Georgia and George found their venue on instinct, after a 2024 trip to Paris left them fixated on the Jardin du Luxembourg and its particular brand of formal green. They wanted that feeling closer to home, and the outdoor courtyard at The Refectory at Werribee Mansion handed it to them without leaving Victoria. Documenting all of it, from the quiet of the morning to the plate breaking at midnight, was Melbourne team La Este Film, whose Courtney Tilston photograph with enough restraint to let a burgundy palette and an 1870s staircase carry the frame.
Location: Victoria, Australia
Style: Romantic, Dimensional, Considered
Time of planning: 1 year
Number of guests: 140
Setting: Garden Soiree
Season: Spring
Their story starts in 2016 at a community gym in Niddrie, and yet it stuck. After clocking each other across the equipment a few times, George skipped the small talk and left a note on Georgia’s windscreen, and that note did the work. Their first date was dinner at Saké in Southbank followed by a spur of the moment walk along Brighton beach, and eight years later George ran the entire sequence back, returning to Saké and then to Brighton beach, where he proposed by candlelight. Georgia designs cakes for a living as the founder of Georgia Eats Cake, George runs two GoodGood burgers sites across Essendon and Maidstone, and the two of them share a cocker spaniel named Oscar who, as it turns out, had a job to do later in the day.
Bride's Morning & Fashion
Georgia wore the Winton gown by KYHA Bride, a structured column, cut from duchess satin with an off the shoulder neckline and a corset bodice that does the sculpting for you. It reads clean from across a lawn and shows its engineering up close, the asymmetric drape and side split giving her room to actually move through a 140 guest banquet.
She kept the styling deliberate, with a gold bezel tennis bracelet, pearl and diamond bezel earrings by Lola Knight, a bouncy blowout with soft matte glam, and Amina Muaddi‘s Holli lace slingbacks in ivory, which are basically the shoe answer to the dress in floral corded lace on a fluted heel.
Her bouquet leaned into her actual favourite flower, cascading white calla lilies on long green stems, which is a sculptural choice with real lineage behind it. Even the perfume was chosen with intent, a herbal rose and raspberry body oil from Naturopathic Alchemy that sits closer to the skin than a bottled scent.
Groom’s Fashion
George went custom with a two piece suit and vest from Zac Mens Tailors, and the styling is where his personality shows up. The gold chain layered over the vest and the cross necklace tucked at the collar are the personal touches, small signals that this is a groom who dresses with intent.
On his wrist sat a Rolex Datejust 41, which he has been open about as a milestone purchase, the kind of buy he wanted on his hand as he walked into the next chapter of his life. Gold and black cufflinks and Hugo Boss shoes finished the look, and his boutonniere pulled the whole day’s palette onto his lapel in a single burgundy calla lily.
Ceremony
The ceremony took place outdoors among the trees of Werribee Park, with the historic mansion sitting just behind the couple, which is exactly the Europe close to home effect they had chased since Paris. The aisle was long, the sort of walk that gives you time to feel everything, and they scored it with To Build a Home by Cinematic Orchestra, performed live by Mia Savannah and Harry Longworth. Live strings and vocals on a processional change the whole temperature of a moment, and here they set the emotional tone before a single word was spoken.
They chose Andrew Redman to officiate specifically for his storytelling, and it paid off. Having already had their religious marriage the week before, Georgia and George wanted this ceremony to stay traditional but turn personal, with the focus landing on their actual love story and the vows they wrote for each other. Redman’s delivery runs warm and natural, which is the difference between a ceremony guests sit through and one they genuinely listen to.
The ring bearer was Oscar, their cocker spaniel, because of course the dog had a role. For the exit they went completely off the solemn script and walked back down the aisle to Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield.
Moments Together
After the ceremony, La Este Film took the couple inside the mansion for portraits, and this is where the 1870s architecture earns its keep. The grand staircase, the bronze figures holding the lamps, the oil paintings in gilded frames, all of it turns a hallway into a set that most venues would need a stylist and a week to fake. Georgia in the Winton gown on that deep red stair runner is the image the whole day had been building toward.
Outside, the mansion did just as much work. Its Italianate facade and tower give the couple a backdrop that looks imported from a European estate, and the portraits taken against the sandstone are some of the strongest of the day. Cocktail hour leaned into the celebration properly, with a champagne tower built from coupe glasses rather than flutes, the retro detail that turns a pour into a moment, the groom sending it cascading down the stack while the party watched.
This was also the stretch for the details that never make the formal running order. Oscar the cocker spaniel got his own portrait moment out on the lawn, and the bridal party moved through their own set in deep chocolate brown, a color that reads far sharper than a standard pastel lineup and ties straight back into the burgundy palette. The candids between the posed frames are where La Este Film‘s approach shows, catching the couple and their people actually enjoying the gap before the reception doors opened.
Reception
George and Georgia wanted an outdoor reception from the start, which in Melbourne is a genuine gamble, and the sky called their bluff. It rained in the evening, and their coordinator Edina of ES Events Planning pulled together a last minute marquee, turning what could have been a disaster into the best kind of atmosphere, rain drumming on the roof while the party carried on underneath.
Under the marquee sat three long tables and no bridal table, because the couple wanted to eat among their guests, seating their bridal party’s partners alongside them like a proper family banquet. The styling ran on the burgundy and silver palette they had locked in early, with candles, sprawling bunches of red grapes laid straight on the silverware for guests to pick at through the night, and florals from Blonde Florals built out of smokebush, artichokes, peonies, amaranth, anthuriums and orchids.
After having our photos taken in the mansion, we had a few quiet moments together to view the reception space for the first time. It was so special to take this in together and have a moment of gratitude for one another, the day we had planned so long for, and for the incredible vendor team that pulled it all together.
The cake was an inside job. Georgia designs cakes for a living, so she made her own under her label Georgia Eats Cake, a five tier buttercream number inspired by baroque scrollwork, all piped spirals and fine petals, the sort of heritage piping revival that has been quietly taking over dessert tables. They gave it its own spotlight too, repurposing some of the ceremony florals to the base of the cake table, and cut it to Real Love Baby by Father John Misty.
The details kept the personality turned up. Guests arrived to a long fabric welcome sign blocking the centre of the courtyard entry, so the reveal only landed once they rounded it, and picked up custom match boxes as favours on the way to their seats. Then the traditional side of the night took over. A Zaffet Royale zaffe brought the couple in with Lebanese drummers, the dance floor stayed packed from the entrance to the last song, plates got broken, shots got poured off the dance floor, and the night closed on a run of fries in custom boxes stamped with The Tawils. That swing, from an 1870s mansion and calla lilies to a drum line and smashed plates, is the whole personality of this wedding in one evening.
Advice from the couple:
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PHOTOGRAPHY La Este Film | VIDEOGRAPHY You and I Films | CONTENT CREATION By Her | STYLING & COORDINATION ES Events Planning | VENUE The Refectory, Werribee Park | FLORALS Blonde Florals | SIGNAGE Ghost Booth Events | HAIR Hair Styling by Mary, Hair by Adele C | MAKEUP Tahlia Liapis, Makeup by Megan Milo | DRESS KYHA Bride | ALTERATIONS Alterations by Emily | RINGS George the Jeweller | SUIT Zac Mens Tailors | CAKE Georgia Eats Cake | MARQUEE The Marquee People | LIGHTING Custom Event Services | DECOR Carla Collectives, Cloth and Confetti | CELEBRANT & MC Andrew Redman | LIVE MUSIC Mia Savannah | ZAFFE Zaffet Royale
