Real Wedding – Jenna & Robbie, Collingwood VIC
Sometimes a real wedding comes across our desks that hits us right in the feels. Jenna and Robbie’s beautifully laid-back, emotion-filled celebration absolutely had us by the heartstrings. Carefully considered personal touches, gorgeously genuine moments and uniquely stunning style all culminate in a dream day as aesthetically impactful as it is feeling-filled.
Beginning with an upbeat, so-true-to-them ceremony by the beautifully inclusive and warm Precious Celebrations, the tone was set for the party to unfold in style. Spring-toned florals in warm pastels of muted apricot, caramel and soft butter warm the rustic setting of Abbotsford Children’s Farm, while Jenna’s chic fit brings effortless contemporary glam.
Reception tables are adorned with golden apples and pears and overflowing bunches of grapes, adding a sense of abundance and whimsy that elevates the overall effect to one of uniquely exquisite style.
But for us, it’s the electric emotion captured in every shot by photography master artist Kyra Boyer that outshines everything. From the newlyweds to the guests, this is one amped-up party. And it’s all captured for eternity by the best videographer we’ve heard of – their gorgeous dog and his collar-mounted go-pro!
Scroll on to see every dream day moment.
The meeting.
We’ve been together for around four years however met several years prior to that through a mutual friend.
The one.
Within the first week or so of dating, I think we both knew we were pretty set on one another!
The proposal.
The proposal was particularly unceremonious, it happened after a night out with a bunch of friends and too many cocktails. A few mates came back to ours, and we were discussing weddings and who in our group was left to get hitched, and Robbie remarked, “why don’t we get married!?” To which Jenna replied, “Really!!??” To which Robbie responded with “yeah, why not”. It wasn’t necessarily the most romantic proposal ever, but it was perfect for us.
Planning process.
We began planning pretty soon after getting engaged, the process was so fun (especially before all the invoices needed to be paid!) We mainly used blogs and wedding magazines to get an idea of what we liked in a wedding, along with Instagram and Pinterest, where we saved ideas. I (Jenna) did most of the planning, including getting ideas for our venue and finding all our vendors, whereas Robbie played more of a moral support role!
We definitely found real weddings to be the main source of inspiration for us and our wedding. We felt we really made our day our own however, almost everything we did was picked up from other weddings we had seen photographed in blogs or on Instagram and Pinterest. Once we had a lot of saved ideas on our Pinterest board, then we were able to see what the most common themes were that we liked for the day and go with them.
The ceremony.
There were so many elements! We had our dog walk down the aisle with a GoPro on his back, so he filmed some really fun moments from the ceremony. It was also a great way to incorporate not only Jenna’s parents, who walked her down the aisle but Robbie’s parents too! Another element that we really appreciated was having Wurundjeri man Thane Garvey do a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony before the nuptials began. As the Yarra river (where our ceremony backed on to) is an incredibly culturally significant place to the Wurundjeri people, it felt important to acknowledge that in our ceremony and also make some time and space for that story to be heard and respected. It was such a beautiful moment and additionally gave us a moment to breathe before the ceremony started and brought us all together to focus on a bigger thing.
The outfits.
Found on the internet!
My dress was online at a store called The Own Studio, who operate out of London. All their designs were beautiful, timeless, chic, and contemporary along with not being too traditional. I loved De La Rosas wrap tops, too, so I got one as I knew it was a piece I would wear again, along with the dress which I am getting altered to be slightly shorter for future occasions. I also found a blazer at Assembly Label last minute as we realised it would be a chilly night.
Robbie’s kilt suit paid homage to his Scottish heritage and was also bought online via a Zoom fitting, it was made beautifully and fit perfectly; it’s amazing what the internet allows us to have access to nowadays.
Favourite moment.
There were so many! The smoking ceremony was definitely a huge highlight for both of us, in terms of wedding moments, though, just sitting at dinner with all our friends and family and seeing how happy and beautiful everyone was, was a great feeling.
Meaning of marriage.
Having your person and recognising how fortunate we are to have found someone who we ideally will spend the rest of our lives with.
Wedding soundtrack.
Texas Sun by Leon Bridges and Khruanghbin was the song I walked down the aisle to, Them Changes by Thundercat was the song we walked back down the aisle to and Moon River, a Frank Ocean cover of the classic, was our first dance. We also had a Bagpiper, Ross Bates, play traditional Scottish songs as guests arrived and then as we all walked to the reception from the ceremony, and with the rain, it all felt very Scottish!
Funny stories (or near disasters).
Jenna got her period just before the ceremony, which we are sure happens very often but was still a bit stressful given the white dress situation. Robbie got slightly distracted during the vows due to there being two very amorous goats mating behind Jenna.
Planning surprises.
Everyone always goes on about the day going too fast, and with that in mind, we ended up feeling like the day went for the perfect amount of time other than the getting ready phase, which was chaotic (granted, we also didn’t get home until after 5 am).
Words of wisdom.
The morning of the day (getting ready) goes so fast! Jenna ended up forgetting to pack a few things in her bag that she had meant to, so get all your emergency essentials ready the day before! Think about what your friends and family value when they’re together rather than simply what you want your day to look like. For us, that was good food, drinks, music and most importantly a good time! Whilst you will of course, remember what the day looked like, the thing you remember most is what the day FELT like, so getting the vibe right is important.
If you can, get a wedding planner. It wasn’t in our budget however we are sure we could’ve avoided a tonne of stress and late nights had we had one. And let people help you….again one we didn’t do due to Jenna wanting to have control of everything, however it would have been so good if we’d taken people up on their offers and again likely alleviated some stress.
Final words.
Be thrifty where you can; we provided our florist with some of the foliage from our garden to help fill out the installations of flowers at the venue; we also provided our cake maker with flowers from our garden to decorate the cake and did our own stationery. Wedding planning is stressful, but it’s also fun, so don’t take it too seriously; it’s one day, the best day ever, but only if you don’t put too much importance on it being perfect. The best part of our wedding was that it wasn’t perfect, things went wrong! But we wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Love the romance and feel-good vibes of a wedding day, but not sure a big soiree is your style? Read on to consider why a private ceremony and separate party might just be the perfect fit for you, here on the blog.
JENNA AND ROBBIE’S SUPPLIERS
Ceremony and reception: Collingwood Children’s Farm, Abbotsford
Reception venue: Collingwood Children’s Farm, Abbotsford (In the cow barn).
Celebrant: Precious Fawcett– Precious was not only our celebrant but also our MC, and we did not realise the importance of having her there all night until the evening came to an end! Her ability to charm a crowd, along with her conscientious nature meant that any issues we had throughout the night were swiftly and silently mitigated. She really was invaluable on the day/ night, not to mention someone we felt like was simply an old friend helping marry us!
Photography: Kyra Boyer. Kyra was the first person we had a meeting with about photographing our wedding, and as soon as we did, we were sold. Her photography is beautiful and seems to capture the essence of every wedding we looked at that she’d worked on. Her ability to capture the little moments that were lovely was uncanny, as was her ability to capture the joy of the day, which is exactly what we wanted. She also did so with such stealth! We were very nervous about how we would feel in front of the camera; however we needn’t have been as we oftentimes forgot she was there. Jenna bawled her eyes out as soon as the photos came, and our families have not stopped talking about them all.
Videography: Bosco the dog- It was so important to include our little dude on the day, and we loved having a dog’s perspective of the ceremony, complete with panting and little whines whenever he saw us crying!
Styling: Jenna (The bride)
Florist: Rebekah Lee (Tremella Botanicals)- Bek honestly does the most beautiful and whimsical floral arrangements and has a unique style that we were drawn to. We wanted the florals to be a focal point and yet didn’t have a budget that would allow us to go too crazy with installations everywhere. Bek talked us through a realistic floral concept that meant we still had some incredible pieces that blew everyone away without also blowing our budget! We re-utilised the ceremony installations, and they were placed in the reception venue after the vows, Bek also let us provide her with some greenery from our own backyard to help fill out the installations and give a personal touch. We were so thrilled with the end result, it was perfect.
Hair: Olivia Compton (H & M by Olivia Jane)- Olivia was so lovely and warm and did my hair exactly how I’d envisioned it. She also ensured the veil I wore stayed in easily all night, literally until 5am!
Make-up: Giuliana Corallo from Tonic Hair and Makeup– Giuliana did everyone’s make-up perfectly, and given how well it stayed even through all the tears, I’d say getting a professional to do makeup is a must. She also was so gentle with our mums, who both weren’t used to having their makeup done or wearing much makeup at all, which was really important and made their mornings!
The dress: The Own Studio (Dress), De La Rosa (wrap top), Assembly Label (Blazer)
Veil: Madame Tulle
Shoes: Bared and Nelson Made. I am glad I brought a spare pair of shoes as the closed ones I wore ended up giving me huge blisters (note to future brides, wear your wedding shoes in or remember to bring gel pads)
Rings: HLSK (wedding rings), Black Finch (engagement ring)
Bow ties / ties: MacGregor and MacDuff
Catering & bar: The Farm Cafe
Favours: ceremony flowers were wrapped up into bouquets at the end of the night and given out to guests by our florist Rebekah and her team.
Cake / Cake topper: Zephyr and Bloom Cakes (Jemima O’Brien), with flowers provided by the bride from the garden. We tried cakes from so many amazing cake makers however, hands down, Jemima’s was the best. She’s moving to WA soon, terrible news for us Melbourne folk but great news for any WA couples!
Stationery / Signage: DIY stationery using a template from Template Bestie via Etsy, with paper from Paper Empire. I am so glad we did our own stationery as it saved us a few hundred dollars however, I would probably not do it again….it took so so long and really made me appreciate why a premium is charged by stationery companies to make wedding stationery.
Entertainment: Ross Bates on the Bagpipes and Sean Whelan (DJ Hot Wheels) dj’ing the reception. Ross was a consummate professional and gorgeous on the bagpipes, which is usually not something you associate with a beautiful sound unless you have a heritage connection to them! And Sean was the best DJ! He chose all the right songs without getting too ‘corny wedding’, which is what we really were wanting to avoid. He DJ’ed a friend’s wedding so we already knew he was great, but along with that, he’s just a lovely human.
Décor: Provided by the wedding venue
Hire: Guestbook Hotline
Honeymoon: Bali
