Gabrielle & Sarah – A Gold Sequin Wedding Gown And A Whole Lot Of Love

We’ve been together for six years and met online (like all the cool kids these days) on the dating app, Her. We were both trying to play it cool and not seem too keen when the app glitched and deleted each other’s profiles! Devastated by the idea of never finding each other again, we both frantically swiped until we luckily matched again. We immediately set a date and time to go out for dinner, and the rest is history.

Tell Us About The Proposal.

Four years into our relationship, we were on holiday in Gili Air, Indonesia. Gabrielle requested we wake up, make ourselves look half decent, and watch the sunrise over the ocean. This was nothing out of the ordinary to Sarah, as Gabrielle loves a photo op for the gram.

While posing for a photo with the sunrise behind us, Gabrielle said, “I’m shitting myself,” as she was extremely nervous.

As a nurse, Sarah interpreted it literally, thought Gabrielle must have Bali belly and was incontinent.

Gabrielle laughed, shook her head, got down on one knee, and asked Sarah to marry her.

Tell Us About Your Wedding Planning Stress…

Our engagement party happened just before the pandemic started. We were blissfully naïve as to how stressful planning a wedding would be. As two healthcare workers, the pandemic threw a massive curveball at us. We had to postpone our wedding twice, but all the stress was worth it for us to have the big wedding party we wanted.

Gabrielle’s best friend was stuck in Western Australia, and the week before the wedding, we were glued to the news to see if he would be able to make it to the wedding. Sadly he wasn’t able to as they changed the rules the DAY before the wedding, and there were no flights left to Melbourne.

Gabrielle’s dress was custom made with custom fabric from India. Obviously, due to the pandemic, everything was shut down, and we had to wait down to the wire to get the fabric from overseas. Luckily, her dressmaker, Elly Louise, was so talented and calm and got it together just in time.

What Led You To The Venue?

We love good food, good drinks, and a good boogie. It was really important to us that we could celebrate our love and share that celebration with all our family and friends; therefore, we didn’t want to elope with a small group. However, we still wanted a venue that allowed us to have a fun wedding that was easy to execute. POH was local to us and easy for all our friends and family to get to.

We loved the rustic/industrial decore, which required minimal decorating from us. The big dining hall with long dining tables and the delicious share-plate option was perfect for us. The deck outside provided the perfect indoor/outdoor location for our ceremony and cocktail hour, while the rooftop allowed for our stunning golden hour photos. As soon as we stepped into the venue, we felt immediately at ease and celebrated as an LGBTQ+ couple – everyone was so excited for us! The events coordinators also shared our dream of having a massive party and helped us every step of the way.

Tell Us All The Details Of Your Wedding Day.

We decided against being separate the night before the wedding and instead hired a penthouse apartment for the two of us for the weekend. We wanted to wake up together on our wedding day! Our apartment was close to the venue and had a massive 14-seater dining table, so we had plenty of room for all our bridal parties to get ready. Our bridespeople arrived in the morning, and we had such a fun morning getting ready together. We drank French champagne while our make-up artist Casey and our hairdresser (Sarah’s cousin) Jade Elise Hair made us all look glam. Our mothers arrived later in the morning.

We had most of our photos before the wedding in the park, and then it was showtime.

Our ceremony was led by Gabrielle’s family friend, Sally Huglin, and there was no dry eye in the house.

We then had the most fantastic night ever. Always having a margarita in our hands, and then after the speeches by our best friends and mothers, the dance floor went off!

Gabrielle surprised Sarah by singing ‘Still the one’ by Shania Twain (Gabrielle is a professional singer, by the way), and she organised a group of her singing friends to back her up as a ‘Shania Choir.’

Safe to say, there were many tears shed by Sarah and everyone for that matter!

We ended the night with the front bar of the Post Office Hotel staying open late for us until 2 am, and we had shots with the bar staff. And then we had an unplanned house party at the apartment with our bridal party until 6 am. It was wild, to say the least!

Do You Have A Stand-Out Vendor?

Our photographer, Georgia Wiggs! She is also part of the LGBTQ+ community and immediately felt like a best friend to both of us. We were so lucky to have her calming presence throughout the day, especially when taking our pre-wedding photos in the park.

By looking at the pictures, you’d never be able to tell that our wedding cars almost got lost. We almost saw each other in the car park, and the park was FULL of other weddings and 100 families having picnics! Georgia just politely asked them to stand aside, and we all got these gorgeous photos. She also made us feel totally comfortable as you can probably tell by the multiple kissing photos we have!

Did You Incorporate Any Wedding Traditions Into The Day?

No, in fact, we’re hoping to create some new ones.

Our mothers walked us down the aisle. They are our best friends and biggest supporters, so it only felt right.

We also had Sarah’s 80-year-old grandma as our flower girl – I highly recommend ditching the kids and trying this idea. She was throwing flowers at the guests, getting them ready for the party about to start.