Loretta & Elliot

Celebrating winter with an intimate and romantic wedding, Loretta and Elliot brought together their closest friends and family in Western Australia. The bride’s bespoke gown and luxurious trailing bouquet filled with orchids and roses set the style, with flashes of Loretta’s Italian and Greek heritage, and their Italian honeymoon to come. Amanda Alessi captured the day.

The bride and groom met through work, Loretta telling, ”We’d never met in person, and noticed each other’s profiles pop up through the modern world of online dating. We went on our first date and hit it off straight away, the rest is history!” Elliot popped the question while the two were holidaying through the Greek islands with friends. Loretta remembers, ”We got engaged at sunset in Oia, Santorini. It was nice and relaxed, and great to celebrate with our friends!”

Taking into consideration the wintery romance of the day, the bride wore a long sleeve gown covered in French lace. She tells, ”I had tried on a few dresses, but they never quite hit the mark. I ended up buying a dress, but it was really quite suited to summer and my heart wasn’t in it. I went to Maevana to see what alterations we could do, next minute – we were designing a dress! We were basing inspiration off Grace Kelly, with French lace and long sleeves. It was an amazing experience, Mae is so talented. We spent a lot of time on the finest details like the design of the shoulder seam and sleeves. I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Mae, and I will be treasuring the dress forever. I made the critical mistake of not getting the hair extensions recommended by Steph at The Pretty Parlour, they were awful and ended up looking like a mullet. Steph refused to send me out with them on, and I’m glad she did!” The groom wore an MJ Bale tuxedo.

Como The Treasury provided the perfect backdrop for getting ready. Loretta shares, ”It is an incredible place to stay and the service was impeccable. We went back in between the ceremony and reception for bridal portraits. Amanda Alessi captured some amazing photos, the architecture is beautiful. We had our ceremony at Sacred Heart Church, Highgate. My parents were married there over 30 years ago, it’s a gorgeous church. We wanted the ceremony to be traditional. Having Dolce Ensembles play ‘Clair de Lune’ by Debussy in a string duo was lovely. My dad Luigi, Elliot’s stepdad Tony and Oliver did our readings, and my dad walked me down the aisle.”

The flowers from Rose and Bud were undoubtedly a focal point, bringing romance and abundance in floral form! Loretta remembers, ”I love the look of a cascading bouquet, but wasn’t quite sure what flowers and colours to choose. Kara helped guide me through some inspiration and bought it altogether. My mum, bridesmaids and myself were in love with the bouquets Kara dropped off, they were perfect. I couldn’t wait to see what she put together for the reception. The set up at Guildhall was amazing, Kara’s arrangements worked perfectly with the venue. The cute element of lemons also tied in perfectly with our honeymoon to Italy!”

Travelling from Melbourne to Perth to shoot this gorgeous day, Amanda Alessi captured the intimate wedding. The bride tells, ”Amanda has an amazing way of capturing special moments. We didn’t want posed photos, we wanted our family and friends captured having fun and being themselves, and Amanda delivered. She found the right light and location every time and we never felt uncomfortable. We were very lucky to have Amanda capture the day and couldn’t ask for anything more. All of our vendors were incredible. We spent a bit of time selecting who we wanted to work with, and everyone worked with us and guided us through the planning. They all delivered and we didn’t have to worry about a thing!”

Simple candlesticks, orchids and rose petals lined the long tables at Guildhall, reception venue for the evening. The couple, remembering, tell, ”It was the first venue we went to, and we were set on it. High on the list was fantastic food and drinks, and a beautiful venue. The long table dinner was the perfect way to have that intimate feel, and we loved the historic setting of the venue. Amelia, Leah and the team were so helpful in getting everything together and helping us along the way. The service was amazing and the food was incredible.”

Styling the venue with abundant and wild arrangements of roses, along with hanging branches of citrus, created a warm and cosy feel to the reception venue. For their first dance, the groom chose ‘All Your Love’ by Dustin Tebbutt. Loretta shares, ”The lyrics resonated to our relationship, and I loved Elliot’s choice. Dean Anderson from Groove Night Avenue did our music at the reception, and did an acoustic for the song. We went straight into the first dance when we arrived at the reception, it was a nice way to start off the night.”

Celebrating family was an important part of Loretta and Elliot’s day, including on the dance floor! The bride says, ”I was completely stuck on what song to pick for the father daughter dance – I wasn’t keen on the traditional songs. We ended up going with ‘That’s Amore’. My dad is Italian and he would have Frank Sinatra and Andrea Bocelli playing really loud when he was gardening. It just worked and we had a heap of fun, it was a good way to kick off the night after dinner! We did both the Tarantella and Zorba at the later part of the night – something part of my Italian and Greek background. Everyone got into it! It was a heap of fun!”

Thank you to our gorgeous bride and groom for sharing your beautiful wedding with us, and congratulations! Thank you also to Amanda Alessi for your stunning images!