Neon jungle wedding in Geelong

The Warehouse, Geelong

for Jules + Josh

Words by Kate Forsyth
Photography by Smitten Wedding Photography

A very common question from prospective event design and styling clients is ‘What’s the difference between each package?’ Instead of telling you with words, we thought we’d show you with the power of photos + a real-life case study of a rad couple who got us on board for The Runaways package.

To refresh your memory hole, The Runaways Package is the package where we create a bomb design for you, but you manage the process. Fabulous bride-to-be Jules loves dealing with people, so she was happy to manage vendors and source the necessary items, while we were in charge of a kick-arse design brief and making it happen on the day.  

Married couple sitting on a floral chair after their ceremony

Getting started

The brief

Wonderful pair Jules + Josh wanted a kick-arse love party, unlike any other wedding they’d seen or been to. They love pink, mid-century modern design + style, neon lights overload, and most of all they wanted their Geelong wedding to be the best party they and their guests had ever been to. Honestly, as a wedding stylist this is the brief you dream of, from a couple that you love from email #1 at an amazing venue.     

This is how we do it. La, la la la, oh.

So, where did we start? With each of our event design and styling packages, we start with a meeting. A meeting of minds and persons. A meandering, lively discussion of what the couple wants for their wedding, but invariably shoots off into a bunch of often hilarious, always unexpected tangents that help us to know you and what makes you tick.

Then we get you to Pinterest, baby! Have a look at a snapshot from Jules + Josh’s Pinterest board ??? – see how it’s a rad mix of weddings they love and non-wedding visuals? This combination of pins allows us further insight into what they love and what visually appeals to them.

 

Married couple sitting on a floral chair after their ceremony

Next, is a site visit. We trekked down to Geelong to see The Warehouse in person, meet the lovely owners and talk turkey with the couple in the space they shall wed.

 

So, Meeting + Pinterest + Site Visit = ???

Creating a concept

Possibly THE most important step of all the steps ever ever. Ever

Combining our fun chats with the couple, plus their wants/needs/desires and dreams, we put together a mood board slash concept as part of their custom event design.

The concept is such a crucial step in the design process, because it ensures we’re all on the same page, and gives us a reference point for everything going forward. It’s a blueprint for the design. It’s a design site map. It’s a direction. It’s just really very important. Have a look at Jules + Josh’s Neon Jungle concept.

moodpboard for a colourful wedding
moodpboard for a colourful wedding

Neon Jungle.

Their concept came together in a whirlwind of heaps-non-traditional-vibes, with pink a plenty, jungle vibes, patterns and dramatic lighting to create a hedonistic, over the top party, offset by the beautiful, classic details of their warehouse venue, The Warehouse Geelong

Floorplan

Once Jules + Josh OK’d the concept, we moved onto the design phase, where we created the floorplan and design for each area and element of the wedding. 

Colourful wedding floor plan

Graphic Design

A big part of all of our client’s designs is always graphic design. It’s one of the very best ways to tie the whole look and feel together, set the scene for your guests, plus it’s really bloody helpful in giving some mild formality to proceedings. When people know what to do / where to go and so forth, they feel relaxed and voila, you’ve created the vibe you wanted #winning!

As Jules + Josh’s wedding was a cocktail extravaganza, they chose The TLC Package.

We went about designing some super rad, totally unique graphic design and event signage for them, and honestly, we loved it as much as they did. Have a browse! 

Colourful wedding floor plan

Super retro / mid-century  / unexpected welcome sign; a decal applied to our glorious Television, the Killer Queen.

bride and groom in outdoor ceremony holding hands
bride and groom in outdoor ceremony holding hands
Precious celebrations celebrant wedding at camp sunny stones
Precious celebrations celebrant wedding at camp sunny stones

The Set-Up

Now we’ll take you through each part of the design and you can see how it all came to life.

Entrance

OK so we need to talk about The Warehouse Geelong. LOOK AT THIS FACADE! It’s such a dream warehouse with a beautiful street frontage that honestly, we could have done nothing here, but we knew that a dynamic couple like Jules + Josh would need a statement entrance.

Jules is known for her perfect lippie-d pout so we chose a mix of lips + heart foil balloons (thanks to The Confetti Room) to create a creeping entrance on the brick wall plus of course the TV with custom decal.

A totally rad and unexpected entrance to set the tone for the decadent, party wedding of the year. And given it was in Jan this year, there’s almost NO chance there will be a wedding to outdo this one.  

Precious celebrations celebrant wedding at camp sunny stones
Precious celebrations celebrant wedding at camp sunny stones

One of my personal favourite touches is the pink festoons, spied through the open door. A small but interesting take on the oft-used festoon lighting at weddings.

Welcome! Have some juice!

The unexpected touches kept coming, with a set-up of Bae Juice – an alleged hangover preventer.

Using a combo of our vintage furniture and props with a mid-century flavour, mixed with dried florals, signage + neon, the welcome drink made a statement all of its own; have this Bae Juice because you’re gonna need it; this party is going to be LOOSE!

Precious celebrations celebrant wedding at camp sunny stones
bride and groom in outdoor ceremony holding hands
Precious celebrations celebrant wedding at camp sunny stones

Ceremony

When people say they don’t care about their wedding ceremony and just want it over and done with, it makes me a bit sad. It’s the main event people, so let’s make it RAD!

Given Jules + Josh’s ceremony was to happen in the same space as their reception, it was important the design didn’t require too much re-jigging and moving post-ceremony because it had to be done with 200 guests right there. Taking this into account, as well as creating something special, personalised and with a double use (it was to become the DJ booth), we created a striking but non-fussy ceremony.

One of the most fun features was a 20m long pink glitter aisle. Beautiful symmetry helped create a polished look, and the mix of pink + mid-century vibes brought the fun and relaxed vibes. The greenery installation and neon sign along with the overhead and wall-mounted scallop shapes tied everything together. And let me tell you, you could FEEL the energy amongst their guests. They knew that much time, care and money had been invested in this wedding and so they were invested too!    

Precious celebrations celebrant wedding at camp sunny stones
ceremony set up at camp sunny stones bacchus marsh
ceremony set up at camp sunny stones bacchus marsh
bride and groom in outdoor ceremony holding hands
Precious celebrations celebrant wedding at camp sunny stones
ceremony set up at camp sunny stones bacchus marsh
bride and groom walking back down the aisle

Every. Single. Detail is thought of. Notice the confetti is colour blocked? Gold on the left, blue and pink on the right? We chose single colour confetti cannons to create a cool effect upon the ‘husband + wife’ moment! The design contained lots of colour blocking rather than a mismatched vibe, so it made sense to align even the confetti cannons to this vibe.

Bar

Well actually, bars plural! With one on either side of the entrance, the symmetry continued and our graphic design + neons stole the show. We also brought the marble-look facade of the bar in line with the rest of the design, adding curved shapes in the colours you can see throughout the design. We pride ourselves too on the little touches – like the hot pink string used to rig up the bar signs. Magic, if we do say so ourselves! 

lounge set up with tipi for a wedding
lounge set up with tipi for a wedding
lounge set up with tipi for a wedding
milk crates vintage wedding

Reception

Jules and Josh’s wedding was the antithesis of the traditional wedding reception. Every part of it was considered to create the jubilant, hedonistic and personalised vibe to honour this ace couple. No formality, no tables and chairs/set seating, no white linen or stuffiness.

Instead, a neon coloured wonderland for their 200 guests to float around in, eat, drink, lounge, sit, dance or chat. The crisp white warehouse with its timber accents, polished concrete floors and super sleek finish offset the intensity of the wedding’s design and kept the overall look and feel fresh and fun AF.

An epic neon wall created the funniest photobooth backdrop, scalloped shapes from the exposed beams and creeping up from the floor of the feature wall were all touches that blended to create this joyous set-up.

signing table / tarot card table vintage wedding
Carnival set up at a wedding
Carnival set up at a wedding
Carnival set up at a wedding
Carnival set up at a wedding
Carnival set up at a wedding
signing table / tarot card table vintage wedding
signing table / tarot card table vintage wedding
Carnival set up at a wedding
signing table / tarot card table vintage wedding
signing table / tarot card table vintage wedding

Result? Love Party of the Year!

This photo tells the story of the epic party this wedding was. The wonderful couple and their guests having the actual best time ever. Argh! We love them forever!

???? 

Melbourne Neon wedding

Grazing table

Why not make a feature of the epic grazing table? Using our cool pink trestle and creating custom food flags both for radical cuteness + usefulness, this spot was so popular!

Carnival set up at a wedding
Carnival set up at a wedding
Carnival set up at a wedding
signing table / tarot card table vintage wedding
signing table / tarot card table vintage wedding

A few words from the gorgeous couple!

Our relationship started when we both made a mistake when buying a festival ticket.  Our stupidity bought us together, but our smarts kept us together!

A friend of the groom fell asleep on the toilet, pants down, at the end of the night…  and the photo made the rounds!  We truly feel for the unlucky bugger who made that discovery, but we thank them for immortalizing the moment!  (And would you believe this was not the first time he’s been found in that exact situation at a wedding?)

The best moment would have to have been when we were both picked up simultaneously by a few of our mates and put on their shoulders to rock out whilst “Mr Brightside” by The Killers was booming from the speakers.  We both had a drink in hand, were brought to the middle of the dancefloor and then met in front of the “’til death” neon sign which made for stellar photos (and also made us both feel like absolute rock stars).

Netflix and chill.

Josh would give up Jules if he could own legendary horse ‘Winx” or for Zooey Deschanel.
Jules would give up Josh for a 6’2″ version of Josh or for Khal Drogo.

Spending a long weekend, totally unplugged in Cradle Mountain in Tassie for Jules’ 30th.  We spent our days exploring the forest and making mates with the local animals, and the nights eating pasta, drinking red wine and watching a Chinese dating show on an old TV with a grainy picture.  Paradise!

Josh wears thongs at inappropriate times (like, in the middle of winter). Jules follows recipes to a T.  If the recipe calls for a “pinch of salt”, Jules Googles “how much is a pinch of salt?”

Jules – I wouldn’t change a THING about the day, but I would change the fact that I got a little stressed during the best man speech.  The speech was a little later than expected, meaning the crowd was a little more drunk/rowdy than expected.  I was distracted by those naughty 10 guests out of 190 who were chatting loudly at the back of the room and wasn’t as engaged as I should have been.  LUCKILY my god-mother went old-school and brought her Camcorder along on the night, so I’ve been able to watch the speech and take in all its glory.  Oh, and I also wouldn’t accidentally smash my bottle of new, unused, $250 perfume before I got a chance to give myself a good old spray.

Josh – “Nothin'”.

Initially, we were super keen on renting mid-century furniture for our big day, which leads us to Good Day Club.  But after meeting Kate and Dave, and hearing everything that Good Day Club has to offer, we “drank the cool-aid” if you will and were HOOKED!  We got awesome vibes from Kate and Dave personally (and Stevie when we met her down the track), and were also pretty gobsmacked at their creative genius-ness (is that even a word)?  After meeting them, the excitement around what could be achieved kicked in, and we knew there was no way we could get “mazzed” without them!

Firstly – be decisive!  Pick a direction and stick with it.  We are super decisive, so the whole planning experience was awesome.  These days, with so much “noise” out there on Pinterest, Instagram, etc. there are SO MANY OPTIONS and so many chances to get overwhelmed.  Know what you want and go after it.

Secondly, surround yourself with LEGENDS when it comes to suppliers.  The whole wedding experience should be awesome, so the lead up is just as important as the day.  Working with people who are just super cool (like Good Day Club) makes every second AMAZING!

Carnival set up at a wedding
signing table / tarot card table vintage wedding
signing table / tarot card table vintage wedding
grooms mum butter cream cake on a purple pillar

Radical vendors who made it happen

Design, styling, furniture hire, neon hire, graphic design: Good Day Club | Photography: Smitten Wedding Photography | Film: Weekend Films | Venue: The Warehouse Geelong | Balloons: The Confetti Room | Catering: Fourside Events, Richmond Oysters, The Hippie Whippy | Celebrant: Nat Sproal Celebrant| Confetti Cannons: Geelong Fireworks | Til Death Neon: Custom Neon | Bride’s dress: Karen Willis Holmes | Groom’s suit: MJ Bale | Hair + Make-up: Hilary Holmes Makeup + Ash Craperi Hair | Favours: Bae Juice

 

WANT CUSTOM STYLING AND DESIGN AT YOUR EVENT?

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33/180 Fairbairn Rd, Sunshine West VIC 3020

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