Wedding | Sally & Tj

Tell us a little about yourselves!

We are Sally and Tj. We live on the Mornington peninsula with Tj's two sons and our Border Collie Auggie. We met 2 years ago on Hinge and fulfilled their tagline, the app designed to be deleted.

Why did you decide to get married where you did?

We wanted to get married somewhere where we could do the ceremony and reception in one place. The initial vision was to get married at a nostalgic Aussie pub. However we couldn't find a pub that could seat 80 people and have a dance it or it was far beyond our budget.

Then Jamsheed entered the chat. From the start Elika was welcoming and relaxed. The Jamsheed space was perfect as it had the old school feels in their dive bar and a whole space down stair for the ceremony, seated dinner and space for a dance. All of this for a very reasonable minimum spend!

How many guests did you have?

Around 80 people.

What was your budget?

We spent around 35k. Our two biggest priorities was food and drinks and a good photographer. Everything else we were happy to compromise.

Tell us about your outfits.

Sally: I knew from the start that I didn't want a traditional bridal shop experience or a modern wedding dress. I eventually reached out to a designer I'd been following on Instagram, Kateri The Label, with a vision for a silk dupion dress that felt nostalgic without feeling like a costume. It was inspired by a bridesmaid dress my mum had made for herself when I was a kid that I would use as dress ups. Ruby was incredible, somehow creating the dress in just two months and finishing it at 6pm the night before! She even made a matching dress for my niece Annie. I kept everything else simple to let the dress be the hero, adding some fun vintage-inspired heels.

TJ: I also wanted to avoid a traditional suit and have a bit of fun with it. I settled on brown and found one at Oxford that fitted the vibe perfectly. We found some loafers from Jacques Solovière Paris that were way out of budget, but Sally managed to find the exact pair in my size on Depop, a Christmas miracle. The tie was also from Depop, and the day before the wedding Sally surprised me with a vintage tie clip from the Rosebud Vintage Bazaar, which brought the whole look together.

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

We had three key things we wanted our wedding to embody. Moments of meaning, hospitality and fun.

When deciding how to structure our ceremony, we came across a celebrant from the UK, Celebrations By Sinead, who has created heaps of great content about creating a ceremony that genuinely reflects you as a couple. Two things really stood out to us. The first was how she suggested structuring your vows: what we love, what we've learned, and what we promise. Those three categories helped us keep things simple, honest and personal. The second was reading our vows to each other the day before the wedding. It created a memory that was just for us and meant that, when we read our vows during the ceremony, we were far less nervous and could actually be present in the moment.

It was really important to us that all our guests were well fed and watered. We felt the best way to do that was with a sit-down meal, rather than canapés that could easily pass people by throughout the night. Jamsheed exceeded our expectations and took such great care of all our guests, especially those with dietary requirements. After the ceremony, we kicked things off with cocktails and finger food, followed by a three-course meal and, of course, cake. And because no wedding is complete without it, we ended the night with cheeseburgers on the dance floor.

Fun was really important to us, and one of the ways we brought that to life was with a boot scoot. My sister and I often go to Disco Rodeo nights in Melbourne, so she took on the task of leading everyone through a few line dances. We'd given everyone a heads-up through a QR code on our invites, which linked to some dance tutorials so people could get a little practice in beforehand. It ended up being a real highlight for a lot of our guests and got everyone on the dance floor.

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

Our faith, TJ's sons and our dog Auggie were all central to our day. We wanted the wedding to feel less like a formal ceremony with a reception attached, and more like a really good day shared with the people we love.

We held the traditional structure of a wedding quite lightly and instead tried to create a space where people could relax, have fun together and enjoy being part of the day, while still making room for the things that mattered deeply to us. Our faith was woven through the ceremony and the way we thought about marriage, but we wanted it to feel genuine and personal rather than overly formal or traditional - so we wrote our own vows and got our friends to pray for us. Rather than having a celebrant we didn't know marry us, we asked a couple of close friends to lead the ceremony and formally marry us.

A lot of that came through in small details. TJ's boys were involved in choosing and helping make the cake and cake toppers, our dog Auggie was there for the ceremony and we had a raffle where people could win prizes that represented key moments in our dating journey - the record from our first gig, a camping chair and a some mugs from Japan.

Any tips for couples getting married?

Pick vendor who reflect your values. We were blown away by all the vendors we chose. Each understood what was important to us and what we were happy to ditch.

Also take a bag of cheeseburgers with you as you leave! Once we got to the hotel and the arenaline settled we were starving!

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

All!

Jamsheed as mentioned were so easy to work with. A special moment at dinner was Elika pushing Annie to sleep in the pram so her parents could enjoy the wedding.

The Beautiful Bunch- A non for profit florist who employee women from refugee backgrounds.

Alana James the MUHA was brilliant. Relaxed yet professional, flexible and did such a beautiful job.

Finally our photographer Dorly from for PEARLS and PEARS! We are so stocked with how the photos came out and have the best memories to carry with us for a lifetime.

Photographer: for PEARLS and PEARS @forpearlsandpears | Flora: The Beautiful Bunch @the.

beautifulbunch | Ceremony & Reception Location: Jamsheed Wines @jamsheedwines | HMUA: Alana James @alana__muha | Cake: Made by a friend Kate; Cake toppers made by Sally and Jasper | Dress: Kateri the label @katerithelabel | Suit: Oxford @oxfordshop | Sally's Engagement & Wedding Rings: Mokoha Designs @makoha_ | TJ's Wedding Ring: The Gentleman Smith @thegentlemanssmith | Shoes: (Sally) Penn @penn_au; (TJ) Jacques Solovière Paris @jacquessolovièreparis | Flower Girl Dress: Kateri the label @katerithelabel