Jan 04, 2020

Emily & Tim's Mount Pleasant Wedding

When Emily first walked into my store & we began discussing what style of dress she was searching for, I just couldn't wait to see her in the stunning Pronovias Macao gown.

Emily looked sensational in it, the simplicity of the dress highlighted with the beautiful beading, I was hoping it would deliver the sophisticated, different, elegant look that Emily was searching for. Thank goodness her Mum loved it on her return visit!

I am looking forward to seeing you soon Emily, I loved our chats during your fittings. Lots of love Sam x

THE DRESS "When I started searching for the dress I had less of an idea about what I wanted, but a very clear image about what I didn’t - no strapless, no lace, no big pouffy skirt that would drown me! Samantha Wynne was the second store I visited and after having my requests ignored at the first, I had my trepidations, but Sam quickly put me to ease. If they were handing out ribbons for calming brides, Samantha would take the cake! All of the gowns I tried on were exquisite but there was never a question that the Pronovias Macao with its beautiful beadwork, low back and mermaid fit in the softest, most sensual crepe, was the one."

CAN YOU REMEMBER THE MOMENT YOU KNEW IT WAS THE DRESS? "I knew it was the dress when my mum ugly cried all over the place!"

HOW DID YOU FIRST MEET? "My now-husband Tim and I are a Tinder success story. It’s hard to believe that three years ago we were complete strangers, and although neither of us believes in love at first sight, we both left our first date and had this very bizarre realisation that we’d just met our person. I remember just thinking "this is it" on the first date, and all of our communication afterwards affirming that, and I never thought I would get that feeling. A few months in I was staying in Sydney for a course, and I wrote Tim a letter on the hotel stationary which literally says "we haven't even said 'I love you' yet, but I'm going to give this to you on our wedding day".... Long story short, I totally did and he totally cried like a baby."

THE PROPOSAL "It was coming up to my birthday and Tim had cooked up a nice proposal idea, involving ordering some monogrammed PJ's with his initials on the pocket. Unfortunately these PJ's didn't miraculously appear after he clicked 'order' and Tim being the impatient man had made the decision that TODAY WAS THE DAY. He'd rung my Dad and asked his permission (reply "Will she say yes?" and "I'm the wrong person to ask" - great words of encouragement! Thanks Dad!) and borrowed a ring from his Mum. He'd spent all day acting really suspicious. It was a Monday and he was working from home at the time and kept disappearing to the shops, then coming home again. Rinse and repeat. Then he rang ahead and told me to hide in the bedroom as he was bringing home my birthday gift. But... Tim being Tim couldn't wait so he popped on our favourite song on the record player (Heartlines by Broods - the first present I bought him for our first Valentine's Day!), uncorked some prosecco and tied the ring to our dog, Arnold's collar. He asked me to read the card attached to this very, very large display of flowers. So I did so, very quickly.

Tim: Did you read it?

Me: Yep

Tim: You obviously didn't. Read it again.

Me: Yep. Done.

Tim: Well?

Me: Well what?

Tim: Em, this is it. This is happening. (INSERT HIM SAYING THE NICEST THINGS IN THE WORLD TO ME BUT ME BEING IN SHELL SHOCK AND NEVER HEARING ANY OF IT!) Well? You haven't given me an answer?

Me: (Apologies for the profanities…) Are you f**ing serious? Are you f**ing with me? Don't be a f**head. You better not be f**ing with me. (Meanwhile, cue me breaking in an all over red rash because IT WAS HAPPENING).

And then we had to get the ring off Arnold and he was DEVASTATED. Poor pup, thought the bling was for him!"

FAVOURITE MOMENT "Is it lame to say it was all wonderful? Our ceremony was actually really beautiful. When I pulled up in the family people mover that had been pimped out by my nieces I could hear everyone cheering inside and it literally just filled me up. I may also have told my dad to pick up the pace as we we went down the aisle! Tim’s vows and speech were just everything. Not a dry eye in the house.

As for the reception, I laugh just remembering our first unofficial dance to Señorita by JT. Oh! And when everyone got into the pool at the end of the night! It was just magical all around."

THE VENUE "We were spoilt enough to have both our ceremony and reception at my sister-in-law’s house in Mount Pleasant. The house itself was built by Tim’s brother and it’s pretty spectacular. Tim actually decided to propose to me after we spent a full day shovelling seven tonnes of dirt out of the back garden so it’s a pretty special spot for us."

FAVOURITE DETAILS "The socks I gave Tim with our dogs faces on them. The purple orchids that Ebony (Covet and Collect) wove into my bouquet and the arbour flowers. The arbour that Tim’s Dad built for us. The cake my sister made. And just everyone’s happy faces. I may be bias but it was just one of the most intimate, happy weddings I have ever been to."

ADVICE FOR FUTURE BRIDES "Throw everyone else’s expectations out the window! We are so, so lucky to live in a time where a wedding can be anything you want it to be: two people on the beach with a few witnesses or a party for 500. It doesn’t matter so long as it’s what YOU want. So sit down with your fiancé and make a list of 3 things that are important to you and get really good at saying “What a beautiful idea. Unfortunately that doesn’t work for me.”

I was really, really fussy when it came to our vendors. I wanted us to be surrounded by people who got us and didn’t just see us as another number! So, we spent lavishly on what was important to us - delicious food (Brett from Perth Chef Hire), a full cocktail bar (Andrew from Your Bartender) and amazing photos to keep for forever (Ebony from Ben and Ebony). Our DJ Sam Carter was also incredible, he totally set the scene for the day and had everyone on the dance floor at 6pm - the cocktails may have helped with that! Because we chose quality vendors in these areas I arrived at the ceremony in a people mover! I assembled our invites from Vistaprint (bought on sale, of course), and we went very minimal with decorative embellishments. This was what was important to us, and by holding true to that we - and all the people that love us - had an unforgettable day!"

BEST WEDDING SPEND "It’s a tie! Honestly, I meant what I said about all of our vendors being incredible but the cake would go to Dilhari, our celebrant, and Ebony, our photographer/florist!

You know when you go to a wedding and you see the ceremony as the obstacle that you have to leapfrog over to get to the awesome party at the other end? Our ceremony was nothing like that, and it was all thanks to the most incredible celebrant to ever grace the earth. Dilhari, from Kiss Me You Fool, is a queen amongst celebrants. She told our story in a way that was beautiful and funny, and I honestly lost count of how many people stopped me after our recessional to ask where on earth I had found her. If you want to have an unforgettable ceremony, you need Dilhari.

Now as Ebony (from Ben and Ebony) had the joy of doing my flowers and my photos, she had her work cut out for her. Firstly my bridesmaids wore all completely different dresses, which she managed to bring together with the most beautiful bouquets, and secondly, my in-laws are a very traditional Irish Catholic family, which by that I mean, there are A LOT of them! All as loud as each other! And somehow she managed to wrangle them all together without even breaking a sweat. I only have a snapshot of my photos back but they’re already everything I could have ever asked for. She managed to capture the essence of our day so perfectly and I couldn’t recommend her highly enough."