LUCY & JAMES’ SURRY HILLS WEDDING

The lovely Lucy and James (who have been together for 10 years) met during uni. “Even though he was looking a little worse for wear at the time, I remember thinking he was pretty awesome,” explains the bride. “We ran into each other again on Valentine’s Day a few weeks later and the rest is history,” she adds. They were engaged for just under three years after being “a bit allergic to the whole wedding planning thing.” Fair enough, we say! When the day finally came, Anna Turner was there to catch it all on camera and so were some of our faves when it comes to floristry, styling and signage, Petal & Fern and Ashdown & Bee. Scroll down for some serious inspo…

LITTLE LOL “Aside from the venue, everything was organised somewhere between four months and one week prior to the wedding. However, we’d had our honeymoon booked a year in advance – priorities! Also, Moffat had one job for the wedding: book the DJ… who also happened to be his friend. Fail! A month out and still nothing. I had to take the task back. We still laugh about it.”

THE VENUE “First and foremost, we wanted a venue with amazing food. Porteño, with its two chefs hats and as one of our favourite restaurants, was a no brainer. What really blew us away was how breathtaking the Porteño Events space was. We lived a block away when it used to be a restaurant and could attest to the amazing food, but being able to take in all the design details during our walkthrough (the tiles, light installations, high ceilings and cosy corners) meant that we were seeing the space in a whole new dimension.”

FAVOURITE DETAILS “Our private table at the reception was honestly the best suggestion from the Porteño team and our wedding would not have been the same without it. One of our favourite memories is of the two of us sitting at our private table on the mezzanine, seeing our closest friends and family laughing and having fun around us whilst being able to experience it all together, just the two of us. The food was phenomenal – the sharing style gave it a real family feel. The ambiance – everything from the mood lighting once the sun had set, to the playlist (Italian love songs, jazz, swing and Motown), to seeing the rain hitting the glass roof of the venue during dinner, was perfect.”

THE DRESS “My dress is by Roksanda from Net-A-Porter. I wanted something modern, simple and not too ‘bridey’ (aka no lace or corsets). Roksanda Llincic designs beautiful pieces and I was lucky enough to find this one online. I bought it on a whim a year before our wedding. It is the first and only wedding dress I have ever tried on and I love it!”

STANDOUT VENDORS “I can honestly say that all our vendors were exceptional. From Anna Turner, our photographer, who did recon in the streets of Surry Hills prior to our wedding day to find us all the best photo spots and who stayed an hour later than planned in order to capture each and every moment, to Kat Crossley, our florist of Petal & Fern who sent her husband to hand deliver the bridal bouquet and floral lapel pins to our hotel and who personally returned to the venue to arrange all the flowers into individual take-home bouquets for our guests, to Charis from Porteño, for whom nothing was ever too much trouble in the lead-up to our wedding and who managed each aspect of our logistics on the day with ease and grace.”

If you want to see more from floral stylists, Petal & Fern, head to their directory listing, and check out Ashdown & Bee, here.