One of the best parts about getting married? According to Hails and Matt, photographers themselves at Hails & Shine, it’s being able to say my husband’ or my wife’. They explain, £there’s just something about that. It’s not about the ownership, it’s just a certain sense of pride that, yeah, world, this is my best mate and we are spending the rest of our existence together and could not be happier about it!
Non-traditional from the get-go, Matt had brainstormed a number of elaborate ways to propose until, one day, a chat about their hypothetical wedding morphed into planning how to actually make it happen, as Matt tells us…
£We were sort of just like, are we engaged now? And so it was. As nice as a singular moment of asking can be, this was just classic of us and our relationship, whereby nothing seems to be separate and we do everything together so it made sense that getting engaged would be a joint thing as opposed to me planning things sneakily and then making one grand proposal of the question.
Clearly a crazy-cool pair, Hails (who wore One Day Bridal)and Matt decided on a £junkyard carnival vibe that was £grungy but also super glittery, which meant borrowing lots of vintage items, pulling curbside finds, op-shopping, live music and probably one of the awesomest DIYs we ever did see. Inspired by The Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet’ record cover, Hails and Matt’s one-of-a-kind photo booth was an explosion of details, featuring tonnes of posters, spray paint and a slew of glitter.
£It was rad to see people in there enjoying it and adding to the graffiti and vandalism. The back of the photo booth, the white wall, also acted as our guestbook’ and we encouraged our guests to scribble sweet nothings, dirty notes and anything else all over it. It was awesome seeing it evolve over the course of the evening, the couple tells us, adding that despite their tattooist (who was meant to ink-up willing guests as well as Hails and Matt’s wedding rings’) arriving sans needles, it didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits and the show went on as planned.
£Everything was perfect, honestly. We set out to create a night that was not only a reflection of us and our relationship
but that was just a brilliant time for all of our guests and, from all reports, I think we succeeded. Would not change a thing.
With an out of this world team of vendors beside them, Hails and Matt say they felt uber lucky leading up to their wedding day, surrounded by so many great people who went nuts with creativity – like Cassandra Ladru, Love Soldier and quite a few more talented humans.
£In particular, Nomad Styling, who pulled everything together. They took our crazy ideas and made them into a coherent concept that could actually be pulled off, as well as match us with even more weird and wonderful ideas, like our ceremony backdrop being a burning car. I honestly don’t think many other stylists would even commit to a job like this, say the lovebirds, now blissfully wedded and eager to continue their fun-filled, adventure abundant, incredibly fabulous lives together. Til death.
Hails and Matt’s eclectic, industrial celebration in Geelong was originally featured in Issue 15. Shop online with Mag Nation or via the HM online store here.
CREDITS Photographer Cassandra Ladru // Cinematographer Love Soldier // Event planner / Stylist Nomad Styling // Florist She’s a Wildflower // Stationery Lachlan Olive // Printer Distro Print // Ceremony Powerhouse Geelong, VIC // Reception venue Private property, VIC // Alcohol Bottle & Barrels // Food trucks / carts Mr Burger and Taco Truck // Cheese platter Platter Co // Decorative elements Lark Store // Prop and furniture hire How Bizarre Antiques and Mill Markets // Photo booth Shutterhub Photo Booth //Lighting / sound hire Duckfat, Electric Confetti and Neon Poodle // Signage My Heads a Jungle // Entertainment Like This Corporate // Celebrant Jo Betz // Arcade games Party Play Jukebox and Amusement Hire // Airstream trailer Airstream Annie // Live art Installation Colour and Skulls // Psychic / palm reader Spider Lady // Bridal gown designer One Day Bridal // Shoes Miss Shop and Converse // Accessories Deux // Hair Blondie Hair and Cosmetica // Makeup Gwendoline Sims // Suit Eddy Elias Menswear // Jacket and pants Gibson // Shirt and socks Roger David // Shoes Windsor Smith // Barber / grooming The Resident Barber.
