Angela & Jonathan

We can never go past the wine region when it comes to simply stunning wedding venues and I think it’s this, and the gorgeous Italian style charm of the beautiful Zonzo Estate that won today’s couple Angela and Jonathan over for their simply elegant wedding day. With Darin Collison Photography behind the camera, the couple set about planning a day that the bride’s words “We wanted to go for a simple, bright and fun style – ballrooms are not our thing!”.

For these two, who met while working at a hospital, fun was always on the agenda, the bride winning her future husband over with her sense of humour over night shift, became engaged at home. Angela shares their story. “I was working late, completely exhausted. I headed home to find our home full of candles, flowers, champagne and Jonathan on one knee! I was totally uncool in my excitement.”

The groom and groomsmen chose charlocal suits from MJ Bale.

Angela chose an elegantly beautiful gown by designer Amaline Vitale. She remembers “Choosing a dress was HARD! I had a few ideas about what I really didn’t like but otherwise, I was open to most options which meant I tried on a LOT of dresses. I decided on the dress that made me feel the most like me, I did actually feel different about that dress than all the ones I tried before it. One of my bridesmaids teared up when I put it on and I think that’s usually a pretty good sign.”

Beautiful Yarra Valley venue Zonzo Estate set the scene for Angela and Jonathan’s day, the bride noting “We chose to have our ceremony and reception at Zonzo. It was one of the first wedding venues we looked at and we loved it (we especially loved the food)!”

Angela walked down the aisle with her father to Lior’s “This Old Love”. She remembers “We both loved the moment we got to see each other when I started my walk down the aisle, it was such a mixture of overwhelming joy, excitement and plenty of nerves.”

Angela and Jonathan were married by Matt Finch, telling “We wanted our ceremony to be fun, full of love and plenty of jokes… and succinct! We wrote our own vows and even though it was terrifying, reading them to each other was the best. For our reading we chose an excerpt from a poem by Tim Pratt called “Scientific Romance”. We were guided and supported through the whole thing by our celebrant Matt Finch who was incredible.”

The couple gave a nod to the bride’s Korean heritage with wooden ducks. Angela noting “We included a pair of wood ducks in our ceremony. Traditionally they are included in Korean weddings as a symbol of peace, fidelity and plentiful offspring. The ducks are displayed in the marital home facing each other if there is harmony in the marriage (our ducks are definitely still facing each other)!”

Red Earth Flowers created the floral details for the day. “We really love natives and I wanted some really bright colours that would work well against the browns and greens of the wedding venue” remembers Angela. “The bouquets were incredible – especially mine which had a gorgeous king protea in it.

The flowers from Red Earth Flowers were even more amazing then I could have imagined. Kelly was super lovely to deal with and incredibly quick with emails.”

The details at the reception were carefully considered to honour the newlyweds, Angela explaining “We wanted to bring everyone together, so we chose to have 2 long tables instead of lots of smaller tables. We definitely made sure to include details that reflect our mixed heritage, like our bonbonniere of vino cotto (a traditional Italian product made by Jonathan’s aunt and uncle) and a pair of traditional Korean wooden ducks in our wedding ceremony.”

There was plenty of time for sunset wedding photos, an idea of photographer Darin Collison. Angela raves “Darin was excellent to work with and produced some insanely beautiful photos! He captured lots of candid moments that really showed who we are.”

The newlyweds kicked off the dance floor with live music by The White Tree, telling “We didn’t plan much for our first dance but we had a pretty clear agreement on the song “Come and get your love” by Redbone, which was excellently covered by The White Tree band. We both love dancing so we just got up and had fun!”

Angela and Jonathan delighted guests with icecream from Bianco Latte. Angela noting “We had zero regrets about our snap decision to have a gelato cart from Bianco Latte – best wedding dessert ever!”

The couple made the most of the quiet and snuck off together – twice(!) to soak it in, Angela telling ” We loved having all of our amazing friends and family around us but I think our favourite part was sneaking off to have a moment to ourselves, eat gelato and just appreciate the moment.”

A big congratulations to you both Angela and Jonathan! How wonderful it was to share your day. Thank you also to Darin Collison Photography for sharing today’s beautiful images,