Simon + Marah

“Jam brought a calming presence to the wedding lead up and most importantly on the actual day. Her style suited ours to a tee which added to our very personal and relaxed wedding vibe. Lots of our guests were asking who Jam was as she is a very contemporary and impressive celebrant. Recommend this wonderful human highly!”

Simon and Marah sure know how to play host to a rockin’ good ol’ time and their wedding day delivered all the epicness that you’d expect from them and more!

I was introduced to the fabulous Marah through hot new multi-functional venue space in the West The Line. We were both stallholders at their monthly ‘Footscray Finds’ market, where Marah had set up her Houlahoops stall, selling bold and colourful handmade resin earrings. I fell in love immediately with Marah’s vivacious energy and her grand vision for her and Simon’s wedding day spectacular.

In order to pull off Simon and Marah’s epic wedding celebrations they had enlisted a dream-team of the Best in the West wedding vendors. Seriously it was such an honour to be amongst this stella line up of wedding industry magic makers! They had the cool kids at Good Day Club taking care of the venue staging and ceremony styling, complete with colourful streamer installations from Banging Hangins and lush green foliage provided by Green Empire St. Simon and Marah’s wedding ceremony took place within the picturesque amphitheatre of Footscray Community Arts Centre, one of my ALL TIME favourite ceremony spots, and their reception afterparty was held conveniently across the road at the aforementioned multi-functional venue space The Line.

The week of Simon and Marah’s wedding was looking a bit dark and stormy, but thankfully on the day of their ceremony the skies held off and it was perfectly calm. Their guests were greeted with drinks upon arrival to help with making themselves at home and settle into a spot within the amphitheatre. The ceremony kicked off with Marah emerging gloriously through the Bangin Hangin installation at the bottom of the amphitheatre to the thumping tune of Africa by Toto. Simon and Marah declared their everlasting love to each other in front of their nearest and dearest, they then sealed their vows with a kiss accompanied by explosions from eco bio-degradable confetti cannons showering them in glittering love. The ceremony concluded with Simon and Marah being presented for the very first time as husband and wife followed immediately by the amazing Mr Mariachi man Alejandro’s surprise appearance at the top of the amphitheater to serenade our newlyweds and their guests as they made their way across to ‘The Line’ with maracas in hand for the massive reception afterparty.

I could only imagine the wild times had by all at Simon and Marah’s post ceremony celebrations where they had enlisted super rockers Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever along with other bands and DJs to perform live sets at their wedding party extravaganza. Thanks to their eagle eyed photographer Jackson Grant, for capturing all the good vibes from the day and offering a tiny glimpse into the most epic love party of all parties!

Marriage Celebrant: Celebrant Jam
Photographer: Jackson Grant
Styling: Good Day Club
Ceremony: Footscray Community Arts Centre
Reception: The Line
Florist: Miss Kiera Picked a Posy
Installations: Bangin Hangins
Foliage: Green Empire St.
Band: Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

Fritha + James

Fritha and James are simply the most deliciously unique pairing. They met when Fritha worked at a cafe in Malvern and would deliver James his morning coffee with an extra serve of flirtatious banter. Their banter lead them to connect over their penchant for old school horror films, which naturally progressed into hanging out over some mass TV series viewing sessions. This was wayyy before Netflix and Chill was a thang, so it was all very cute and innocent. Their first official date saw Fritha rock out in her best double denim ensemble, which worked a charm as James was left mesmerised and hooked!

On the morning of their wedding day James surprised Fritha with a pair of matching custom Air Max 1 Nikes complete with their initials on the heels to finish off her outfit. Now that is the most adorable thing ever! It meant that they had a ton of fun werking their first-look shoot looking cute AF whilst staying super comfy all day and night. James you are an absolute GENIUS!!!

James and Fritha’s ceremony was held within the evergreen and lux Glasshaus Inside. Unfortunately they couldn’t bring along their cheeky Shiba Inu pup Bane to their wedding celebration. Instead they found a hilarious way to pay homage to him by drawing the names of their 2 official witnesses out from a adorable Shiba Inu pillow case. Their little furbaby was there in spirit.

Fritha and James really knows how to put their own unique twist on things and it’s the little twists that really shines through on the day.

Marriage Celebrant: Celebrant Jam
Photographer: Sean and Danni
Venue: Glasshaus Inside

Sarah + Cam

“Jam you were honestly amazing and an absolute warrior to do our wedding just having had a beautiful little bubba!! You made the whole experience feel like we had a friend marrying us and we felt so comfortable and at ease the entire time.”

At the start of the year I had the honour of marrying Sarah and Cam’s best buds Ricki and Sam, so it felt like catching up with good mates getting to marry these two fun loving legends. When I agreed to performing the ceremony for Sarah and Cam I had disclosed that I was due to give birth 2 weeks before their wedding date, I vowed that I will be at their ceremony even if I had to arrive in a wheelchair! Thankfully everything went according to plan, I was ready and excited to get back into the swing of ceremonies starting off with getting these two legends hitched.

Sarah and Cam have gathered their nearest and dearest to finally see them seal the deal and enjoy the ultimate celebration together in style. Growing up Cam and Sarah would attend the same parties, but didn’t officially meet until years later when they both went along to a house party and decided to sit down next to each other on a cozy little pool lounge. They quickly realised that they make a pretty sweet team, a year on they’d bought their first place together and a couple of years after that they had welcomed their daughter Maggie Moo into their lives. They really don’t muck around!

On the day of their wedding they had their beautiful ceremony set within the lushness of Glasshaus Outside. The ceremony began with Sarah and Cam’s adorable daughter Maggie walking in hand in hand with Ricki and Sam’s daughter Billie to the tune of ‘Fade into you’ by Mazzy Star, they were followed by the lovely bridesquad. The crowd cheered when Sarah finally made her grand entrance accompanied by her stepdad Alex. After the ceremony the good times kicked on over at the newly renovated Espy hotel where the delicious food and dranks kept everyone in the best spirits.

I look forward to hopefully catching up with Sarah and Cam as well as Ricki and Sam at some future weddings.

Marriage Celebrant: Celebrant Jam
Photographer: Now and Forever Photography
Venue: Glasshaus Outside

Jenn + James

“We feel so lucky to have had Jam as our celebrant. Jam's incredible enthusiasm, positive, and fun energy make her a unique find in the industry. She was incredibly professional and proactive throughout the whole process. She went out of her way to help us create a unique flow for our ceremony, gave us fresh new ideas and connected us with like minded suppliers. Her down to earth and friendly nature made us feel like we had an old friend officiating our marriage. We can't thank Jam enough for delivering our perfect ceremony, it was more than anything we ever expected.”

Jenn and James have great taste and worked towards bringing together some of the things they love and sharing it with their nearest and dearests for their big day.

They had wanted to create a modern wedding at the same time they wanted to honour Jenn’s Chinese heritage. And so they found the perfect venue to have it all at this charmingly delicious little Italian restaurant that they loved in Carlton called Mr Pietro. Jenn’s dear friend Emily from Melt Styling happens to be an amazing wedding planner/stylist and she did an incredible job on the day transforming the upstairs space to host a traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony in the early afternoon. Our couple were then whisked away to have a costume change in time to re-emerge for the main event downstairs. It so happens that I had worked with Emily many years ago, so thanks to her I was brought onboard to help realise the legal marriage ceremony component of the day.

The ceremony space downstairs was stunningly decked out by independent Melbourne florist Hattie Malloy, I have been a fan of her work and was blown away by the arrangements on the day. The bright colour palette and magnificent foliage used against the crisp white walls made the space simply pop!

Jenn and James had wanted to include their family in the ceremony and so they asked them to start the ceremony by walking in down the aisle in pairs to the Beatle song “Like a Rolling Stone” with the whole room cheering them on. Jenn and James then walked in together hand in hand wowing the room with their unique sense of bashful elegance!

The ceremony had wonderful moments of joyful laughs and happy tears perfectly captured by the talented photographer Kyra Boyer and team. At one point Jenn and James’ siblings came up to deliver a reading with Jenn’s brother Jason flooring the room with his line ‘Who’s cutting all them onions in the kitchen?’

It was simply one of the most thoughtfully considered ceremonies and I was honoured to be working alongside some greats in the industry, so much so that it was featured on one of the top wedding blogs Nouba Weddings and you can read all about it over here.

And what a wedding to finish on, it was the last wedding I had the pleasure of performing whilst being pregnant!

Marriage Celebrant: Celebrant Jam
Photographer: Kyra Boyer
Styling: Melt Styling
Venue: Mr Pietro
Florist: Hattie Malloy
Make Up: Karen Burton
Hair: Bec Shannon
Dress: Kara Baker
Suit: Oscar Hunt

Adrian + Sarah

“Could not have been happier with the ceremony and working with Celebrant Jam. Her vibe was exactly what we wanted and it was so nice to have such a relaxed person and good soul to marry us. Had multiple people after the wedding comment how great she was. Big love and many thanks.”

The adorable Adrian and Sarah are your ultimate Fitzroyalty, living the life in the inner city with their beloved kitty Philly. They have come a long way since their days working together selling CDs at Sanity Records. They wanted to do something a little different for their ceremony and chose Heide Museum Museum of Modern Art for their wedding venue with the impressive structure ‘Crescent House’ by Andrew Burns to host their ceremony.

Sarah found me online and Edo was tasked to meet with me to chat about the ceremony whilst Sarah left on a much deserved holiday. At our initial meeting Edo and I have discovered that we know some of the same people in the Melbourne music scene, now that’s some sweet Melbourne magic right there!

Sarah looked stunning on the day accompanied by gorgeous floral arrangements from Flos Botanicals. The delicious reception took place within the Heide Cafe topped off at the end of the night with a scrumptious cake baked by their friend artist and maker Gemma Patford.

Marriage Celebrant: Celebrant Jam
Photographer: Sean McDonald Photography
Venue: Heide Museum of Modern Art
Florist: Flos Botanical
Cake: Gemma Patford