These two stellar ladies threw one heck of a wedding, friends. After meeting with an “intense eye lock across the dance floor, a fleeting kiss and then some top-notch Instagram stalking on Laura’s behalf, the rest is history”, laughs Georgie, who wore a chic, tailored suit – a gorgeous contrast to Laura’s stunning The Law gown, courtesy of The Bridal Atelier. Together for three years, they finally got married on what was their third planned wedding day. Well, third time’s a charm, right? “Our first wedding was going to be in Portugal in May 2020 (no chance!), then in December 2020 and then finally, we did it in April 2021. So the engagement was a lot longer than we anticipated.” Laura waited it out with a heavenly Ruusk engagement ring weighing down her left hand (while Georgie turned again to Ruusk for her wedding band). The gals had photographer extraordinaire Zoe, of Maple and June, on hand to document the whole amazing day – and the results, as you can see, are bloody gorgeous. Ready to read their love story? Yeah, you are!
THE PROPOSAL “We got engaged at a clifftop tiny house in the Hunter Valley in November 2019. We love our vinyl, so Laura had a mixtape vinyl made of our favourite songs and had our graphic designer friend Van create beautiful cover art for the vinyl cover. At our Airbnb, Laura put the record on and passed me the cover, which read, ‘Now that the music is right, I was just wondering if you would marry me?’ She had two rings and a letter prepared as well. There were many layers to this proposal!”
THE VENUE “We were originally going to elope in Portugal and then go on a six month honeymoon. We even met with a celebrant over Skype! But we were driving past the The Clifton School of Arts and Laura said it would be awesome to get married there. I had already been to a wedding at Clifton, which was amazing, and it all went from there! It’s just such a cute and quirky building with so much character. It was so lucky as well, as it was then that COVID hit and we probably would have lost all our money if we had have booked everything in Portugal.”
THE VIBE “The theme/vibe was ‘Mexican disco’. We knew we wanted Cactus Talk to style the venue with all his weird and wonderful cacti of different shapes and sizes, and our cactus arbour was aaah-mazing! Cal executed it exactly as we saw it in our heads. We wanted a cool alternative to flowers, and as they are so expensive now post-COVID, we knew cacti would be our vibe. We had to have some disco balls in there, too! Georgie’s godmother also made a massive Monstera chandelier hanging above our DJ. We even bought furniture from our own lounge room to make the venue look comfy but cool.”
THE DRESS “I [Laura] bought three dresses – one to elope in Portugal and another big super-bridey dress – before I found the one I actually wore. It was so hard during COVID as I couldn’t have my people there to come to dress appointments and try things on, but when things opened up I went to The Bridal Atelier in Double Bay with my boy bestie and had the beautiful Ally helping us! It was so nice to actually see the way things looked on me and how they felt. It was the last dress I tried on, just for a laugh, and I ended up falling in love! It was so chic and cool, and felt so ‘me’! I’m just not a lace or big dress kind of gal. I describe my dress as a bridal mermaid T-shirt dress haha! Georgie had a far more straightforward experience, luckily! She always knew she wanted to wear a suit. Porter and Jay from the P Johnson Femme Paddington showroom knew exactly what to do when she asked for a white suit that made her look like a Cuban gangster! The whole process was seamless.”
STANDOUT VENDORS “We really hit it out of the park with all of our vendors! Al from The Nighthawk Diner is a bloody legend and came down to personally do our wedding because he loves queer weddings. What a dude. Also the food was insane! Our beautiful friend Tay, who did our hair; and Ruby Oak Floristry – the bouquet was everything I’d imagined. But our key vendor would be our photographer Zoe, from Maple and June. She waltzed in in her cream suit and wide brim hat and just made everything fun, cool and easy! I [Laura] had worked with Zoe on a wedding a few years ago so I hunted her down to do ours! Since then, she has moved to the south coast and we have become friends, making it even more special.”
FAVOURITE DETAILS “Our wedding car! Our friend and bridesmaid Hayley found it on a Facebook group and it helped create our favourite wedding photo, with the car and palms in the background and us in our sunnies. But our favourite moment was in the car on the way to the ceremony. We both had our maids of honour in the car with us and we were cruising along in the Brown Ford Fremont with all the windows down. As we drove along the Sea Cliff Bridge, the driver put on Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum and it was such a vibe! We honestly felt like rockstars. It was one of those moment that we will remember forever, so thanks to the owner and driver Steve!”
TALK ABOUT TRADITION… “Both being women, a lot of the traditions embedded in marriage are catered to men and women and we did feel that whilst planning our wedding, so we decided to break a few more along the way! We spent the night before together – we are really connected and we are each other’s go-to for everything so we definitely weren’t about not staying together before the wedding. We got ready together, we walked in together as we both wanted to experience that. When we did walk in, we walked into a packed hall of our beautiful friends and family who all erupted in a big applause, cheering as we walked in. It was awesome.”
A WORD OF ADVICE “Don’t have a friend who has a nice camera take your wedding photos. Get a wedding photographer. Your photos are so important, and only a professional will be able to execute them properly. Zoe (of Maple and June) was our lens legend.”
In a ‘steal her style’ kinda mood? (And why wouldn’t you be? These gals look fab!) Check out standout vendors The Bridal Atelier and Ruusk for more of that epic big-day style and lust-worthy rings.
CONTRIBUTING VENDORS Photographer Maple and June Cinematographer Tin Dog Studios Florist Ruby Oak Floristry Arbour Cactus Talk Wedding Website & Signage Vanessa Brewster Ceremony & Reception The Clifton School of Arts Catering Friend Food Truck Nighthawk Diner Lighting Hire The Wedding + Event Creators Sound Hire Bride’s Dad Entertainment Friend Celebrant Georgie’s aunt Rings Ruusk, Lucy Folk, Ceremony Hair Hair by Tay Makeup Tiarne Hayley Beauty The Salon by Bec Lissa (brows and tans) THE BRIDE (Georgie) Suit P Johnson Femme Shoes Asra Accessories Maria Black (earrings), Poppy Lissiman (sunglasses) THE BRIDE (Laura) Gown The Law Bridal Bridal Boutique The Bridal Atelier Shoes Alohas Accessories Opal Milk (earrings), Lucy Folk (cuff), Shevoke (sunglasses) Bridesmaid Dresses Bridesmaids’ own