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Fiona & Anthony

I love every bit of Fiona and Anthony’s gorgeous restaurant wedding. From the bride’s tea length dress, the biggest smiles, the hot pink reception decor, the watercolour effect invitations – it all comes together to create a beautiful, modern celebration captured by Alison Mayfield.

“We met in Sorrento over the Summer holidays.”

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Janice Wu styled the bride and bridesmaid’s hair and makeup. The wedding style kicking off with a hot pink watercolour designed invitation created by the groom’s brother.

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The bride chose Pamela Usanto  to make her wedding gown, explaining, “I have a dear friend by the name of Pamela Usanto who designed and made my dress. It was a bit of a mad rush, I kept putting off the fittings as I was so busy at the time. I think I ended up giving Pam 2 months to make the dress! I didn’t actually pick the dress up until the day before the wedding, but felt totally confident in Pam so wasn’t stressed. She is patient, sweet and incredibly talented. I would recommend her to anyone!

Being Winter, I wanted a dress appropriate for the season, yet wanted it to feel a little more relaxed and fun, hence the shortened length and cut-off sleeves.”

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Fiona and Anthony chose Immaculate Conception Church Hawthorn  for their wedding ceremony, telling, “The Church was a really important element for Anthony and his family, which therefore made it important to me too! It was also convenient being Winter to have the ceremony indoors. Immaculate Conception Hawthorn was mainly chosen for its location, it was in close proximity for the guests to the venue, they just had to jump on a tram or get a five minute taxi.”

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For her walk down the aisle, Fiona remembers,”I chose Lana Del Ray’s song Video Games, which was played on the organ. It sounded insanely good, really moody and powerful. Being a church, I thought an organ was the best option, but wanted to take it to the next level by having the organist play a modern song. He did a great job.”

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“More than anything else, I wanted the ceremony to be as speedy as possible, I was really nervous about it! It was important that all guests feel welcome, whether they were religious or not. It needed to be from the heart and both Anthony and I preferred traditional vows. We included one reading as it is a requirement of the church, which Anthony’s beautiful sisters Anna and Jane read together.”

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Fiona’s bridesmaid wore a navy dress from Life with Bird.

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Of their photographer, Fiona remembers, “Alison from Alison Mayfield Photography was so lovely. We didn’t even know she was there most of the time, which is exactly what we wanted! We both felt quite uncomfortable by the idea of a photographer snapping us in every moment, but Alison did it so discretely. We didn’t make it easy on her, I think we gave her 30 minutes worth of time after the ceremony and that was it! She’s a gem!”

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The celebrations were held at Hellenic Republic. Fiona remarking” The reception venue was really important to me. I didn’t want it to be a function room, it needed to have character and warmth and most importantly, the food needed to be amazing. We always loved eating at Hellenic Republic and when I was on the hunt for our wedding venue, I was searching around for places that weren’t commonly used for weddings, I didn’t like the idea that guests may have been there before, I wanted an element of surprise. As soon as I checked out the space upstairs at Hellenic Republic, I knew it was it! Anthony trusted me and let me run with it from there.

Kelly and her team at Hellenic Republic, they were unreal! I could not say one bad word! When I went in the day before to drop off a few bits and pieces, the staff were hand-ironing my linen so there wasn’t a line in sight! I knew from that point I was in super safe hands and didn’t have a worry in the world.”

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“I did do one special little thing for our parents. I stole a couple of shots from their wedding albums of when they were married, took them to a printing specialist and had them re-sized, lightened etc and then displayed them in gorgeous clear perspex Country Road frames alongside beautiful florals and candles on the night. I then gave it to them as a gift at the end of the night. We look up to our parents and respect how hard they have worked on their marriages and hope to follow in their footsteps.”

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Of the wedding style, Fiona notes “It was gorgeous, tasteful, fun and happy! It was thoughtfully styled and planned out, yet the intention was for it to be relaxed and most of all fun! I am a bit of a girly girl, have a love for beautiful florals and with a background in weddings, I certainly felt a sense of pressure to create something beautiful for our guests.”

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The finishing touches were so important to Fiona, who explains, “One other little thing that was a must for me was hiring in some quality linen – from Allie at Table Art of course! It makes a huge difference to the overall look and feel of a space.”

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Brett Currell styled the floral arrangements for the day, while Ab Fab Cakes created a two tier pale pink and metallic gold cake. “Brett Currell also did a gorgeous job with my flowers, as did Daniel with our stationery and Ab Fab with my simple yet pretty cake.”

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The couple chose not to have a first dance, the bride remembering, “We actually chose not to have a ‘first dance’ as such. Instead, we had our Garth Ploog and the band learn Johnnie Farnham’s song ‘Take the Pressure Down’ and had everyone join us up the dance floor for fun! Neither of us are slow dancing types and the thought of everyone watching us in that awkward moment just wasn’t us. It worked really well, so glad we did that. Garth and the band did such a great job!”

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Congratulations on tying the knot Fiona and Anthony! Thank you for sharing your day with us! Thank you to Alison Mayfield  for sharing today’s celebration!