Real Wedding Anniversary - Alex & Nicole, Red Hill VIC

January 30, 2020 In Peach, Real Weddings, Victoria By Jo Betz

Real Wedding Anniversary – Alex & Nicole, Red Hill VIC

In 2009 Nicole and Alex sealed the deal in a sweet ceremony, deciding to keep the day small and intimate and very much about them.

Fast forward ten loving years later, this perfect pair couldn’t think of anything better than celebrating their love story and wedding anniversary with the most important people in their lives, their family and friends. It was important to them both to simply express their sincere gratitude for the love and support these people have showed them over the years.

In romantic Red Hill, a first look at Nicole, took Alex’s breath away and made him fall in love all over again as they shared a special moment just the two of them.

They celebrated their wedding anniversary into the night and by their side was a Tribe of talent who helped bring their vision to life, including their fabulous photographer friend Elsa Campbell.

In Alex’s words…

The meeting.

We met when we were 15 years old. My dad worked with Nicole’s mum and Nicole’s family had my family over for dinner one time. (I promise it wasn’t an arranged marriage!) The funny thing is, that we both had prior arrangements that night and were going to leave early to go out. However, after meeting each other we both ditched our separate evening plans to spend more time together that night and as they say, the rest is history. We have been with each other ever since, 5 years later we got married. We have grown up together and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Wedding anniversary inspiration.

We had a very unconventional wedding. We had a large engagement party but for our wedding we decided not to have a reception and after the ceremony we had a simple candle lit dinner just the two of us. The one thing I missed most about not having a reception was having an opportunity to thank the people that mean the most to us in our lives. After being married for 10 years it made even more sense to express our gratitude to our family for always supporting us and being by our side, especially now that they are grandparents. It was really special, and it all got a bit emotional. Also, we wanted to have an opportunity to sit down with all our closest friends to celebrate our marriage and to share in some good food and drink together. It was really fun planning it all, from the flowers to the styling and our outfits.

The celebration.

To make the day feel a little more special we met up for a first look as I didn’t know what Nicole was going to wear. So, we had our friend Elsa Campbell to capture that formality and some family photos followed. After entering the venue to greet our guests we sat down for some speeches, a previously mentioned this was the most important part of the day for us. Then a nice 3 course meal followed, ending on our favorite dessert, tiramisu’!

Style inspiration.

We wanted to keep it quite colorful and modern, being a wedding photographer myself I loved seeing the design work of State of Reverie so we engaged Emily to do our invites and menu place cards. Also, our good friend Asha works at Pomp and Splendor who we simply gave a colour palette and allowed her to decorate the table and welcome sign as she wished.

The outfits.

I didn’t want the day to be overly formal, so we set the dress code as semi-formal – no ties really. I wanted everyone to look smart but still feel relaxed and comfortable. I wore a suit from Jack London and Nicole wore a white jumpsuit from Kookai.

Favourite moment.

For me it was seeing Nicole during our first look, it was really special, and it made me fall in love with her all over again like it was our wedding day. For Nicole it was the speeches and especially hearing her dad express kind words about us as a couple and how our parents feel about us as a married couple. We truly feel blessed to call our parents our best friends.

Meaning of marriage.

Marriage to us is a life-long commitment guided by self-sacrificing love.

Future hopes.

To continue to love each other more and more with each passing year and also to be able to express that love that we have for each other to our daughter Luna as we continue to explore the world and share in life’s adventures together as a family.

Final words.

The staff at the Red Hill Epicurean were super lovely and after the amazing lunch we spent the night at our favorite winery, Polperro just down the road which has become a bit of an anniversary tradition.