Real Wedding – Min & Michael, Richmond VIC
We love a wedding that looks and feels like a dreamy modern fairytale, and Min and Michael’s is all this and more. Soft romance, sweetly chic style and effortless grace is encapsulated in every shot by photographer Collections Photography.
Min is a ravishingly radiant bride in her gown by Alca Line from Bluebell Bridal. An updated take on mid-century glamour, it gives timeless fashion with the perfect amount of edge. Sleek lines, gorgeous gossamer sleeves and cut-away back detailing add contemporary chic, while Min’s softly tousled updo brings old-world sophistication.
At her side, her bridesmaids glow in gowns of warm hues: deep chocolate, peached rose and burnished copper. And the gents look ultra sharp in their classic black suits by Andre J Menswear, tailored to perfection.
As the newlyweds step through the urban streetscape surrounding their stunning venue, Butler Lane, they echo back the golden glow with electric emotion.
Min and Michael’s celebration is a dreamy dive into effortless romance – scroll on to experience it all.
The meeting.
We met at our mutual friend’s engagement party. Min had been friends with the bride-to-be since high school, and Mike was close friends with the groom-to-be. We instantly clicked and talked all night, making each other laugh. We didn’t bump into each other again until six months later at the same couple’s New Year’s Eve party. After talking all night, Mike didn’t seem to be getting any of my signals, so I made the first move, and he eventually asked me for my number – the rest is history!
The ‘one’.
Hard to say, we couldn’t pinpoint an exact moment, but after six years together, we knew there wasn’t anyone else we could imagine growing old with.
The proposal.
It happened during Covid lockdown at our new house. Mike had been hiding the ring for a few months and told me that, at one point, I had gotten dangerously close to uncovering the hiding spot.
It was like any other day. I had spent the day studying, so I didn’t notice Mike getting the room ready to pop the question later. There were fairy lights (my favourite), candles and rose petals laid out in the shape of a love heart. Mike told me to grab something from the room, and when I opened the door, he popped the question!
Planning process.
Min had been putting together a mood board to get an idea of the kind of vibe we wanted for our big day. We started with the venue to match the vibe we were after and then added each piece around that.
Style inspiration.
We wanted something that was romantic and modern – with the venue and wedding dress the anchor points for us to then work out the colour palette of the flowers, bridesmaid’s dresses and table settings. We loved the look of candles in glass vases along long tables to give a look of soft romance. We wanted it to be intimate, as we would only have under 120 guests on the night, with most of them family and then our closest friends.
It was really helpful to look through Instagram posts of the venue and how it had been styled to get a good idea of different looks. We then contacted our florist through one of the posts that had tagged them, in which we loved the look of the table settings, and it turned out just as we hoped!
The ceremony.
It was so special to have our family and closest friends share this moment with us, in particular when we each said the vows we had written. We loved the venue, in particular the feature wall, and so to be able to be surrounded by our nearest and dearest at such a beautiful venue couldn’t have been more perfect.
The look.
Lots of #inspo through endless scrolling – I had seen the Brooke Dress from Alcaline Bride long before our wedding and knew this was the dress even before I had tried it on. When there was a trunk show at Bluebell Bridal, I made an appointment to try it on. To make sure it was ‘the one’, I tried on eight or nine other dresses in styles I had also been eyeing to make sure this was the perfect one for the day. I loved the romantic sleeves combined with the sweetheart back and modern fit of the dress. It was different to other wedding dresses, and once I tried it on, I knew it was the one.
Mike knew he was after a classic black suit and liked the satin lapel. It was classic and clean cut, and the black patent leather shoes gave it a bit of a pop to match the look of the satin lapel, which matched the style of the wedding dress.
Favourite moments.
Our vows!
Meaning of marriage.
A commitment to grow together, to always fight for each other and to never stop making each other laugh!
Wedding soundtrack.
Aisle: La Vie En Rose by Daniela Andrade
Recessional: ily (I love you baby) feat. Emilee by Surf Mesa
First dance: Nothing Can Change This Love by Sam Cooke
Reception entry: Play That Funky Music by Wild Cherry
Words of wisdom.
Try to soak in the moment; it all goes by so fast, so if you can, try to take a couple of minutes together.
Love Min and Michael’s style? See more contemporary European-inspired elegance in this stunningly styled shoot by a dream team of Victorian vendors, where theming leans into rich textural impacts juxtaposed with crisp contemporary accents – and an overall sense of the exquisite.
MIN & MIKE’S VENDORS
Ceremony & reception venue: Butler Lane
Celebrant: Celebrations by Rosalie. We knew we would be in good hands with Rosalie from our first meeting. She helped walk us through what to expect leading up to and on the big day. She was very organised, easy to speak with, and always remained calm even if things didn’t go to plan on the day!
Photography: Collections Photography. We got along with Sash so well from our first meeting; he made the whole process easy and helped to make us relaxed on the day.
Florist: Violet & The Fox. Mel was great to work with and immediately understood the vibe we were going for. The colour palette of the flowers was so gorgeous – Mel nailed the brief after we sent through some inspo photos. On the wedding morning, she also gave us a bottle of champagne along with beautiful calligraphy hand-written name tags on all the flowers – it was such a lovely touch and really personal, which we really appreciated.
Hair: Hair by JC. I told Jenn I was after something romantic and modern, and we ended up changing my hairstyle the week of the wedding at our last hair trial, and I loved it! It was absolutely perfect to suit the vibe, held up incredibly well long into the night, and I couldn’t have been happier with it!
Make-up: Makeup by Jane. Jane was so easy to work with; she was incredibly sweet, detail-oriented and went above and beyond to help make sure everything was perfect. She was professional, super organised and made it all go so easy on the day. There was no one else I wanted to do my make-up for the big day!
The dress: The Brooke Dress from the Alca Line Bride
Suits: Andre J Menswear. We had purchased suits from them before, so we knew they would make the whole process easy to get all the suits for the groom, groomsmen and family members. They had the suits we were after available and did all the tailoring as well at an affordable price.
Entertainment: DJ Yay. Hien is an amazing DJ, and there was no one else we wanted to be our DJ on the night! He met with us before the big day to get a sense of the music style we were into, helped us cut the song when walking down the aisle so it would be long enough and had great intuition on the night to make sure the music matched the vibe of the guests on the night! Super easy to work with and nailed the brief to match our taste in music and keep the celebrations going.
Hire: We hired the long tables from Pepper Sprout. They had beautiful, long wooden tables that matched what we were looking for, and were familiar with the venue, which made things really easy.
