After the ceremony, it was time for the official bridal party photos. We began in the stunning Circulating Library, which was the original library before the Mortlock Wing (where we had our reception) was later added. I would have actually loved to have our ceremony there but alas the room is way too small. It sure made for some atmospheric photos though.

And now in the larger but similarly beautiful Mortlock Chamber:

Our photographer Luke is such a dude. He was so friendly and funny that having our photos taken felt like hanging out with an old friend, which made us so relaxed he could capture some lovely genuine expressions.

One of my fave shots from the wedding – very formal, yes, but that staircase looks like it’s simply made for bridal party photos!

I just realised I haven’t introduced you to our wingmen and -women. From the left on the stairs is my dear school friend Jaime, my friend since the age of three Jo and my beautiful maid of honour Cherie,  then on our other side is Ryan’s brother and best man Dan, best mate Sam and my brother Liam. They were all brilliant and so helpful in the leadup to the day and were so fun to spend our wedding day with.

And finally, my favourite (and might I add, award-winning!) photo from our wedding.

Photography by Luke Simon Photography

I left you last week with the girls and the lads all ready for the big day (go here if you missed it).

Sweet ride, huh?

We were actually never planning to have ‘proper’ wedding cars. Sure they look nice in photos but we figured none of the guests would see them so we’d prefer to spend the money on something more important to us. Then our friend Dave showed us a photo of the latest vintage car in his collection. Um, yes please sir.

I know it’s traditional for the bride to have the white car but what can I say? I’m a colour-loving girl and wanted to have the funky blue car for myself!

Sneaky photographer getting a shot from inside through the blinds. Thankfully he didn’t capture the moment when my bridesmaids realised I had indented stripes in my back from the stitching on the vinyl car seats and had to vigorously rub my back to get them out.

My friends at Mary & Gabrielle Events kindly set up the room for me. The ceremony was such a whirl I felt like I didn’t really have the opportunity to soak in all the details I’d worked so hard on, but looking back at photos it turned out exactly as I had imagined.

Our whole wedding was at the beautiful State Library of South Australia, with the ceremony being in the older wing, the Institute Building. Built in the 1830s it’s one of the oldest buildings in Adelaide.

During the leadup to our wedding I kept expecting to start getting nervous. Initially I thought maybe the nerves would kick in with a week to go. Nope. Maybe the day before? No, too concerned about being sick. That morning? No. How about when I’m dressed and the photographer has arrived? Still no. Surely when I arrive at the ceremony I will be nervous?

It was the biggest day of my life and I dislike being the centre of attention and yet I never had any nerves whatsoever. It sounds cliche but I was just so giddy with pure happiness and excitement. Hence why I have I have the most ridiculously cheesy grin on my face in half the photos (way to be an elegant bride, Alicia).

I won’t go into too much detail as I’ll be doing a whole post on our vendors at the end of this series, but I have to mention how fantastic our celebrant Megan was. We didn’t like the idea of asking the father of the bride’s permission and giving away, so here she is asking for the blessing and support of all four parents. Her words, the readings done by a couple of friends and of course our own vows were so special.

Loving that beautiful golden light, don’t the girls look positively glowing?

What’s that? Oh, it’s only a flipping choir at our wedding.

We saw them perform a few months before our engagement and they were so rad we decided we had to have them at our ceremony. It wasn’t in our budget but we nixed the idea of having favours altogether and put the money towards this as our surprise to the guests. I only wish I could have been in the room to hear the first couple of songs they sang before my arrival!

Cue another goofy grin from me.

Hooray!

Come back next week to see the bridal party shots (there’s even an award-winning photo in there!)

Photography by Luke Simon Photography

Chris Shipman for Chance (via Black Eiffel)

Did you have a good Christmas? Mine was very relaxing, with plenty of chilling with family and friends plus of course loads of food and drink.

I was extremely lucky and got an iPad for Christmas, which sounds very extravagant I know, but it was from the entire family. I’m taking all of this week off plus most of next week too (I will have to do some blogging and admin work though). I’m planning to do a whole lot of relaxing (like the girl in the photo), playing with my new toy and a bunch of projects around the house, as well as more socialising.

Did Santa treat you well this year?

This post has been a very long time coming – over a year, in fact. I’m super excited that the day has finally come that I can say our wedding has been published! WEEEEEEEE!!!!

It’s in the fab Australian magazine Real Weddings – in the Annual Style Issue, no less.

Big props as always to our brilliant photographer Luke Simon. Thanks so much to Sophie Curnow who was very lovely to deal with and to Prue DeAraugo for capturing our story (and for describing as as a “learned couple” – ha!). Love that the article turned into gratuitous stationery porn, by the way, very appropriate. For the rest of the credits and story, well you’ll just have to pick up a copy or subscribe.

I’ve got SO many tutorials and photos that I’ve had to keep under my hat for this long, so be prepared for the onslaught! Can’t wait to share the rest with you.

After a few days in Melbourne with friends and family, we spent the second half of our trip on the Mornington Peninsula for a belated anniversary holiday.

The gorgeous seaside town of Sorrento. I wish I could have taken some photos of the mansions at nearby Portsea – seriously I haven’t seen houses like this since I last visited some French chateaux.

I was completely smitten by our accommodation at Blue Moon Cottages (good choice as always, Ryan).

More wineries, naturally.

A-ma-zing lunch at French restaurant La Petanque.

Enjoying the views on the ocean side of the peninsula…

…and the bay side.

Where I would like to be spending summer.

McClelland Gallery & Sculpture Park.

The Man and I had a wonderful time, I only wish we could have spent longer.

Hello my dears! How have you been?

Thanks so much for amusing yourselves while I was away. It was a much-needed break and I’m feeling relaxed and ready to tackle the rest of the year!

The Man and I spent a week in Victoria, with the first half in Melbourne visiting family and friends and the other half on the Mornington Peninsula. Here are some snaps from our time in Melbourne:

Wandering along Brunswick Street.

I died and went to stationery heaven at Zetta Florence.

Lunch at Little Creatures Dining Hall.

There was an exhibition of Viennese Secessionist art and design on at the National Gallery which didn’t disappoint (unlike the no-photography rule).

Giant devil baby statues along St Kilda Road for the Festival.

Melbourne Museum.

Our friends took us to the beautiful Yarra Valley for wine tasting.

Come back tomorrow to see the rest of the trip!

…which is exactly why I am currently on holiday!

In the past when I’ve taken time off I’ve scheduled ahead a whole bunch of posts to keep things running as normal. This time though, there simply haven’t been enough hours in the day to write so many posts in advance. I could have put in some lame filler content, but you deserve better than that, so for the first time in Atypical Type A, I am actually taking a break.

There’s another post coming up later today to launch a new product (because I was too excited about it to postpone it any longer!) and I’ll still have my usual Polka Dot Bride tutorial, but apart from that it’s going to be quiet around here for the next two weeks. I hope you understand.

I look forward to seeing you back here on Monday 17th October all refreshed and pumped to share more creative goodness! Til then, perhaps you might like to take the time to browse my archives and pick a few projects to tackle?

‘Inspire your work’ print by Departika

I woke up on Sunday, my first wedding anniversary, to find my husband not home. There were, however, written instructions from him to catch the bus into the city and get off at a certain stop, where I would find the first in a series of clues…

I didn’t even know he knew about paper being the first anniversary present but he’d made a set of origami hearts (even made from old book pages which were a feature of our wedding) with clues on the reverse to find the next location.

I was led all over town to various places that are meaningful to us, including the bar where we got together, our wedding night hotel, my uni campus (where there was this giant ‘a’ from my logo!!), all ending up with a picnic near our wedding venue…

…where there was another giant ‘a’ (this time in Helvetica because a few days earlier he’d asked me what typeface I couldn’t live without). He’d even brought the iPod dock to play the song I walked down the aisle to. Awwww!

As you can see, it was a perfect sunny day to enjoy a picnic of champagne, cheese and antipasto.

Our favourite photo from our wedding is of us sitting on this bench so I had to recreate it with the letter, which totally cracks me up.

Prior to all this, I was pretty smug thinking I’d thought of the best anniversary present.

Now, clearly I wasn’t going to be able to top the effort that The Man put in, but I hope you’ll agree this papercut art is absolutely divine. This gorgeous custom piece was hand cut by Kyleigh’s Papercuts (thanks Kyleigh, he loved it!) and features the lyrics from the first dance song from our wedding.

I was completely blown away by all the effort that The Man went to and it was definitely a day to remember.

What are your favourite ideas for a paper anniversary gift?

Today The Man and I have been together for eight years. Ryan, I just want to say:

(Mum & Dad: that’s a good thing.)

Print by Hannes Beer.

Hello lovelies! How was your weekend? The Man and I had our birthday cocktail party, which I’ll tell you more about later in the week. In the meantime, though, here’s a sneak peek of the invitation I designed for it, as well as a fun mood board to go along with it.

Decorated table | Record player | Fairy lights | Sequin dress | Invitation | Glitter lips | Cocktail

Check out examples of my work or drop me a line to enquire or place your order.