Chic Opulence in Perth

Tenille & James by Varga Murphy

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.

Fashion Notes

Bride’s Dress

I always wanted to do something different and not traditional, thinking originally that I would buy something from Net-a-Porter or a similar online boutique. I actually lay-by’d a fitted floor-length white gown from Scanlan & Theodore before falling in love with the idea of feathers. Aurelio Costarella is the king of feathers and so I approached him to create my feather masterpiece. The dress is a fitted strapless piece with hidden hooks that the feather bustier clips on to. Jimmy had said to me that he wanted me to wear something that showed off my figure so I knew I would get something fitted. The feather piece is by Aurelio Costerella, dress under by anomomous.

By coincidence, at the very same time, one of my best friends and bridesmaid introduced me to the owner of Taroni, the silk company based in Como since 1880, who supplied me with the finest satin silk.

Step by step, imagining which shape would fit me best, we designed the perfect dress for me. I wanted to look romantic, timeless yet fashionable, concentrating more on volumes and shapes rather than on small details.

Bride’s Dress

Ceremony shoes: Mode Collective, Reception Shoes: Mode Collective from The Hunter Store. I wore two shoes over the course of the day because the first were simply unbearable to keep on. I had my feet in ice buckets in our black limo van on the way back to reception. Getting comfortable shoes (imagine if I didn’t have a backup) has the potential to derrail your day: pick carefully ladies. I absolutely loved the look of both pairs so in hindsight am so happy I got to wear both. About 2 years before the wedding I had purchased a pair of Anne Demeulemeester shoes – they are divine, but unfortunately didn’t suit the style of the dress I chose. My advice – pick the dress first.

Bridesmaids’ Dresses

My sisters and best friends are some of the most stunning ladies in Australia! I had an easy job but a variety of heights and bust sizes to find something perfect for. I wanted my girls to be involved in selecting the dresses (that’s half the fun right?), but did want them all in the same outfit. We looked (pretty casually) online from about November to February (thanks to our endless chatter in our whatsapp group) and finally found the ASOS dresses the girls wore – $120 each. The dresses complemented each of the girls beautifully. I was set on white and wanted off the shoulder as my dress was a bustier and showed off my collar bones and shoulders so we had a synergy between our outfits.

Bridesmaids’ Shoes

Bridesmaid shoes were all Mode Collective. I ordered 6x pairs of bridesmaids shoes and the shoes I wore down the aisle on the Monday night before our Saturday wedding – I have no idea how they arrived in time, but thank you universe for allowing everything to fall in to place. They were the perfect combination of height and comfort (it’s a long day and comfort is paramount). We actually ordered shoes online in January but from an unknown website and ended up the victims of a fake website and fraudulent sale! Luckily all worked out well in the end – it was funny when the most hideous of shoes (all different types) started arriving in the post.

Wedding Rings

Both rings were made by Scott Broadley of Broadleys Fine Jewellery, who also crafted the engagement ring that Jimmy designed with Scott. Both rings are 18ct white gold, handcrafted with black diamonds. The brides wedding band is the perfect complement to the engagement band, a fine and delicate piece with 8 claw set black diamonds and features a brushed finish on the outer edge and polished front and back. The groom’s ring features a single gypsy set black diamond and is finished in a rustic black rhodium patina. The engagement ring design inspiration was the Frank Gehry Torque Ring from Tiffany’s. Frank Gehry is a prolific architect and I (Tenille) just love the form and beauty of his pieces. I also love black diamonds, they are unique and have a dark beauty that draws you in. The engagement ring is wider on one side with a hero black diamond framed by 11 smaller white diamonds. Our design motto is the divine in the detail and that is certainly true for our stunning jewelry pieces.

Accessories

Serge bangle from Morrison as a cuff on my forearm. The groom’s shirt had gunmetal studs on the collar to complement the understated slick look, and also wore a leather ring made by Jesse Molloy (best man) for the bucks party with a burnt ‘V’ – which stands for Viper, Jimmy’s self-appointed nickname. The bridesmaid’s and groomsmen all chose and wore their own jewelry.

Groom’s Attire

Jimmy wore an all black relaxed yet New York swagger style outfit. Black on black with brown leather shoes. Grooms outfit as below: Shoes – HypeDC. Dark brown leather high ankle boots with laces. Shirt – Hugo Boss Black Shirt, slim fit with concealed buttons, worn untucked. Blazer – Tiger of Sweden. We wanted Jimmy’s outfit to leave the same impression as my dress but in a more understated way. The rock star sparkle was just the edge we were looking for. Jeans – Zara waxed denim black jeans.

Groomsmen’s Attire

Groomsmen wore untucked Asos slim fit black collared shirts with concealed buttons worn untucked, Zara Black Waxed Denim Jeans, no belts, HypeDC boots.

Hair

A low pony tail with large volume and some cheeky not so natural help with the length. My hair was up to allow the feather piece to be in full view, plus that style is more in keeping with my usual day-to-day style.

Makeup

Natural and earthy, I wanted warmer orange tones to complement the blush dress and allow my blue eyes to stand out. Nude lips gave the makeup a contemporary edge. Brows were an important feature to give definition to my eyes and a bold look.

Cakes & Catering

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Style Notes

Stationery

We are renowned as being late and last minute organisers to all of our friends and family. We only found the wedding venue 12 weeks before the wedding date we chose, so our guests did not receive a lot of notice – but that’s our style so we were happy. Save the dates were sent as either texts, verbals or facebook messages. Our wedding invites were the first impression and embodiment of our wedding and personal style. In keeping with making our wedding an easy experience, the invites were designed to be business card size so they could live in wallets for ease of reference. The cards are black 350gsm with debossed foil prints for the text and logos. Intafoil printed the cards. The black envelopes were sealed with wax stamps with a custom brass press crafted by my dad with an old tool from my grandad’s shed. The whole solution was handcrafted and boutique.

Favors

We initially looked at custom magnets with a large X cutout while planning the wedding but getting these made while Chinese New Year was on proved too challenging in our timeframe so we chose to invite more guests than give bonbonnieres. Some of the succulent bowls we curated were given to our closest friends and family.

Flowers & Bouquet

Our floristry was dominated by hand-picked pampas plumes (picked by the bride’s parents). Supporting these were a mix of hand-picked grey saltbush, Eucalyptus Crenulata Medium, Joey Fern, white Carnations, white Delphiniums and white statice. The installation above the alter stage, the stage framing at ground level, all bouquets and the entry statement pieces were crafted by Lauren Black, From The Garden. Tiffany Keal from Tiffany Keal Creative Studio was responsible for the large. My mum and our bridesmaids placed and styled the pampas grass down the aisle. My mum worked tirelessly with Lauren to style the pampas that framed the stage.

Wedding Planner

Jimmy and I immerse every part of our lives in design. Our wedding was our latest design project. The vision was our entirely – and we surrounded ourselves by the right people who could realise our vision and work closely with us. We did most of the styling ourselves, but special thanks must firstly go to Tenille’s mum and dad (they worked tirelessly to hand pick florals and set up on the Friday before the wedding), and special thanks to Lauren and Tiffany who styled the flowers with precision and talent.

Videography

Ryan and Jimmy can write something for this. Being that videography is Jimmy’s craft, we wanted to have several video installations throughout the day. We planned a surprise stunt for our re-entry back to the reception with a staged lights down moment, brought back to life by the commencement of a video made to The XX Intro with a chronological photo story of our lives. Our wedding dance was supported by the original film clip by the temptations.

Reception Notes

Cake

Our mums made delicious homemade desserts for the wedding.

Wedding Song

Walk down the Aisle Song – Islands by The XX. Signing Song – Acoustic set by George Green with opening song: skinny love by Bon iVer and an MGMT song in honour of the festival our love first sparked at. Aisle Song after we were married: SIA Clap your hands. While we were frolicking around Fremantle getting photos George Green (known as jorge_verde on Instagram). Wedding Dance – My Girl by The Temptations. DJ – DJ Aslan who also looked after the ceremony music and AV installation. My dad surprised me by singing a song during his speech – it was truly moving.

Entertainment

We asked Ash to play a mix of music to suit all generations with a Motown overlay

Special Details

Celebrant

Our celebrant was Wendy Wardell. We received endless compliments about her. Her energy was fantastic, she spoke extremely well and brought humour and warmth to the ceremony.

Source of Inspiration

We are lucky enough to have had mostly friends assist with our wedding plans. Inspiration was mostly from visioning with Jimmy and Pinterest.

A memorable moment…

During the ceremony, I remember looking around and catching eyes with my granddad – some of his advice helped me write my vows. I’ll never forget that moment.

One thing I wish I knew before I started my wedding plans…

Communication is king and it’s ok to ask for help.

If I could give Brides-To-Be one piece of advice…

If you decide to do DIY, I can’t recommend highly enough hiring someone on the day to be the point of contact for all your contractors / stylists / final touches etc. There are certain things which can only happen on the day, and you don’t want to be managing a mobile phone full time remotely for these. For only a few extra couple of hundred dollars, let yourself enjoy the day with the trust that someone is making sure the final touches are as perfect as you would have.