And so begins the official wedding season in Melbourne…This post is dedicated to my gorgeous friend and bride to be Lynzi – and her man of the hour, Tamen.
My first wedding of the year kicked off with my cousins Greek wedding in September and I have at few more over the coming months. Luckily, I ADORE weddings.. along with their heart felt speeches (yes I cry), moving family reunions, the dancing and the personal touches added by the bride and groom that bring the whole event to life. Nothing makes me happier than seeing wonderful friends and family marry the one they love. Lynzi’s wedding is absolutely no exception. In fact, it could just be the wedding of the year given that Lynzi is a very talented personal stylist. In a shameless plug, you can book her services , Mode By Lynzi here. Need a wardrobe makeover? Lynzi is your woman! It also goes without saying that the lovely Tamen is also one of the most stylish guys I know so Im sure we’ll all be suitably impressed on the big day (no pressure though!)
In honour to celebrate the upcoming nuptials, a few weeks ago we headed south to the Mornington Peninsula and were lucky enough to catch a break with some sunny weather – just perfect for a few vino’s and pizza in the sprawling gardens of the Montalto Vineyard and Olive Grove.
Montalto has two dining areas – a fine dining restaurant and a outdoors casual eating space. Outside the main fare is pizza and seasonal salads but there are also a few other specials on the menu including dessert if you so feel inclined (I feel inclined quite often to ‘sample’ dessert). I recommend that if you visit on a nice day like the one we had, arrive and order as early as possible. Montalto gets super busy and the lineup to order can be very slow but the view below alone is worth the wait.
Post winery visit, we strolled to Rye Beach from our lovely beach house a few blocks away for a lazy Saturday afternoon in the sunshine.
The hen braved the crisp ocean waters to dip her toes in the water…
And so ended the civilised portion of the weekend…
When throwing around ideas for the Saturday night party at the house, it was decided that ‘trashy weddings’ would be the theme of the night. Think lots of ruffles, taffeta, fake lace, sequins, shoulder pads and puffy sleeves. Later on in the planning stages, I came up with the idea that each of us would dress each other by way of ‘secret santa’ coordinated by the bridesmaids Sara and Lynzi.
I came up with the idea when the suggested theme of trashy weddings triggered a fond memory from my time on safari in Africa a few years back.
On the trip as we travelled through to Lake Malawi, we were bound to continue a long held tradition of the Candy Beach dress up party. A few kilometres out from Lake Malawi, we stopped at a huge market of second hand clothes. I imagined at the time that this was where all the charity bins over the world eventually ended up. Once we arrived, we had to pick the name of one of our fellow travellers from a hat then proceed to find them an outfit with a US $5 maximum budget.
My unfortunate victim was our cocky South African driver Drew who needed to be taken down a playful peg or two. For my $5 I found him leopard skin hot pants, a rainbow crop top and yellow man scarf to tie around this neck. Although initially totally unimpressed with his outfit for the night, it grew on him as the night proceeded along with shots of the local sugar cane spirit. As for me, I ended up with an eighties style wedding dress with full puffy sleeves and tight arms and a V-neck with fake lace and sequins. From memory, I managed to become trapped (or was that incapacitated?) in my wedding dress and was not able to get it off – especially uncomfortable waking up to the African heat with a hang-over from hell!
But back to the Hen’s party….
Charlotte the bestie (on the right) found Lynzi this Princess Dianna style wedding dress and even though it looked like something out my Big Fat Gypsy Wedding Reality TV show, Lynzi still managed to look amazing as always!
In fact, I think we all looked fabulous!! (Thats me in the middle with the white veil)
The perfect weekend with great friends was topped off by a morning walk of the wild and rugged Gunnamatta Beach – perfect for pesky little hang-overs…
Happy Hens Lynzi! Cant wait to see you walk down the isle (minus the puffy sleeves)……. xox
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