Elegant Montsalvat Wedding - Polka Dot Wedding

Louisa & Matthew

There is a sense of beautiful elegance to Louisa and Matthew’s elegant Monsalvat wedding. There is an understated understanding almost as if there was nothing to prove, just a love story to tell. The couple chose Alex Motta of Motta Weddings to capture their day.

Louisa tells the tale of how they came to be. “We went to high school together and after 5 years of never even noticing each other, we became friends in our final year and got together as our exams began.”

Louise wore a gown by Karen Willis Holmes, noting, “I chose a Karen Willis Holmes dress from their store in Armadale. It was one of the first I tried on and the one I kept thinking about when trying on a number of different dresses all over Melbourne. The service was incredible and the staff so lovely and understanding. I wanted a more fitted style of dress and something that was a little bit different. I chose a mermaid style strapless gown with a lace peplum overlay. I finished it off with a belt I purchased on Etsy (very last minute).”

Louisa and Matthew chose Montsalvat for their ceremony, noting, “Our ceremony was held at Montsalvat in Eltham at the Upper Gallery. It is such a beautiful space with incredible light coming through the stained glass windows. It was a perfect backdrop for the ceremony. The grounds also provided a great spot for photos.”

Louisa walked down the aisle to “A cover of Frank Sinatra’s New York New York by Tony Ferrari. Matt proposed in New York, so it was fitting.”

Amy Armstrong officiated the ceremony, the bride remembering, “We kept our ceremony short and simple. We wanted it to be very intimate and personal and about us and the commitment we were making. We wrote the whole thing ourselves with some assistance from the internet and our celebrant Amy Armstrong. We chose traditional vows and paid tribute to our parents for their role in our lives and acknowledged our late grandparents who could not be there with us on the day.

We also incorporated some Macedonian tradition from Matt’s heritage, with a crowning ceremony in which crowns are placed on the couple’s heads and swapped three times. This represents unit and the joining of the couple to create a new family. All our guests commented on the ceremony and how it was very personal and beautiful which is exactly what we wanted.”

The bridal party traveled in a pale blue kombi from Kombi Celebrations. “We chose a VW Kombi can which was so fun and great in pictures. We had champagne in the back and just cruising around the streets was so much fun.”

Of their photographer, Louisa tells, “We chose Alex Motta to photograph the day. He had photographed one of my work colleague’s weddings and I loved her photos. His pictures are very natural and in the moment and we did not want to be doing silly poses and have photos of us looking awkward and uncomfortable. We wanted to look like us and Alex was able to do that.”

“After our photos at Montsalvat we decided to take our bridal party to our favourite local bar (Barton Fink). We had some casual drinks and some shots (courtesy of the staff) and were able to have some time to unwind and enjoy the moment. It was a lot of fun and we got some cool pictures as well.”

Balwyn Events styled the flowers for the day, Louisa telling, “We were lucky with all our vendors. My flowers were through Balwyn Events and Tracy was so helpful. I have no idea about flowers and only knew the style I wanted. After 10 minutes of talking and showing some pictures she knew exactly what I wanted and on the day everything from the bouquets to the table pieces were exactly what we wanted.”

Louisa and Matthew celebrated with guests at The Park “Natasha at The Park was so helpful. We were pretty easy going throughout the process but she was always on hand if we had any questions or issues. I think our favourite part of planning was finally getting to the day and everything we had thought about so much just falling into place.”

Louisa tells, “Everything was special. We made sure our parents were relaxed and had nothing to do on the day. In addition we were very organised in the lead up so that when they day rolled around, we had nothing to worry about and it all fell into place for us.”

Of their first dance, the bride tells, “We hated the thought of doing a slow dance together for 5 minutes and were not keen on any lessons or choreographed dancing. We chose Vance Joy’s Fire and the Flood for our first dance because it was a bit more upbeat and fun and we both loved the song as soon as heard it. I’m sure we looked a bit awkward up there dancing but we managed to pull it off and have fun.”