Andrew and I decided to get married in January 2010 when my dad’s cancer diagnosis brought us on an unplanned trip home to Melbourne. The night before our flight back to Paris, where we had been living since mid 2009, we made the decision to tie the knot when we moved back to Melbourne for good. About 30 minutes after this exciting development I came down with food poisoning and rather than celebrating, I had to spend the rest of the night and most of our last day in the bathroom!!

The day of the wedding, the boys spent the afternoon playing frisbee and picnicking in the park across the road from our house. The Cambridge suits were from Woodstock Menswear on Elizabeth St. Andrew’s tree cufflinks were the first gift I had bought him, from Arbor Redux.

Since we planned our wedding while living in Paris I was lucky enough to be able to have my gown made by one of the French couture wedding dress houses, Cymbeline. Their attention to detail was amazing, even sewing little blue bows onto the labels to cover the “something blue”. I wouldn’t recommend traveling from the other side of the world with a bridal gown as hand-luggage though unless you have to!

The girls and I spent our day at my parent’s house relaxing, eating delicious food and drinking champagne while our hair and makeup was styled by the lovely Miss Aimmey. The gorgeous bridesmaid’s dresses were from Baccini & Hill.

I covered my something old with a gorgeous old brooch pinned into my hair which had belonged to my aunt’s grandmother. My something borrowed were the amazing diamond earrings I borrowed from my grandmother, who was also the source of my engagement ring and both our wedding rings from her shop Marlene Miller Antiques in Sorrento (03 5984 1762). The something blue was organised by Cymbeline. The something new were my beautiful shoes from French wedding shoe designer Mademoiselle Rose. They also offer a tinting service after the big day so you can wear your shoes again!

We couldn’t have been happier with our flowers, styled by My Flowerhouse, which not only looked fantastic but smelt amazing. I have since put the succulents from my bouquet into pots and they remain a gorgeous reminder of a gorgeous day. Wedding cars weren’t an important aspect of the day for us, opting for a town car service, so it only felt right to feature my normal mode of transport in photos.

One of the most important moments of the day was having my dad walk me down the aisle. He had been in and out of hospital in the months leading up to the wedding but on the day got all his strength together and was able to give me away and enjoy the festivities. This was particularly special because he passed away 3 weeks later. At least we now have some wonderful photos to remember the good times. I walked down the aisle to ‘Heartbeats’ by Jose Gonzalez which has long been a favourite song of mine.

We decided to have a garden wedding, and so on a short trip home in May 2011 we wandered through all the parks in Melbourne before finding the gorgeous JFK memorial pond in the Treasury Gardens. Our celebrant Meriki Comito was simply wonderful, her professionalism (and her audio system) even managed to block out the sounds of the Grand Prix.

We took advantage of the gorgeous Treasury Gardens for a quick celebratory champagne and photo session before heading off to the reception.

It was very important for us to have great food and an interesting venue so we chose to hold ours at Red Spice Road. The restaurant has 2 adjoining dining rooms with only 4 huge tables, where our guests were treated to a delicious Thai banquet with 3 entrees, 4 mains and dessert – and couldn’t stop raving about the pork belly!

We held speeches in between the entrees and mains to make sure my dad wouldn’t be too tired, and to get them over with early so we could focus on enjoying ourselves! Our wedding dance was to ‘Bella’ by Angus & Julia Stone, when we actually started dancing I realised I’d forgotten to bustle the train of my dress – so it was more of a shuffle around in a one direction circle…

Our photographer, Rachael Dere, was the sister of a groomsman. She did an amazing job of making us feel comfortable and we couldn’t have been happier with our photos.

Photography by Rachael Dere

Ms Gingham says: Having lost my own father less than 12 months ago, this story really brings a lump to my throat. Such a lovely wedding.

Cara describes herself as: “Newlywed who has developed an addiction to looking at gorgeous wedding images. Loves travel and great food so tried to combine both by planning an Australian wedding at a Thai restaurant from Paris…”