A vintage dress, DIY bouquets and spongecake: Inside Scarlet and Stefan’s Sydney wedding

“The day before was probably one of my favourite parts of the whole experience and also the most stressful.”

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.

Model Scarlet Hayes met her now-husband, tattooist Stefan Stjepanovic, the way most people dream of – not through an app, but through friends on a night out. After exchanging numbers and going on a few dates, they quickly became inseparable. Flash forward two years, and Stefan proposed to Scarlet on Valentine’s Day in 2023.

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Having never been to a wedding before, Scarlet’s approach to planning the day was fluid. “I had no expectations of what we ‘had’ to do apart from what I’d seen in movies,” she says. The one thing they were both certain about was honouring Stefan’s family’s background, so their ceremony was held in a Serbian Orthodox Church.

“Organising the venue, catering, music, flowers… It was definitely overwhelming at times as we took a lot on ourselves, but we tried to stick with the mentality that it would all fall into place.” And it did. Scarlet ended up choosing the first wedding dress she tried on – a vintage 1970s dress made in Sweden from Fruitful Bridal, and the couple leaned on friends and family to help out with wedding invitations, flowers and decor.

Scarlet’s friend, Leon, walked her down the aisle, while another (Danny) drove the newlyweds off to the reception in his 1980 Toyota Corona, adorned with ‘just married’ written in lipstick. “I honestly don’t know what we would’ve done without our friends.”

Fashion Journal: Hi Scarlet! Congratulations on your beautiful wedding. Can you walk me through how you and Stefan met, and how you two got engaged?

Scarlet: So Stefan and I first met in April 2023. I’d been in Sydney for just over six months at that point, and we connected through very dear friends on a night out in Sydney. We exchanged numbers and went on a couple of dates. From then on, we were pretty inseparable!

Stefan proposed to me after our Valentine’s Day dinner in 2025. We went to Chester White, had a lot of yummy pasta and wine, and stumbled home together. I could sense Stefan was a bit off throughout dinner, and I had a feeling something was about to happen, though I couldn’t quite place it. I kept asking him what was going on and he would just giggle. On our walk home, Stefan asked me to marry him! It was such a beautiful moment. Of course, I said yes. We kissed, shared a lot of laughs and continued our walk home extremely giddy.

How did you approach wedding planning? Did you take your time with organising, or was it more spontaneous?

Honestly, we had no idea where to start with planning – a lot of it came together as we went along. The one thing we knew we wanted was to have the ceremony in a Serbian Orthodox Church to honour Stefan’s background and family, so once we’d picked the church and organised that side of things, we started planning our reception. Organising the venue, catering, music, flowers… It was definitely overwhelming at times as we took a lot on ourselves, but we tried to stick with the mentality that it would all fall into place, which it did.

I had also never actually been to a wedding before, which also made our day a little more fluid because I had no expectations of what we ‘had’ to do apart from what I’d seen in movies! We just completely did it our way and wanted to keep everything very intimate.

We chose to have the Reception at Balmain Rowing Club, which was beautiful. We’d spent a day driving around to different rowing clubs, sailing clubs, RSLs and bowling clubs in Sydney to get quotes and work out where the best fit would be. The venue was so pretty, you pull up outside a beautiful deck which leads into a large 140- year-old boathouse hall, following out to the balcony which overlooks Cockatoo Island.

We took a very DIY approach with our planning and definitely leaned on our friends to help out with what they could. For example, our dear friend Mike made our wedding invites, bar menu and food labels for the buffet. We drove out to various op shops in the outer suburbs of Sydney, gathering vintage tablecloths, doilies, crystal platters for our grazing plates and salads, vases and little bits and pieces for table decor. We didn’t have a huge budget to work with but wanted to try to keep in line with the organic and garden-style vibe, so we sourced a lot secondhand.

Flowers were the main thing for us in terms of decor! We decided to scope out Flemington Flower Markets the week before to take photos and brainstorm for bouquets and table arrangements. We definitely knew we wanted to stick to lots of earthy greens, small whites such as baby breath and daisies, as well as natives and drieds. I wanted the bridesmaids’ bouquets to feel loose and garden-picked. I also picked up some prairie-style ribbons from a fabric store to tie them off with.

How did you approach setting up for the wedding?

The day before was probably one of my favourite parts of the whole experience and also the most stressful. I think we were at the venue setting up the reception until about 1am! The venue we hired was completely bare, with just the chairs and tables, so we had a lot of work to do. We had all of our closest friends and family helping us get everything together. Everyone was running carloads from our place with the flowers we had picked up from the markets the day before, music equipment, drinks, chair covers, table cloths and all our op shop decor finds while we were setting up the table and chairs, hanging fairy lights and getting the venue together.

Once everything was at the venue, we ordered some pizzas and beers and started on the flowers. We laid everything out on the decking outside the venue and began putting the bouquets together! I honestly don’t know what we would’ve done without our friends. They really helped out and even made my beautiful bouquet, which made it extra special. I definitely learnt that flower arranging is a lot harder than it looks!

With the leftover flowers, Danny and Teddy made a beautiful garland, which we hung from the ceiling beams above the main table! This was one of my favourite parts of the room. It was pretty magical looking back at what we had all created together. We were all in complete awe and felt so excited.

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

It ended up being a total of around 90 guests – a mix of immediate, extended family and close friends. It was the perfect number for the space, as we probably couldn’t have squeezed any more, to be honest!

The ceremony started in the early afternoon at St Lazarus Serbian Orthodox Church in Erskinville. It’s on a beautiful, quiet street covered in vines and has a gorgeous, deep red stairway entrance. I arrived at the church just before the ceremony with my bridesmaids and Leon, who was walking me down the aisle. Stefan had been there for about an hour before with his groomsmen and family, greeting all our guests and running through the ceremony with the priest.

As soon as Stef and I met each other at the altar, we couldn’t stop glancing at each other and beaming. It was so magical in the church with the light shining through the stained glass windows. It still feels like a bit of a dream. We were both nervous leading up to the ceremony and could just feel it all relieved once we were next to each other at the altar. After the ceremony, we all spilled out onto the street, taking photos and sharing lots of hugs and kisses before heading off to the reception.

What did you two do after the ceremony?

After the ceremony, we had planned for one of our best friends, Danny, to drive us off to the reception in his 1980 Toyota Corona, with cans dangling on the back and lipstick on the windshield! The full works – it was very special! One of my bridesmaids was in the front of the car, too, with a bottle of champagne and some glasses for us in the back.

Then we had the reception where our guests danced, drank, ate and chatted for hours! There were speeches, toasts and lots of Rakija (a Serbian brandy)! We ended the night and the next two days at the InterContinental in Coogee Beach. It was very needed to have some quiet time to relax, just the two of us and also lovely to be out of the city.

Where was your wedding dress from, and what was the process of sourcing it?

It’s kind of funny how well the dress, the church and everything went together, considering  I got the dress before we’d planned anything venue-wise! I sourced it from Fruitful Bridal. I knew I wanted something vintage and was looking on Etsy and several different places before stumbling across Lulu’s amazing selection.

I chose a vintage 1970s dress made in Sweden. I loved the midsummer vibe – I just thought it was so unique, the embroidery, sleeves and corseting at the top was so me! I couldn’t get the dress out of my head after seeing it online. I sent it around to my girlfriends, and they all immediately responded, saying yes and that it was so me.

I decided to drive out and try it on with my best friend, Sophia, who was also my Maid of Honour. We went to Lulu’s Studio and tried it on, it fit like a glove. Sophia and I looked at each other, shed a few tears and knew we didn’t have to look any further – it was just perfect.

What was your beauty look like on the day?

I wanted to keep everything really natural. All the bridesmaids and I got ready with some champagne at Sophia’s house the morning of and helped do each other’s make up! I just wanted nice glowy skin, a bit of blush and mascara. I kept my hair messy with a dash of salt spray. I wanted to embrace the midsummer vibe of the dress.

What did you do for food and entertainment? Did you have a cake?

The cake was one of our favourite parts! A good friend of mine recommended Shakira from Sacred Tart and wow! She is a genius and I can’t recommend her enough. My parents had two connecting cakes with two red hearts with their initials and white piping. I wanted to honour that, as I always looked at pictures of it when I was young and wanted something similar when I got married. Our cake was Victoria Sponge (classic British gal) with a Raspberry compote, whipped cream and covered in Swiss meringue buttercream.

As for food, we wanted to have a grazing table. Honestly, I just wanted a bunch of different salads and grilled meats, however, we weren’t allowed a barbecue at the venue, which was our initial idea. We suddenly thought, why don’t we get a bunch of rotisserie chickens and salads from chargrill charlies and present them on the vintage crystal platters we had sourced, and DIY it? It was perfect! It was such an easy option and everyone loved it! We also had lots of home-baked Serbian foods such as Burek, Kifle and Oblande.

How did you capture the wedding? Was there a certain vibe you were going for?

For the photography, we had Sam Venn, who did such an amazing job in capturing our wedding, especially the ceremony! We also asked our friends Amanda Chadwick, Danny Sullivan and Liv Hughes to capture some on their film cameras, as we love their photos and thought it would be special to have a mix of photography styles.

We also had a bunch of disposable film cameras on all the tables at the reception for people to pick and use on their own accord. I highly recommend doing this – it’s super fun to look back on and see different perspectives of the day.

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

As my parents couldn’t make it from the UK due to personal reasons, I asked my dear friend Leon to give me away. I wanted someone who felt like family to take on the role that my dad would’ve done! Leon has been like a big brother to me since I met him through his partner, my best friend and maid of honour, Sophia, back in 2022. It was so special and he was the best stand-in father for the day! It just all felt so right and meant so much to have him by my side when entering the church.

The best thing about this (which was a complete surprise for us) was that my parents had been liaising with Leon and Sophia about Leon reading a poem my Dad had written at the reception when it was time for speeches and toasts (my dad, Martin Hayes, is a writer). I knew Leon had something to say but was taken by complete surprise. They even arranged for Sophia to hand out versions of the poem written in Serbian to those of Stef’s family who weren’t fluent in English.

The poem was extremely special and probably one of the highlights of the day. The whole room was in tears and it just meant so much to have Leon read the words from my dad! It felt like both our worlds had really come together, even though they weren’t able to be there physically.

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

The best part of the day was just being by Stefan’s side the whole time. It all went by so quickly, so having those little moments together in between everything else meant so much. Also, just spending the day with our closest friends and family, I don’t think either of us had ever felt that much love before.

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