Madi + Leo

“We loved having Jam be a part of our special day. Choosing a celebrant is such a strange thing because ideally you'd have someone who knows you well, understands your energy and can create an engaging ceremony - but we didn't know anyone who could do that for us whilst also making our marriage legally official! We could tell from the way Jam spoke about her couples on social media that she would be a great fit and meeting her in person confirmed this! She truly filled our entire process with love and excitement and the ceremony felt uniquely like us! She took the time to understand our story, supported our vow writing and created the most beautiful, fun-filled ceremony we could ever have hoped for. Our family were raving about what an engaging celebrant she was! Thank you so much, Jam! Madi and Leo”

It’s impossible not to fall for Madi and Leo!!! Just take a look through the set of timeless polaroid captures taken by the husband wife duo Kat and Cristian from Redbooks.

Let and Madi met forever ago rocking out on the stage at Footscray City College as part of their muscial production of Little Shop of Horrors, and Leo was the cool guy hosting the post production after party. Madi admits that a part of her fell in love with Leo straight away and would often find herself back at Leo’s house with her friends just to hang out and listen to Leo’s band play.

Even though Madi was in a different year to Leo, she stood out to him as one of them cool kids, decked out in her signature dyed hair and Doc Martens. As Leo got to know Madi he was impressed by her taste in cool angsty music and even cooler angstier taste in books. However he could also see past Madi’s angsty teenage facade to appreciate her sweet and tender side that’s always inclusive of others.

It took them to be cast in yet another high school musical the following year before they became close friends and eventual lovers.

They have since grown up, travelled the world, survived a pandemic and made a beautiful life together. So last year Leo leveled up their relationship when he proposed to Madi on an impromptu getaway to Healsville.

For their magnificent ceremony at The Hall at Welcome to Brunswick, Madi and Leo got hitched between lush towers of flowers and moss installed by my fav flos babe Kayla and her crew at Xflos. Madi and Leo also had the most stunning wedding squad, 5 deep on each side, dressed in hues of auburn, red and pink to perfectly compliment Leo in his custom Reigner suit. I love how Madi handmade the heart-shaped bolo for her beloved Leo to wear on their wedding day.

Leo and Madi imagined and realised a most heartfelt celebration of their life and love, shared with their family and friends.

Celebrant: Celebrant Jam
Venue: The Hall at Welcome to Brunswick
Photography: Redbook Studios
Flos: XFlos
Wedding Dress: Karen Willis Holmes
Wedding Suit: Reigner Clothing
Bride’s Ring: Millie Savage
Groom’s Ring: David Neale Jewellery
MUA: Tonic
Tunes: DJ You Need
Cake: Good Good Cakes

Kerrie + Paul

As fate would have it my husband Malachi’s grandfather Denzil Humphries was a respected Aboriginal Christian Pastor in Western Australia and a founding member of the AEF (Aboriginal Evangelical Fellowship of Australia). During his time serving as Pastor in his community he helped to marry the various members of his community and extended family.

Denzil’s legacy of holding space and celebrating people’s lives has been passed onto me when I was approached by Malachi’s aunty Kerrie to be the celebrant at her wedding. Kerrie’s fiance Paul remembers fondly to meeting me and my fam in Underbool around Christmas/New Years a few years ago, just as he was getting to know Kerrie’s family. Knowing that Denzil had officiated Kerrie’s first wedding, I was honoured to have been asked to help aunty Kerrie celebrate her love and life with her darling Paul.

For this Adelaide based ceremony our little family went on a interstate roadtrip advetnture. It was a joy to be united with the extended country Vic fam, nothing like a wedding to see the family get together. Our daughter Akira was invited to be a part of the flowerbabes squad along with Paul’s darling neices.

Kerrie and Paul’s wedding ceremony took place at Mitchell Park on Kaurna land of the Adelaide Plains. Mitchell Park is Kerrie’s home away from home as she’s there most days motivating people to do their best as their personal trainer. And Mitchell Park is where Paul and Kerrie first met when he signed up to be one of Kerrie’s clients.

At the time of their first meeting Paul was hitting 140kgs and was looking to make some changes in his life. His life was about to get a major shake up the day he rocked up to a trial session with Kerrie wearing his Essendon bombers polo top. Paul immediately scored brownie points with Kerrie for his love of the Bombers and by the end of the session he could hardly walk and was declared the class favourite. Kerrie had literally swept Paul off of his feet!

Paul was instantly hooked on Kerrie and her classic fridge magnet inspo quotes. Classics such as ‘abs are made in the kitchen’ and ‘you can’t outrun a bad diet’ would haunt him so much that he couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep and was instead attending 14 classes with Kerrie a week! Paul was able to drop an impressive 20kgs in 3 months.

It wasn’t long until Paul and Kerrie became best friends spending most days having a laugh and working out together, as well as being there and supporting each other in life. Kerrie eventually realised that she loved Paul when his hugs felt like home.

For their proposal Paul did the proper and rode his motorbike all the way from Adelaide to Underbool to ask Kerrie’s darling folks Alan and Joan for their blessings. And when Kerrie and Paul took a trip to Sydney for the Vivid Fest, Paul nervously carried the ring around the whole trip looking for the right place. The right place presented itself at the top of the lighthouse on the South Head of the Sydney harbour.

For their wedding day Paul and Kerrie had their beloved furbabies Boston and Luna in attendance. Kerrie walked in after a frolick of flowerbabes, accompanied by her beautiful daughter Alana and parents Alan and Joan. Their ceremony was a testiment to their relationship and their belief that happiness is worth seeking and cermenting officially in marriage.

Kerrie and Paul hosted part 2 to their wedding day over at Watkins Wine. Our newlywed husband and wife lovers re-entered the space to officially cut their wedding cake. Kerrie’s darling dad Alan then gave a heart warming speech to our newlyweds before they took to the dancefloor with their first dance. The dancefloor was on fire that night with the young and old getting into the action.

Cheers to Kerrie and Paul for inviting me and our little fam to be a part of their love story.

Wishing them both a lifetime of laughter together and watching the Bombers kicking goals!

Celebrant: Celebrant Jam
Photographer: Bianca Joanna Photography
Florist: Living Bunch
Reception: Watkins Wine

Tanya + Kim

“Jam was super easygoing and professional to deal with. We initially didn’t have much of an idea of what we wanted for our ceremony but she very helpfully guided us through everything and gave us lots of helpful tips. The actual ceremony was better than we could have imagined. Jam wrote up our story in such a beautiful and personalised way. So many of our guests complimented her ceremony to us and told us how much they loved it. We also love the little keepsakes we got which were such a nice touch. If you need a celebrant, definitely book Celebrant Jam!”

For their wedding day Tanya and Kim went back to Fitzroy, to where all the magic started!

These two babes meet many moons ago at the infamous Rochester Hotel. Kim was out on the town with his brother that night and dropped into the Rochey for a boogie when he was confronted by a phone shinning into his face alerting him to the fact that he was spilling his beer all over someone’s shoes. Tanya with the beer soaked shoes was pleasantly surprised to find that the beer spilling crazed dancer is kinda cute. And so the two got chatting and dancing that night. The night ended with a cheeky pash and the swapping of numbers. Tanya unsure of what was said over the loud music saved her future husband’s number into her phone under ‘Kim? LOL’

10 years after their indy/emo Rochey dancefloor meet-cute, Kim asked Tanya to marry him on their trip to Europe. It was their second day in Barcelona, Tanya was battling jet lag and adjusting to the 35C heat as they strolled through Park Guell. She was releaved when Kim suggested they take a break on a bench at the top of the hill. Kim then spent the next minute or so awkwardly digging around his Jansport bum bag, at which point Tanya cottoned onto what was about to happen. She of course said yes and proceeded to happy-cry at the top of a hill in Park Guell.

For their wedding day they did a first-look shoot and stroll through Fitzroy with their photographer Jules from Love By Colour Capture. They started with a drink at the Rochey, the place where it all began. Then they shared some ice-cream at Piccolina, before making their way upstairs to Panama Dinning Room for their wedding ceremony and reception goodness.

Celebrant: Celebrant Jam
Photographer: Love By Colour Captured
Venue: The Panama Dining Room
Florist: North St Botanical
Cake Maker: T With Cake
Live Music: My Best Friends Wedding Djs
Hair Stylist: Lanie Phelps
Make Up Artist: Danaes Makeup
Dress Boutique: Riva Bridal
Suit Designer: Oscar Hunt Tailors

Cam + Sarah

“We had the BEST experience having Jam there on our wedding day (and during the lead up as well). She's an absolute ray of sunshine and totally nailed our vibes - relaxed, fun, but still sentimental. It truly felt like having a bestie marry us and we couldn't be happier with how the ceremony went. We had so many comments from guests about how special the ceremony was and how well it reflected us and our story. Thank you a million times over!!”

It’s an absolute blast to spend time with Cam and Sarah and their wedding day was no different!

I had the pleasure of meeting Sarah and Cam even before they had officialy gotten engaged. They had mutually agreed that they wanted to get married and quickly jumped on the wedding planning band-wagon in order to lock in some of their fav wedding vendors before the end of year rush, smart move! Cam was then able to formulate a perfectly simple proposal plan-of-attack. A few months later, just before Christmas, Cam got down on bended knee in the backyard of Sarah’s family home in NZ.

Almost a year after their engagement our lovers got married at Collingwood Children’s Farm, which is literally across the road from where they had first met. It was the 1st day at a new job, where Sarah found herself stumbling super late into a room full of complete strangers and sat down in front of the super cute tall guy. Sarah then found herself partnered up with our super cute tall guy Cam, for their subsequent training sessions. Cam was able to make Sarah laugh so hard, especially when he puts on his ‘old lady on the phone’ voice during their training exercises. They became good workmates by the end of the 2 weeks.

Sometime later our two banter-loving workmates found themselves working from home thanks to a global epidemic of COVID19. As a result they saw their friendly work comms sneakily crossing over to daily texts, FB messages, Instagram likes/comments and even to flirty Words With Friends. Before long Sarah found herself HANGING for messages from Cam throughout the day. By the time they had returned to work in the office Sarah had realised that she had developed a full blown high-school LEVEL crush on Cam, so much so that she’d obssess over her outfit, hair wash and make up regime for those extra special Cam days.

Sarah had to eventually tell herself to SNAP out of it and worked up the courage to ask Cam out for a kick of the footy. On their first date Cam was geuinely impressed by Sarah’s efforts to try something new, like taking an interest in footy, just to spend time with him. By their second date Cam realised that Sarah’s talk is much bigger than her game. Her claims of being a gamer girl was quickly debunked, taking a stroll through Viva Pinata ain’t the same as taking walk in COD. It didn’t matter by that point though, as Sarah had already won Cam’s heart.

COVID brought our lovers together, but it also very nearly broke them apart. It was during one of them awful Melbourne Lockdowns with no end in sight that Sarah considered moving home to be with her family in NZ, it would mean that she’d probably break up with Cam. Cam left that conversation to quietly process it all with a hot shower to wash away the pain. Next minute he bursts out of the bathroom dressed in only a towel around his waist and declared ‘NOPE!’ Nope he doesn’t want to break up, nope he doesn’t want to loose Sarah, and their love is worth fighting for! So imagine their joy and triumph when a few months after their almost break-up, Sarah was able to bring Cam back home to NZ to finally meet her family and see her world.

For their wedding day Cam and Sarah had incuded so many thoughfully personal touches and in-jokes. I absolutely loved all of Sarah’s wedding day outfits, showcased throughout the day. From her getting ready and dancing with her gals in her super cute pjs and dressing gown. To her first-look reveal with Cam, wearing a picture perfect decoy ‘White princess wedding’ dress (lovingly made by Sarah’s talented mama Jayne). She then blew us away with her incredible red tulle wedding ceremony dress that made her look like a LEVELLED UP ‘dancing girl’ emoji, which perfectly complimented Cam in his pink velvet jacket. For their dancefloor debut Sarah changed into a fun little white party dress embelisshed with jewelled flowers and leaves to dance the night away. What a wedding feast of fashion! My kinda JAM!

For their ceremony I had the honour of welcoming Sarah and Cam’s guests before introducing one by one memebers of their VIP wedding party that was standing up there beside them both, they are Cam and Sarah’s other ride-or-dies in this life. We also honoured both Sarah and Cam’s mamas Jayne and Rhonda, by inviting them up to perform a hand-fasting ceremony to bestow their blessings upon our soon to be newlyweds. And don’t get me started on Cam’s vowels/vows bit that brought all the LOLs.

When Cam and Sarah entered their post-ceremony reception, they got the party started with a BANG! Instead of a traditional cake cutting, they opted instead to smash a wedding cake pināta.
BLOODY BRILLIANT!!!

Celebrant: Celebrant Jam
Venue: Collingwood Children’s Farm
Photography: She Takes Pictures He Makes Films
Catering and Event Management: Farm Cafe
Flos: Rose Studio
Entertainment: Little Wolf Entertainment
Make Up: LoveCo Hair and Beauty

Greta + Matt

“Jam nailed everything about our ceremony! She told our story so genuinely and kept it fun and engaging the whole time. We both couldn’t think of a more perfect celebrant for us. She made it incredibly personal throughout all of our engagements, always taking the time to get to know us and our story. Jam stayed on to be our MC after the ceremony and kept us all on track time wise. I’m sure we would have forgotten to eat the cake if she wasn’t there. Couldn’t recommend her more! She was also just a great vibe to be around, felt like hanging out with a really organised friend all day.”

Matt and Greta had put together a intentionally thoughtful day filled with love to celebrate them becoming ‘The Durstons’!

There were so many unique little elements that helped to make their wedding day extra special. Matt and Greta were driven to their wedding by Adam, who’s dad played the role of chauffer to Greta’s mum Annie on her wedding day. Our lovers then made their triumphant entrance hand in hand, along with their love-squad and fam. We gave special shoutouts to their love-squad at the start of the ceremony, including their adorable puppie Bessie, who then proceeded to steal the show by joining her parents and watching the ceremony in papa Matt’s arms.

Greta and Matt’s ceremony like most others had featured their meet-cute origin story. However their’s had a PLOT-TWIST as it is revealed in that moment that they didn’t really meet at the cafe that Greta was working at, instead they met through a good old fashioned ‘Tinder’ match! The surprised looks on their mama’s faces were simply priceless!!! Nothing like a ceremony REVEAL to keep the guests guessing!

Their online Tinder match almost didn’t take off as Greta said ‘No’ when Matt originally asked her out for a drink. Matt was in town for some training so with only a few days left he thought to ask Greta out again before he left town and this time she said ‘Yes’.

That first date saw Greta being pleasantly surprised by how attractive Matt was as she didn’t think blonde, country guys were 100% her type. It helped that Matt was just so easy to be with. Matt on the other hand was impressed by Greta’s sass and smarts, he couldn’t believe just how lucky he was to have met someone so special. After their initial drinks, they then stayed out for a game of pool (where Matt had to smoke Greta in the game as she mentioned something about being friends with state champions…), the night ended with Matt walking Greta to her car and sharing in a goodnight kiss.

Greta got home that night declaring to her mum Annie that ‘she was going to marry him!’ Matt had similar thoughts and desperately wanted to see Greta again so he proceeded to ask Greta to join him at his farewell dinner the following night. That night saw the romance level turnt up as they spent the evening holding hands under the table and watching shooting stars on their way home.

Our lovers then pursued a long distance relationship driving 2.5 hours to spend time with each other every other weekend. 6 months in Matt was offered a position in Melbourne at which point Greta jumped at the chance to also make the move and be with her man!

For their engagement Greta was inspired by the story of her mum Annie proposing to her dad. So she hatched a plan during COVID where she got a ring made for Matt and carried it in her bike shorts on a hike all the way up to the top of Mount Donna Buang.

Greta didn’t know where exactly she was going to ‘pop’ the question and nothing felt right. So as they were making their way back down the mountain single profile Greta casually mentioned that ‘this would have been a cute place to get engaged.’ Matt agreed and said if only he had a ring, to which Greta responds with ‘I do’ on bended knee asking Matt if he’d marry her. Matt was SHOOK and overwhelmingly said YES!!! By the time they got back down from their hike they were both giddy and high from the excitement of their engagement.

Matt and Greta’s wedding day at Jamsheed Wines was them throwing the ultimate ‘party’ that they had always talked about, to celebrate their love with their nearest and dearest. They did with class and style!

Celebrant: Celebrant Jam
Venue: Jamsheed Wines
Photography: These Wild Eyes and Ceremony by Charlie
Flos: Casia Florals
Cake: Good Good Cakes
Make Up: Killer Queen Creative
Tunes: DJ KG