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Couple:

Leah Jean Peace & Nicholaus Linton

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Wedding Date:

22nd of September 2023

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How did you meet?

We met at the theatre! One of Leah’s good friends from Melbourne University was in a musical production and that’s the first time Nick and Leah’s paths crossed. It wasn’t until a friends 21st that they were properly introduced after sharing stolen glances at each other the whole night through. It was a real life Romeo and Juliet moment!

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How long have you been together for?

We have been together for almost 7 years now.

How would you best describe your wedding in a few words?

Classic Ethereal Elegance with Dreamy Fairytale-like Romance.

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How and why did you choose your reception and ceremony location?

Leah’s family have a gorgeous property up in the Dandenong Ranges, Victoria. As a child Leah always loved spending time there exploring the gardens and sharing special moments with family. Nick also fell in love with the place when Leah introduced him to the area. When Nick proposed he was actually the one that said "I’d love to get married in the Dandenong Ranges!" Nick also was the one that said “this is it, nothing will beat this” when first visiting Tatra Receptions, especially their 10acres of elegant and well maintained gardens. It was perfection and the gardens that sold the venue to us!

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What kind of jobs do you have?

Nick is a school teacher and Musical Theatre performer.

Leah is anEx-ballet dancer, now a Chiropractor and a ballet teacher.

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What was the most Important Aspect of your wedding?

It was important to us that our wedding reflects who we are and the love we have for each other but also our family and friends. We wanted to share love and gratitude the whole day through, creating feelings to experience together.

Did you have a small or a large wedding?

We believe we had a large wedding as it was 150 - 160 people. It was important for us to have all of our nearest and dearest there with space big enough for a dance floor and a band for the reception!

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How did you choose what to wear?

I based my look off of the style icons Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly. I wanted elegance, grace and lace. I was also greatly inspired by the Disney princess Belle and the elves from the Lord of the Rings book and movie series (this happens to be Nick’s favourite book and movie series). I have a background in classical ballet so I was very familiar with costume design, my wedding look had to be me, but also combine my grandmother and great Aunty Yvonne’s wedding looks too. So you could say I drew inspiration from many places. It was then that I saw Lily Collins get married with a hooded lace veil and once stepping foot at our wedding venue, I couldn’t see anything else other than that look. It is a miracle that we were even able to get our hands on the solsstise lace from France!

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Tell us about the Proposal?

It was just after all the COVID lockdowns in Victoria and I had no idea it was even going to happen! Nick and I often travelled up to Hamilton Island and the Whitsundays for holidays since we first met. During COVID we were not able to travel, so we saved all of our travel credits and decided to return the year after but to stay at the most luxurious place on the island, Qualia, and book business class flights. In hindsight, I don’t know how I didn’t see it coming. After COVID I thought we would just treat ourselves a little. Little did I know Nick had just spent the last year designing and creating a beautiful engagement ring with a jeweller in Melbourne.

I put my foot in every single plan he made, poor Nick. We went to do a Great Barrier Reef on a snorkel tour and I got really sea sick. Apparently, Nick was going to propose out there. But didn’t as I was so green! The following day he had planned a sunset yacht tour and trip to Whitehaven beach and I was still feeling so queezy that I asked if we could just stay on land. Nick then resorted to asking if I would go on a helicopter ride instead and I was still reluctant to leave the ground. Poor Nick everything he was trying to do, I was putting my foot in it without even realising.

Qualia have beautiful Pavillions as accomodation with gorgeous view of the ocean. Nick put my favourite movie soundtrack on from “A star is born” and the songs “La vie en rose” and “is that alright” (by lady Gaga) played in our Pavillion as we were getting ready for a fancy dinner out at ‘Long Pavillion’. I walked out all ready to go and Nick appeared, dressed in his best suit and bow tie, on the balcony of our room as the sun was setting, I couldn’t stand still, it finally clicked what was happening. Nick held my hands and told me to stand still, knelt on one knee and said a beautifully phrased paragraph of lovely words which I cannot even remember, pulled out the ring, I said yes and drank two glasses of Charles Heidsieck champagne (and if you know me, I never have more than one glass) and didn’t say a word over dinner. Safe to say I was quite in shock, a deer in headlights, but in the best way. The next morning we went down the the helicopter pad to take photographs and recreate the moment to share with our families.

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What was the inspiration for the Wedding?

We wanted classic elegance, whites, gold, French provincial style, reminiscent of the movie 'Bride Wars' at the Plaza Hotel.

We wanted French provincial style with round classic ballroom tables, Tiffany chairs, and a large white dance floor. I always loved the movie Bride Wars with the weddings at the plaza hotel. So I guess you could say we were inspired but that.

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Did you do your own vows?

Yes we did! And both were rather long! But it’s what we wanted to say and was the most important part of our day.

Did you have any other special Elements?

Yes we did! We had a divine wedding violinist Evangeline Victoria Music. Her repertoire is INCREDIBLE! From classical ballet pieces such as Tchaikovsky Waltz of the Flowers and Howard Shores “concerning hobbits” - Evie played for all the entrances and during all of our special components of our ceremony with songs we had chosen. Our groomsmen had an entrance song - concerning hobbits from lord of the rings movie - the groomsmen walked down the aisle to this and then Nick walked down the aisle and gave a corsage to my Aunty and his mother. This song was sentimental to Nick as his dad passed when he was around 21 and they bonded over lord of the rings. This song and entering was a tribute to him. We also had ballet dancer flower girls - students of Leah’s from the ballet school she teaches at. They danced to “the swan” one of Leah’s favourite classical compositions. And Leah also made and created their tutus. The girls dances at the top of the aisle and descended through the middle of the aisle to the end scattering rose petals. Leah entered to the song “moon river” played on the violin.

Both Nick and I read out personal vows.

We also did a ring blessing with our bridal party and close immediate family members where our rings were passed around for our guests to put well wishes and good intentions on them.

Our ceremony was followed by a garden soirée where there was a garden bar, lawn games, charcuterie boards and a traditional Italian gelato cart serving multiple flavours including a special ricotta and cinnamon flavour. This was for our guests to enjoy before cocktails and canapés 1/2 hour began.

How did you choose your suppliers?

I chose suppliers mostly based on industry recommendations but also using Instagram if I’m honest. I looked at the photographs that they had posted on their Instagram pages and kind of just based it off the work I saw them do. I LOVED all of our suppliers, they were all so excited for our wedding and made us feel very important the whole time. Nothing was ever too much for them.

The stand outs were Sassafras Wedding florist Jess Gale! She is INCREDIBLY talented! I even gave out and got to take some of the florals home and they lasted so long (over 4 weeks) in vases of water post wedding too!

Our photographers Merve and Bella from “Merve Togan” Photography - so divine, they captured the timeless elegance feel perfectly.

We also loveeeed Kimberley Moore Media she was the MVP she was there the earliest and left last, nothing was ever too much for her and she seemed to be everywhere all at once, a true superstar and what she has created for us thus far is indescribable, perfection!

I also had a wonderful time working with Elise from Oak & Ivory on stationery as I wanted to also have some design control.

The final stand out supplier was the lady who made my hooded lace veil - Helen Manual Bridal Couture. It is a true miracle that it even happened and that we pulled it off!

Why did you decide to marry?

We love our family and friends so much! Something like this should be shared and we love hosting events and parties all the time! We wanted to share our love with everyone and celebrate something happy and wonderful following some rather hard years through the COVID situations.

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What was an absolute stand out on your wedding day?

For me it was Nick saying at the end of his speech “and now I’d like to sing a song for my wife” - and he sung “Your Song” by Elton John but changed the lyrics to suit our life! It was just the best most priceless thing.

I also loved seeing EVERYONE and I mean everyone on our dance floor!

What advice would you offer to future couples?

I highly recommend making a “wedding handbook” to share with all of your suppliers. This includes at least one page with inspiration for each vendor and the plans for pulling it off. This came in so handy and was a great reference for all of our vendors! They all loved it and said it made their job easier too!

Also… I would say do what you want! It doesn’t matter if you think it cannot be done, or no one has done it before, or what will other people think. I think if you love it, do what you love, what you want to do and your wedding will be authentically both of YOU. Personal to you. I think those are the special things. If you want 20 people there or 200 people there, if flowers are important or not important to you, just always DO WHAT YOU WANT. I truly believe that is why our day was pure perfection, we did what we wanted, created what we wanted. Where there is a will there is a way.

I would also recommend planning your timeline as early as you can and spending extra time on it as this also helped our day run smoothly. Take moments for just the two of you and pause to look around at all those who are there for you on the day. It is so special and priceless to have so many of your loved ones in one place at one time for a happy occasion.

Is there anything you would change about your wedding day?

Nothing at all!

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How much did you budget for your wedding and did you stick to the budget?

We budgeted $75,000 and YES we definitely went over that!

What was the most stressful part of the wedding planning process?

Probably the guest list. And if I’m being completely transparent it was finding out how much everything actually cost to pull off our wedding like ours. I had an idea of what it might be for florals, stationery, band, dance floor etc. but it just amazed us how much more it was. Hence, we had to adjust our budget.

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Did you both equally plan the wedding together or did one person have more input?

I definitely planned most of it but Nick had a lot of design input and we always spoke about creating the feeling of the day together. Nick was great he organised the band, the wedding rings (we had them made especially for us), our videographer, music selection, groomsmen suits and details etc. AND our incredible mini-moon. I did everything else but Nick was always there to support me and was interested in talking about things too. He was just as invested as me and we had such fun together.

Hopes for Married Life?

My biggest hope is to always enjoy each others company as we have done the last 7 years, to dance around the kitchen together, to enjoy the simple things in life and have someone to fall asleep with and wake up next to in the morning. We also hope to do a lot of travelling together too! Discover more about the worlds and each other too!

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Reception Highlights?

Choreographed dances, a 'Love Cake' tradition, handwritten messages for each guest, and a unique bouquet gesture to important women in Leah's life.

Anything to Add?

Is there anything else you would like to include?: I would like to include a little about our reception: Our cake - Nick and I are not really very big cake people. My family make a delicious dessert called “Love Cake” and it has a special omen, if your partner coming into the family tries the “Love cake” and loves it, it is a good omen, you will marry and stay in the family together, if they don’t like it then perhaps it won’t last. Haha. Just a little family tradition. Thankfully Nick loved the love cake, and we decided to have it at our wedding as our wedding cake. After our cake cutting. I choreographed a dance flash mob with some of nicks musical theatre friends and my ballet friends. Just like in a Disney movie where all of a sudden everyone knows the dance moves, when the song “Vogue”by Madonna played some people got out of their seats to join me on the dance floor for a dance flashmob. So fun! I also performed a special dance for Nick to Bonnie Anderson cover of “say a little prayer” and Nick sung to me after his speech, he sung a version of “your song” by Elton John. So special! Nick and I also choreographed our own first wedding dance to Eva Cassidy’s Songbird! We had so much fun doing this. We love dancing together! We also hand wrote special messages to all of our guests ( 160 ) placed at their seats as a thank you card. Instead of doing a bouquet toss I chose to give our 10 long stem beautiful white playa Blanca roses to the 10 most important women in my life. The women who helped me get to where I am today, when I was at ballet, at University, my friends mothers who often acted as my own at times and of course a couple of my close aunties and my own mother too. I thought it was a much nicer and elegant thing to do that than play the single ladies song and throw the bouquet. I also truly believe my hooded lace veil was an act of love from all the angels above in heaven watching down on me. My two beautiful grandmothers and my great Aunty Yvonne. I was so sad that they were not around to be present at our wedding but I truly believe the hooded lace veil was them weaving their magic for me to have them there with me in the day of my wedding.

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Vendors:

Photographer: Merve Togan @mervetogan

Videographer: Kimberley Moore Media @kimberleymooremedia

Venue: Tatra Receptions @tatra_receptions

Celebrant: Millie from Married by Mil @marriedbymil

Wedding Violinist: Evangeline Victoria Music @evangelinevictoriamusic

Florist: Jess Gale from Sassafras Wedding @sassafraswedding

Rings: Aimee Sutanto Jewellery @aimeesutanto

Stationery: Oak & Ivory @oakandivory_

Glam team: @alexlong.hmu @makeupbyenrica @blowup_hairbar @vahairdo

Dress: @bluebellbridal @heracouture custom made based off Le Belle V2

Veil: @helenmanuellbridal

Groom suit: @institchu

Groomsmen suits: @ferrari_formalwear_and_bridal

Bridesmaids dresses: @shonajoy

Grooms accommodation: @theblackwoodsassafras

Wedding cocktail hour pianist: Melbourne Pianist Calvin