Share this
Inspired by minimalism and architectural design, the wedding of Jimmy & Tenille was celebrated in a vast industrial space in Perth. Magnetic plumages of pampas grass transformed the venue, offering a softness to the palette of raw textures and dark tints.
Tendrils of ostrich feathers added opulence to the classic strapless gown, a juxtaposition of textures and intricate embellishments decorating a feminine silhouette.
Beautifully chronicled by Varga Murphy…
Our Story
Names / Tenille & Teakle
Wedding Date / April 2, 2016
Guest Numbers / 190
How we met…
James and Tenille may have been an item for seven years now, but their history pre-dates that by almost as long again. Over all those years they had rubbed shoulders in the same group of friends, James kept his secret crush just that while they indulged in nothing more than a little light flirting at best. After only six years of this, there was a breakthrough and they sat next to each on the bus en route to the MGMT concert, both having been last on (and I’m told this will come as no surprise to most of you here). Luckily for them, Belvoir was an hour drive away, and they revelled in more conversation in that hour than they had in all the years of simply exchanging smouldering looks. It was like they had met each other for the first time. Finally.
Finally Tenille saw a glimpse of the creative and entrepreneurial Jimmy, not the footy jock and all round larrikin she had previously pigeonholed him as. The wheels were in motion. He was finally on her radar, not just the other way around. Interestingly, the tipping point happened in James’ absence, thanks in large part to the magic of Vodka and a night out with her girls. Tee mentioned the unusual amount of texts she had been receiving from the man known universally as ‘Teaks’, sparking the group’s immediate attention. Much to her surprise, the girls insisted she take the handbrake off. Come the wee small hours of the morning, Claire and Tee were on the streets of Fremantle, the last two standing, Tee having clearly become what you might call excessively hydrated.
James received a couple of texts from Tenille that appeared to be in Martian, causing him to phone her out of concern. Claire answered, suggesting that he should ‘come to Freo to take his girlfriend home.’ Rather than arguing semantics or mentioning that it was by then 4am, he did just that, gaining a metaphorical suit of shining armour in the process. Once safely rescued, Tenille fell into a full and deep sleep, leaving in her wake a small pair of shoes at the door, like a kind of Cinderella meets Sleeping Beauty. When James’ parents came to visit the next day, the presence of footwear so clearly not his own or Heidi’s, caused some undeserved elevation of the eyebrows. Once she awoke and recovered, Tenille and James spent the entire summer day together at the beach, chatting, and becoming much more than friends. It was at the beach, a glance over at Tee, and the sparkle in her eye, James whispered to Tee “I think I’m going to fall in love with you”. By days end, it was official, James was completely smitten with this passionate, creative and tenacious woman, in turn making her realise that maybe she had been a little too tenacious in playing hard to get for quite so long. She could now see in James a man who was driven, with a love of adventure, exploration and games, but also connected to the Earth, not just seeking out good times, but a man to wring out of life every experience it has to offer. They have been inseparable from that day on.
Our Engagement Story…
Jimmy, being a filmmaker and a bit of a trickster, combined his two talents and surprised me with a beautiful proposal in his hometown of Geraldton, regional WA. We woke up in his childhood bed and decided to watch music videos from our favourite band, the XX, who we were going to see in New York only a week later. I was still a little blurry eyed but happy as anything snuggling in Jimmy’s arms while he got the video playing. Angels was the song we were watching, a beautiful black and white video of a craftsman making something which appeared to be a ring. As the music video played out, I still hadn’t clicked that it might be my own ring, even after seeing the black diamond which I had always wanted. It was right at the end when XX came up on the screen then morphed into TT (my future marriage initials) that it dawned on me that it was not a music video for The XX – it was my engagement ring being made, and Jimmy was lying next to me holding the finished product, beaming from ear to ear. Needless to say, I burst into tears and said yes.
Marriage to us means…
Marriage to us is the legal recognition and public celebration of love between two souls.
The Details
Location
Pakenham St Art Space, Fremantle
Neither James or I are religious, we’re actually quite atheist, so our location and the format for the day weren’t governed by any religious traditions. We based all our decisions on things that we loved and reflected us. Our ceremony and reception were held at the same venue – PSAS (Pakenham St Art Space) in Fremantle (the beautiful old heritage end). At our age group, weddings are kings of our social life, and with so many “location” weddings down south, overseas and split across two venues, our first priority was to make the day simple and easy for all our guests. With a lot of Jimmy’s family travelling from 4-5 hours to Perth already, it wasn’t fair to ask them to travel 8 hours to Margaret River for a winery wedding. PSAS is a breathtaking venue – an industrial warehouse style venue with beautifully well-resolved heritage detailing. The space has concrete floors, expansive volume with high ceilings, original timber beams and an interesting column grid, all framed by the painted exposed brick wall at the front. There is a café tenant and PSAS let us use the bar to serve alcohol, while a temporary kitchen was set up at the second roller door entry for staff bump in and food service – this was concealed by a suspended curtain and our wedding branding.
Style
We absolutely fell in love with the venue at our first visit, and knew instantly we would let this define the aesthetic for a warehouse-style wedding. The polished concrete floors and heritage timber beams and columns with exposed brick walls provided an incredible canvas to build on. Our personal style is very minimal and contemporary architectural but we always loved the idea of a green wedding – lots of foliage for softness and underlying tones of wellness and a connection to nature. The inspiration for the styling, strongly defined by plumes of pampas grass, was my dress – a masterpiece of ostrich feathers. Pampas grass was the most visually similar floral (despite it being an innoxious weed) to feathers. Feathers have an ethereal dream like-ness about them, and we love to dream big – so this had a nice personal connection for us. The entire wedding was branded with the XX. Ascot Signs made supersize discs that were suspended from the heritage beams which displayed our love heart fingerprint, XX, hashtag and names. The same branding and graphics were used on our invitations and website.
Photography
Varga Murphy were our photographer and videographer. We loved how at ease Lajos and Ryan made us. Their non-obtrusive, fly on the wall style would put any nervous bride or groom at ease. Jimmy is a videographer himself so getting a video capture of the day was really important to us to have a snapshot of our moment in time.
