Matt and Evan
For Sydney couple Matt and Evan, Tasmania was the ideal choice for their destination wedding where the renowned Islington Hotel played host for not only themselves but their entire guest list as they exclusively booked the entire hotel. The gents had travelled to the apple isle many times before and loved the natural beauty and raw landscapes that Tasmania does so well.
Location Islington Hotel, Hobart TAS | Photographer Pedro Cardoso from Fotografamos
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Mr T - How and when did you meet?
M & E - 11 years ago, in Sydney, at a cocktail bar at the Sydney’s Opera House harbour foreshore. Matt was dropping off someone he was seeing at the time (however it was not working out). Our eyes quickly met, and the feeling was instant. Everyone knows that Evan is not forward at all, however on this occasion Evan’s was quite demonstrative from the outset. Making his feelings known to Matt.
Mr T - Tell us a little about the earlier days of your relationship...
M & E - Evan was not out to his family at the start of our relationship, thus Matt did not really exist for a time. As we became serious this prompted Evan to come out to his family who could not have been happier. They all insisted on meeting Matt straight away. Both sides of our families have embraced us with the love and support from the onset of meeting us.
Mr T - What does marriage mean to you?
M & E - The commitment to each other for the rest of our lives. We love each other so much that it bonds us together.
Mr T - Who proposed and how?
M & E - Evan proposed to Matt. The proposal had been planned to occur in Coffs Harbour on the beach at sunset during a trip to Matt’s childhood home. Thankfully, this did not go to plan…. It was the Wednesday before the weekend at Coffs, a standard mid-week evening with both of us in our PJ’s. Evan had just made Matt a martini (something that was part of their vows). Evan was preparing dinner while Matt sat on the kitchen island bench catching up about the day. Matt was trying to decide on what music playlist would work with the mood of the evening while chatting about a watch he was thinking about finally buying after trying it on during their recent trip to New York. He had dropped into the OMEGA boutique in Sydney during the week to confirm that it was still the right look he was after, sadly the watch had been purchased the day prior and they were waiting on a delivery from Switzerland. The conversation turned to their future direction and the exciting milestones they had to look forward too, holidays, baby, house etc. This conversation continued through dinner, at the conclusion Evan mentioning that there was something he needed to check in the attic. Matt had just finished stacking the dishwasher when he turned around to find Evan on one knee with “the” watch accompanied by the words “Matt- Will you Marry Me?” IN SHOCK and bursting into tears Matt bends to meet him and says… are you sure? Yes, Matt completely loses control at this point and cries for the next 30 minutes. Evan is really happy that he bought the proposal forward and did not do it in a public place as planned.
Mr T - When did you get married?
M & E - The 27th of October 2018.
Mr T - What was the main influence behind your wedding day?
M & E - We really wanted to keep it as simple as possible. We had only 22 people attending. We also wanted to keep it masculine, which was the brief to our amazing calligrapher, who hand wrote all the stationery and even created our very own monogram (ME) which featured across all the collateral. Navy, gold and white was the colour palette we looked at for everything including the suits. We knew that we didn’t need much dressing of the venue, The Islington Hotel had so much art and beautiful décor that we just didn’t need it. The owners are world travellers and art collectors, so the job was done.
Mr T - What was the most important thing to you surrounding your wedding?
M & E - We love Tasmania, neither of us nor our families are from there which did surprise most people. We had travelled to the apple isle many times and loved the natural beauty and raw landscapes that Tasmania does so well. It was also really important for us to support the local community as much as we could. Everyone that touched our wedding did so with so much love and that resonated on the day and thereafter.
Mr T - Where did you find the bulk of your inspiration?
M & E - Pinterest was our bible; The Islington Hotel captured our hearts as we had stayed several times. The prospect of booking the boutique hotel out privately helped with capping our guest list at 22 and also enabled us to host an immersive weekend getaway for our guests.
Mr T - How did you choose your suppliers?
M & E - This was one of the best processes to go through. As mentioned, we wanted to support the local community in Tassie, it was all word of mouth. We started with Jonathan Wherrett, a local photographer (who unfortunately was unavailable on our date), however he did connect us to Pedro who came all the way from Portugal to shoot our wedding. Jonathan’s wife is an amazing artist when it comes to ceramics, so we commissioned her to design some handmade cups, that featured our monogram as gifts in the rooms for our guests.
Mr T - Any standout suppliers?
M & E - Everyone who touched the wedding did so with great interest, love and support. So much so that we were overwhelmed with the collaboration and the end result. Our wedding photographer Pedro blew our minds away! He was truly a beautiful presence in the lead up to and on the day, not to mention the quality of his work. It was the little things like leaving us some polaroids on the day of the Wedding to look back on and then a sneak peak montage video from the day that we were able to share with our guests just weeks after the event.
Mr T - Did you find it difficult to translate more common traditions into a ‘same-sex’ wedding?
M & E - Our celebrant was a legend. Peita Pacey was instrumental in bringing together an amazing ceremony that evolved on the day. She met with us several times before the ceremony and ensured all the necessary formalities were delivered in a relaxed and natural way. We became engaged before it was legal to get married in Australia as this was a non-issue for us. We had planned to go ahead with the ceremony regardless of not being able to receive a legal wedding certificate. When the plebiscite was announced we experienced mixed feelings. Excitement at the prospect of equality but dread of the process, the thought of the Australian public deciding on our future was extraordinary, we were very relieved with the result even though we feel the process was flawed and unnecessary. One of the toughest things to overcome was that friends and colleagues couldn’t really understand that there was no ‘bridal’ party… Questions like “who walks down the aisle first?” really baffled us.
Mr T - What was the most difficult thing about planning your wedding?
M & E - Making the decisions on flowers and music, so nothing really…
Mr T - Where did you spend your honeymoon?
M & E - The Maldives-Shangri-La’s Villingili Resort & Spa, Maldives
Mr T - Any advice for other couples planning their day and finding it difficult to navigate the journey?
M & E - Take it easy. Breathe and do it together. On the day make sure you take some time for just the two of you, soak it all in.
Suppliers
Photographer Pedro Cardoso from Fotografamos
Videographer Light Noise Films
Venue The Islington Hotel
Suits Rami Mikhael, The Bespoke Corner
Flowers Botanical Hobart
Stationery Kecia O’Sullivan from Well Lettered
Celebrant Peita Pacey
Custom Ceramics Lindsey Wherrett Ceramics
Gifts Worcestershire Sauce for gifts from Lean to Kitchen
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