Stef & Todd’s NGV Wedding
Stef & Todd married within the incredibly stylish Grollo Equiset gardens at the National Gallery of Victoria on a perfect Spring day.
We were off to a terrific start when, before Stef had even arrived, her mother handed out traditional Panama hats for all the guests to wear during the ceremony – a gift from a Colombian relative who was unable to attend. Everyone was more than happy to oblige and they certainly created a festive feel! I have to say it was a sight to behold from where Todd & I were standing – looking out into a see of smiling, happy faces, all wearing white hats!
All attention soon turned to the bride’s brother as he guided the couple’s adorable fur baby (and ring bearer), Sambucca, down the winding path, along with the equally adorable 2 year old flowergirl, who didn’t even bat an eyelid when she lost one shoe along the way – a true professional!
Preceding the bride was cuteness #3, in the form of the 4 year old page boy with a sign reading “This is your last chance to run uncle Todd!”
When the stunning bride finally came into view, wearing a figure hugging Jane Hill Bridal gown, there was an immediate murmur of excitement amongst the guests. But no one was more appreciative of the bride’s appearance than the handsome groom!
After a hilarious (yet seriously touching!) “giving away” by the bride’s father, and a reading in Spanish by two of the couple’s close friends, Stef promised to hold Todd close and make him laugh for as long as she lived, while Todd declared that Stef would “always be the best part of my day”.
We concluded the ceremony with a sensational spoken rendition of Adam Sandler’s “I Wanna Grow Old With You” from ‘The Wedding Singer’, before an extremely passionate first kiss as husband & wife, followed by an adorable high five from Sambucca!
With stunning flowers by Flowers Vasette and styling by the bride herself, along with Steph and her team at Peter Rowland Catering, everything about this wedding was stylish, elegant, fun and simply beautiful.
I hope you enjoy these sensational photos by the ridiculously talented Lauren at LJM Photography.
Stef & Todd | 16.11.2013
Celebrant: Meriki Comito
Venue: National Gallery of Victoria
Photography: LJM Photography
Bridal Gown: Jane Hill
Catering/Styling:Peter Rowland
Florals:Flowers Vasette
Jade & Josh’s Zonzo Estate Wedding
The Meeting
When they were both only 16 years old, Josh would walk Jade to the train station after school every day, where Jade would miss the first train on purpose, just so they would have an extra 15 minutes together before the next one arrived.
Nearly 10 years later, in a beautiful Zonzo Estate wedding, the high school sweethearts finally became husband and wife.
The Event
There were tears of joy a plenty as Jade declared that “never have I experienced happiness like what I experience when I am with you”, before Josh vowed to “always try as hard as I can for the rest of our lives to make you feel as special, as happy and as loved as you make me feel every single day”.
After sharing their first kiss as husband & wife to rapturous cheers & applause, family members then placed letters they had written to Jade & Josh into a box with a bottle of wine for the couple to enjoy on their 5th wedding anniversary, before the newlyweds added their own special words to the time capsule before taking each other’s hand and joining their guests in celebration as a married couple for the first time.
The Photography team
Jade & Josh’s perfect day was captured by the lovely and extremely talented, Kim Cartmell at Hello Kimbo Photography and the superstar duo from Humdrum Films
Check out the video by the talented team at Humdrum Films
Jade & Josh | 10th May 2014
Celebrant: Meriki Comito
Venue: Zonzo | Train Trak Wines
Photography: Kim Cartmell @ Hello Kimbo Photography
Videography: Humdrum Films
Ceremony Music: Downtime Jazz Band
Flowers: Flowers of Yarra Glen
A Marriage Celebrant in Melbourne
Welcome to my blog!
I have to admit that I was initially quite adverse to the idea of blogging, mainly because I naively didn’t think anyone actually read them, and wasn’t sure I’d even have the time to post on a regular basis even if they did, but I have since discovered that the world of blogging is a LOT bigger than I had initially assumed and therefore decided I needed to be a part of it all.
So here I am.
I am a fully authorised marriage celebrant in Melbourne and believe without a doubt, that I have the best job in the world.
I have always loved weddings and still, in a bottom draw with tons of other random memorabilia from my childhood, have a diary full of wedding ideas, pictures of bridal gowns cut from my mums magazines, photos of the “type” of husband I thought I would marry one day and a bunch of those games I used to play with my friends to find out the name of the man I would marry one day – you know, the one where you take the first letter of your favourite colour and the 2nd letter of the suburb where you would like to live…?
Here’s a more tech savvy predictor quiz for you…. DO THE QUIZ
ANYWAY, when I finally became engaged over 15 years ago, I put a lot of effort and planning into our special day, carrying out 99.9% of the organising myself. I didn’t have internet access at home and whilst I did try to sneak in some online searching into work each day, I pretty much spent every weekend driving around from shop to shop to source suppliers. And I had an absolute ball.
18 months later, I finally married my amazing husband during one of the best days of our life and then, whilst on our honeymoon, I took to my banana lounge, cocktail in hand and pondered how I could ever re live that most incredible day. “I could become a wedding planner! Of course! I could do all the planning for other couples! Perfect!” And then I fell pregnant with our first child.
Lucky enough to be able to take on my new role as a permanent stay at home mum, thoughts of work took a backseat while I raised my son, realising very quickly that I would most likely never be able to commit to the amount of time it required to be a wedding planner!
So while planning weddings was now off my list of possible future career paths, I knew I still wanted to work in the wedding industry and was keeping my options open, when, whilst pregnant with my second son, I was browsing the HeraldSun classifieds when I came across an ad asking me if I would like to become a marriage celebrant.
“Yes! Yes I think I would!
But it took me another couple of years of raising child number two, until I finally completed my course and received the Attorney Generals’ tick of approval to become a registered marriage celebrant.
That was four years ago, and apart from now having THREE children (we have a beautiful princess now too!), I conduct about 60 ceremonies a year and couldn’t be happier.
Every ceremony is an absolute joy to be a part of and I absolutely LOVE the diversity of the couples I meet and the ceremonies I help them to create. The life of a celebrant is pretty special.
And so, via this blog, I look forward to sharing my experiences as a celebrant with you, including all the laughter, tears, style, romance, and most importantly love, that I am so very privileged to be a part of.
And hopefully, somewhere along the way, I will provide some insight, some inspiration or just some simple browsing enjoyment for any of you who choose to join me on this magical journey.
In Life & Love always ~
Meriki x
Photos courtesy of Ninnie Photography, Tiny Sparrows Photography, LJM Photography, Doux Wedding Corp