Wedding Blog > Real Weddings

Mrs & Mrs Callaway Surprise Wedding at Melbourne's trendy The Boatbuilders Yard.

All the invited guests thought they were surprising Sarah for her 30th Birthday. Plot Twist! It was actually Sarah & Amy surprising their guests with their Wedding Day! *We have the butterflies*.

After speaking with the new wifeys, Sarah & Amy's special day sounded like a wedding celebration anyone would want to attend! The sheer joy from family, friends, the couple and vendors, is exactly why we love a wedding, even if it's a surprise!

Be inspired by this trendy waterside real wedding, hosted at Melbourne city's The Boatbuilders Yard, you will love the abundance of blush florals, matching balloon garland, neon signs, matching denim jackets and all the smiles this big surprise created!

The couple WON a $1K Wedding Photography Voucher via ABIA Weddings

We met Sarah & Amy through ABIA Weddings BAG (Brides and Grooms) Competition, which we have been hosting and helping make dreams come true since 2013.

The beautiful couple were generously gifted with a $1,000 voucher from the multi-ABIA Awarded & seriously talented wedding photographer, Doux Wedding Corp. (Doux Wedding Corp (VIC) is currently giving away 10 Winners a $1K voucher in the ABIA Wedding Competition)

How did you both meet?

As said by the Celebrant "Let’s cast our minds all the way back to the year 2017, Malcolm Turnbull is prime minister, the Tigers won the grand final and Jason Derulo has a #1 hit, a magical time! What else was magical was that these two people we are looking at today were about to meet for the first time. It turns out that Sarah is friends with Amy’s cousins Em and Steph and through this connection their paths would cross at various shindigs.

Where these two great people would finally converse would be on Amy’s family house boat. Sarah attended as a plus one with Amy’s cousin. Now, if we are being honest here today, which we are, at this point Amy was interested. She was starting to do a bit of Facebook stalking on Sarah’s profile, just keeping an eye on things.

Flash forward 18 months and Sarah gate crashed another family do. Amy was excited to see her and the great thing was that they picked up exactly where they left off, getting on like a house on fire. Like any good family function, after a few drinks they ended up at CQ nightclub!

How they disguised the Surprise Wedding?

"We decided to throw Sarah a surprise 30th birthday party turned surprise wedding. Everyone knows Sarah is the organised one who loves a good spreadsheet and can’t keep a secret to save her life. However the venue and suppliers where booked in February 2020, we bought our dresses in May 2020 and then all the fun began. Sarah designed her own “surprise 30th invitation” which were sent out in December.

Fast forward to the the moment our guests arrived. Anything wedding was out of sight. Instead, we had the birthday backdrop with the Neon 30 Sign and Balloon Garland, 30th Birthday Cake and cookies on display, the custom Thirty Drinks Menu and Sarah’s birthday wrists bands, the guests where told Sarah was about to arrive with her friends thinking she was arriving to a dinner, and all our guests ready to yell SURPRISE!

A few moments later the band started and the doors swing open and in walks our flower girl and page boy followed by Amy’s Bridal Party and then Amy. The roar of the crowd was insane (this gives ABIA the chills! how romantic!). I still think the guests' brains hadn’t registered it wasn’t a surprise birthday anymore but in fact a WEDDING!

The band changed the song and then Sarah’s and her Bridal Party enter. The first moment we had set eyes on each other. It was honestly just a blur after that, we whispered to each other during most of the ceremony trying to calm each other. We exchanged personal vows and sealed it with a kiss."

From Birthday Party to Wedding Reception

"While we snuck off for photos, all the wedding things got put out like the wedding cake, cookies, thank you gifts, the bar menus changed over, we got some quick family photos, 30 minute photos around the venue with the bridal party, then we wanted to get back into our party and celebrate with our loved ones."

What was your wedding day like?

"Honestly, it was the most incredible day with so many tears from our guests. The next day, Amy’s dad threw an After Party so people could congratulate us.

All of our guests said it was hands down the best wedding they have ever been to, they said the food was incredible (cocktail style) with welcome drinks and grazing boards.

The venue staff remembered everyone's orders so it was ready before you even got to the bar. Guests said the band was so incredible with such a variety of genres and just so much fun!

Can you share some Wedding Advice?

Our advice for anyone getting married is to pick your vendors to match exactly what tone you want your wedding day to be.

All our vendors knew we just wanted a big party! We didn’t want to spend hours getting photos and missing out on spending it with our guests.

Also, make sure you and your partner are on the same page of your vision and what you want your guests and you to feel on the day. We wanted our day to feel like us!

We wanted our guests to walk away and be like "that was the most epic wedding we have ever been to".

For weeks after the wedding, we were still getting messages from our guests thanking us and they were so genuinely grateful for being invited because they knew we invited them with purpose and not just because it was the right thing to do.

Also, trust us in saying try and find room in the budget to get a videographer to get all those feels all over again as everything on the day is a blur and you forget all the little things.

Where did you get married?

The Boatbuilders Yard - South Wharf Melbourne

What was most important to you both on your wedding day.

When my wife and I (god I’ll never get sick of saying that) discussed what we imagined our wedding to be like, we both agreed that we wanted the day to include our nearest and dearest who have been apart of our lives to celebrate our love.

We wanted the wedding day to be filled with full hearts, happy tears, dancing and of course in true Tatie and Amy style,lots of alcohol.

The reason we decided for the wedding to be a surprise is because we wanted to make everyone there realise they had been hand-picked to celebrate our love.

Who were your favourite wedding vendors and why?

We honestly can’t pick! Everything was perfect from our Bridal Hair & Makeup, to our Celebrant, Perfect Wedding Venue, Live Band, Melbourne Wedding Photographer and Videographer! Although, the flowers did far exceed our expectations, it was the most magical backdrops of flowers.