Good morning Dotties! With the winter cold settling in, I spent the weekend shooting and creating some projects for Polka Dot Made. I have some awesome friends in town at the moment so I am hoping I can convince them to eat tacos with me. It’s been a bit too long between tacos and if you know me, you know I am addicted.

Ms Polka Dot’s Wedding Directory is the place for wedding vendors full of passion. The kind that when you send them your ideas, can turn it into what you had in your head. We have new vendors joining every week and at a huge variety of budgets, styles and locations there is sure to be someone who can help your wedding plans become reality. For instance, have you seen the Flowers category? Florists who adore colour, who adore texture and who are so darn good at what they do they make me want to come and work in their studios just so I can be amongst it all!

1. Photo by Jonathan Ong from Kate and Tim’s Vivid Harbour Wedding 2. Photo by Eric Ronald from Rin and Joe’s Handmade Melbourne Wedding 3. Photo by Joseph Koprek from Amy and Justin’s Melbourne Rooftop Wedding

Our Monday morning tradition is to introduce you to a vendor, randomly chosen from our directory (you can click their button at the top of the blog all week too!) and this week we’re highlighting a talent filled Melbourne based hair and makeup styling business Lady Day Hair & Makeup.

Poppy and Dana run a mobile service- traveling all around Victoria (though they have their own hair salon, named Kenny And The Sunshine Girls too!) Poppy and Dana both started in the industry in 2000 after a long love of their trades before joining together to offer the all in one solution for bridal parties.

We asked Dana from Lady Day Hair & Makeup  five questions in five minutes -

What is your favourite after five drink?

I love an Espresso Martini to kick off an evening out.

Your favourite weekend getaway?

Anywhere close to nature, with good food, junk shops and fresh air. I like The Spa Region in Victoria with all it’s little towns and have also recently discovered Cape Conran which has an amazing coastal park and cabins.

Favourite restaurant?

In Melbourne I have always loved Cicciolina in my old stomping ground, St Kilda and also The Gem in Collingwood – it has a great dining room. The Crimean in North Melbourne is a new local favourite with it’s Eastern European Cuisine. Out of town I love The Perfect Drop in Daylesford. It’s cosy and the food is amazing and the menu always changing.

What can we find you eating for breakfast on a Sunday morning?

It depends – if my kids are with me we have a pancake feast at home or we go for ricotta hotcakes at the local cafe. If not, I love poached eggs on toast or a good BLT. The cafes in Yarraville are walking distance from my house so I am very lucky and spoilt for choice!

Your favourite wedding story?

Last year I got a surprise phone call from an old school friend that I hadn’t seen for about 13 years. She told me she was getting married and asked if I was available on her wedding day to do her hair and makeup. When she came to have her trial I found out that she was marrying another friend from our high school! They had always had a crush on each other as teenagers but never told each other. Years later they got together, had a little boy and tied the knot. The groom has a marquee business and set one up in their backyard for the reception. The decor was beautiful and it was amazing to be part of it and reconnect with all of those people again at the wedding.

Visit Lady Day Hair & Makeup’s  page to find out more about our Vendor Of The Week. Lady Day Hair & Makeup is a member of Ms Polka Dot’s Directory

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Happy Mothers Day to the mums today! We have plenty of mums on our polka dot team and they all deserve a wonderful day of feeling loved for all that they do today!

A special thank you to Mother Polka Dot, who is without a doubt the most amazing woman I know. Nobody could ever really know, or see what she does to make the world an amazing place, but she does it and every day is better because of her. I love her to the moon and back.

Photo by Sarah Kate Dorman

Tags www.sarahkatedorman.com.au | Bride, Snapshot Sundays | Comments 0

 Sam & Tyron

In my dreams, my backyard is filled with flowers, where I can lie with a good book, a cup of tea and inhale the sweetness of the grass and floral notes of the blooms. This gorgeous “field of flowers” engagement photos of Sam and Tyron comes to us from Miriam Ackroyd from Wildflower Images .

Sam says, “We met whilst working in a bar in South Brisbane. It only took a few weeks after meeting to begin dating and 6.5 yrs later we are getting married.”

“I wouldn’t say it is funny but for the 6.5 years we have been together we have spent about two years of it apart when Tyron lived in a rural town in North WA called Kununurra. After two years being apart, I left my job and packed up and moved to be with him. It was the best decision we made as a couple.”

“When we moved back to Brisbane we decided to go away for the weekend to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. We booked a cute cabin in the Gold Coast Hinterland at a place called “The Mouse House”. We went on a 4km hike and when we got to the half way point there was a beautiful waterfall, the Purlingbrook falls. Sam was taking some nice pictures totally oblivious to what Tyron was doing. He then proposed. Let’s say that Sam can’t remember the final 2 km as she was constantly looking at her ring.”

Tags www.wildflowerimages.net | Bride, Engagements | Comments 3

We’ve done so much rustic venue searching, that I thought it was definitely time to switch it up! I’ve recently been loving industrial style venues for weddings (we even have a board dedicated to venues on Pinterest!) and I want to show off some of Melbourne’s best spaces for an industrial backdrop.

Industrial spaces to me are like a blank canvas. I love that they can hold so much history in their features. Neutral tones come through the cement floors, the paint peeling walls or the high ceilings and they lend themselves to very modern aesthetics. From keeping it blank and bare and just filling the space with candlelight, to getting creative with florals, furniture and decor to transform the space into something completely different.

The Substation

Located in the western suburb of Newport, The Substation has to be one of my favourite industrial wedding venues- huge arch windows, long wooden floors, incredible height in the ceilings and plenty of exposed brick. There are 14 different spaces available, including the main performance hall allowing guests to start in one for cocktails, move to another for dinner and another for dancing. The performance hall can seat between 80- 200 guests for a sit down dinner or up to 300 for a cocktail function.

Thousand Pound Bend

Thousand Pound Bend is located right in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD. With two main spaces (the upstairs theatre and downstairs gallery) you can choose to marry in one and celebrate in the other.  The gallery can hold 450 guests for cocktail functions of 250 guests seated while the upstairs theatre has a capacity of 80 guests for cocktail style or 120 seated. There is onsite catering, though outside caterers can be brought in. 1000 Pound Bend is really a warehouse shell- the ultimate industrial wedding space.

Melbourne’s Living Museum Of The West

Melbourne’s Living Museum Of The West located in park, right next to the river in Maribyrnong provides historic blue stone buildings for functions. Part of the wider Pipemakers Park (plenty of photography opportunities!) the venue has enough seating and tables for 100 guests and runs over two levels.

Smart Artz Gallery

Heading into the warehouse, art gallery style of venue, South Melbourne’s Smart Artz Gallery has blank walls, exposed beams and cement floors – all the characteristics of an industrial style blank slate. The venue can seat 180 guests or accommodate 180 guests cocktail style.  Smart Artz has their own in house catering, plus a host of flexible space options – including a grand piano, to make the space your own.

Showtime Event Centre

One of the newest venues on our list, Showtime Event Centre located on South Wharf is every bit the warehouse, industrial style function venue. The historic cargo shed has recently been covered and can now accommodate functions of up to 250 guests for a sit down celebration or cocktail functions for up to 500 gusts.

Westside Events

Polished cement floors, exposed beams, pitched ceilings and industrial lighting make Westside Events one of my favourite industrial wedding venues in Melbourne. Located in West Melbourne, Westside Events  can hold 180 guests for a sit down function or 300 for a cocktail celebration. Everything can be brought into the venue – so you can choose your own caterer, stylist, musicians and even lighting.

Studio Raw Materials

Studio Raw Materials, located in Footscray has a lofty warehouse feel (plenty of cement floors and exposed brick!) with a commercial background (the space is also used for cooking schools and photography). There’s a capacity for 120 guests and they even produce their own delicacies that you might incorporate into your wedding.

Two Ton Max

Two Ton Max is one of those venues that is so warehouse chic that it truly is nothing but a blank canvas for your wedding day. Located in Collingwood, the venue can seat 200 guests or hold 350 for cocktail functions. It features polished concrete floors,  exposed beams, pitched ceilings and the blank canvas of white walls. The venue itself is restored from an industrial workshop believed to have been built in the 1920s.

One Seven One Dorcas Street

One Seven One Dorcas Street in South Melbourne caters for up to 100 people, but with it’s high ceilings and cement floors can create a cosy, intimate space with the industrial edge.  There’s onsite catering and modern facilities like an ipod sound system and plasma screens complimenting the bare bones space.

Fortyfive Downstairs

I’m not sure I can even lie about the fact Fortyfive Downstairs is one of my favourite wedding venues of all time. There is limited availability as it’s a functioning arts & performance space (so they only open it up to weddings a few dates a year) but I love every part of it – from the huge New York loft style windows, the rugged wooden floor boards and the high, exposed beams. Catering is managed by Ed Dixon Food Design and the gallery can used for your wedding ceremony before moving to the theatre space which can accommodate 150 guests.

 Alto Event Space

Photo by Jeremy Beasley from Em and Max’s Modern City Wedding

Located right in the city centre on top of the QVB building, Alto Event Space is definitely leaning towards the modern edge of industrial. There’s chandeliers, a mirrored bar and floor to ceiling windows overlooking the Melbourne city scape. Alto can seat 150 guests and also has an outside deck which boosts the capacity to 400 for cocktail functions.

This is just the tip of the iceberg! What are your favourites?

Australia - Victoria, Bride, Wedding Venues | Comments 7