A Relaxed Urban Warehouse Wedding in Melbourne

Oh I do love a wedding with a relaxed, party vibe; throw in a warehouse venue and I am very happy! The urban warehouse space, Gather and Tailor in Melbourne, provided the perfect backdrop for Brent and Georgia’s wedding, and gave them a fabulous blank canvas to style as they wished… and style it they did!

The couple had an incredible neon pink ‘Til Death’ sign made, which they framed with an amazing floral installation, to create a great backdrop for the ceremony. During the after-wedding party, guests enjoyed espresso Martinis, doughnuts, delicious sharing platters of food, and lots of booze!

I really love Georgia’s style. She didn’t want a traditional wedding dress so chose a beautiful dress by Ellery, finishing her bridal look with “killer heels and some big, kick-ass earrings”!

Photographer Sayher Heffernan was behind the lens to capture this very cool urban warehouse wedding, and I am delighted to share Brent and Georgia’s big day…

Hilarious, Surreal and Perfect

“We met very late in the night, or should I say, early hours of the morning, at Pony, a bar in the city. It sounds cliché I know, but we just kind of ‘worked’ straight away and wanted to see each other all the time. Nine years later we decided to get married, so I guess we were both pretty sure we had found the right one by then!

“Even after nine years together and lots of chats about maybe getting married, I was completely surprised and had no idea it was happening! Brent had the proposal all planned to happen by the ocean (my favourite place to be), on the Mornington Peninsula where my parents live.

“However, in true ‘Georgia style’ I kept getting side-tracked while Brent seemed desperate to get me down to the beach! Little did I know, I was completely ruining his plan. In the end, he gave up and the nerves took over. While I set the table in the backyard for a big family lunch, he secretly placed my ring on an old tree stump in Mum and Dad’s backyard and proposed right there. It was hilarious, surreal and perfect all at the same time.”

Relaxed, Party Vibe

“We didn’t really have a wedding theme, but we both had a clear vision of how we wanted the day to feel. A traditional, formal wedding wasn’t for us. More than anything we wanted a relaxed, party vibe with amazing food, booze and tunes, and to share that love with all our nearest and dearest. We wanted our day to reflect ‘us’ completely — a little wild and edgy and definitely not bound by tradition!

“Brent and I both agreed from the beginning that we wanted our wedding day to all happen in the one place. It was important for us that once people arrived at our venue they got to settle in and didn’t have to worry about moving around or filling in time between the ceremony and reception.”

The Perfect Space

“Gather and Tailor is an urban warehouse wedding venue framed with huge prickly cacti out the front and surrounded with a backdrop of shipping containers. It was the perfect space for us, hidden away amongst factories and down a gravel driveway. Most of our guests thought they had taken a wrong turn as they tried to find the venue!

“The minute we walked into Gather and Tailor we knew it was the one. We just loved the space and the chance to add our own touches to make it completely our own.

“We first heard Nick’s (our guitarist) music last year in Byron Bay (a beautiful coastal town in northern New South Wales) while we were on holiday. He was busking and we loved his music straight away. When we started wedding planning we decided we would love him to play during the ceremony.

“Our celebrant, Megan helped us create a special, yet relaxing ceremony that was very us. She encouraged us to write our own vows, and we’re so glad that we did. We also chose not to hear what Megan had written for our ceremony until our wedding day, so we laughed along with our guests when we all heard it for the first time.”

Killer Heels and Kick-Ass Earrings

“I always knew I didn’t want a ‘traditional’ wedding dress. I actually feel in love with my dress before I was even engaged, after seeing a picture of it online. Following Brent’s proposal it was the first thing I tried on, and it was really the only contender. It was completely ‘me’ and I felt comfortable and super special in it! Above all else, it was so important that I felt like ‘me’ and had a pair of killer heels and some big, kick-ass earrings!

“My dress was by Ellery, an Australian designer, my shoes Francesco Russo, and I wore the most amazing earrings by an LA designer, Annie Costello Brown.

“I gave my girls and ‘bridesman’ complete control over what they would wear. My only request was that the colour palette wasn’t too dark, and all us girlies wore gold heels! I just wanted them to wear something they loved and not something I’d made them wear!

“Brent had a clear idea on his ‘look’ and colour. He wanted to look special but not too formal, hence why he decided on no ties for himself and the boys, which suited the ‘feel’ of our day perfectly.”

Warehouse Wedding Styling

“We did all the styling, and were lucky to have my cousin, who is a sign-writer, help us bring most of our ideas to life. We had an amazing neon sign with ‘Til Death’ in pink lettering, coasters for the table with skull imagery that featured on our invitations, and a huge drinks menu banner.

“The gorgeous Petra and her team at Pomp and Splendour did the most phenomenal job. She was amazing to deal and completely understood my ‘vision’ from our first meeting. Pomp and Splendour played a huge part in styling the warehouse space. We had an amazing floral installation framing our neon sign, as well as bursts of flowers throughout the space, including a floral arbour and other arrangements.

“We ditched the idea of a seating plan, which most people were really concerned about! It worked out exactly as we hoped though, with everyone just grabbing a seat wherever they felt like it. Everyone mingled and got to know each other whilst sharing the most delicious shared platters of food which lined the middle of our long, tables, along with, of course, lots of good booze!

“We had ‘Mr. B’ set up an amazing cart outside at our wedding making espresso Martinis, coffees and doughnuts for dessert. Dave and his team were amazing — they were the talk of our wedding and everyone loved what they did. The boys had a line of guests waiting for their amazing Martinis the whole time they were set up!

“We were lucky enough to have a friend of ours to DJ later in the night. We had complete trust in him and our only request was ‘serious party tunes’ to get everyone dancing. He also surprised us with a smoke machine which really set the scene!”

Let Them Do Their Thing

“Our main advice to others is to do your research and choose vendors that ‘get you’ and ‘your vision’. It can be so hard to let go of all the little details, but you have chosen your florist, celebrant, venue etc. for a reason, so trust them and what they do. It’s hard, but as the day gets closer you have to let go a bit and let them do their thing.

Ultimately, don’t be bound by tradition. Create the day you want and soak up every single second of it! It was the best day of our lives and so special!”