Wedding | Aoife & Samuel

Tell us a little about yourselves!

We have been together for over 7 years, starting off as friends before falling in love. We live in Perth, Western Australia, where we both grew up, with our elderly Pomeranian. We love good food, good wine, and hosting friends.

Why did you decide to get married where you did?

We tossed up whether we wanted to go to south-west Western Australia for a destination wedding, but ultimately the logistics led us to keep the wedding local to us and most of our guests, though we had a fair few who travelled to join us.

Fremantle is a special place for us – we love spending time there, and it’s been the spot for many great dates and nights. When we saw Kidogo, we knew it was the spot – rustic, charming, and with the stunning Indian ocean as the perfect ceremony backdrop. It felt perfectly our vibe, a lot of our guests commented exactly that!

How many guests did you have?

60. Everyone we invited was able to join us, which was very special.

What was your budget?

It was slightly higher than we (naively) thought we could get away with until the first quote came in, but pretty reasonable overall.

Tell us about your outfits.

Aoife - I had a real hang up about trying on dresses in typical bridal stores and struggled to find anything I liked online. I found Harriette Gordon looking for an atypical dress – I wanted something retro and not too structured. Her store in North Fremantle is not too far from us and it was the only place I ended up going – it was an amazing, easy experience having my dress made there. 

A friend had worn the exact Harriette Gordon veil I wanted at her own wedding, borrowed from another friend – who had actually worn the same dress as me! She was gracious enough to lend the veil to me as well, so it’s had quite a successful run so far. I wanted bold shoes for the ceremony and something fun for the reception – a nod to my love of country tunes in silver cowboy boots.

Sam – I wanted something a bit different and spent far too long designing a Western suit made by Addicted Bespoken. I wanted the design to include a few of my favourite things about living in WA – including a few of my favourite native plants and my favourite local birds. It was a pretty simple process, and it fit really well with some slight alterations from a local tailor. I wore a Kentucky tie from Rosecut Clothing in LA because I didn’t think a bolo tie would be formal enough

What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?

That it would be an excellent party surrounded by loved ones, that felt like an authentic celebration of us – so the food, drinks, music and company were all key. We had a lot of fun choosing the wines for the list with friends and were sure to include an amaro on the list – a classic beverage in our house. We ended up with an almost accidental Italian theme.

We wanted to day to feel relaxed, true to us and fun – we thought about things we had liked at other weddings as guests and tried to centre a good experience for everyone joining us. We ditched traditions we didn’t want – we had a cocktail reception rather than a sit down meal and skipped a structured first dance. 

The flow was really important to us and we didn’t want to miss big chunks of the day taking photos, so we opted to do a first look to maximize our time together. We met up at a favourite bar before the ceremony – highly recommend.

Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?

Aoife is a DJ on the side and felt very strongly about the music being perfect – it would have been impossible to choose one DJ, so we asked several of our talented friends to take shifts behind the decks, as well as Aoife taking one set herself. 

Though we both left writing them down to the wire – literally the night before - including personal vows was also important to us and stressing over them was so worth it in the end.

Any tips for couples getting married?

There’s nothing wrong with a short timeline – we planned things in under 6 months, and it was really helpful to not have a lot of time to agonise over decisions. 

The day really does fly by in a bit of a blur, try and have moments where you can pause and take it in. Being able to take some photos together before the ceremony really helped with the anxious energy of the day.

Are there any vendors that you would like to tell us a little more about?

All our vendors were wonderful, but we would have to give a particular shout out to our photographer Peggy Saas, who did an incredible job making two people who don’t love being photographed feel at ease and comfortable. She instantly felt like a friend and made us forget about the camera.

Kidogo’s coordinator Chelsea was an amazing both in the lead up and on the day, making everything feel seamless and kept things running smoothly.

And of course, a huge thank you to our DJ friends who kept the dancefloor pumping until close!

Photographer: Peggy Saas @peggysaas | Flora: Sir Botanical @sir_botanical | Ceremony & Reception Location: Kidogo Arthouse @kidogoarthouse | Celebrant: Hilary McKenna @hmcelebrant | HMUA: The Pretty Parlour @theprettyparlour | Catering & Beverages: Flour & Fire @flour_and_fire | Cake: Perth Cake Collective @perthcakecollective | Entertainment: Holly Doll / Land of 1000 Dances 

@landof1000_dances | Dress: Harriette Gordon @harriettegordon | Suit:  Addicted Bespoken 

@addictedbespoken | Veil: Harriette Gordon @harriettegordon | Custom Bag: Prawn Cocktail 

@prawn_cocktail | Tie: Rosecut Clothing @rosecutclothing | Engagement & Wedding Rings:  RM Anderson Fine Jewelry and Design | Shoes: (Sam) Blundstone  blundstoneau & (Aoife) Mollini & Ivy Lee Copenhagen @mollinishoes @ivyleecopenhagen | Wedding Party Attire: Bridesmaids Significant Other  @the.significant.other & Best Man Oscar Hunt  @oscarhunttailors