Wedding | Charlotte & Matthew

Tell us a little about yourselves!

We’re Charlotte and Matt. We met in Melbourne in 2019 and moved to Amsterdam together in 2023.

We’re both pretty easy going and love music, good food and wine, and being around our people, so those things naturally shaped how we approached our wedding.

We played to our strengths with the planning. Charlotte is an interior designer, so she led the creative concept and styling, while Matt works in strategy and took on more of the planning and communications. Organising from Amsterdam definitely added a layer of complexity, but we genuinely loved working on it together, particularly through the European winter.

Why did you decide to get married where you did?

The Mornington Peninsula is a really special place for both of us. We both spent summers there with our families growing up, and have shared so many special memories there since getting together.

We decided to have the ceremony at Charlotte’s family beach box on Rye front beach. It sits slightly back from the coastline, so even though you’re right on the beach, it feels intimate and tucked away. We feel incredibly lucky to have had access to such a beautiful spot.

Matt also proposed there a year earlier, so coming back to the same place to get married felt fitting.

After the ceremony, we had lunch at the Cups Estate nearby. The next day, we threw a house party at the family home with our extended family and friends.

How many guests did you have?

We had 40 guests at our ceremony and lunch, with just our immediate family and closest friends.

We hadn’t always planned on having a small wedding, but it ended up being one of the things we loved most about the day. There was a closeness to the ceremony, and we could genuinely spend time with every person there rather than feeling pulled in lots of different directions.

What was your budget?

For the ceremony and lunch, our budget was around $20,000. This covered photography, our celebrant, styling and flowers, outfits, hair and makeup, rings, accessories and all the little things in between.

Keeping our vendors to a minimum meant taking on quite a lot ourselves, particularly while organising everything remotely until a week before the wedding. Charlotte spent weekends practising how to make her own bouquet using tulips, which was a nod to our life in the Netherlands.

Once we arrived in Melbourne, the wedding became a bit of a family affair. We had a few days of working bees getting everything ready, with our friends and family jumping in with us. We couldn’t have done it without them, and having everyone involved made the lead-up feel like part of the celebration itself.

Tell us about your outfits.

Charlotte found her dress in a tiny vintage bridal store in Amsterdam that housed pieces dating all the way back to the 1800s. The dress itself was from the 1940s, a silk bias-cut gown that draped beautifully on her body. The original label inside read ‘super movie star 1940’s, sexy fabric’ in Dutch! Charlotte made some minor alterations by removing the sleeves and adjusting the neckline, then paired it with simple white sandals and jewellery belonging to her late Mum and Nonna.

Matt wore a custom suit from a local tailor and loved the bespoke process. He opted for a double-breasted jacket with high-waisted, wide-leg trousers in a lovely wool/silk blend. It had an elevated yet relaxed feel and felt right for the setting.

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

It took us months to land on the final format. We looked at a range of venues and options, but nothing quite clicked.

Eventually, we realised that the most important thing was creating space to actually be present with each other and our closest people. We don’t get as much time with our families as we’d like, so having that uninterrupted time together felt particularly special.

One of our favourite moments was straight after the ceremony, when we stayed at the beach box for a toast and a drink with everyone before heading off for portraits. It was simple, but ended up being one of the most special parts of the day.

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

Being intentional was at the heart of our planning; every single element had to have a purpose. Because we were married in front of such a stunning coastal backdrop, we stripped away heavy styling. We kept it simple with a linen welcome sign, baskets of wildflowers, and white chairs to create an aisle. Keeping the style minimal allowed the natural beauty of the surrounding landscape to shine through.

Any tips for couples getting married?

Something that really helped us was taking the time to work out what was genuinely important to us as a couple, and trying not to get too caught up in the conventions or expectations of what a wedding is meant to be.

Once we had a sense of that, it became a useful anchor to keep coming back to as plans unfolded and we had decisions to make. It made it much easier to know what was worth caring about and what we could happily let go.

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

When you host a small wedding, you really rely on your limited number of vendors to help bring your vision to life. Janey Hastings (our celebrant) and Brooke McBurnie (our photographer) went completely above and beyond their roles to help us plan and execute the day with the energy we envisioned. Their advice in the lead-up, particularly around timing and how the ceremony would flow, was invaluable.

Photographer: Brooke McBurnie @brookemcburnietakesphotos | Planning & Styling: by the couple | Flora: by the couple | Ceremony Location: Family Beach box, Rye Foreshore, Victoria, Australia | Reception Location: The Cups Estate @cupsestate | Celebrant: Janey Hastings @janeyslifecelebrations | MUA: Grace Evelyn @graceevelynmakeup | Hair: Bekka Collective @bekka.collective | Dress: Laura Dols @lauradols_antique_weddingdress