a long, flowy custom dress with the sleeves of one gown and the skirt of another. At our last fitting, I made quite a lot of changes, so I had no idea what the finished dress looked like until the wedding. It was a really fun process! Having so few guests really took the pressure of looking perfect off, and we could really have fun with our outfits.
Favourite moments.
The ceremony! Reading our vows to each other in front of our family.
But doing photos in the streets and dinner at Rupert were also amazing!
Meaning of marriage.
A lifelong commitment and celebrating everything that’s led us to it.
Wedding soundtrack.
Aisle: What’s Chasing You by Marlon Williams. This is probably a bit non-traditional, but we wanted something relaxed and not too emotional otherwise, we were going to lose it!
Signing: Blackbird by The Beatles
Recessional: You’ve Got The Love by Florence + the Machine.
Funny stories or near disasters.
Our original plan was to get married in the gardens, and because we had so few guests, I was really chill about finding a plan B in case of wet weather (meaning I didn’t find one). I thought if it happened, we’d just be able to find a cosy corner somewhere in the city. What I hadn’t counted on was it was actually raining! And it did, all day long. So it was pretty stressful trying to find alternatives at the last minute, I was very close to having a breakdown during my nail appointment at Trophy Wife, but the girls there were brainstorming and finding me backup options. It really helped to just sit and not be able to use my phone for an hour?! Rupert ended up being so perfect that I can’t imagine it being anywhere else.
Planning surprises.
Finding and booking the vendors is the easy part! It’s all the other little logistics that get overwhelming.
Words of wisdom.
Use your vendors! Find a great one and then ask for recommendations; they know everything about the wedding industry, and they know who you should trust. If you don’t have a lot of time for planning, consider a weekday wedding. We could lock in all our favourite vendors with only three months’ notice. And do whatever you like! We skipped a lot of the traditional aspects and didn’t miss them at all.
Want to build your dream team of wedding vendors, but unsure where to begin? We’ve got the best in the business, here on our directory – so get scrolling, booking and excited!
ALICE & RYAN’S VENDORS
Ceremony & reception venue: The cocktail lounge at Rupert on Rupert. Rhi was a superstar, especially with our last-minute changes; she literally saved the day! The food was amazing, and the space was beautiful. As we had such a small party and didn’t book the whole venue, we had the cocktail lounge to ourselves and didn’t have to pay a hire fee, so it was pretty affordable too.
Celebrant: Lisa Brown. Lisa was one of our favourite wedding picks! She was so lovely, funny, and sweet. We felt so well taken care of, and the ceremony was our favourite part of the day.
Photography: Elsa Campbell. We don’t have the words! Elsa was incredible: stunning work, stunning vibes. We adore our photos and couldn’t be happier.
Florist: Flowers by Brett Matthew John. I loooved my flowers! So good. Brett was awesome to work with and nailed the brief. His work is amazing and so different to anything I’d seen before. I wish I could have taken them home with me!
Hair & make-up: Meghan Harrison. Meghan did my hair and make-up with no trial, but it was perfect! Exactly what I wanted, and she was such a great presence to have getting ready.
The dress: Brooke Tyson Ritual. Amazing! Brooke does a lot of custom work, so she’s really talented at turning your vision into reality. I had so much fun wearing my dress and veil.
Headwear: My headband was by Clair Hahn. She made this beautiful custom piece, it was one of the first things I got wedding planning, and my whole outfit followed.
Shoes: Loeffler Randall
Rings: Ryan’s was by Meadowlark
Suit: Ryan’s outfit was from Gordon Nicolson Kiltmakers
Cake: Ladybird Cakes. So yummy!
Other: Nails at Trophy Wife
