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Kate & Dave

Dave and I met at a Graveyard Train show at the East Brunswick Club in Melbourne, two days after I returned from living overseas for a couple of years. We have a mutual friend and there were so many twists and turns that had us both (and said friend) there that night. So you know, fate.

We spent a lot of the first few years together seeing bands and enjoying music, and in fact, we said I love you for the first time at another Graveyard Train show at The Old Bar a few months later. Choosing retro record and sleeve wedding invitations was an easy choice. A nice lady on Etsy made them – Ello There.

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Getting engaged happened on a beach in Malaysia. Well actually, we were in the water, so of course there was no ring, and I asked awkwardly if Dave was being serious, which he thinks is very amusing.

I went shopping once or twice for dresses but came upon my dress by accident. I took the day off for my birthday and was talking on the phone to a good friend and absently found myself in front of Hannii. I went in and tried on my dress. I loved the use of a couple of different types of lace and some hardcore bling on the front! Very much a vintage inspired dress which is what I love.

Vintage became the theme of our wedding. Though I hesitate to say theme because it’s just the sort of stuff we like and have in our lives. I have a lot of vintage clothes and furniture so it was less a choice of theme, but rather a nod to what we love and what felt right for us.

Both of our rings are antiques which we bought from Kalmar Antiques on a spontaneous trip to Sydney. I wore my ring as an engagement ring and now as a wedding ring.

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Pretty soon we realised we wanted to have an entirely outdoor wedding with mismatched vintage dining chairs, old school wooden trestle tables and a lovely outdoor lounge area. We found an amazing venue – Garden’s House at Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens – that was spot on for our type of wedding. It was so perfect because it was in the city but felt like the country, and is private so that you can have you ceremony without onlookers getting involved. I was once a bridesmaid at a ceremony in a public park and some random people actually stood in front of the guests to take photos!

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When I couldn’t find anyone in Melbourne who hired out enough vintage furniture (most places only did props or crockery), we decided to acquire it ourselves via our trusty friend eBay. And then turn it into a vintage furniture hire and event styling business once we were wed. That’s how our business,Good Day Club,came to be. We spent five months before the wedding ‘winning’ things on eBay, and driving all over Victoria in my sister’s ute to pick up our loot and what would become the start of our vintage and retro hire range.

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The flowers were a family affair. My Dad – who is a plumber by day – has always been a dab hand with flowers, creating amazing bouquets from his garden for me, my sisters and our Mum over the years. Given his talents and the joy he gets from it, I asked him to do the flowers. He accepted nervously and then set out to get qualified and did TWO floristry courses! On the day, he made five bouquets for my bridal party of two, because he wanted us to have lots of choice! Mum, Dad, Dave and I planted succulent cuttings from their garden and my grandpa’s garden to create the table decorations.

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We folded (OK Dave folded) 1000 paper cranes to decorate our ceremony as a tribute to my sister, Jacqueline, who died of cancer as a toddler. My family always like to remember her in a positive way, and Dave and I felt like this was a beautiful way to accomplish this, given the story behind the 1000 cranes made famous by Sadako Sasaki. Dave also lived in Japan, making him partial to Japanese traditions.

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Dave’s brother was his best man and my best friend forever (she tells me off if I don’t refer to her as this!) Melinda formed our bridal party. We chose a small bridal party to match our small wedding. We had only 40 guests. I was in Jakarta for work the week before the wedding and my colleague there was so confused by this and thought I had 40 people just in my bridal party. Makes sense given she had 1000 people at her wedding!

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Even though it was a small wedding, it was still a cracking party. As with the whole wedding, the dance floor was on the lawn. The ladies kicked off their shoes and everyone danced, in huge part thanks to wedding DJ extraordinaire DJ Jess McGuire. She is the very best DJ and she is also now my sister-in-law. Jess and my sister met at the wedding and got together a while later!

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Our favourite moment of the wedding was our first dance. Given we met and said our first ‘I love you’ at Graveyard Train shows, we chose one of their songs, ‘Mary Melodie’, for our first dance. The song is slow to start with and we danced to that part by ourselves. When it was time for our guests to hit the dance floor, it coincided with the song’s quickening pace and clapping. All our guests including my 80 year old poppa came onto the dancefloor, clapping along, whooping and high kicking. It was just the best thing; so fun, spontaneous and fantastic that it’s hands down our favourite moment.

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Dave is a Kiwi so we had lots of out of towners which made the celebration a much longer one than just the single day, which is great and I highly recommend it! Why not stretch it out!

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Ms Chinoiserie Says: Congratulations Kate and Dave; what a beautifully fun and colourful wedding in the Gardens; love your choice in furniture!

About Kate : Hi, I’m Kate from Good Day Club and we specialise in vintage and retro furniture hire with a hand picked collection of mismatched dining chairs, wooden trestle tables and sweet lounge furniture. Whether you want to deck out your whole wedding or simply create a vintage cool ceremony, Good Day Club can create the wedding of your actual dreams.