The bride wore a repurposed dress and sculptural veil to her Hope Street Radio wedding

Cocktails, canapés and cheeseburgers.

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.

Around two years after they first met, Henry Johnstone proposed to Kate Burchell at Hyde Melbourne Place. Having set up a room with all of Kate’s favourite things, including Loco Love chocolate, gildas and orange wine, he surprised her and popped the question.

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The couple gave themselves 10 months to plan their wedding so it would line up with a European summer honeymoon the following June. They quickly locked in Thomas JPG for photos and booked Hope Street Radio in Collingwood Yards as their venue.

Another key step was the wedding dress. Having previously worked with Ruby Farley-Steere, designer of Melbourne label Kateri, on a custom piece, Kate knew she wanted to work with her again. Though she initially had a dress from Lucy Folk, Ruby re-envisioned it into a separate skirt and top. She designed Kate a sculptural veil to match, while also using leftover pieces of fabric for Henry’s tie and designing four other guests’ wedding outfits. “We joked about needing an impromptu Kateri runway show at some point in the night,” Kate laughs.

The wedding day unfolded in stages, with the couple first celebrating at Ma House with close friends and family, followed by an intimate ceremony at Hope Street, rooftop drinks at Runner Up, and then returning to the venue for a larger reception, where they had late-night burgers, cannoli and a dance floor.

Fashion Journal: Hi Kate and Henry! Congratulations on your beautiful wedding. How did you first meet and when did you become engaged?

Henry: Like many modern-day romances, we met on Hinge nearly three years ago. However, we quickly realised, while chatting, that my brother was married to a good friend of Kate’s, so there was instant common ground. Our first date was at Joe’s Shoe Store – it was instantly comfortable, fun and easy, the starting point for what the rest of our relationship would continue to be.

Kate and I were both open about wanting to get married, so it wasn’t a shock proposal but I still wanted it to be a surprise and it’s not easy to get things past Kate without raising questions, so I planned the proposal with her best friend, Ash. She thought we were meeting Ash and her partner for dinner and that they were staying at Melbourne Place, a hotel nearby. We knew Kate, with her interior design background, would want a sneaky look at the hotel rooms.

I’d set up the ring in a room along with her favourite snacks (including Studd cheese, gildas, Loco Love chocolate and orange wine) and popped the question. We spent the rest of the weekend excitedly telling friends and family.

How did you approach planning the wedding? 

Kate: We were engaged in July and wanted to get married the following May, so it would line up with a Euro honeymoon in June. Thomas, our photographer, was the first person we contacted to get the ball rolling. I’d been following him on Instagram for a while and had always wanted him to shoot my wedding.

Rachel, a good friend of mine, runs an events and wedding styling business in Adelaide called Hygge, so we reached out to her. While Rach was there to field all of my wedding questions, Thomas was more the local wedding planner of sorts.

I knew we wanted a space that didn’t need too much work, and we wanted somewhere with colour that didn’t feel like a wedding venue. We discussed a few local venues that could offer great food, wine and vibes and Thomas suggested Hope Street Radio. We didn’t know they did weddings at the time – we were their third wedding.

Working for myself was both a blessing and a curse during the planning stages – it meant I had all the flexibility I needed to spend time working through wedding details but it also meant entire work days would go missing. Thankfully, Rach and her team at Hygge, helped with a lot.

Tell me about the day itself. How many guests did you have?

Kate: The day was broken up in stages, which helped a lot with our nerves. We took photos before the ceremony so we didn’t miss out on any of the fun. I wanted somewhere with a lot of character, so we landed on Ma House Supply Store, which was conveniently across the road from Hope Street. We invited a small group of four of our closest friends (the unofficial bridal party) along with our families. We stayed for a couple of hours after our ‘first look’ moment, chatting, having pre-ceremony wines and taking photos.

Henry and I then travelled to Hope Street separately. I met my dad, who walked me down the aisle, and my sister-in-law sang our aisle song, ‘Baby’ by Ariel Pink. We also chose to have our close friend as a celebrant.

We both have big families, so numbers were one of the hardest parts of planning. We had limited space inside Hope Street for the ceremony, so we opted for 50 of our closest friends and family. For the reception, we had 160 guests.

Your wedding dress was so beautiful! How did you connect with Kateri and what was the process of customising it like?

Kate: I met Ruby, the designer behind Kateri, through a good friend and, funnily enough, at a wine event at Hope Street. I got in contact with her when looking for a dress to wear to a friend’s wedding. To my surprise, she said yes to making a custom dress, even with a two-week deadline. She made me a beautiful top and skirt outfit and I instantly knew I wanted to work with her for my own wedding.

I’d already bought the dress from Lucy Folk, having fallen in love with the gridded skirt part and told myself I would just slightly alter it. But once I had Ruby in my life, I asked her if she’d turn the dress into a skirt and top. She also found an incredible reference for a sculptural veil, which became the inspiration for my own. She used the leftover fabric from my dress to cover the binding and even used the leftover flowers from my dress on a pair of Asics sneakers for me to change into later that night.

I never even looked at a wedding dress shop, I knew it wasn’t me. I will forever work with Ruby for special occasions. Nothing else compares to having something custom-made that is truly yours, not to mention having it fit perfectly. It’s also worth mentioning that Ruby made four other guests’ dresses for the wedding plus her own. We joked about needing an impromptu Kateri runway show at some point in the night.

My heels were from Paris Georgia, my bag was from The Hold, gifted to me as an engagement present and my dad had bought me a beautiful necklace from Kieroy.

What was your beauty look like on the day?

Kate: Finding hair and makeup artists was one of the more challenging processes. I’m not used to getting my makeup done and wanted an elevated version of my usual self. In the end, a friend put me in contact with two great artists. Kat Bardsley did my makeup – she was so helpful in achieving a natural look that still looked great in photos.

Elly Paynter did my hair. I wanted voluminous curls and she delivered. Both ladies brought great energy on the day! I also had a bunch of sculpting and hydrating facials from Little Company in the lead-up to the wedding. It was the perfect pre-wedding glow-up experience.

What about Henry’s outfit?

Henry: My suit was from P Johnson. Tom, our photographer, set me up with a great contact there. I chose a brown seersucker fabric and an ecru coloured shirt.

Kate wanted to gift me my tie as a wedding present. At the last minute, Ruby thought to make a tie with the leftover fabric from Kate’s dress. She wove the silk and soft green fabric in together to create a texture that tied with the geometry of Kate’s outfit. I loved it.

What did you two do after the ceremony? Tell me about the reception.

Henry: After the ceremony, we moved the guests to Runner Up, a rooftop bar, for some drinks before heading back to Hope Street. The reception was relaxed; we wanted it to feel like a big party. It was stand-up canapés, our favourite cocktails on arrival (gimlets and negronis).

We had three sets of speeches: our best friends Ash and Max, our dads and then our own. We couldn’t have been luckier with the weather and the courtyard space was full of guests soaking up one of the last summery nights before winter.

What did you do for food on the day?

Kate: Hope Street provided us with a list of options, including oysters, bite-sized focaccia and pasta. Lora from Bring Cake made us a lemon and olive oil long cake, which was placed on a bar cart with a custom Kateri cover. We blew out the candles on the cake rather than cutting it, which was fun.

My brother Andy supplied the wine for the night. We had a variety of his wines from Good Intentions, but there were two types he specifically set aside for the wedding that Hygge helped us create custom wine labels for. We had an orange wine which we named ‘Golden Hour’, and a chilled red which we named ‘Flower Moon’. Our wedding was on a full moon, and it has a lovely spiritual meaning about transitioning into new chapters and seeing everything you’ve put effort into begin to bloom, so it felt fitting.

As a late-night snack, we organised 150 cheeseburgers to be delivered from McDonald’s and had custom stickers that said ‘McMarried’, plus we organised cannoli as an extra dessert. Hope Street delivered these to guests on silver platters. Henry claims this was the most stressful thing he had to organise for the wedding but it was definitely worth it.

What about entertainment – did you have a dance floor?

Henry: We were lucky to have Simon TK from Wax’o Paradiso DJ for us once the dance floor kicked off. My cousin, Gus Carmichael, helped organise this and did his own guest set on the night, too.

Kate: For our first dance (something we were both very nervous about, to the point we organised a lesson), we picked the song ‘Take Yo’ Praise’ by Camille Yarbrough. We later realised it’s the track that Fatboy Slim samples for their song ‘Praise You’. Louise, my sister-in-law, sang the Camille version and blended it into Fatboy Slim’s track, which was the cue for all the guests to join us on the dance floor. It worked a treat!

Tell us about the photography. Was there a certain vibe you were going for?

Kate: We pretty much left this up to Thomas! We chatted with him throughout the process about ideas we were considering, like spaces, timing and what he thought would work. He made us both feel so at ease during couple photos and portraits and it felt like we had a friend there capturing the day. We had so many people comment on the day how great he was!

Our friend Ben Dowd from Dazey kindly offered to shoot some short clips of the day as a wedding gift. This was the first professional footage we received after the day and I think we watched it 50 times that week. We loved looking back on the day. Ben also arranged for Madi Brown to capture the reception. We’re so glad we did this because the two halves of the day had quite different vibes, so we’re really happy we have these clips to look back on.

Did you have any other fun or unique quirks about your wedding?

Kate: The space didn’t need a lot but with Hygge’s help, we had a mirror-finish bar sign that sat on a solid block of hammered Mount Gambier limestone (as my family are from there). My dad sourced this and cut the slot out. We also had paper napkins with printed words – one set said ‘How do you like your eggs in the morning?’, a personal joke about how Henry lovingly makes me the most perfectly poached eggs every weekend (it’s a whole process).

Hygge also created two beautiful floral arrangements on the day, one using an oversized vase my parents had given us for our engagement and the other using a piece we had purchased from Ma House.

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

Henry: The whole day was perfect, and nothing felt rushed or overwhelming. The way we had a quiet moment at Ma House with friends and the witness signing, then the smaller ceremony, drinks and then everyone coming together for the reception definitely helped to gradually build up the day.

For more on weddings in Australia, try this.