Guests ate bedazzled cake and poutine at this boisterous Melbourne wedding

“We wanted to capture this moment in time with this huge community of friends.”

Here at Fashion Journal, we make no secret of our love of weddings. We’re suckers for a bit of romance and have a soft spot for weddings that do things differently, whether it’s a Las Vegas elopement, a tropical getaway or a Town Hall celebration.

Danielle Howe and Shaughan Pattison’s meeting was serendipitous. As a Canadian who had been living in the UK for five years, Danielle’s life was upended after Brexit. At a loss, she took a chance moving to Melbourne to stay on her friend’s couch, where she happened to meet Shaughan. After eight years together, Shaughan surprised Danielle while on a trip to Vietnam with a custom-made ring from her favourite jeweller, Sarah Gardner.

Interested to hear how others navigate the world? Head to our Life section.

Given they had many international guests coming in, the couple locked in dates early, confirming their ceremony and reception spot more than a year in advance. The pair also forwent tradition, instead opting for a 14-person wedding party, with a mix of genders on each side.

Deciding on wedding outfits took more trial and error. After searching high and low, Danielle came across Auckland designer Brooke Tyson Ritual one night while scrolling online. Brooke’s Rosa gown had detachable sleeves like she’d envisioned, with a boned corset and drop waist, which they customised to make even more voluminous. Shaughan lucked out on Facebook Marketplace, finding his vintage suit jacket for just $50.

After their ceremony at Portico Balcony at Melbourne Town Hall, their wedding party walked down Swanston Street to Transit Rooftop Bar at Federation Square, where they indulged in canapés, a bezdazzled cake and late-night toasties. “The pièce de résistance was the poutine station. I had to, I’m Canadian,” Danielle adds.

Fashion Journal: Hi Danielle and Shaughan! Congratulations on your beautiful wedding. Can you tell me about the proposal?

Danielle: Our engagement was a complete surprise to me, though Shaughan had been planning it secretly for months. At that time, we’d been together for nearly eight years. In that time, we’d built such a beautiful life, a huge community of friends, and had a beautiful dog, Steve. We weren’t too fussed about marriage because eight months after we met, we went through the partner visa application, which is so full-on in itself.

But in October 2024, Shaughan and I had planned a trip to Vietnam, where we flew down to the island of Con Dao. At low tide, there was a small sandbank that emerged every day and Shaughan suggested we go for a walk and take some photos. And then, on a sandbank in the middle of the ocean, Shaughan proposed. It was so beautiful!

What was your engagement ring like?

Shaughan had my ring custom-made by Sarah Gardner, who was a designer I was obsessed with. He chose an Australian black pearl surrounded by diamonds. Pearls are my favourite and I’d never told Shaughan because I never thought about getting married. So when we proposed with a ring that was just so me, it was such a sweet reminder of how much we truly knew and loved one another

.

How did you approach wedding planning and logistics?

We were less concerned about the wedding-y bit and really just wanted it to be a celebration of our life together so far. We wanted to capture this moment in time with this huge community of friends and this life we’d built together.

We knew that we wanted our wedding in Melbourne – it was the place we met, grew as people and as a couple. But because I had lived in quite a few countries before moving to Melbourne, we wanted to give people as much notice as possible, so after our engagement in October 2024, we set the date for February 2026. It gave us a long time to plan, which meant we got to pick the exact venues we wanted. I had the ceremony spot and the reception venue locked in by December 2024.

We also decided to have a huge wedding party. We had seven people each (a mix of genders on both sides), so 14 people in our wedding party total. And I’m so happy we did.

Tell me about the day itself. How did the day begin and what was the ceremony like?

We all stayed at a hotel in the CBD on the same hotel floor. Shaughan and I had separate rooms, but everyone was able to go back and forth. Shaughan and I decided we wanted that ‘big reveal ’, and for the first time we saw each other when I was walking down the aisle.

The ceremony was at the Portico Balcony at Melbourne Town Hall. We chose it because we both loved how stunning it was and felt that we didn’t have to do too much. However, leading up to the wedding, Shaughan really wanted to get flowers for the ceremony, so we asked Kayla from Xflos (who was doing our bouquets, bridal party flowers and reception flowers) to ask if she could create some end-of-aisle pieces.

We had about 80 guests, all of whom were friends and family from around Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Canada. Shaughan walked down the aisle with his aunty, followed by our wedding party. When it was my turn, I was holding back tears.

Following the ceremony, during cocktail hour, we had a table filled with letters and guests were asked to find an envelope with their name on it. Shaughan and I had handwritten a letter to every one of our friends and family, thanking them for being there to celebrate us and sharing with them how much they meant to us.

What did you do after the ceremony?

After the ceremony, guests would make a five-minute walk down Swanston Street to Fed Square, where we had our reception at Transit Rooftop Bar. We took photos as we were walking down and out of the building at Melbourne Town Hall, and as we walked down Swanston Street. It was so fun, some of my favourite memories.

Transit Rooftop Bar was such a perfect location – our friends and family made speeches while you could see the Melbourne city skyline and look over the Yarra. Our friend Dan is a talented DJ, and he got the dancefloor pumping into the night. We also had a cover band called ‘Yo Mama Band’ who had all the hits!

I was so happy we had that venue transition – it felt like we could have this really bougie, romantic and intimate ceremony, then we could transition to this stunning rooftop, which felt a lot more relaxed.

Danielle, your wedding dress was so beautiful! Where was it from and how did you find it?

While we were still in the planning stages, my Mom was visiting me in Melbourne, so I made a few appointments with her and my best man, Jake. A lot of the dresses were absolutely beautiful but they didn’t really feel like me. In the back of my mind, I also loved the idea of having sleeves but knew I wanted them to be removable.

After months and months of doom-scrolling, I stumbled on Brooke Tyson Ritual. She’s an incredible designer based in Auckland, and I remember seeing her Rosa gowns and thinking it was exactly what I wanted. It even had removable sleeves! I met with Brooke over FaceTime, and we ended up customising the design, dropping the waist to make it more exaggerated, and she made a customised veil for me.

Brooke mailed some samples of her silk fabrics so I could select one, and I had my bridal party over for cocktails so we could select it together. Luckily, I have a few friends who have worked in design, so they were able to measure me properly and send the measurements to Brooke. I was flying over to New Zealand in December 2025 for a friend’s wedding, so I popped up to her studio for a final fitting.

What did your beauty look like on the day?

The vibe for the wedding was ‘colourful vintage opulence’. I wanted everyone to feel their most beautiful. For the bridal party, we had Sophia Pafitis and Stella Tu on makeup, and Hair by Caroline on hair. One of the things people don’t tell you is how important it is to have someone who is lovely and nice while you’re getting ready. Your makeup artist spends a huge portion of the day with you and your bridal party!

I also got curly hair extensions from Nude Hair Extension. Then my friend Louisa, who is an incredible hairdresser (and was also attending the wedding), came early while we were getting ready and helped do my hair before the ceremony. I am so grateful for her – she knew me and knew that I just wanted to exaggerate my natural curl, and I don’t think the look could have been pulled together without her.

What about Shaughan’s outfit?

Shaughan wanted an oversized vintage aesthetic, with a statement bow-tie. He eventually stumbled across exactly what he had been searching for on Facebook Marketplace – a vintage oversized, double-breasted white suit jacket for $50. He paired it with oversized wide-leg trousers from Salt Murphy, chunky loafers and, to finish it all off, a fresh beard trim from Capital Barbering in Carlton North. It was exactly what he wanted – relaxed, oversized vintage and perfectly him.

What did your wedding party wear?

We had all genders on both sides, so instead of choosing outfits for everyone to wear, our brief was that we wanted everyone in black in something with volume. Dress, pants, suit, whatever made them feel the most confident. One of my groomsmen is Scottish, so he wore a black kilt with his great-grandfather’s traditional adornments and knife. Then, Xlfos made different floral pieces, which were all slightly different – some people had single-stem bouquets or boutonnieres, others had hair pieces.

What did you do for food? 

The food was non-fussy and ranged from fancy hors d’oeuvres at the beginning of the night, to everyone’s pub favourites like ricotta and sausage rolls, to sliders, mini banh mi’s and risotto. We also had cheese toasties come out later in the night with a fondue dipper. But the pièce de résistance was the poutine station – I had to, I’m Canadian. The station had little cups of fries, gravy, cheese and other fun toppers.

Our cake was made by Helen from Bakes By Her, who creates these absolutely gorgeous bedazzled cakes. We told Helen our brief and chose a baby blue cake with vintage icing covered in gems.

How did you capture the wedding? 

When we first started planning, we were really inspired by that street photography of couples in wedding dresses on the busy streets of Japan. We were extremely lucky, one of my bridesmaids runs a business with the incredible Alex Drewniak, who is an incredible photographer. She knew us and the fun vibe we were going for, and absolutely killed it.

Our wedding videographer was Airwolf Paradise, who’s a DJ but who came out of retirement for a one-off day behind the camera and did a stunning job!

Looking back, what was the best part of your day?

In the handwritten letters we gave everyone at cocktail hour, we’d also put in raffle tickets. During the reception, Shaughan and I had multiple times throughout the night where we rang a bedazzled cowbell, and we had a big bingo ball basket where we pulled out bingo balls corresponding to the guests’ raffle ticket numbers.

Some of the prizes included: a shot at the bar with the bride and groom, a customised T-shirt that read ‘I went to Shaughan and Dani’s wedding and all I got was this lousy shirt and a hangover ’, and a Labubu (which obviously had to be unboxed immediately). We also did speech roulette later in the night, where whichever guests got picked had to stand up and give a spontaneous speech or piece of marriage advice.

For more on wedding trends, try this.