Shae & Mark

I am so excited today to share the wedding of our “Win Your Dream Wedding Dress” competition we ran in 2010 with designer Henry Roth! Shae, our winner had the most divine wedding and I am thrilled today to show off her photographs and wedding story!

“We met during high school, as we had a few classes together.  I got the courage to ask Mark to do the debutante ball with me and you could say the rest is history!

The wedding planning kicked off to an exciting start when I won the ‘Win your dream dress competition’ on Polka Dot Bride at the start of last year. The highlight of the entire planning was getting to meet Henri Josef website, when he flew down to Melbourne for one of his designer days.  I remember the feeling the first time I put the dress on, as I went bright red and I was thinking….. I’m in my DREAM DRESS!!! My shoes were Tony Bianco ‘Sebond Ivory’.

The girls bridesmaids dresses were from Two Birds Bridesmaid.   I wanted the girls to all be slightly different and to feel comfortable in what they wore. You can wear the dress over 16 different ways, so the girls all chose a different way to wear them. We had a lot of fun on the day experimenting with different style and choosing who wore what. The girls also chose their own shoes. Again we didn’t want them to all be the same. They all turned up with the same colour but different style of shoes which worked perfectly with their dresses and the theme of the wedding.

My parents gave me a pair of the most stunning earrings by Stephanie Browne. They had a real glamorous vintage feel to them that worked perfectly with the dress and the overall theme of the wedding.  I also borrowed my great aunt’s watch/bracelet.

All of our hair was done by the wonderful Sue Barnes. It was such a delight to work with her. She did the most amazing vintage style for my hair and all the girls chose different styles to suit the way they were wearing their dresses.We all had our makeup done by Sam ‘Makeup by Sam‘ She was so professional and amazing to work with. She did such a beautiful job.

We had Mark’s suit made through Travellers Apparel.

For the groomsmen, we had the same approach as we didn’t want them to all look the same. So they all choose different looks while sticking to a similar colour palette. It was one of the easiest parts of the whole planning process. The boys were fantastic and I think they had a bit of fun with them. Attire from Roger David.


We held our wedding at the beautiful Willow Creek Winery in Merricks North, with the reception following on at Salix Restaurant, which is on the Willow Creek grounds. The weather was not particularly kind to us on the day. I honestly don’t think the rain stopped the entire day. So the ceremony was moved inside.

I walked down the aisle to ‘Dare to Dream’ by the Vitamin String Quartet. Walking down the aisle with my Dad, looking down to see Mark waiting for me, was one of my favourite memories of the day.

“We were married by Felicity Kerr. She was so professional and a dream to work with.  She has a very calming influence that helped calm the nerves. The ceremony was held in a section of the restaurant that overlooks the stunning winery. We have to thank Rachael McCarthy and her team from Salix as they set up and created the most amazing atmosphere for the ceremony inside. Even though we couldn’t have the ceremony outside like we had planned, inside was just as beautiful and intimate.”

My Dad organised the cars through a friend of his that owns a couple of vintage Rolls Royce’s. They were called Ruby and Buttercup.

The flowers were by Rebecca Debresser of Blush Wedding Flowers (0416 050 211). I knew the colours that we wanted but I left it up to Rebecca to decide on the types of flowers. She did the most amazing job. They were better than what I could of ever imagined.

Our photographer Lucus from Lens to Life was a perfect choice for the style of photos that we were after. He did an exceptional job at making us feel relaxed and despite the stormy weather conditions we still came away with an album full of beautiful memories and stunning photos.

Photo by family friend.

We also set up a key box. I had gathered a heap of old skeleton keys and attached tags to them so guests could write their ‘keys to a happy marriage’ on them for us to keep as a wedding keepsake!

Photo by family friend.

Instead of a guest book, we wanted to be a little different, so I purchased an old typewriter that we set up for people to write us messages. (Towards the end of the night this amused the younger generation as they were a little stumped as to where the ‘enter’ key had gone!). We designed the invitations ourselves (we are both graphic designers) and got them letterpressed by Artisan Press.

Photo by family friend.

By scouring ops shops I was able to collect a whole range of things from old teapots that we used as vases to beautiful little teacups and vintage books. I also made a range of cake stands from vintage plates and candlesticks and odd things I could find at the op shop.

As we were having a cocktail reception we decided to have additional grazing food on the side. We decided to go along the theme of only using produce from the local area on the Mornington Peninsula. This is where the cake stands came into play. During the first cocktail hour we had a table full of local cheeses from Red Hill Cheese and strawberries from Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm. In the main restaurant area we had another table set up with more cake stands filled with different types of fudge from Peninsula Fudge and a range of chocolates.

Photo by family friend.

Photo by family friend.

Our first dance was played by Cedar Duo, who played The Beatles song ‘Here Comes The Sun”‘ Mark surprised everyone by getting the band to sing a new verse that he had written about us. It was a very romantic and touching moment.

Marks favourite moment of the day: “Dancing with Shae at the end of the night when all the important bits were out of the way!”

Thank you for running such an amazing website. The inspiration and the access to resources you provide makes the planning process such a dream. I still visit daily even after the wedding!

All photos by Lens To Life Photography unless otherwise stated.

Please note that Willow Creek Winery is currently closed at this time for a complete makeover.