Real Wedding – Millie & Tom, Fitzroy VIC

 

Millie and Tom’s celebration encapsulates a Melbourne city wedding in all the best ways; incredible food and drink, classy cobblestone streets and expansive rooftop views, topped off with bold, beautiful styling choices.

The party truly began with Tribe superstar Megan Thompson’s brilliant ceremony that perfectly fit the brief – lashings of laughter without any cheese. Ceremony photos are a tell-all when it comes to the vibe in the room and Motta Weddings were behind the lens to capture every little reaction; there is no doubt this ceremony was a party starter!

Millie was every inch a natural queen in her One Day Bridal gown embellished with sequins. Her bridesmaids glowed alongside her in deep aubergine. The look was perfectly complemented by decadent, modern florals in deep tones of burgundy and blush.

We particularly loved Millie’s choice of accessory for her photo shoot… their adorable pooch, Murphy!

 

The meeting.

We met at University in 2012. We both studied law at Melbourne University. We were friends for about two years before we decided to go to Cabo together for an end-of-exam period holiday. The rest is history.

 

The one.

Neither of us can remember realising we’d found ‘the one’. It just kind of crept up on us, I guess.

 

The proposal.

Tom booked out the private dining room at our favourite restaurant – Supernormal – and had it decked out with a table for two, flowers, candles and, of course, a picture of our pup Murphy. It was the day before my birthday, so I assumed we were going for a birthday dinner. I was super confused when we were taken down to the private dining room and got a massive shock when Tom got down on one knee.

 

Planning process.

I’m a super organised person and have a demanding job. I didn’t want to feel stressed out about the wedding, so I decided to book everything well in advance of the big day. We weren’t in any rush, so I took about six months to slowly find a venue. When we decided on Panama, we booked the wedding date about fourteen months in advance and then booked in all our suppliers shortly after. I then pretty much did nothing until about a month before the wedding when everything started to fire up again.

All the professionals we engaged gave us a ‘to do’ list of sorts with timelines. I just did what I was told, and it all came together perfectly. I tried not to over complicate it.

 

Style inspiration.

I wanted a city wedding. I’m not a beach or country gal. Once we picked Panama, I knew I had to use bold, dramatic colours to complement the beautiful venue. I gave that brief to our wonderful florist and there wasn’t much left to do, because Panama is such a gorgeous space.

 

The outfit.

I wore a white, beaded dress with a plunging neckline and a front split.

I did research online before trying dresses on. I went to One Day Bridal with one dress in mind, convinced that it was the one I wanted. It was flowing with silver sequins. I was determined not to wear white or anything too ‘bridal’ as I didn’t think it was me. While there, my mum and bridesmaids picked some other dresses for me to try on. The dress I ultimately picked was the complete opposite of what I thought I wanted and what I thought would suit me!

 

Favourite moment.

There are too many, the whole day was perfect! I loved getting ready with my mum and my besties in the morning, walking down the aisle to my husband to be and doing the photoshoot with the entire bridal party and our dog. If I had to pick, I’d say I truly let my hair down and started to relax once the dance floor kicked off after dinner! We wanted our wedding to be a huge party and once the dance floor started and all the formalities were over, it was just the best.

 

Meaning of marriage.

Marriage to us means having someone to chill with during isolation.

 

Wedding soundtrack.

I walked down the aisle to a live Bruce Springsteen cover of Can’t Help Falling in Love with You and our recessional song was Satellite of Love by Lou Reed. Our first dance involved all our guests getting on the dance floor to dance to Young Hearts Run Free by Kym Mazelle.

 

Funny stories (or near disasters).

I had kept my dress a secret from Tom so he wouldn’t see me until I walked down the aisle. At Panama, the bride can enter the venue via an elevator at the back, so no one sees the bride before walking down the aisle. The lift opens near the toilets. I arrived at Panama about 5 mintures before the ceremony with my parents and bridesmaids and we had entered the lift and I was feeling pretty nervous. The lift door opened, and I came face to face with Tom as he exited the bathrooms. He covered his eyes and pretended he didn’t see, but he totally did. I couldn’t stop laughing and felt like it broke the tension. My mum and my bridesmaids were annoyed at him though.

 

Planning surprises.

Probably all the nitty gritty details I didn’t think of before I started planning.  I truly under estimated how much detail is involved in planning events.

 

Words of wisdom.

My advice would be to trust the professionals you engage to do a fantastic job, go with the flow and expect that some things will turn out differently to what you imagined (but that might not be a bad thing). And have fun!

 

 

Looking for urban style inspiration? Check out Sui-Mei and Adam’s Collingwood celebration, full of styling choices reflecting all the things we love about Melbourne.

 

MILLIE AND TOM’S VENDORS

Ceremony and reception venue: Panama Dining Room

Celebrant/Officiant: Megan Thompson. Megan was amazing. We told her we wanted a short and sweet ceremony that was funny and not cheesy. She completely delivered. Our guests were laughing so hard throughout the whole ceremony. We received so many compliments on our ceremony and a few guests told us it was the best ceremony they’d ever seen at a wedding.

Photography: Alex Motta – Motta Weddings. Alex was so fantastic, we cannot thank him enough. Firstly, he was calm and chilled out on the day and created such a fun atmosphere for the bridal party during the photoshoot. I thought I’d feel super awkward doing the wedding photos but I absolutely did not at all.  He also accommodated my request to have our pooch Murphy involved in our wedding photos. Secondly, the photos were absolutely amazing. We are so so happy with them. Alex turned around the photos super quick as well and sent us almost 100 the very next day after the wedding.

Florist: Billie Jean Botanicals.  Hilary is an amazing florist. I dont know much about flowers so I just told her the colours I liked and she arranged everything. She created the most beautiful installation around the beautiful arch windows at Panama and the blooms on our tables were phenomenal. We also obviously were obsessed with our gorgeous bouquets and button holes.

Hair: Cat Hughes. Cat was great. We were all so happy with our hair on the day.

Make Up: Dusk Bridal. Jen was absolutely fantastic. The bridesmaids, my mum and I wanted our make up to look super natural. She absolutely nailed the brief and worked so hard on the day.

The Dress and veil: One Day Bridal.

Shoes: Alias Mae.

Bridesmaid’s dresses: The bridesmaid’s dresses were from Silk Laundry.

Groom and groomsmen suits: Tom’s suit was from P Johnson Tailors.  The groomsmen wore suits from MJ Bale.

Bow ties / ties: Otaa Brothers.

Catering: Panama Dining Room / Messina.  Panama did an amazing job with our food. It was really important to us that everything was delicious. Tom and I are both vegetarian and Panama did a great job helping us have a mostly meat free wedding with an option for the carnivores. Panama also arranged for us to have Messina gelato brought up to our guests which everyone loved.

Bar: Panama Dining Room

Favors: We didn’t do any wedding favours.

Cake / Cake topper: Tom’s colleague has a side hustle as a baker and prepared our wedding cake.

Stationery / Signage: Our beautiful friend did all our wedding stationery and signage for us as a wedding present.

Entertainment: We had a five piece band from The White Tree. The band were great and had everyone on the dance floor the whole night.

Transport: We used Ubers.

Honeymoon: We treated ourselves to staying at Brae for a mini moon which was absolutely amazing. We sadly have had to postpone our 5 week honeymoon in Italy to 2021.