Ruth & Lindsay

I’m no stranger to the mid century beauty that is Boyd Baker House. I think what I have love most about the venue is the way in which each couple completely transforms it for their own wedding day. Today’s Australian Irish celebration was described by the bride as “Australian mod meets Irish retro.” and isn’t that just a little fabulous? If not a lot?

Ruth tells the story of how she and Lindsay came to marry. “I moved to Melbourne from Ireland in 2004 and met Lindsay at my first ever Australian BBQ. We fell in love over a shared enthusiasm for music and Lindsay suitably proposed while we were slow dancing to our record collection at home in the early hours one morning.”

The photographs today are by Lara Luz who captures weddings, love and happiness with such a modern take.

Of their photographer, who suggested a pre wedding shoot for the couple. Ruth remarks “Our ninja photographer Lara made the whole process easy and fun from start to finish. Once we met her and viewed her portfolio we were pretty sure that she was the one for us, and her love of The Beatles really sealed the deal! With Lara’s enthusiastic blessing we decided to have some photos taken a few weeks before the wedding. I just co-ordinated my hair and make-up trial for the same day and we had a ball running around the streets of Fitzroy. Sure, we had to have the dress dry-cleaned afterwards but it meant that we got to enjoy the day itself from start to finish without having any stress about getting that perfect shot while our guests had all the fun. And the photos are amazing!”

Onto the wedding day…

On the wedding day, Ruth remembers, “We decided to get ready for the wedding together and to both walk down the aisle with our mums and dads. This allowed all of our parents to feel special, which was very important to us.”

The groom and groomsmen wore retro styled boutonniere. Ruth explains “We met Andria from Shagpile at the Rose Street Artists Market in Fitzroy and she custom-made unique 1960’s style boutonnières for Lindsay and his best men.”

The couple remember, “The morning of the wedding was filled with busy last minute preparations, as most weddings tend to be. The most memorable moment was when Lindsay, standing in his boxers with a hot iron ready to iron his shirt, realised that he had left both his shirt and suit back in Melbourne. Thankfully a very lovely friend drove back to retrieve it. We laugh about it now but Ruth’s face when she heard the news was unforgettable!”

Ruth purchased her gown from The Vintage Wedding Dress Company.

Boyd Baker House set the scene for the wedding day. Ruth explains” I am a little bit country and Lindsay is a little bit rock ‘n’ roll and Boyd Baker House seemed like the perfect choice for us from the start – a heritage listed 1960s home filled with modernist furniture set on 35 acres of beautiful Australian bushland just outside Bacchus Marsh.”

Guests were welcomed with cocktails, catered by Ed Dixon Food Design . Ruth recalls “We wanted laughter and fun from the start: on arrival, our guests were served elderflower and champagne cocktails with real gold flakes in little milk bottles. It was really important to us to use local vendors for the wedding. We worked with fellow Boyd Baker bride Ashlie from Hello Felton Design on themed invitations, jam jar labels, table numbers, menus and little personalised tags for our milk bottle cocktails.”

Music was an important consideration for the couple, Ruth explains “The song we chose to accompany us both down the aisle was an instrumental version of ‘Do you Realize?’ by The Flaming Lips. During the ceremony our friends performed a very sweet and funny rendition of ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ by Starship, which had all of our guests singing along at the tops of their voices! Once the ‘I dos’ were over we played ‘Jungle Drum’ by Emiliana Torrini which was followed by some beautiful guitar jazz played by yet another talented musician friend.”

The bride and bridesmaid carried beautiful bouquets styled by Flowerjar. Ruth remembers “Ange from Flowerjar designed the most striking bouquets for Ruth and her sister, and sourced us stunning dahlias and billy buttons so that we could do our own table decorations to keep the costs down.”

Jon von Goes performed the ceremony Ruth notes, “Our celebrant was the inimitable and hilarious 3RRR DJ Jon von Goes, who had everyone in stitches throughout the ceremony.”

The celebration of the wedding turned into a very long weekend celebration. Ruth remembers “The wedding was at Easter which meant that Irish and interstate friends and family could join us for a long weekend which included dinner for forty at Dhaba at the Mill in Kyneton on Friday, a BBQ and Easter egg hunt on the Sunday and a trip to the MCG for the footy on the Monday. Needless to say we were exhausted but happy by the end!”

Ruth says “Before dinner our guests played Scandinavian wooden games and posed for polaroids which we then hung on pegs and string around the house and later placed into our guest book.”

Instead of one wedding cake, Ruth and Lindsay had an entire table of beauties! Ruth remarks “The totally delicious Australian and Irish classic cakes were handmade by Melbourne food bloggers extraordinaire Trotski and Ash.”

Ruth notes, “We made or sourced almost every detail of the wedding ourselves. We were keen to enhance the mod aspects of Boyd Baker House with retro handmade napkins and table runners, name tags with vintage pattern fabric and the bride and bridesmaid’s 1960s dresses. In honour of the bush setting we had a CWA themed cake table of Australian and Irish favourites, colourful handmade bunting, and pots of homemade crab apple jelly for our guests to take home.”

“On the day before the wedding and the morning itself, our close friends and family from both Melbourne and Ireland worked to turn Boyd Baker House from a weekend retreat into our perfect venue so it felt like a community effort with the entire group having a sense of ownership and pride in how it all turned out.”

“One of the best parts of the whole experience was having so many of our friends and family on board to help in the weeks and days beforehand. Ruth’s parents arrived from Ireland a month before the wedding and her mum threw herself into sewing all of the bunting, napkins and table runners while her dad earned himself the nickname of ‘The Irish Martha Stewart’, making over one hundred pompoms and personalised name tags for each guest.”

Ruth recalls one of her favourite memories of the night. “It’s an Irish tradition to have guests secretly bet on the length of the father of the bride speech so we put little envelopes with instructions on each table. This was a great icebreaker and meant that the speech was one of the most intently listened to of the evening, much to the delight of Ruth’s Dad. For the record, it lasted for 17 minutes and 49 seconds!”

The couple hired their favourite band to kick off the reception entertainment, Ruth remembers “Since we met we have been fans of The Love Brothers who play a set in St Kilda every Sunday evening.  We were so thrilled when they agreed to be our wedding band and their Beatles renditions had us all out of our seats from our first dance to Til There Was You, until the last – a spectacular version of Hey Jude that had every single guest singing along with arms linked in a big gorgeous circle of love!”

Congratulations Ruth & Lindsay! Thank you for sharing your wedding day with us on Polka Dot Bride! Thank you to Lara Luz for sharing today’s images!