Jess + Matt

“Thank you for making our day everything we hoped it would be. You were the perfect balance of relaxed, serious, funny and just plain awesome!!! Thank you for making us feel so comfortable and looked after throughout this whole experience. We will forever be grateful to you for starting off our life as a married couple on such an epic high!!”

These two absolutely stunning babes share an epic love saga!

Jess and Matt’s story opens down at their local Chisholm Pizza shop, where our young teenage Jess scored her first part time job. Matt and Jess met and flirted through Jess’ first shift, bonding over their common love for the TV show ‘Scrubs’. Matt eventually got Jess’ number from the roster sheet, they met up at the local park and decided to ‘date’ that night. Their teenage romance, consisting of make out sessions in the storeroom and behind the pizza shop, fizzled out eventually.

It was 10 years later where both Jess and Matt moved to Melbourne, when Jess woke up one day with the sudden urge to call a number that she had memorised. Lo and behold Matt picks up the phone on the other end and the two thought this would be a good opportunity for them to catch up. They decided to hang out and reminisce by watching some good old ‘Scrubs’ together. Next minute they found themselves transported right back to them teenage days and overcome with those strong feelings of attraction for each other, which naturally lead them to share one hell of a kiss!

The second time round they really took their time to get to know each other and it was months before they decided that they were officially ‘dating’ again and a few more months before Matt was introduced to Jess’ lovely daughter Abby for a play date at the zoo. Needless to say everyone got along famously!

For Jess and Matt’s big day they had gathered all their family and friends for a day at the enchanting Chateau Wyuna. Their ceremony was so vibrant and full of heart. At one point Matt knelt down to address Jess’ daughter Abby to thank her for sharing Jess with him and to vow to take care of them all going forward, he presented her with a necklace for the occasion and we all felt the love.

Marriage Celebrant: Celebrant Jam
Photographer: Silvertail Photography
Ceremony: Chateau Wyuna
Flowers: Vidda Flowers

Mia + Ross

These two absolutely adorable sweethearts are just bursting with love for each other. Their wedding day was simply a chance for them to invite their nearest and dearest to join them in celebration of their epic love.

I fell in love with Mia and Ross from our first meeting and knew straight away that they were my people!
Over drinks down at my local pub they excitedly shared their story of meeting at a call centre where they were working together at the time and how they’d each be hoping that the other would be working the same shift. They both had huge crushes on each other and just couldn’t get enough of each other! And when they finally started dating they became even more obsessed with each other because when they’re together, life is a blast no matter where they are.

They had dreamt of getting married so they could look forward to a sweet life together, and Mia had always wanted to be the one to propose to Ross. So when Ross took a trip overseas, Mia thought to seize that moment and get things happening. They had planned a romantic “Weekend-In” upon Ross’ return. And as Mia took the train into the city in preparation for their weekend she casually popped in to see my old mate Chris at one of Melbourne’s hidden treasure’s Corky St Clair down at their old Flinders Street underground boutique. It was there that she found the perfect engagement ring for Ross. Mia was bursting with excitement for the rest of the day and could barely finish her first glass of wine that night before she asked Ross to come into the bedroom and close his eyes so that she could present him with his engagement ring and ask him to marry her!

Their wedding day held at the Abbotsford Convent was simply glorious. Both Mia and Ross looked like royalty proudly walking into the ceremony together arm in arm. Their wedding ceremony was full of laugh and light, captured beautifully by another one of my good mates, photographer Ryan Wheatley. And as Ross and Mia went to exchange rings during their ceremony, they had a special guest appearance of their adored ginger kitty cat Fuji, with his photo adorning the inside lid of the ring box.

Marriage Celebrant: Celebrant Jam
Venue: Abbotsford Convent
Photography: Ryan Wheatley
Florist: North St Botanical
Rings: Corky St Clair

Haydn + Niama

“We can’t recommend Jam highly enough. Choosing Jam as our celebrant was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding because not only was she an absolutely incredible celebrant, she met with us numerous times in the months leading up to the wedding and offered all sorts of great advice and insights that ended up being extremely useful. Her dedication to our wedding day vision paired with her patient, uber chilled out vibes made her an absolute pleasure to work with. We felt so confident in her and had such a magical experience with her on the day. We’ve been to a lot of weddings and often the celebrant can be a little stale or formal, so it was so refreshing working with Jam who is fun, energetic and vibrant, while still maintaining a professional demeanour. All-in-all, she’s the ultimate celebrant. Knowledgeable, gentle-hearted, confident, organised, adaptable and really, really friendly. Again, we just can’t recommend her highly enough.”

Haydn and Niama are two fiercely passionate individuals who came together to form one of those
“SUPER-couples” that everyone adores and gravitates to. They also know a thing or two about how to have a good time so their wedding day celebrations were sure to be spectacular!

And for me, being a part of these two lovers’ big day was a real full circle moment. For I had the absolute honour in starting my life as a celebrant through helping Haydn’s big bother Ryan marry my best friend Fatuma 3 years prior. It’s pretty special to keep it in the family and to see some familiar friendly faces coming together again in celebration of life and love.

The temperamental November Melbourne weather added an extra element of drama to Niama and Haydn’s outdoor ceremony held by the weeping ‘Kissing Trees’ down at Coburg Lake. Our lush green ceremony spot was beautifully framed by wildly romantic floral towers, arranged by florist Katie Burgham. “I Only Have Eyes for You” by The Flamingos, marked the beginning of the ceremony with our ‘Love Squad’ of 20, each holding a single red rose and dressed impeccably in black, making their way down to us and forming a semi circle behind me. We were then greeted by our stunningly radiant wedding couple dressed in their signature bold red ensembles, walking together hand-in-hand to stand proudly in front of all gathered.

At one point in our ceremony we performed an incredibly moving handfasting ritual. Niama had witnessed her sister Jas perform a version of this when she married her wife Kate many years ago and had recalled just how special it was to see them declare and set their intentions for their married life ahead. And so for Niama and Haydn we had adapted 6 declarations for them to perform along with the blessing from 6 dear friends who came forth to present individual cords to be bound together over their intertwined hands. The knot made with the 6 cords is symbolic of the coming together of Haydn and Niama’s lives and the promises they have made to each other on the day.

Right after Haydn and Niama sealed their wedding vows with a kiss the skies above opened up and we were greeted by the rain. We quickly sign the official wedding paperwork under the cover of umbrellas, with their mums as their witnesses, and then I was able to proudly present our newlyweds to the happy crowd.

The wedding party then made their way to the second destination, the Vizzini Social Club just up Sydney Road, where our newlyweds was able to light up the dance floor with their sweet moves. It was there that the celebrations continued well into the night and I was told that they had planned a special Hungarian Candle Dance called 'Gyertyafény keringő' to be performed at midnight. It is a Hungarian wedding tradition for the newlywed’s closest family and friends to gather and welcome the newlyweds into their first official day of their married life as New Woman and New Man.

Marriage Celebrant: Celebrant Jam
Photography: Simon Aubor
Florist: Katie Burgham
Reception: Vizzini Social Club

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