Teresa and Steve didn’t miss a beat (literally) when it came to organising their DIY wedding at The Substation in Melbourne. “Our entrance to the reception venue took a few people by surprise”, says Teresa, referring to their live music performance. “Many of the guests didn’t know that we played instruments…”

There were plenty of other nice surprises too, including custom-made wedding favours and photo prints of all their guests featured around the room. The result? An unforgettable and entirely personalised celebration.

Check out all the pics by one of our much-loved photographers Timothy Marriage below.

What DIY projects did you tackle for the wedding?

We wanted to be able to customise our wedding so we put together a range of things ourselves, mainly seen at the reception. Our table decorations included hand dyed teal linen napkins, which were as time consuming as you might expect.

We designed the invitations, with the help of an artist who painted our engagement photo. Menus and signage was created with the help of a sister who tirelessly ran around and organised last minute printing for us. Our bonbonniere was custom wrapped chocolate with some amazing pixel art created by one of our friends.

Lastly, we wanted all our guests to feel welcome so we organised photo prints of all our friends and family to be arranged on the beautiful brick pillars of the substation room, lovingly displayed by our event managers Will&Jac the night before the event.

What advice would you give to other couples leading up to their big day?

Make your wedding a personal reflection of yourselves. We spent a lot of time thinking about all the little details that mattered to us. Practically, get as much as you can done early! Your future self will thank you.

Don’t be afraid to change your mind on various ideas either – we chose to omit some decorations at the last minute because we ran out of time to make them and we didn’t miss them (or the stress of organising them) at all on the day.

Be adaptable – the forecast for our wedding day changed substantially in the week prior and we ended up buying bottles of water for guests at the ceremony and extra drinks for the reception due to it being so hot. It was definitely the right call!

What does marriage mean to you?

We believe that marriage is the ultimate expression of love and commitment between two people – a promise to love and honour each other at all times, for life. As Christians, we also believe that marriage is a partnership between us and God, that will strengthen our relationship with each other and with God.

Any funny moments you can share with us?

Our entrance at the reception venue took a few people by surprise. It involved the groom and best man playing saxophone and trumpet and myself and my maid of honour playing Japanese drums. Many of the guests didn’t know that we played instruments and there were a number of gasps as we started.

What was your favourite moment on your wedding day?

Steve: It’s almost impossible to pick one, the whole day was fantastic. If I had to pick one though, it’s the moment I first saw Teresa walking down the aisle towards me.

Teresa: Like Steve said, it’s incredibly hard to choose but I think Steve playing his saxophone after we’d made our entrance at the reception is definitely a highlight. I adore my sax man.

How did you find your venue and was the process difficult for you?

The ceremony was held at St Silas Anglican Church… Our friend Mark is one of the ministers and he performed the ceremony… The church itself was wonderful, having plenty of space for all our guests, including a kids’ area at the back.

The reception was at The Substation, an old electricity substation that has been converted into an event space. We found it through a WedShed search for venues that allowed for the customised use of space we were after. It is a beautiful building and once we saw it we knew we wanted to use it.

The staff at The Substation were very accommodating and were happy to help us out with any requests or queries we had, including setting up the space early and coming back to pick up some of the remaining items the next day.

Ceremony song?

We had some close friends play as a band for our wedding ceremony with a range of songs and hymns we had picked. Our entrance song was a gorgeous acoustic cover of the Black Keys’ ‘Everlasting Light’, a song we saw live in our first year of dating.

First dance song?

Jukebox Dynamite played a gorgeous version of Electric Empire’s ‘Little Things’ as we awkwardly swayed back and forth in front of our family and friends. Neither of us are dancers, nor do we like being the centre of attention but everything pretty much melted away during this song.

CREDITS: Photos Timothy Marriage Photography // Flowers Poppy’s Getting Married // Ceremony St Silas // Reception The Substation // Catering Wood and Spoon // Cake Boutique Cake Art // Wedding planners Will&Jac // Invitations Papermarc // Bridal gown Ann-marie Hansford via Havilton // Brides shoes Alan Pinkus // Bridesmaid dresses Adrianna Papell // Grooms and groomsmen suits M.J. Bale // Ties Joe Black // Rings Larsen // Hair and makeup Dreamcatcher Bridal // Music Jukebox Dynamite // Furniture hire Memphis Hire.