Angi & James

Step into the 70’s with us for this gloriously retro wedding! Compete with daisies in the bride’s hair, a bowling club serving devilled eggs and the bride swapping between two floral outfits, this groovy celebration is personalised to perfection! Em Jensen Creative captured the day.

Angi and James met 13 years ago, the bride sharing, ”We met in crazy circumstances! I was dancing on a podium at a techno club (be honest, we all went through that phase in the 90’s), my friend wouldn’t dance with me, so I put my hand out to fish for someone to dance with, and low and behold I got a bite! I pulled up this scruffy looking punk with a mohawk who was very out of place in the club. The next 12 hours was what we call our BrisVegas night, club hopping, at the casino, then making new random friends and going back to theirs to rage on!”

The bride found her dream outfits from Brisbane designer, Yesterday People. She tells, ”I wore a cropped halter top with matching flares for the ceremony, with a wrap butterfly sleeve top afterwards, and changed into a green floral shift dress and gogo boots for the reception. I also wore custom earrings by my friend Emma from Exploding Plastic, a bracelet of my grandfathers and a watch of my great grandmothers.” The groom wore an original powder blue safari suit which was found on Gumtree.

In the warm ambience of Thornbury Bowls Club, Angi walked down the aisle to ‘Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind By This Time)’ by the Delfonics 1970, played and sung by the angelic voice of Francesca Li Donni. The bride remembers, ”Our ceremony was very relaxed. It started with our friends and family pledging to party hard, promising that there will be general shenanigans, dancing, cheering and drunken antics, with our favourite Romantics. Followed by a skolling of beers. We never thought we would get married as tradition, churches and a white dress just isn’t us. Our celebrant, Jac the Hitcher gave us something custom, laid back, fun, and quite possibly (as my workmates have branded it), the wedding of the decade! Jac took our history from our own words, and told the story of our love, a journey that ended in a perfect day celebrating our love of vintage and beer (oh and each other). We never felt scared or unsure of anything because her communication (like her celebrant skills) are killer! We even got to live stream our wedding thank to Jac and her outta-this-world tech skills.”

Falling head first into flowers from the 70’s, Ross from Bloom Boy crafted a retro extravaganza! Angi shares, ”He stuck with the tones of yellow, orange, white and brown. A colour scheme he hadn’t worked with before but now he thinks it’s a new fave! He filled vintage brass vessels and amber vases from Betty May Vintage with quintessentially nostalgic flowers like baby’s breath, chrysanthemums, daisies, and billy buttons. The ceremony backdrop was inset with clusters of orange, yellow and white disbuds and dahlias with rusty orange amaranthus. For the bouquet Ross went with big puffy dahlias to match the classic flower shape print on my outfit with some baby’s-breath for a vintage vibe.”

Fat and Skinny Catering outdid themselves with a festive feast featuring all the best from a classic vintage dinner party. The bride says of the reception, ”Our favourite detail was the styling from Betty May Vintage. Before the wedding they asked us to send some photos of us, our family and friends that would be displayed on a shelf. What we didn’t know was that they put our photos in vintage frames, and then displayed them behind us giving the ceremony a backdrop that was personalised with photos of our grandparents and parents weddings. We were then able to give these photos to our family as a memento of the day. They also asked us to bring along our two favourite records to display – Black Sabbath Paranoid, and Cheech and Chong Los Cochinos which were both records that my dad had and I listened to as a child. The last thing we were asked to bring to display, was two of James custom made “Rastra Lyall” ray guns, as his art is a huge part of our life (I even wore a heart shaped necklace he made when we first met during the ceremony and reception).”

Shooting the day in her dreamy signature Wes Anderson style was Em Jensen Creative. Angi tells, ”The photographer was the main reason we got married! It never would have happened without Em! I am a well known advocate of the vintage pinup community in Brisbane, so do a lot of photoshoots to promote my pinup pageants, vintage workshops and styling. I love Em’s work, the warmth to her photos, and I had hoped that for our next annual visit to Melbourne I would book in to shoot with her. Our aesthetic used to be based around the 1950s, but in the last few years, has stepped forward to the 60s and 70s, due to the love of vibrant colour and the nostalgia of the decor of my grandparents house and photos of my parents back in the 70s. When we finally met Em, we knew we were in the best hands. Instantly I felt a connection with our love of vintage, and how chilled and laid back she was. She captured our true love and romance in a way that I think no one else could. She caught candid moments that would have otherwise been missed, that bring a smile to our faces whenever we look at them.”

With plenty of bunting and fairy lights strung up high and confetti for all, the table for 10 was laid with retro glassware and crockery, throwback flowers, vol au vents and a scrumptious cake by Miss Ladybird Cakes. Finding the perfect spot to hold their intimate wedding, Angi shares, ”Our venue was the Thornbury Bowls Club, unsuspecting from the outside, nestled in a residential area. But once you get inside it has all the charm of the 70s, from the warm tones, to the wooden floors, brown vinyl chairs, wrought iron works, to the floral print wallpaper and carpets in the ladies sitting room.”

Once the couple were officially married and had dined on a delicious vintage supper, they had their first dance to ‘Perfect Day’ by Lou Reed, a Caro Emerald version. The bride remembers, ”It was a beautiful dance where we got to stare into each other’s eyes as husband and wife for the first time. Our best boy Kris did a knee slide on the polished wooden floors when we were all dancing. He slid so far that he burned a hole in the knee of his flamingo suit!” The couple also share, ”We were so lucky to have such a killer team! But I think what stood out was the video from Till Death. We got to Skype with Mel before the wedding, as we had not met her prior to this. We laughed, drank beers, and got to know each other, again knowing we were in the best hands, we put our full trust into her, and she delivered above and beyond! She was able to make it feel like she wasn’t even there, ensuring candid unposed footage, that was real and honest. On top of that, when the video was ready, Mel sent us the most beautiful package, more than just a video, memories we will have forever!”

Thank you to our incredible bride and groom for sharing your wedding with us, and congratulations! Thank you also to Till Death and Em Jensen Creative for your dreamy imagery!