WILL X TESS ♡.
19 May 2017 was an extremely special and personal day for the style maison as it was the wedding day for our founder & creative director, Tess and her now husband Will.
Located in the Hunter, the style of the day was based around a dark and moody look with a rich colour palette of maroons and red mixed with ash grey and ivory, perfect fit for an autumn’s day.
Mitch Pohl perfectly captured the day and memories.
the VENUE.
We always knew we would get married outside of Sydney so we were searching for a venue that could provide a whole weekend experience so we could continue the celebrations the following day. We needed somewhere that was big enough to include an outdoor ceremony space with a view, a separate area with a tent for the reception and preferably somewhere for the bridal party to stay.
Wallalong House was the second venue we saw and we feel in love with it straight away. It ticked all our boxes – from the décor, its surroundings and the owners, Bernie and Ian.
the STATIONERY + SIGNAGE.
We wanted our stationery to be textured and reflect the tone of our wedding. Our invitations were letter-pressed on handmade paper with a deckled edge. We worked closely with Rachel from Chi Borrello to create our bespoke stationery package including a lace logo that lend itself to my Hungarian heritage and our boho theme. Each invitation was tied together with a silk ribbon from Songbird Silk to add softness. Our place cards were printed on the same stock as our invitation and again, dressed with the silk ribbon. We printed our seating plan and bar menu on beautiful linen, keeping our bespoke lace logo as a focal point.
the FOOD.
Our wedding feast was an array of delicious seafood (freshly sucked oysters, king prawns, smoked trout) from Mason Catering (aka Restaurant Mason), which we served as an entrée standing up during cocktail hour. Then guests enjoyed shared platters (pork belly, beef short ribs and house-smoked salmon) for the main.
We chose a Cherry Ripe inspired cake from Hello Naomi – because that’s our favourite chocolate bar and served mini bambino cones for dessert including mint, salted caramel, apple crumble, bacio, espresso and choc-dipped strawberry flavours.
the STYLING DETAILS.
We wanted our wedding to feel intimate and romantic so we went for a dark and moody look and feel using a darker colour palette of maroons, reds and mixing it with lots and lots of candlelight to add softness and romance.
I love how whimsical pampas grass is so we incorporated them into the styling as well as our bouquets. We also had a range of premium South American roses including the black pearl, menta and our favourite, the black velvet rose.
We used a lot of our own props from the style maison and decorative pieces to design the wedding including the gold candlesticks, lassi cups, glass lanterns, leather Moroccan poufs, sheepskin throws, macramé hangers, brass bowls, gold side tables, copper drums etc.
A must-have was our dessert plates, which were handcrafted from Portugal with an intricate lace pattern pressed into the design (linking nicely to our wedding stationery). We mixed these with the beautiful marble plates that were included in the venue alongside etched silver cutlery.
I also worked closely with rawLight Candles, to create bespoke taper candles that matched our colour palette. We chose an ash grey colour tone rather than the usual ivory palette and scattered them down the tablescape in our brass candlesticks.
Other items were collected from some of our favourite suppliers including the vintage screen for seating plan from Props to You, gold table numbers from Ashdown & Bee, the ceremony arch and vintage rugs from Vintage Patina and the leather chesterfield and day beds from The Wedding Designer.
The beautiful tent where the reception was held is a permanent structure at Wallalong House that has been imported from India. I added an additional tent to create our ‘lounge’ area. This was from Prestige Party Hire.
the ENTERTAINMENT.
During cocktail hour, we had Toby Carroll play live saxophone while grooving to music played by DJ Advantage. Brendan then continued to play throughout the night. Our song choices included:
Bridemaid’s walked down the aisle to a rendition of Elvis Presley’s ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ sung by Kina Grannis and the bride walked down the aisle to ‘Tee Shirt’ by Birdy.
The recessional song was ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ by Van Morrison – this is a special song to us as it was sung in Bali by locals as we dined along the beach
Our entry song to the reception was ‘Jubel’ by Klingande with live sax by Toby Carroll
Our first dance was to ‘This Old Love’ by Lior.
STYLING + PROPS: the style maison - @thestylemaison
PHOTOGRAPHER: Mitch Pohl - @mitchpohl
FLORALS: Sophia Kaplan - @sophia_kaplan
VENUE: Wallalong House - @wallalonghouse
CINEMATOGRAPHY: The Story of Us - @story_of_us
STATIONARY: Chi Borrello - @chi.borrello
SILK RIBBON: Songbird Silk - @songbirdsilk
BESPOKE TAPER CANDLES: RawLight Candles - @rawlightcandles
H&M: Chic Artistry - @chicartistry
CAKE: Hello Naomi | cakes cupcakes cookies - @hellonaomicakes
CELEBRANT: Joanna Fabro - @jfcelebrant
WEDDING RINGS: AG Designer Jeweller - @agdesignerjeweller
GOWN: Rue de Seine from The Bridal Atelier - @ruedeseinebridal and @thebridalatelier
SUITS: MJ Bale - @mjbale
CATERING: Restaurant Mason - @restaurant_mason
MINI BAMBINO CONES: Bravo Gelato - @bravo_gelato
DJ: DJ Advantage - @advantage_djs
SAXOPHONIST: Toby Carroll from Pinnacle Entertainment
VINTAGE RUGS: Vintage Patina - @vintagepatinacollection
GOLD TABLE NUMBERS: Ashdown & Bee - @ashdownandbee
VINTAGE SEATING PLAN SCREEN: Props to You - @propstoyou
LEATHER CHESTERFIELD + DAY BEDS: The Wedding Designer - @theweddingdesigners
LOUNGE TENT: Prestige Party Hire - @prestigepartyhire
BRIDAL VENUE: The Villa