Real Wedding – Andrew & Tania, Melbourne VIC
Andrew and Tania’s garden party soiree has all the feels of an epic family celebration, with the style and vision of an elegantly curated event. With six months from their beautifully “them” proposal (no spoilers!) to their dream day date, engaging stylists and planners Lettuce & Co. meant Andrew and Tania were their most relaxed, stunning selves, and their day a true dream for everyone involved.
Leaning into the lush, abundant surrounds of the Melbourne Botanic Garden in summertime meant that a garden party theme was not only fitting, it appeared effortless. Hues of the freshest apricot, peach and lilac juxtapose perfectly alongside pops of bluebell and dove grey linens, creating an enticing blending of exterior and interior – classic garden aesthetics done through a contemporary lens.
For us, it’s the little details captured through the artful lens of Georgia Verrells that elevate this day – moments between family, Tania in her dreamy gown with botanical lace embellishments, and of course, our absolute favourite – the talented Baker Boys Band leading guests from the ceremony drinks to the reception area for the party to kick on.
This day is a refreshing balm to a grey day – scroll on for all the dreamy details!
The meeting.
We met at The Standard Hotel in Fitzroy, October 2018.
The ‘one’.
Tania: Our dates always felt easy, with lots of conversation about our love of food and wine, travel, and the crazy adventures we’d been on. I particularly loved Andrew’s grounded nature and authenticity. He has always been direct, and never kept me guessing. Anyway, about a month into our relationship, when discussing our many ambitions, I said to Andrew, “I think I get a bit ahead of myself with what I can do”, and he turned to me and smiled and said, “Well, it’s easier with two”. I think that might have been the actual moment.
Andrew: I suspected it before, but I knew Tania was the one when, after spending the weekend at a friend’s Gippsland farm, she proclaimed that her new favourite activity was, “riding the quad bike”.
The proposal.
Andrew asked me a few days after our son Alexander was born. It was such a magical time, despite me physically feeling so exhausted and Andrew sick as a dog with a cold. Andrew came by to have dinner with me and the baby – with the promise of not getting too close. After we’d eaten, Andrew said he wanted to give me something. He pulled out a watch he’d bought for me just the day before and casually proposed, ‘It might be nice to get married?’. I similarly casually said, ‘ok’, though I was over the moon. I couldn’t imagine finding anyone else who felt more like home to me and also so fascinating, and hey, getting a ring like everyone else would just be too boring!
Planning process.
We chose a wedding date within six months of our engagement because we thought it would be nice to have a summer wedding and also a date close to Christmas when we could hopefully catch overseas family and friends coming home for the holidays. The planning was a bit rushed initially, but I had time since I was still on maternity leave, and it was really nice not to have to wait so long for the day to come!
Choosing the venue really kicked off our planning and helped to focus the theme and styling for our other selections. Next, we locked in the wedding dress, florist, photographer, videographer, band, and celebrant, and then felt we could relax for a bit. Andrew’s brother and sister-in-law had been married earlier in the year in a beautiful home wedding and had enlisted the help of wedding planners Lettuce & Co, and on a strong recommendation from them, we decided to also get them on board to help bring all the details together – and I’m really glad we did. Our somewhat “blank canvas” marquee really needed a lot of thought as to its layout, styling, audio-visual requirements, etc. There really is so much detail to planning a wedding, including managing the agenda on the day; that was so nice to surrender to someone else who I knew had it all under control.
Style inspiration.
Given both our wedding ceremony and reception were planned to be in the gardens, arguably the most beautiful gardens in Melbourne, it felt natural that our styling would amplify the ‘garden party’ setting and make the most of the warm, summer weather – fingers crossed.
The inspiration via real weddings from wedding blogs and social media felt most helpful to us, as it seemed most authentic and realistic regarding the result we could expect on the day from the various responsible vendors. Also, having so much variety in real wedding styling gave us a feel for so many options.
The ceremony.
It was nice to put the time and effort into meeting with our celebrant, Susan beforehand, having her chat with us about us as a couple and why we chose to get married, as well as supporting us to personalise our ceremony, including writing our own personal vows and ring wording, which grounded us back to why we were doing all of this. It’s otherwise easy to get caught up in all the event/party planning (which is fun, too!), but I guess, ultimately, it doesn’t mean much without the purpose at the forefront.
Otherwise, the ceremony itself was super cute. It was such a beautiful day; at 24 degrees and sunny, it couldn’t have been better, and waking up that morning to see such a perfect day just felt like such a good omen. Andrew and I got ready separately that day so it was particularly exciting then to see each other (and have an outfit reveal!) at the ceremony. When our song started and we walked down the aisle together, seeing all our friends and family smiling at us, it all felt just right.
The outfit.
Tania: When I started looking, I had no idea what type of dress would be the perfect one. It seemed to be a combination of suiting my style, my body shape, our garden wedding theme, and one that just felt special. I did a blitz of trying on many different styles in one day across two shops and couldn’t quite narrow which I liked the most beyond a top five, which led me to believe I probably hadn’t found ‘the perfect one’. I then saw another dress online, which I instantly liked, and when I went and tried it on in-store, I felt wow-ed. The decision was easy. This was my wedding dress from Maelle Bride.
Andrew: Well, my wedding felt like the opportunity to get a great suit. So, with that thought, I decided to go check a couple of custom suit options, which allowed me to have it tailored perfectly and customised all the way. However, when I did this, I realised I didn’t love the idea of not having a sense of the final look until it was made. I went to Zegna for a quick look at what they had, and it turned out that an off-the-rack option suited me perfectly. With the bonus that the city store was only 100m or so from our home!! Too easy.
Favourite moments.
Andrew: Seeing Tania, she looked beautiful.
Tania: So many favourite moments. It has to be between our sunset photos when we got to just hang out together for a bit and talk about how crazy amazing our wedding was whilst walking around the beautiful gardens.
Meaning of marriage.
Andrew: Means you love someone enough that you’ll do right by them forever.
Tania: Awww.. Andrew’s answer! I guess for me it’s committing to always try that bit harder to work things out, even if it becomes really tough. Also, although we’ve now had a child together, which is perhaps an even bigger commitment to each other, we still want to recognise and celebrate the importance of our relationship, also with our family and friends, and even our son, who got to be there with us!
Wedding soundtrack.
Aisle (Andrew & Tania together): Writer of Love Songs by The Maes, John Flanagan Signing: Harvest Moon by Neil Young
Recessional: California Stars by Wilco, Billy Bragg
Reception entry: Low Rider by War
First dance: I’ll Supply The Love by Toto
Reception exit: Strange Overtones by David Byrne, Brian Eno
Funny stories or near disasters.
Not many. Maybe just a little bit of stress about our first dance. We had an amazing teacher who was super flexible in coming to our house for lessons in the evenings after our son went to bed. We loved doing the lessons, and even if we initially felt too tired, we always really enjoyed it when we got going, and afterward would reflect on how it was a fun experience to have together in the lead-up to the wedding.
But then we’d have moments when we were really busy, something would come up, and we had to cancel a lesson, and we felt so stressed that we would be like, why the heck did we commit to this dance?!
Whilst the dance was perhaps what I was most nervous about in preparing for our wedding day, on the day, we had so much going on that we didn’t stress about it too much, and it just worked. Also, Andrew was right (yes, I said it!) to suggest a song that was more fun than serious – it took the pressure off!
Planning surprises.
The amount of detail that’s required to be planned for the day and how the actual wedding day benefited from having a schedule or run sheet so everyone was aware of what was happening.
The amount of decisions to be made in the lead-up. I definitely got decision fatigue!
Words of wisdom.
Leave yourself plenty of space in the days before the wedding to manage the last-minute stuff, like any changes in guest attendance, writing speeches, updating your MC, bridal party, and any family or friends helping know the final plan or any changes, hanging or steaming your dress and veil in preparation, etc. as there just always is a few things that have to be done right at the end.
Have a run sheet for your day so everyone knows what’s happening when, and who’s doing what. Have “captains” for different jobs on the day to take the responsibility away from yourself, for example, gathering family or friends for wedding portraits, bringing and taking home your cake knife, handing out flowers at the end of the night, taking the gifts home for you.
Tania and Andrew struck it lucky when it came to the weather, but if the forecast for your wedding day isn’t looking so dreamy, here’s our tips for ensuring the weather doesn’t overshadow your special moments.
ANDREW & TANIA’S VENDORS
To find our vendors, we asked friends and family who had recently had a wedding for recommendations, we looked at online bridal sites such as Ivory Tribe for directories and real weddings features which listed suppliers, we trawled Instagram and checked out the suppliers list when spotting items/aspects we loved and we asked suppliers for recommendations. For example, our photographer Georgia Verrells recommended videographer John Kurt and we instantly loved his work too. I guess suppliers who have a style you love will likely lead you to others of a similar style or at least quality.
Ceremony location: Princes Lawn at Royal Botanical Gardens of Victoria.
Reception venue: Alto Marquee, Dog Flat at Royal Botanical Gardens of Victoria.
Catering & bar: Curtis Stone Events. We had many people tell us they’d never had as good food and wine at a wedding – which makes us very happy! (Seems we didn’t really miss out by not having the wedding at a restaurant like we first imagined!)
Celebrant: Susan McBride
Photography: Georgia Verrells. Georgia was super easy going, and fun to be around on the day. But most importantly, she gave us SO MANY beautiful photos of our day, capturing both the big and small moments around us, that we perhaps even missed on the day, and will treasure forever.
Videography: John Kurt
Styling: Lettuce & Co. The Lettuce & Co team did an amazing job in turning our concept board into reality on the day, adding even more detail and flourishes that gave the event the next level of personalisation and thoughtfulness that we wanted to share with our guests.
Florist: Rose Studios. I was so happy to have a reason to engage Emily of Rose Studios who I had been following on Instagram for some time. Her arrangements are quite whimsical – they are bold and striking yet still have an organic feel to them that felt perfect for the enchanted garden party vibe we wanted for our wedding. Anyway, I never considered anyone else, and I wasn’t disappointed. Emily was fun to collaborate with and did an amazing job for us. Flowers were my favourite styling aspect of the wedding, if that’s not obvious already.
Hair & make – up: Tonic Agency – Ashlea, hair and Madeleine, make-up.
The dress & veil: Eisten Stein purchased at Maelle Bride
Bride’s shoes: The Reformation
Rings: Tiffany & Co (Tania), Paul Bram (Andrew).
Suit: Zegna
Groom’s shoes: R.M. Williams
Cake / Cake topper: Nobody Hates Cake
Entertainment: Lehenda Ukrainian Dance Company, Baker Boys Band, Billy Joel Tribute Band
Transport: Mercedes S Class and classic Chevrolet (Groom’s late gradfather’s car kept in the family)
Hire: Harry The Hirer
Honeymoon: We planned our own month in Europe including London, Stockholm, Paris and car trip through Burgundy region.
First Dance: First Dance Melbourne
