Originally planning a wedding with a 130 strong guest list, Emily and Marco said they didn’t want the COVID-19 restrictions to stop them from getting married, so they eloped with five people present. “Even though it wasn’t what we planned, it was beautiful and I’m glad we did it. We have postponed our big wedding to later this year.” One of our fave lens ladies, Ashleigh Haase Photography doubled as their witness, while getting all the good shots, so scroll down to see more…
THE VENUE “The week leading up to the wedding, we scoped out various outdoor parks and ended up deciding on Fitzroy Gardens the day before, but still hadn’t picked our exact spot. The benefit of having five people at the wedding is you can easily move around! Ash had told us on a regular Saturday there would have been a line of people waiting to have their photos, so I guess in some ways we got lucky that we had the spot to ourselves. After the ceremony we had a few photos taken at different spots around Fitzroy Gardens and then headed in Fitzroy for some urban photos. Again we were able to stand in the middle of the road and on empty footpaths because it was just so quiet compared to a regular Saturday.”
FAVE DETAILS “Our florist (FBMJ) is an absolute magician! He has such great attention to detail and didn’t just create the perfect bouquet for me but collected all the vases from our home and filled them all with flowers. This made our place feel special when we were getting ready and when we returned after the ceremony.”
DIY “Well in some ways the whole wedding was a last-minute DIY project. The outfits were pulled together with clothes we already had in our cupboards and the videographer consisted of us buying a tripod and setting up an iPhone to record the ceremony! Thanks to some amazing technology we were able to include a lot of people who couldn’t physically be there via Facebook live.”
THE DRESS “I have an amazing wedding dress which I am saving for our [postponed] wedding. The outfit I wore (Keepsake the Label via BNKR) was actually the outfit I was going to wear to our recovery party the following day. It’s funny because I didn’t specifically buy the dress for our wedding but I felt it suited the day regardless.”
MARRIAGE MEANS… “In some ways, we thought it was maybe about having a big ceremony with all of our family and friends. Making sure the tuxedo looked sharp, the dress amazing, hanging out with the bridal party, making sure everyone has a good time and picking the perfect venue. But this experience forced us to reconsider all of those things. Would it be as special with only five people? Would it matter that we didn’t actually know exactly where we would get married? Would it matter that most of our family couldn’t be at the wedding? It turned out all we really needed was each other and a few witnesses to make it official. In the end, we wouldn’t change anything, the time will come where we get to share our marriage with everyone, but it started off as just about us, which is what it should be all about.”
A WORD OF ADVICE “Don’t sweat the small stuff, our whole wedding that we had been planning for two years turned upside down and ended up being something we organised in a couple of days. It wasn’t what we expected but we wouldn’t change it if we could. At the end of the day, we both married the love of our life and that’s what really matters.”
WE’RE GLAD WE… “Live streamed our family. We weren’t sure if we were going to or not because we wanted our [postponed] wedding to feel as special when the guests can (fingers crossed) actually be present. It felt like we were the only people there but we were still able to share the moment with our nearest and dearest.”
STANDOUT VENDORS “Ashleigh Haase Photography – we only asked Ash to be our photographer a few days beforehand and she ended up being perfect. We felt comfortable with her immediately considering we never met beforehand to build rapport. Plus she loved our crazy dogs! Love Leah – we only met with one celebrant because after meeting Leah we knew she was the perfect match for us. She was there with us every step of the way. There were many teary phone calls and Leah handled everything like a true champion.”
For more beautiful imagery from real weddings by Ashleigh Haase, head to our fab Directory listing here.
CONTRIBUTING VENDORS Photographer Ashleigh Haase Photography Florist FBMJ (Flowers By Brett Matthew John) Ceremony Fitzroy Gardens Reception Private Property Catering Estelle Celebrant Love Leah Rings Kush Diamonds THE BRIDE Dress Keepsake the Label via BNKR Robe Kyoto Flea Markets, Japan (Vintage Kimono) Shoes Alias Mae Earrings Tharros Bijoux Hair Salon Duval THE GROOM Jacket & Pants Henry Bucks Shirt Gucci Shoes R.M. Williams Watch Omega Grooming The Specialist Barber