Whether you’re married or not, or never plan to be, the celebrations we’ve shared so far in our Ensemble Weddings series are undeniably heart-warming. We debated a lot about whether we wanted to go there – are we just playing into the wedding industrial complex? Well, yes, a little.⁠ But we aren’t interested in perfect weddings, and we know the concept of a wedding day is wonderfully diverse. 

Unique and injected with personality, the weddings we feature have ranged from multiple-day festivals to intimate garden ceremonies that cost less than $500. We’ve heard from brides who’ve worn three dresses, brides who didn’t wear dresses, and brides that had their dress custom-made the night before. Most interestingly, we’ve seen the different ways modern couples pick and choose which traditions they want to embrace, adapt, or scrap completely. 

Below, we’ve collected the best ideas to get you inspired for your own wedding day (or any excuse for a party, honestly). 

Location

Go local. Loclaire designer Frances Lowe married her partner Adi on the beachfront at Mangawhai Heads, holding their wedding reception at the local surf club. 

“It was a very humble, old, surf-club-looking building (for want of a better description) with memorabilia and notice boards on the walls, salt-crusted sliding doors and a huge centrepiece table that looks like a surfboard riding a big wave,” she said. “I knew we couldn’t change this – and I didn’t want to! – so our challenge was to find the balance between making it feel a bit special and us, while keeping its personality… The dance floor reminded me of a high school disco in the best way possible – we used the surfboard wave table for the DJ, and had fairy lights draped down the walls.”

Andrea and her husband chose the Parnell Rose Gardens for their simple wedding ceremony, and afterwards headed to their favourite restaurant with friends rather than hosting a reception. “We went to the public gardens a couple of days before and it felt like a lovely place to get married. There are some arches with flowers around so it almost seemed already ‘decorated’ for a wedding.”

Look elsewhere. Melbourne-based photographer Robyn Daly went down an alternative route to find her dream wedding venue, a 1930s Art Deco estate surrounded by lush gardens on a lily lake in the Dandenong Ranges. 

“We actually found the house on Airbnb which turned out to be a great resource (provided you get your host on board!) Our favourite feature was the yellow and white tiled terrace which turned out to be the perfect dancefloor. We loved the elevated house-party vibe it gave.”

Transform your home. Auckland-based jeweller Tashjian Barklie transformed her backyard into a dreamy low-key wedding venue with the help of her creative friends. 

“I have a soft spot for traditionally feminine things like bows and lace, so my friends, mum and I collected bits and pieces like old crystal, silver, candles and lace. It was like my backyard fairy fantasy.” Turkish rugs were strewn across the lawn for an aisle, they marked the ‘altar’ with vases of flowers, candles and a big floating white bow.

Decorating 

BYO flowers. Henare Davidson and Adriano Orlando’s idea to ask their wedding guests to ‘BYO drinks and flowers’ is genius. Not only did it help keep the costs down, the resulting tables of mixed bunches looked perfectly whimsical.

Get creative. Make the most of the artistic loved ones in your life – they will probably be honoured to help.

Hart Reynolds' dad (the renowned artist John Reynolds) painted a beautiful backdrop on raw canvas for their wedding, which now hangs in the couple’s house like a tapa cloth. “Another very close family friend made tablecloths and napkins for the reception with help from my dad,” said Hart. “They were so beautiful most of them got taken by guests as souvenirs.” 

Go for a theme. Actor Emily Barclay achieved her “kitsch valentines prom wedding” by decorating their New York City apartment with pink, red and white streamers, heart-shaped balloons, a pink sequin tablecloth gifted from a friend and $50 worth of cute supermarket flowers.

DIY florist. Maia Tapsell enlisted the help of her mum to decorate Hotel Britomart's Papuke room for her reception. 

“The moment we were engaged, mum ordered bulbs and started a flower garden. It was beautiful: hydrangeas and dahlias and all my favourite flowers,” she reflected. “But there was a big storm right before the wedding which wiped about half of them out so she had to go and buy some at the last minute. She drove her flowers up from Tauranga stored in buckets of water, and she spent the morning with her best friend creating vases of flowers and my bouquet.” 

If growing them yourself isn’t an option, you could ask a florist to put you in touch with a wholesaler.

Solange Francois ordered dried flowers in dark blues and neutrals to arrange herself, while Robyn bought hers from a local farm: “Simple white lisianthus for my bouquet, and tall stems of white lilies surrounded the outdoor terrace - which looked great but didn’t open in time. At least our house was pretty post-wedding!"

Style

Shop vintage. Solange Francois wore head-to-toe vintage at her intimate garden wedding. 

“I originally didn’t want a true wedding dress,” she says, “I was going to find a nice dress that I could wear again for special events. But one night I was chatting on Instagram to Di from Welcome Back Slow Fashion and I asked her if she happened to have any vintage wedding dresses on hand. She had a 1970s vintage Vinka Lucas Maree de Maru wedding gown available - it was absolutely gorgeous and fitted like a glove, so it didn’t take long for me to realise that it would be the one.”

Shop the rack. Actor Emily Barclay wore a white Sandy Liang cocktail dress with a giant rosette and her well-worn black velvet YSL Mary Janes. 

“Sandy Liang had just released her bridal collection and I wanted to wear this big poofy mini dress but they’re made to order. I emailed asking if they could make it in a week and now I know that that is a crazy thing to ask because it turns out it takes six months to make a wedding dress,: explained Emily. “So I bought a dress off the rack for about $600 (the most expensive single purchase of our wedding). I wouldn't say it was a perfect fit, but good enough. I had to get the sleeves taken up and it wasn’t ready to pick up until about one hour before the wedding.”

Break the rules. Nothing about Tori Tafua’s festival-themed wedding was traditional, including her dress – a striking black tulle gown. “The lady I purchased it off was super shocked I was wearing it for my wedding dress, technically it was a robe that was meant to be worn for pre-wedding photos.”

PJ Frame was torn about what to wear to her summer wedding. “I’m a masculine-presenting female but not butch – a suit wasn’t a goer for me!” She ended up getting a beautiful silk and linen outfit created by a local tailor, who colour-matched it to her bride Sarah’s gown.

Accessorise. We love bows always, and they’re so appropriate at a wedding. Carolyn Wadey Barron fastened a black Caitlin Snell bow into her hair moments before the ceremony started. “It became my 'something borrowed’ but I was gutted to have to give it back to my sister!”

Harriet Lai accessorised her off-the-rack Karen Walker ‘The Kiss’ dress with white heart-shaped sunglasses, while Erin Broughton wore her grandmother's pearls and vintage bridal clutch: “It wasn’t till we put it all together that I  realised I was kinda cosplaying Molly Ringwald – very over the top early 90s/late 80s princess vibe.”

Food

Give cake the attention it deserves. Make like ex-baker Carolyn Wadey-Barron and approach your wedding day desserts like a pro: with an epic cake table that’s revealed straight after the ceremony. 

“I’m pretty sure we both squealed when the sheet came down, we couldn’t believe how many kinds of cakes, tarts, cookies and cupcakes Jessie had made and piled up on this gorgeous table.”

Get a food truck.  For Tashjian’s backyard wedding, “we wanted the food to be Filipino, but a true Filipino meal would be sat down with rice and the works. Mighky’s family run a food truck, Manila Eats, so having that there was a way to honour this without having to go the full nine yards.”

Similarly, Tori’s wedding had everything you’d expect from an upscale music festival: food trucks served barbecue and burgers by Bacon Bros, Belgium waffles by Waffle Hause and fresh kaimoana to keep energy levels up.