Real Wedding – Luke & Ally, Merricks North VIC
When a couple defines their personal style as moody, dark, and edgy, foregrounding the soundtrack and guest experience as a priority for their wedding day, the celebration is bound to be epic. Ally and Luke’s was exactly that—classic but dramatic with a chic style edge, all underpinned by a beautiful, effortless sense of fated romance.
From the light-dappled, stunningly personal ceremony on the Jackalope terrace to the dramatic reception space within Doot Doot Doot, Ally and Luke created an ultra-modern celebration with sophisticated darkness, captured with visual artistry by Katie Harmsworth and Bottlebrush Films.
The meeting.
We met on Tinder at the beginning of 2020, right before COVID lockdowns began.
The one.
We connected instantly when we met, and it was as if we’d known each other forever. We ended up doing lockdown together in March 2020, after just starting to date, and I (Ally) just never left after that! If you can survive lockdown as a new couple, you can survive anything! I moved in with Luke, we bought a house together, had our first child, Freya, and got engaged. It was a bit of a modern-day fairytale.
The proposal.
After taking our daughter to her swimming lesson, Luke suggested we take a drive up to the rhododendron gardens in Olinda for a picnic. After walking for what seemed like hours to find the perfect spot to set up, Luke surprised me by getting down on one knee while I thought he was just topping up my champagne! He said, “You are my world. Will you marry me?” Simple, to the point, and perfect.
Planning process.
With Luke and I both working full time and an almost two-year-old at home, the planning often took a back seat to life, but we were extremely relaxed throughout the whole process. We were on the same page with everything, and once we got the venue locked in, everything flowed from there.
Style inspiration.
Music was a HUGE part of our day and the planning. Luke and I have very eclectic and similar tastes in music and we wanted our music to tell a story. While we still wanted the romance of the day to shine through, we wanted to show people our style, which was more moody, dark and edgy. We loved the idea of a timeless and classic wedding with a bit of edge to it.
For style inspiration, I loved looking through Pinterest at moody and gothic weddings, as well as black tie themes. I tended toward dried flower arrangements, with branches and very little colour, sticking mainly to black and white with touches of gold. While we took inspiration from all of the amazing weddings we’d been to, we hadn’t actually seen any that were quite like ours, so we knew the most important thing would be to just run with our style as a couple and it would set the wedding apart and make it somewhat unique.
The ceremony.
So many of our guests commented on how beautiful our ceremony was. I think something I’d noticed in the past was how you can sometimes feel like guests are just waiting to get past the ceremony so they can get to the party. We wanted the party to start when they arrived at the terrace, and we wanted them to feel like they were a part of the ceremony – almost like they were getting an exclusive invite to see behind the curtain. We put a lot of thought into music, mood and vows. Our vows were secret, but when we read them out, they matched up at every point, making the ceremony even more special.
The outfits.
Classic but dramatic was how we decided to approach our outfits. We knew we wanted a black tie wedding, but we wanted to stand out and make sure we still had that edgy style coming through. For Luke, Emporio Armani took the classic tuxedo to the next level, creating a sleek, tailored look. For me, the ball gown silhouette was what stood out to me after trying on a lot of dresses, but they all seemed to lack some drama – until I tried the Vera Wang Marot gown with the plunging neckline, box pleats and huge shoulder bow. It was elegant and classic but a little bit wild, which I loved.
Favourite moments.
The only time I really felt nervous was when I was just about to walk down the aisle with my dad. As soon as I came out and made eye contact with all of our friends and family before looking down the aisle and seeing my amazing husband-to-be, all of those nerves dissipated, and I felt the most incredible warm love that just enveloped me. That was really a moment to remember.
Meaning of marriage.
Luke and I had already had our daughter prior to getting married, which is about as committed as you can get. But marriage to us was that absolute devotion to one another, our families and our life together. It was about me wanting to share his and Freya’s name and cementing our family unit. It’s about saying, you are the person I choose to share everything with today and for all time.
Wedding soundtrack.
We love the classics and we wanted to showcase that with our music in order to take our guests on a bit of a journey. Our songs were:
Aisle (bridesmaids/flower girl): Sweet Thing by Van Morrison
Aisle (bride): Secret Garden by Bruce Springsteen
Signing: This is the Day by The The
Recessional: Friday I’m in Love by The Cure
Reception entry (wedding party): You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry
Reception entry (bride/groom): Come Together by Gary Clarke Jr., Junkie XL
First dance: Into the Mystic by Van Morrison
Cutting the cake: Saturday Night at the Movies by The Drifters
Father/daughter dance: Wild Horses by Rolling Stones
Funny stories (or near disasters).
Aside from leaving my bridal lingerie at home (gulp) and having to call in the cavalry to drive all the way to our house in Northcote to collect it, there were a couple of dress mishaps! One of my sisters, who was also a bridesmaid, accidentally wiped some tan on the back of my dress when helping me into it. That was quickly followed by Freya wiping vegemite on it when she tried to climb up to me. All things that were unimportant when I thought about what I was about to do!
Planning surprises.
I think we were surprised that the actual wedding planning wasn’t more stressful. Don’t get me wrong – we were stressed, but that stress was more around work and other things going on, which prevented us from focusing on our planning as much as we wanted to. We also were probably prepared for more things to go wrong on the day, as that’s what everyone says, but it was relatively seamless, and everything worked out just as we wanted it to.
Words of wisdom.
Trust in the process and try to have fun with it – as stressful as life and planning might get! At the end of the day, it’s all about celebrating the love you and your partner share, and you want the whole day/night to reflect that. Do what’s right for you, and don’t let other people’s opinions sway you from your own style.
In the thick of wedding planning? Or perhaps simply enjoying dreaming of your own stunning celebration? Either way, we’ve curated some of the most insightful wedding tips from our real wedding couples and expert vendors so you can be relaxed, radiant and ready to enjoy a stellar celebration.
ALLY & LUKE’S VENDORS
We used Instagram, Pinterest, Ivory Tribe articles and films for inspiration, and tried to search for weddings that had a similar vibe to ours and then worked backwards from there to see what suppliers had been used. It also helped to do a lot of research into suppliers who had worked out Jackalope before, as we thought it was really important that they understood the space and the style.
Ceremony & reception location: Jackalope Hotel. We actually received a voucher from friends to stay at Jackalope and had planned to confirm our wedding booking with another location upon checking in there. As soon as we arrived, we were mesmerised. The venue really spoke to us – it was our style to a tee, and we wanted to do whatever we had to in order to get married there. The staff are also incredible and so welcoming. They worked extremely hard to make our wedding everything we wanted it to be.
Celebrant: Kate Morgan.
Photography: Katie Harmsworth. Where to even start with Katie?! If you’re looking at other photographers – STOP! Katie is absolutely incredible in all aspects. Not only has she captured every special moment of our wedding in the most beautiful way, we had so much fun with her on the day. We felt like kindred spirits, and she made us all so comfortable when we’re normally quite awkward in front of the camera. Do yourself a favour and book her for your wedding if you want the best photos you’ll ever see!
Videography: Andrew Fenaughty – Bottlebrush Films. What Katie is to photography, Andrew is to videography! Andrew made our say so much more fun. As soon as we spoke to him during the planning, we knew he was going to create something extremely special for us. We vibed instantly. He’s creative, fun and super professional. He was a warm presence on the day and was a hit amongst our guests!
Styling: The team at Jackalope, along with our florist Jo Laver helped to bring our vision to life on the day.
Florist: Jo Laver Flowers. To say that I was blown away when Jo delivered the bouquets to my room is a massive understatement. She worked with me at length to determine the style I was going for, and she hit the ball out of the park and into another galaxy! The bouquets and flowers used for the ceremony and reception were absolutely amazing.
Hair: Jess Sutherland – Rokk Ebony. One of my best friends who was also attending our wedding, the extremely talented Jess Sutherland of Rokk Ebony Toorak, made us all look absolutely amazing. I can’t rate her highly enough.
Make-up: Chelsea Darnell MUA. I literally had my friends’ husbands commenting on how good my make-up looked on the wedding day – that’s how good Chelsea is! Not only is she an expert at making you look amazing, Chelsea is an absolute joy to be around. We were laughing, drinking mimosas and having an absolute ball while we were getting ready and I can’t wait for my next event so I can book in with her again!
The dresses: Dress 1 – Vera Wang Bride/Margot Gown. Dress 2 – Rebecca Vallance
Shoes: Mach & Mach
Rings: Sarah & Sebastian
Bridesmaid’s dresses: Bec + Bridge
Groom’s suit: Emporio Armani.
Groomsmen’s suits: Joe Black.
Bow ties / ties: Calibre.
Favours: Supply Kit Personalised Cocktails.
Cake / Cake topper: Krista Corbett – Pollen Pastry.
Stationery / Signage: Abbie Stoyel – Studio Flowmo. One of my sisters and bridesmaids. It’s no secret that I think Abbie is an absolute guru at all things graphic design. All of our guests kept telling us how our save the dates and invitations were different to anything they’d ever seen. Her work is truly one of a kind and I wouldn’t have anyone else bring our wedding to life.
Entertainment: Black Tie Boogie – Blue Avenue Entertainment. In a word – EPIC! We had so many guests comment on the entertainment throughout the night. We had the Black Tie Duo perform an acoustic set during cocktail and canape hour, followed by the full band throughout our reception, and in the latter stages of the night we had a DJ set. They had literally everyone on their feet dancing and even managed to learn our reception entry song and surprised us by performing it live!
Sign hire: The Small Things Co
