Lovers of vintage glamor, take note – today’s stunning, old Hollywood-style Jewish Essendon Country Club wedding is definitely one for you!
Set in a barn and accented with gold tones, Laura and Gio’s wedding stayed true to the couple’s motto: ‘keep it simple’, while still looking insanely chic and luxe! Oh, and there were personalized cocktails, just in case you weren’t already at peak FOMO!
We love Israeli designers for their sense of subtle but smoking hot sex appeal, and Inbal Dror gowns truly tick these boxes. Bride Laura looked like an A-lister in her gorgeous and ridiculously flattering embellished, gold-tone dress, with some seriously on fleek hair and makeup game going on, too!
The loved-up couple, who actually met over the phone during a work call, and hit it off so well that they stayed in touch, made sure the day was about them and their adoration of one another, sneaking off regularly to really take in their surroundings.
A true Smashing The Glass wedding, there were three Recommended Vendors involved in making the day so incredible. Wedding band, Totem, totally rocked the reception, and earned a glowing writeup from bride, Laura.
Rabbi Paul Glantz, another much-loved Recommended Vendor led the moving ceremony, and the story of the day was told in the beautiful, documentary-style spread of images by phenomenal RV, Paul Rogers. What a dream team!
It’s definitely time to let Laura loose on the blog to fill us in on all the big-day details, so take it away, Laura!
How we met
Laura, the bride: We meet the phone years ago when Gio was in recruitment. I called up (the company I was working for was looking to employ) and ended up speaking to Gio. We began a phone and email friendship and one day decided to meet up in person, and that was it, the voice over the phone ended up being the love of my life.
A barn venue
Our venue was Essendon Country Club. We knew we wanted a barn and a ‘smaller’ wedding and we loved the layout of the space and the stunning grounds.
Understated vintage glamor
We planned the wedding ourselves. We didn’t have a theme exactly. If anything, we were going for an understated vintage glamor. Our moto was “keep it simple”.
Lauradana at Wedding Creations was our stylist. She did the festoon lighting and hanging lanterns and other little details to help make our venue ‘us’.
Our tables were named after cities we have visited together in Italy. We had limoncello going around the tables. Our top table was just the two of us, in true Italian style. Lastly, what defined our wedding day for us was that we got to marry each other – we kept sneaking off to have moments to ourselves. We just wanted to be together.
E-invites
We created our wedding website and sent all of our invites and save the dates electronically.
Old Hollywood hair and makeup
Lisa Sloneem is not just an incredible makeup artist, but a very close friend – she is basically another big sister!
And David Sun (from Hobs in Whetstone) came and did my hair. He managed to fix two styles in one, allowing me to have my hair up for the ceremony to really show off the dress, and down for the party to give me a more relaxed look. Lisa went full on vintage glamour for my makeup with a bright red lip.
An Inbal Dror dream dress
My dress was from Morgan Davies London, the designer is Inbal Dror. It was a sample sale dress. When I put it on it just fit perfectly (which is unusual for a sample dress) and I loved that it had a vintage feel with a sexy edge. Most importantly I thought Gio would love me in this dress.
Meaningful jewelry choices
The girls at Morgan Davis London were absolutely amazing and made me a veil for free. In my hair, I wore a small blue opal pin from Etsy, alongside my antique diamond stud earrings that Gio gave me for my 30th birthday and a little diamond Maria Tash helix earring (Gio’s wedding gift to me).
Lastly, I wore my engagement ring and a single pearl gold ring that belonged to my grandmother.
My shoes were simple, gold mid-heels from Dune which I found in a sale!
The handsome groom
Gio had a suit made by A Suit That Fits – a brown herringbone two piece with a blue waistcoat and a gold silk tie. He wore Mont Blanc gold and silver cuff links (my wedding gift to him), and his shoes were from Crockett & Jones.
A maid of honor in gold tones
My sister Jo was my maid of honor, and her dress was coordinated with mine and my mum’s. As my dress and veil were actually a golden ivory, my sister and mum’s dresses were also golden in tone.
A simply beautiful chuppah
We kept our chuppah simple and trusted our suppliers! It was important that it looked natural in the barn setting.
A love-filled ceremony
Rabbi Paul Glantz was absolutely amazing. Not only in the way that he delivered and explained the ceremony for the benefit of our non-Jewish guests, but in the entire build up to our wedding. For Rabbi Glantz, the most important aspect for him is the love a couple has for one another.
The ketubah was written by us and read from by us during the ceremony, this was very personal to us. My favourite part of the ceremony was getting to marry the best person I know.
Acoustic music choices
I walked down the aisle to Tom Odell’s Real Love sung live (and made their own) by our band Totem. Our first dance was Sam Smith’s Latch, sung live with acoustic guitar accompaniment.
Stunning floristry
Again, we trusted in the suppliers. I asked our florist, Liz at Funky Flowers, for a cascading bouquet in bright colours and trusted her to run with it.
We wanted Gio’s button holes to match with mine and my sister’s bouquets, we only asked that a blue thistle was incorporated. Liz used her creativity with the table decorations. We asked that she keep it simple and classy!
Our fabulous photographer…
We knew we wanted documentary photography. Neither of us enjoy posing and we wanted a style that really captured the feeling of the day in the most natural way.
Paul Rogers is the one photographer that we felt most comfortable with and having looked through his portfolio, we knew we wanted his ability to capture emotions for our big day.
…and videographer
We used Adam from Inverve for our videography and can’t wait to see what he and his team puts together for us!
Italian-inspired catering
We decided against having a cake and it really wasn’t missed! The chefs at Essendon Country Club catered our wedding breakfast. We created the menu with a strong Italian influence, as Gio is Italian.
Energetic entertainment
We hired Totem’s live DJ band, because they are just wonderful. They are all exceptionally talented professional musicians and lovely people.
For us, the music was the most important element of our wedding party. We love our music and know that it is crucial if you want a great party – Totem have an incredible gift of being able to read a crowd before they react and they matched our joy and energy perfectly.
Personalized cocktails
We designed the drinks reception cocktails ourselves, and went for autumnal flavors. We had a blackberry mule and a pear mojito. We also had a “Pimp you Prosecco” bar with Aperol, Creme de Casis, berries and mint.
Touching speeches
My father did a speech as well as my sister and brother in law who wrote a poem for us (we are very close with them).
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Keep it simple and don’t lose perspective. The most important thing, at the end of the day, is that you get to marry the person you love. That is really all that matters, so don’t get caught up in any family and friend drama (and there will be drama).
If there are any mistakes, no one will know but you and your suppliers, so do not worry. Just enjoy and appreciate your special day. Take the time to be together and realise that ‘this is our day’.
I wanted to say all our suppliers were really incredible, we were so lucky to find/have them. They really helped make our day one we will never forget.
Laura & Gio’s little white book
Photography – Paul Rogers
Band – Totem
Rabbi – Rabbi Paul Glantz
Videography – Inverve
Venue – Essendon Country Club
Bride’s dress – Inbal Dror purchased at Morgan Davies London
Bride’s shoes – Dune
Accessories – Etsy and Maria Tash
Groom’s attire – A Suit That Fits, Mont Blanc and Crockett & Jones
Hair – Hobs
Flowers – Funky Flowers
Stylist – Wedding Creations
Wedding bands – Imperial Pearl Company
