Hopelessly Devoted

Sally Mussared is the designer and founder of Mussared design studio creating luxurious handmade silk wedding gowns.

Shaz Franz creates beautiful, special and novelty cakes at Blackbird Cakes in the Macedon Ranges!

Photography by Fiona Handbury of The Garage Studio.

Recording by the fabulous Miss Bella Hazelton.

Time Stamps

00:35 Why Cakes?

00:54 Getting in Contact

01:48 To Your Taste

03:46 Making it Unique

05:18 Shaz’s Fav Weddings

06:30 From Youthful Love

We are here today at Blackbird Cakes in Woodend with Sharyn Franz.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you for coming along.

We’d love to just start with what you do here?

We make celebration cakes, so cakes for birthdays, weddings, parties of any nature. So we specialise in novelty style cakes and beautiful cakes, so that’s basically what we do, we make a cake.

Why Cakes?

Why this? What drove you to make these beautiful cakes?

Before I started working as a pastry chef, I worked in the psychology field, and I always thought it would be great to make people happy, and realised that psychology wasn’t the way to make people happy, so why not become a pastry chef and make fabulous cakes and make people happy that way.

Getting in Contact

Fantastic! I love it! When a bride contacts you, what’s the easiest way?

Either phone or email.

Then what happens?

We generally have a chat, and we always invite our brides and grooms into the shop, and we sit down and have a cup of tea, or a coffee, and some cake, and we talk about their wedding and what sort of cake would suit their needs, and then we design something generally together. They have ideas of what they do and don’t like and we suggest things, and then we design a cake for their special day.

Lovely. And how long in advance do you like that to happen?

We have had wedding cakes on the same day which was quite a challenge, and we’ve done wedding cakes with a couple of days notice, but we generally like at least a month, at least. We take bookings twelve months in advance, probably six months is an ideal time.

To Your Taste

What is the most unusual request you’ve ever had?

We’ve had a few, we’ve made some novelty wedding cakes of a bride and groom in a vegetable patch with their cat. We’ve made science fiction style cakes with Tardis’ and fireflies and things like that. We are making computer game cakes for weddings, and superhero wedding cakes, so its the whole gammet really, it’s generally for couples that want something a little bit different.

That sounds like fun!

It is, it is.

I love it that you enjoy doing individual cakes, that’s what we strive to do with our gowns as well, each piece is really individual and brings out the bride’s personality, so that’s exciting.

Absolutely, you’ve got to tell a story with the cake, and it’s about the bride and the groom, and their relationship together.

Yeah, that’s nice. We don’t get to meet the grooms.

Oh no you wouldn’t.

No, they don’t get to see the dress, so we don’t get to meet them.

We do, we generally do, and most grooms are pretty involved and 99.9% of them love the cake tasting aspect of our little consultation.

Fantastic. What would you say to those couples that you’re meeting, what’s your one biggest tip?

If they think they can put the flowers on the cake, or if they think they can do this, this and this, is… leave it to the professionals, and let us do our job and enjoy the day. Just don’t overload yourself, don’t think you can do everything on the day. You are busy enough as it is. Just take the time to enjoy the day.

That’s nice. So do you take the cakes and set them up?

Sally Mussared is the designer and founder of Mussared design studio creating luxurious handmade silk wedding gowns.

Nicky Thomas operates the Little Church & Springhill Peony Farm, a superb wedding venue!

Recording by the fabulous Miss Bella Hazelton.

Time Stamps

00:24 The Usual Procedure

00:57 Why it Began

02:19 First Contact

03:23 Elements of Fantastic Weddings

04:34 Break the Rules

07:19 The Biggest Tip

07:54 A Saucy Request

09:16 A Heartwarming Tale

13:24 Working Overtime

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Hopelessly Devoted Podcast! I’m  bridal gown designer Sally Mussared, delivering you the inside tips from Melbourne’s top wedding professionals.

We’re here today, just outside of Trentham, at the Little Church & Springhill Peony Farm with Nicky Thomas. Hi!

Hello!

It’s great to meet you!

You too, Sally.

The Usual Procedure

So we mostly have weddings from between 60 to 80 guests, which is the perfect size for the church, and then they can have a reception afterwards that they can have 60 people in the pavilion, or if they have 80 guests they can bring a marquee and have it on the lawn, so it’s beautiful, a very flexible property too.

And you grow beautiful Peonies, as well, just ‘round the corner?

We do, just up over the hill, and we’ve got five acres with 10,000 Peony plants in the five acres-

And they would be springing forth soon, are they not?

I think we’ve only got about three weeks to go, so that’s pretty exciting, yeah.

Why it Began

So what got you into weddings, you know, the whole bit. How did you start?

It’s probably my husband that started the whole Peony farm. He actually bought the property in the year 2000 and then planted, by hand, all those 10,000 plants, with the help of his father, Martin, and also just mates. So then when I met Mack, I had to really enjoy Peonies and working on a Peony farm, that was all part of it, so yeah.

And what led you to the Little Church?

The church has been here since 1890, so when we moved into the area we’ve always looked at it and it’s so beautiful, but it was privately owned, so when it came onto the market, we just got really excited and thought gosh we could do all those weddings that people have been asking if they could do on the Peony farm, but we could do it here in a proper church. And it’s a special place, it’s got the history, it used to be the old schoolhouse before they build the other Springhill school, and so it’s just a lovely quaint little place that people come to visit and they love it straight away, and they want to have their wedding here, so it works, it’s appealing to people.

Yeah it’s lovely.

First Contact

So what happens when a bride contacts you?

Ah, they usually… they’ll either ring me directly or they’ll send an email, but what I try and do is actually speak with them on the phone rather than email back, so that we can just have a quick chat about numbers, and their date, and work out whether it’s going to work for them, and then I arrange a time within the next week or two weeks for them to come and visit, and come and see the property, and I’ll show them around and then we’ll talk in detail about what the’d like to do, and we’re pretty much anything goes here. I prefer to talk to people, see what they want/had planned, and then see if we can do it, and that’s fun! Every wedding’s different, it’s really good!

And so can you have two weddings on a weekend, or do you get the whole weekend?

You get the whole weekend. I don’t want to have two weddings on a weekend, it’s too busy, too stressful. Couples love having the place for the whole weekend, you know, to set up on the Friday, have the wedding on the Saturday,

Sally Mussared is the designer and founder of Mussared design studio creating luxurious handmade silk wedding gowns.

Darin Collison is a superb wedding photographer who creates stories through images at Darin Collison Photography.

Recording by the fabulous Miss Bella Hazelton.

Time Stamps

00:56 Darin’s Procedure

02:30 The Best Weddings

03:20 How it Began

05:51 Why Darin Does It

08:45 Biggest Tip for Brides

09:38 The Strangest Thing

10:47 Soul Mates From the Start

We’re here today with Darin Collison of Darin Collison Photography, who is a beautiful wedding photographer. Thank you for seeing us today.

You’re welcome.

Can you tell us a bit about of what you do?

I take wedding photos. There’s all sorts of ways of taking wedding photos. I try really hard to take photos that tell stories, take photos that show what the day is about, take photos that show behind the scene stuff, intimate moments, things that go on that the bride and groom know are going on but can’t know of on the day because they’re just too busy. I want to provide a document that tells the story of the day, shows what the day was all about at the end of the day.

Lovely.

Yeah.

Darin’s Procedure

And, when a bride and groom contact you, how does your procedure work?

Sure. It’s dead simple, they get in touch normally via emails, sometimes via phone. First step is to send all the relevant info out, pricing, give them a brief overview of how I go about things. By the time people contact me, they’ve been on my website. They’ve got a fair idea of what I do. So, if that work’s for them we get together, we meet, in person or via Skype and if we fit, I shoot their wedding. It’s great.

Lovely. And so do you meet them again before the wedding?

Um, typically not. I used to, but I found more and more of the last week or 2 before the wedding when I need to get all the info, brides and grooms can be really, really busy! So, yeah. So it takes 20 minutes to half an hour on the phone and that’s easy.

Yeah, great!

And then on the day of the wedding, what’s your favourite timeline? What would you ideally…?

I mean ideally everyone would plan their day about taking portraits in the best possible light but that doesn’t happen. Look, I’m just there to tell the story, so I frequently get contacted by brides before the day wanting to know what’s … the make up artist wants to know what time the photographer is gonna be there and that sort of jazz. I just tell everyone to organise the day to suit themselves, the more relaxed and happy the bride and groom are the better the photography will be. So I just work around them.

The Best Weddings

And what elements do your favourite weddings have?

Ha! Good question. I don’t know, my favourite weddings have elements in common beyond a shared and obvious enjoyment of the day from the bride and groom and from their family and friends, weddings…

That’s really lovely.

Yeah, well. If everyone’s emotionally invested in the wedding day and shows it’s brilliant, it’s brilliant as a photographer, it’s brilliant for, for the couple. It just makes for a fun day.

If you think that’s really important, it’s important that their personality comes out and that’s what we try and do with the gowns-

Yeah, for sure.

-it’s to bring forth who they are and what they’re all about, but then they need to just enjoy the day, don’t they?

They need to just enjoy the day. Yeah, and people can do as much planning as they want to before hand. Provided that on the day the planning is done.

Sally Mussared is the designer and founder of Mussared design studio creating luxurious handmade silk wedding gowns.

Tori Wood creates stunning florals, perfect styling and breathtaking installations at Tori Allen Events.

Recording by the fabulous Miss Bella Hazelton.

Time Stamps

00:51 First Contact

02:18 Tori’s Special Way

03:03 The Venue of Choice

04:08 The Motivation for it All

06:36 Back to the Roots

07:56 The Strangest Request

08:53 Tori’s Tips

11:25 The Unromantic Romance

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Hopelessly Devoted podcast. I’m bridal designer Sally Mussared, delivering you the inside tips from Melbourne’s top wedding professionals.

Very excited today to be here with Tori Wood, at Tori Allen events, who do.. . well, what do you do, here at Tori Allen events?

We are a team of creatives who deliver wedding concepts and corporate concepts for clients. We are all inclusive of styling and the floral design for all events, anything from a bridal bouquet right through to a large scale installation, things for corporate events and private parties as well. We not only do the floral design, but also bring in the furniture and styling elements and design the tablescape, and all those small details.

First Contact

So, when a bride contacts you, you get an email from them and what happens next?

Ah, our lovely Jess responds, and a thing we like to do is give the bride the information and encourage them to come in and have a chat, because there’s nothing like a face to face conversation, to further explain what we do, and hear what the bride’s requests are.

And then how do you develop the design of what you’re going to?

Yeah, so, our… once our bride comes in and decides, you know, we’re the stylists and floral designers they want to work with, we often hear their brief, and they may have a Pinterest board, or they’ve collected imagery over time from magazines, and various, sort of… sources, and quite often it has ten different ideas. So we help tailor and tame their ideas to one sort of way that will bring what they want to life with our experience, so we will consider their venue, we will consider the type of personalities that they are, their requests are, and then assist with saying well, we think your colour palette should be this, we think that your textures should be this, your vibe of the wedding should be this… yeah. It’s a collaborative approach, but we definitely come in with a strong opinion and a really, I suppose educating the bride on what we believe is best, and what our opinion is. We adapt our creative language to the bride, orthe client, depending on what type of person they are, and what their kind of brief is as well.

Tori’s Special Way

Yeah nice, so, what makes Tori Allen unique?

We are a one stop shop, we offer the styling and floral and stationery solutions for your wedding. Being, you know, a group of designers, we sort of come from a different approach perhaps your normal retail florist or an independent stylist where we, we look at the total concept and we, everything works together. We look at things with a, quite a contemporary and sheik approach, you know, we’re not too traditional but we don’t buck tradition at the same time, we like to sort of merge the two together, so that things do have a bit of depth, but they’re still in line with the trends that are on Instagram and Pinterest and, you know, in vogue et cetera.

The Venue of Choice

So once they’ve let you know what venue they’re going to have it in, how do you work from that?

Generally speaking we may know the venue, because we would have worked there before, or we’ve been on a site visit, so we will look at the couple and their requests,

Sally Mussared is the designer and founder of Mussared design studio creating luxurious handmade silk wedding gowns.

Arnie Way creates superb wild flower bouquets with texture, colour and perfume at Flowers in a Vase.

Recording & photography by the fabulous Miss Bella Hazelton.

Time stamps

00:30 Arnie’s Procedure

01:20 The Design Process

02:34 How Arnie Got Started

03:04 In the Macedon Ranges

03:30 Favourite Wedding Elements

04:30 Arnie’s Uniqueness

05:42 Most Important Tip

07:16 Most Unique Request

08:07 Arnie’s Love Story

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Hopelessly Devoted podcast. I’m bridal gown designer Sally Mussared delivering you the inside tips from Melbourne’s top wedding professionals.

Today we’re here at Flowers in a Vase, and we’re getting to chat with Arnie Way, who does beautiful flower work across the Macedon ranges and all the way down through Melbourne. Thank you for having us.

Arnie’s Procedure

Thank you. I’ll jump straight into it. What’s the best way to contact you?

I’m happy either on over the phone or on the internet, whichever’s convenient for the actual bride. I find that a lot of brides like inquiring through the internet because it’s convenient, they can do it all, any time of the day or night, so, most of my inquiries, are email or through my website.

And then, what’s the process from there? Okay I send out my inquiry form, which is a general questionnaire, which they complete and send back, then I try to arrange a meeting with the bride and hopefully the groom. And then (if that’s not possible, I provide information to the bride direct via email), I actually start a design process for them, and then we basically go back and forth until we get it just right for that particular bride and groom.

The Design Process

Lovely. So what does that design process involve?

So I understand what they envisage, I put a Pinterest board together for them, which is a complementary thing that I do for all my clients. Like a theme board of colours and… Correct. Like a mood board. So I get initial ideas from them, about style, what colour is the bridesmaid’s dress, what they need apart from their bouquets, button holes, is there any table centres involved. When I gather all that information I actually put some style ideas for them together, I show them what flowers are available, for their wedding at that particular time, that season, because as we know, there are different flowers for each season. So that way they get an actual visual, and then we just go through the process of starting to work backwards from that. So each bride has an individual look.

That’s lovely.

Mmm! And that’s all complementary. Oh, great. Yeah, so, it works, because quite often, brides don’t know all the flower varieties and the seasons of the flowers, so, if I can provide a visual that makes it a lot easier for them, I think.

Yeah, sure. Yeah.

How Arnie Got Started

Yeah nice. What got you into the industry?

Well actually, I was a banker, for twenty five years, Okay, Before I went into then hospitality, Mm-hmm (affirmative), I worked in pubs and things, and then I always loved flowers at home, and I love flowers, I used to do flowers for friends, but obviously my career was in banking and then hospitality, and one particular time, a couple of staff members said, “you should do this for a business”.

Okay.

So, it basically started from that. And it developed and evolved.

In the Macedon Ranges

Have you always been in Woodend?

No, my husband and I live up at Mount Macedon and we have done for nearly thirty years now.

Sally Mussared is the designer and founder Mussared design studio creating handmade silk wedding gowns.

Catherine Crothers officiates wedding ceremonies as Catherine Crothers Civil Celebrant

Recording by the fabulous Miss Bella Hazelton

Time Stamp

00:38 What happens when you contact Catherine?

01:58 How to develop your vows

02:25 Favourite Wedding Elements

03:05 Where Catherine stands

03:47 Why Catherine is a Civil Celebrant

04:35 What makes Catherine Crothers Unique?

05:01 Most Important Tip for Brides

06:10 Wedding Rituals

07:32 A Client’s Love Story

09:19 Catherine’s Love Story

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Hopelessly Devoted podcast. I’m bridal gown designer Sally Mussared delivering you the inside tips from Melbourne’s top wedding professionals.

[Sally] Today we are at Jack Springs Farm and we’re here to meet Catherine Crothers, who is a civil celebrant, specially across the Macedon Ranges, but anywhere that you’re interested, so thank you very much for having us.

[Catherine] Pleasure. (laughs)

Fantastic. If can dive straight into it … Mm-hmm. When you get a phone call from a bride, how do they normally contact you?

Mostly it’s either by phone or email, or they check out my website.

OK. Fantastic. And, then what’s your process from then?

What Happens When You Contact Catherine?

Well, I like to get the couples to, to come here to me at the farm. It’s a quiet and relaxed…

Beautiful.

…environment. Thank you. (laughing) And then we can sort of sit and have a coffee and a chat, and I can get to know them as a couple, and then they get to know me as a celebrant. I think it’s really important for that connection, to have with your celebrant, making sure that they are understanding exactly what the couple wants for their special day.

Fantastic. When do you see them again before the ceremony?

Look, you can have, there’s numerous meetings that you can actually have, once they’ve met me and they decide that they’d like to book me and I’m available, I normally give them, in the first meeting a nice little information pack, which tells them sort of step-by-step what they actually need to do, to sort of develop a ceremony that they would like to have.

In the initial meeting I walk them through what’s mandatory legally, and then what we can do, as far as elements to include in the ceremony, so that could be, they write their own vows, would they have some readings? or would they like somebody to be involved in the ceremony? and have a poem?, and are there going to be rings involved?, and that sort of thing. So it’s all there in that first meeting, and then once they book me I’ve send them via email lots and lots of information, so anything to do with readings or poems and draughts of the ceremony.

How To Develop Your Vows?

How do you help them develop their vows?

I’ve got a couple of examples, that are wonderful, well I think, really meaningful sort of words to say to each other, but I also encourage couples to sort of really think about what they would like to say to each other, cause it’s one of those very, sort of, beautiful moments, in the ceremony, so, um, I think it’s important that they really slow down and take the time to really think about what they’d like to say.

Lovely.

Hmm.

Favourite Wedding Elements

What elements do your favourite weddings have?

I think definitely the vows. It’s when you’ve got through the introduction, you’ve welcomed all the family and friends here to celebrate the most momentous day in their lives and the...

Sally Mussared is the designer and founder Mussared design studio creating handmade silk wedding gowns.

Jesse Hisco is an amazing available light photographer at Jesse Hisco Photography.

Cover Photograph by Andrew Harvey.

Recording by the fabulous Miss Bella Hazelton.

Time stamp

00.25 Jesse’s Procedure

00.56 Ideal Timeline

01.38 Favourite Wedding Elements

03.34 Jesse Hisco Photography’s Uniqueness

04.00 How Jesse Hisco Evolved

05.18 Biggest Tip for Brides

06.05 Most Unique Request

07.23 What to Look for in a Venue

08.10 Jesse’s love story

10.40 Jesse’s Brunswick Studio

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Hopelessly Devoted podcast. I’m bridal gown designer Sally Mussared delivering you the inside tips from Melbourne’s top wedding professionals…

[Sally Mussared] Today we’re thrilled to be here with Jesse Hisco, at Jesse Hisco photography, who…principally weddings?

[Jesse Hisco] Yeah, princ…people.

[Sally] Fantastic. Thank you for…being involved the interview.

[Jesse] Aw, thank you. Pleasure.

Jesse’s Procedure

What happens when a bride first contacts you, what’s your procedure?

For me, generally it’s just that we’ve got to touch base. I think it’s incredibly important that we gel on a personal level. You spend no more extra time with someone on your wedding day than your photographer. So, I find that parts really important, so first thing I do is pick up the phone and have a chat.

Okay. And then?

We arrange to meet, I show them some of my stuff in person. Have a look at what they’ve got planned and what they need to get planned, and then we arrange up a timeline that suits what kind of experience they want to get out of the day.

Ideal Timeline

And what is your ideal timeline?

My timeline really revolves around what they want to get out of the experience. I don’t have a, a set amount of time that I, uh, that I stay on the wedding. I turn up at the start and I leave when they don’t need me anymore. So a lot of the time we just work with them to find out what’s really important, and how we can set up the timeline to suit that experience. So, if they want to spend more time with the guests, well I’m not going to arrange for three hours of us to be spending in a field taking pictures. I want to get them straight into hanging out with the guests. So if that means restructuring the day a little bit and doing something like a first look in the morning so that we can get some of the portraits out of the way. And getting them straight into hanging out with guests. That’s what I’m about.

Favourite Wedding Elements

Okay. Cool. Yeah. What are the elements of your favourite weddings?

Look…it comes down to one thing, it’s gotta be real. I don’t want to see somebody trying to be something that they’re not. I don’t want to see people copying other brides cause they saw something on Pinterest and they thought it was really cool, but it doesn’t really gel with their personality. It’s just got to be real. So I do whatever I can to sort of break down some of those barriers that they might be putting up.

To us, it’s really important that the brides come out in a gown that suits their personality. And it just oozes who they are and comes forth. And we’ve had to build a process where, during the fittings we try and do as much as we can in front of the mirror, so that they actually go; “oh I don’t like that” or “I do like that” or “lets do this”. And that’s where we start to see them shape out of that. How do you draw their personality out?

Sally Mussared is the designer and founder Mussared design studio creating handmade silk wedding gowns.

Ashley Karakatsanis beautifully photographs weddings and newborns at Ashely K Wedding Photography.

Recording by the fabulous Miss Bella Hazelton.

Time Stamp

0:32 Engaging a photographer

1:15 Planning for the best photography

3:02 Favourite wedding venue

5:03 The best lighting

5:47 Biggest wedding tip for brides

8:14 How to photograph with flowers

9:48 Why Ashley K Photography

11:16 Romantic love story

[Sally] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Hopelessly Devoted podcast. I’m bridal gown designer Sally Mussared delivering you the inside tips from Melbourne’s top wedding professionals.

Today, we are thrilled to be at Ashley K Photography. She does weddings and newborns. This is Ashley Karakatsanis.

[Ashley] Hi.

Thank you very much for having us.

No worries. Thank you for coming.

Engaging a Photographer

It’s great.  I would love to know, when a bride first contacts you, what’s the process?

Okay. So they generally e-mail me or Facebook me, and I will try and get them into the studio so that I can show them some of my work, and show them some albums and just go over their timeline for the day and where they’re getting married, where, they’re having the ceremony and reception, and just go over the finer details with them, and then I go through packages with them, and then they decide on a package that suits their, their coverage.  My packages are three packages and they basically go from coverage time. Generally, a smaller wedding, they’d go for like a five hour coverage, and then I’ve got an eight hour coverage and a ten hour coverage, but the most popular one would be the ten hour, because everybody needs ten hours on their wedding day.

Planning for the best photography

And if, if someone says, “Well, let’s plan our wedding around our photography,” what would be your dream timeline for the day?

So generally in the morning prior to the ceremony, we spend like a three hour window with the bride and groom, so generally it’s about one hour with the groom, and then an hour and a half with the bride, including travel time in between getting from each other, and then it would be leaving the bride’s house half an hour before she does to go to the ceremony, and she can have a half an hour break in that time because it can become quite hectic for them.

Usually when we arrive, they’re just finishing their makeup, they’re getting into their dress, and then they go straight into the photos so it can become really overwhelming for them, so that half an hour break that I usually give them is very needed just to compose themselves, and then we go to the ceremony. That usually goes for about half an hour. A religious ceremony usually goes for about an hour.

After that, we’ll do a bit of congratulations shots followed by a big group shot. Then we do family photos, I like to spend at least very minimum one hour with them doing their photos.

If they’re going to several locations, like city weddings, it’s more like two hours, and then I always try and give my bride and grooms like a half an hour break before they go back into their reception, because like I said, it can become really overwhelming for them, you know. They’ve just been taking photos all day, and they get tired. They need food, they need drinks, so usually half an hour between photos and receptions starting.

Then we do reception, and I usually stay up to most of the formalities, so first dance, cake cutting, speeches, and the father daughter dance,

Mussared design studio create handmade silk wedding gowns www.mussared.com.au

Fiona Handbury portrait photographer www.thegaragestudio.com.au

Cover photography by Sam Irving Photography https://www.facebook.com/SamIrvingPhotography

Recording by Bella Hazelton

1:06 Favourite venue

1:33 The best time of the day to shoot

2:18 Time frame for the best wedding photos

5:16 Where to hold flowers

6:12 Most important tip

7:15 Uniqueness – feel comfortable

8:16 Fiona’s love story

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Hopelessly Devoted podcast. I’m bridal gown designer Sally Mussared delivering you the inside tips from Melbourne’s top wedding professionals.

Today, we’ve got a very special visit. We are at the Garage Studio in Sunbury visiting Fiona Handbury, who’s an amazing portrait photographer, particularly for weddings and newborns. We’re here today to discover more of what she does.

Yay (laughing).

So welcome.

Thank you.

I would love to know, what’s your standard procedure when you’re approached by a bride particularly? What happens?

So, they’ll normally send us an e-mail or give us a call, and they’ll say, “Are you available on a particular date?” And that’s where I stop the conversation. I go, “What’s your name? What’s your partner’s name? And tell me about how you guys met,” because I want to know more about my clients, not just am I available to photograph their wedding. I think by getting to know them first, I’ll know whether or not they’re going to be my client and if I’m the right photographer for them, so that’s always a good start.

1:06 FAVOURITE VENUE

Yes, absolutely. What’s your favourite venue to shoot at?

Oh.

I’m sure there are lots of memorable ones, but what’s something that’s particularly stuck with you?

I really enjoy Cammeray Waters out at Woodend. Um, I think it’s beautiful. It’s got lots of natural environment, which I really enjoy, and it’s got a slight vintage feel to it. Same with Abbotsford Convent. That’s a stunning place to photograph, as well. I think anything that’s relaxed, country, or vintage is really totally what I’m about.

1:33 THE BEST TIME OF THE DAY TO SHOOT

Fantastic, and what is your dream time of the day to shoot?

Photographers have this saying, “The golden light,” so we love that hour before sunset when a really warm hue comes through from the sun. You get that beautiful back light, the rim light comes around the veil and the hair. It’s just a stunning time of day to shoot, whether it’s dawn, pre-dawn, or sunset. It’s always fabulous. Okay, and so for the whole hour before? For the whole hour before, yep, definitely. You can, you can go just after sunset as well just into twilight. If you’re working off camera flash, it can be really quite dramatic, but it depends on the feel that you’re going for, but you really cannot go past the beautiful hour before sunset. The back light photos, say walking through a field or a lavender field or anything beautiful, rustic, vintage, country, like that, is just stunning.

2:18 TIME FRAME FOR THE BEST PHOTOS

Okay, and so how long is your ideal time between when? How long do you like before the ceremony, after the ceremony?

It really depends, Sally. It really depends on whether they’re getting ready at the venue or if they’re travelling from a home to a venue, so I get really greedy. I like at least an hour and a half with my bride before she goes out for, the ceremony, so if she’s getting onsite, I can cut that down to an hour, but I’d really like at least an hour and a half,

Sally Mussared is the designer and founder Mussared design studio creating handmade silk wedding gowns.

Amber Kennedy officiates wedding ceremonies as Amber the Celebrant.

Stunning cover photography by Sam Irving Photography.

Recording by the fabulous Miss Bella Hazelton

Time stamp

0:37 Amber’s Procedure

2:36 Writing vows

4:02 Celebrants ruling photos

7:02 Most precious moment

8:37 Amber’s uniqueness

10:40 Intimate ceremonies

13:32 Amber’s top wedding tip

15:01 Amber’s love story

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Hopelessly Devoted podcast. I’m bridal gown designer Sally Mussared delivering you the inside tips from Melbourne’s top wedding professionals.

Welcome to Mussared studio, today we’ve got Amber the Celebrant who does weddings particularly across the west side of Melbourne, and anywhere you’d like to have this fabulous person. We’ve got her in the studio today to give you some wedding tips on understanding what a celebrant does and what to look for and what to ask for.

So welcome.

Thank you.

When couples come to you, what is the procedure that you step them through?

Amber’s Procedure

So I always meet with couples before they book me, we sit and have a chat, I think it’s always important to get along with your celebrant, and I say to my couples that the reason for that is that I don’t want to be the only person at your wedding who doesn’t know you. So if I have to stand there and talk confidently about you and your relationship, and why you’re standing there, getting married in front of all those people who love you, I want to know you. So, that might be something I do which is a little bit different.

And how long is that for?

So we usually meet for an hour over coffee or beer or wine or chocolate.

Sounds good.

I find that’s a really good time to get a feeling for each other, and then we don’t usually meet again until about 6-8 weeks out from the wedding. We do the legal paper work that has to be done a month before the wedding but I like to get it done so there’s so dramas time wise. We also sit down and start the planning of the ceremony. I give them lots to take away, resources, but then I also like to sit down with them and have a ceremony planning because my couples write their ceremonies with me, I don’t write their ceremonies for them. It’s what they want to say in their wedding not what I want, or what I think they should say. Often couples then choose to have a rehearsal, not everyone, but some people get a little bit stressed wondering what might happen.

It helps reduce the nerves, they know where they are supposed to be and when.

And we can also sign some initial paperwork at the rehearsal as well. And then the wedding. So that’s the meeting process that we have, and there’s lots of emails, phone calls back and forth in between that process as well.

And so you say you get them to develop their own service. How do you encourage couples to develop their vows?

Writing vows

With vows it’s interesting because a lot of people don’t want to speak in public and a lot of people don’t want to gush their love story in front of all those people, so I give them an ideas booklet that they can read through and steal stuff from, and I also say, watch lots of romantic comedies, there’s real Hollywood writers that write that stuff. Or if you’ve got a favourite song, or there’s often a song or a poem or a passage in a book that you’ll read and think; “Oh that’s exactly how I feel about that person!” and there is no reason that you shouldn’t reword it or use it. And I had a bride read that song from Pink “I hate everything you do sometimes and want to smack you in ...