Angela & Sean

Winery weddings are always so much fun with the golden light, the gorgeous vine backdrop and the fun of marrying at a little hidden spot of paradise (why yes, vineyards are paradise!) with friends and family surrounding you.

Angela tells of how they met. “We met in a sharing house. When I moved to Melbourne for the first time, Sean was the first flatmate I had in Melbourne. We became good friends and  hungout and enjoyed cooking together. That is how we started. Sean called me ‘Robin’ and I called him ‘bear” as a nick name. I used Robin and Bear as our wedding logo.”

Photographs today are by Suellen Lee who has captured the fun and live moments of the day as they happened with style.

Angela wore a gown from Lisa Barron. She recalls, “My wedding dress was found accidentally in Lisa Barron, a local boutique women clothing designer store in Armadale, South Melbourne. Originally I wanted to wear a vintage look white lace cocktail dress but a staff member in Lisa Barron brought one  dress from the back when I had a conversation in the shop. It is actually amazing that I had a dress in the first day of my shopping. It was just my size! Lisa does wedding dresses in only special occasions when she’s found beautiful material from trips to Italy. It was beautifully made in Melbourne and very unique. It is one of best things that happened to me.”

There were plenty of DIY elements to the day, Angela explaining, “I had initial strong ideas of my wedding from the beginning as a professional interior designer – “vintage hand made eco friendly wedding”, therefore it was easy for me to start to collect ideas and make things. Basically I wanted my wedding away from a commercialized wedding (spending a lot of money and not personal) and I wanted my wedding to be thoughtful to environmental and personal, as I believe in a local and organic attitude. Locally sourced and made was important to me. I think the thing I loved the most was the flag garland. It was so effective in photos in beautiful scenery of the venue. I tried to make some samples of tissue paper pompom flowers and decided to order 20 x pre-made pompom flowers online. It is so easy to make them but getting nice colours was hard and expensive. My friends and family ended up helping puff them out on the day.”

Oakridge Winery was chosen as the ceremony and reception venue. Angela says, “I always want to get married outdoors in somewhere in a winery. Sean and I visited around 15 wineries in Mornington and Yarra Valley.

A lot of wineries in Mornington are beautiful but very commercialized. They asked at least 50 guests or minimum of spending or sharing the venue with other wedding couples. We wanted our wedding very personal. Oakridge is my preference because of wonderful open views and small sized venue. We visited there two times to taste food and wines. We chose the Oakridge at the end because we were so impressed by their intimate services. Oakridge venue organizer, Janelle is very professional, helpful and friendly. I had nearly 10 emails with her to organize little things.”

The bride found flowers from Flowers Vasette and had her step mother arrange them, explaining, “I purchased fresh flowers just one day before wedding from my local favorite flower shop, Flower Vasette in Brunswick Street and then my step mother, who is a very experienced florist in South Korea and Auckland, made my bouquet and flower arrangement on that day. I wanted particular style flowers arrangement with cactus and unusual small fruity bunches. But I decided to get seasonal flowers, with my colour concept, white, green and yellow but various flowers as much as possible. That was how my bouquet ended up. My step mother has great skills and knowledge of flowers. I was very lucky with her to making my bouquet .”

Angela remembers, “We didn’t have walk a down the aisle. We stood together as opening music was played. We didn’t have a best man or bridesmaids either.”

Of their photographer, Angela says, “Suellen lee was my photographer. I found her on the internet accidentally. I couldn’t find the right photographer at that time. Also I had my own limited budget. I had a couple of photographers that friends recommended, but I felt they all looked very same photographs to me. I didn’t really want my wedding photos cheesy and too perfect. (it is boring). Basically I wanted for my wedding was a bit of fun and quirky.  She is very personal, crafty and passionate photographer. I love her different angles, views and spontaneous pictures. I think she made my wedding photos exactly what we wanted. Our wedding photos has fun, quirkiness, craft and our million dollars moments. She has very different camera angles to capture things to be interesting. We love our wedding photos a lot now. We are so lucky that we found her.”

Angela notes, “As my own wedding planner, I just wanted to make sure everything is right. The concept is an intimate relaxed wedding in one venue. The venue is like someone’s house that has a nice intimate space. Everyone had sparkling wine on arrival. Our ceremony was set in an outdoor area  looking down to the green vineyard as you can see in the photos. Most of quests got the green vineyard view which was stunning and beautiful. After the ceremony, everyone sat in one dinner table as we wanted. Oakridge made one large table for 33 people looking towards the window. It is like a large dinner party. We had a family style sharing dinner and could look at each other’s faces. We had dance music from 1940~2012. Everyone was involved. Oakridge winery perfectly worked for us. Great wine, quality food, super excellent services, wonderful views and small scale intimate venue. They provided what we wanted. I think they have a new extension building competed by now. We are planning to go back the Oakridge in our first anniversary.”

For their first dance, Angela tells, “We had the first dance to ‘sing sing sing by Benny Goodman’. We didn’t prepare particular dance moves for the first dance. We followed as our feelings. My husband Sean is normally very shy but a couple of whiskeys helped him to kick off in to the mood. It was just fun dancing. Following our first dance, most guests joined in dancing. We had a pretty comprehensive music list that was familiar to everyone, music from 1940s swing and jazz, 1960-1980s pop songs to Gangnam style.”

Congratulations on your marriage Angela and Sean! Thank you for sharing your wedding day with us! Thank you also to Suellen Lee for sharing today’s images with us!