Romantic Abbotsford Convent Wedding

Amelia & John

Amelia and John’s romantic Abbotsford Convent wedding is a beautiful one. The bride’s fairytale gown, the beautiful garden ceremony, the incredible floral arrangements, the fun and glorious first day. Each element comes together to form a story that is such a beautiful one, I suggest you get a cup of tea and settle in! Photographer Carmen Rose joined the couple and their loved ones to capture the day.

Amelia tells their tale. “We went to the same uni and had a lot of mutual friends from various facets of student life. We were always crossing paths and eventually we started to actually pay attention to one another. By the time we both graduated we were an item and have been ever since.”

Amelia chose a gown by Wendy Makin from Fashions By Farina and paired it with silver heels from Oscar de la Renta.

Amelia loved, “Getting ready with the family at my grandmother’s house. I have so many great memories from growing up there and I’m so happy that my wedding day is now one of them. It’s also where my mum got ready on her wedding day which made it special for both of us.”

Wunderplant created the floral arrangements in vivid tones of magenta, red and pinks. Amelia remembers, “I was absolutely thrilled with our flowers. All of the arrangements and the bouquets were created by Amy at Wunderplant. The brief was a little vague… I just told her the ‘vibe’ we were after – ‘colourful and wild’, we then let her do her thing. The result was superb!”

The groom and groomsmen wore suits from InStitchu.

Abbotsford Convent hosted the ceremony and reception. “Both the ceremony and reception were held at the Abbotsford Convent, it’s a bit of an inner-city sanctuary with gorgeous grounds and a fascinating History. It was the first venue we looked at and nothing else compared after that.”

Amelia walked down the aisle to Go Do by Jonsi.

Jill Hosken, Celebrate Life officiated the ceremony, Amelia noting, “In preparing for the wedding ceremony, our celebrant Jill asked us to each separately fill out a questionnaire about our relationship and our thoughts on marriage. We both procrastinated with it quite a lot and were pretty rushed in getting it completed and returned to her, neither of us knew what the other had written. On the day however she had taken John’s and my ramblings and created a beautiful introduction from them which told of how we met, why we were getting married and what our hopes were for the future. They were our own words but interwoven to make a complete story about us, she really did a wonderful job.”

Of their photographer, Amelia notes, “Carmen is the fiancée of a long-time family friend (which is how we found her) but connections aside, we knew as soon as we saw her work that she was the best photographer for our wedding. She has an incredible knack for candidly capturing a situation from many perspectives so that the ‘feel’ of the occasion is really shown through her photos. Most importantly, all of her brides look truly happy!!”

Receptions continued in the Abbotsford Convent courtyard, guests feasting on delights from Bursaria Fine Foods. Amelia tells,”The reception was held in the Rosina Function Space, the adjoining courtyard was the perfect setting for pre-drinks and the food was fantastic. The crew at Bursaria Fine Foods were great to work with and ran the whole event seamlessly.”

Guests received small gold boxes of treats as favors. “We live in Sydney so planning the wedding from afar was already tricky in terms of logistics. To simplify things, we kept DIY to a minimum. My mum and sister/bridesmaid very kindly made all of the favors; it was a bigger task than I’d first imagined (hand-tying hundreds of little bows…) I’m very grateful for their patience and persistence! Everything else was taken care of by our fabulous suppliers.”

“The speeches were great fun! Of course they were a little cheeky, but there were also some very touching sentiments expressed about the day as well as the past and the future.”

Of their first dance, Amelia remembers gleefully, “We danced to Fake Empire by the National. Choosing the song was easy. The only issue was that in the midst of all the planning, we completely forgot to learn how to waltz!! We managed to make up our own version of a bridal waltz the day before the wedding and we secretly practiced it in my Grandma’s garage! It all went pretty smoothly on the night even though we were counting our steps out to each other the whole way through. The best part for me was when John called our guests to join in and we suddenly found ourselves on a full dance floor – the formalities were over and we all just let loose!”