Our Simple, Elegant Wedding

Charles and I both wanted a simple, elegant and low-key wedding. Ever since I was a little girl, I have found the thought of wedding planning, and organising table arrangements, and bridesmaids, and invitations, and princess wedding dresses, to be the stuff of nightmares. I'm not sure why. So when it came time to start planning our wedding, well, we didn't really know where to start.

Originally we thought we would get married in a park somewhere, a pretty outdoor location surrounded by nice gardens. We looked at a few different botanical gardens, but ended up feeling like they weren't quite right. And to be honest, it would have felt a little strange for us to have our wedding ceremony in such a public location. Some people do, some people don't. We also seriously contemplated eloping, mainly because at the end of the day, our wedding was going to be about us, and no-one else. At all. But we had trouble picking a location to elope to, so that option began to feel hard as well. I start to understand why there is an industry for wedding planning.

So we didn't do anything for a while, until eventually I googled 'how to get married in Victoria' to at least get the ball rolling. And then I discovered that you can get married at the Victorian Marriage Registry, in a beautiful old building in Melbourne, the Old Treasury Building. Things were starting to look up - not only was the location sorted but a marriage celebrant was part of the deal. For two people who like to just get things done - this was pretty much ideal! We faced a choice of two rooms to be married in, one that held 55 guests, and one that held 8 guests. It was an easy choice. Only 8 guests? Even better! So we filled in the forms and booked it in. So easy.

And then there was the lunch venue - you see, we didn't want an afternoon wedding that went into the night or anything, just a simple daytime function that would be easy for both us and our guests to attend. We figured we'd find a nice restaurant somewhere close by to the ceremony location. Easy enough when you're in the heart of Melbourne, right? But again, nothing jumped out. We wanted something that was a little bit special, after all, it was our wedding day. And then we found it - nestled in the heart of Fitzroy Gardens, literally across the road from the Old Treasury Building and just a short walk after the ceremony. The Pavillion, surrounded by lush gardens with glass walls and able to cater, almost perfectly, to our needs.

Our choice of guests was very much limited to close family. From my perspective, I didn't have to worry about bridesmaids or anything [sorry friends, if you were hanging out for such an event] and similarly for Charles, no groomsmen or best man or anything. I guess what it comes back to is that we are both people who are inclined to do our own thing, rather than needing/wanting to be in the company of lots of people. And I think we both understand that in each other. We did manage to organise some pretty wedding invites, which we sent out to our chosen eight, and I actually felt quite accomplished in life because of this. Take that, social norms! I know how to play the game.

As to the finer details - our rings were very important to us. We did spend a lot of time searching for the right wedding rings. We wanted mine to match my engagement ring [which Charles bought on Etsy, how awesome is this man?] - a 1930's gold and diamond ring, itself very simple and elegant. Anyway we eventually found them, again on Etsy [this store here] - handmade, custom for us, using recycled gold, and with our wedding date and initials engraved on the inside. And for a fraction of the cost of what we would have paid at a retail store in Australia. We loved the fact that they were handmade for us - we both cringe a bit at some of the generic, mass produced jewellery that is available in retail stores here. Sorry Australian retailers, but it's a global economy now.

Then there was the issue of what to wear. What I love most, is that we both just wore whatever we wanted! Charles had an image in mind of what he would wear, and he created it in reality. A silk shirt ordered from the UK, some blue RM trousers and schmick new shoes. He looked great. I will admit that I had a little trouble deciding on what to wear, not least of which was due to my prominent pregnant belly. Two dresses ordered online, two dresses sent back... and time was running out. I managed to find a pretty dress from Ripe Maternity, which I ordered online about 10 days out from the big day [starting to get a little nervous about the situation by this stage]. It turned up next business day. Online retail love. This is the kind of service that makes hot and bothered pregnant ladies very happy.

So anyway the big day rolled around, we had booked accommodation for the nights before and after, literally 500m away from our wedding ceremony venue, and across the road from our lunch location. No having to drive anywhere, it was all so easy. The whole day went beautifully. I could not have asked for a more perfect day for us. A warm Melbourne day, but not excessive, our families all turning up on time, Charles and I turned up on time, the ceremony was over and done with nice and quickly [much to our liking] and then we were husband and wife! And off we all wandered to enjoy lunch in a lovely scenic location. No fuss, no bother, just a simple day to celebrate our love for and commitment to each other.

We even managed to organise some Thank You cards.