I recall when The Grounds of Alexandria first opened to the public. It was all the rage amongst Sydneysiders. If you loved a good smashed avocado on toast (myself included), The Grounds was on your bucket list. The Grounds of Alexandria is built within an old 1900’s pie factory, founded by Ramzey Choker. To say that The Grounds is a “popular” location for breakfast or lunch would be an understatement. When the venue opened its doors in 2012, you couldn’t get a seat even if you lined up an hour early! And not long after opening, the wedding bells within the grounds (more like the goats and Kevin Bacon) started singing. It wasn’t long before Sydney’s brides went looking to celebrate their wedding day at the venue, and The Grounds of Alexandria wedding team was ready to welcome them in with open arms…
The Grounds of Alexandria is a collection of gentrified buildings comprising a coffee testing facility and café, and sits surrounded by a garden of seasonal vegetables and herbs. The Grounds offers a holistic approach to food and design, which compliments the buildings beautiful bare brickwork, concrete floors and exposed wooden beams. The construction makes use of recycled materials, found objects and sustainable practices.
The venue also features a collection of farm animals that live on site; including goats, sheep, ducks, and an enormous pig – Kevin Bacon – who was “pig-napped” in 2013 and later found in the Victorian countryside. I was absolutely dumbfounded when I saw the size of this thing in real life – absolutely massive!
So this is the story of Natalie and Matthew. These guys are inner west sweet hearts. Drawn to the design and quality of service that you’ll find at this venue, Natalie and Matthew chose a wedding at The Grounds of Alexandria to celebrate the commencement of their lives together.
We started the day with a ceremony in Penshurst, before continuing their wedding day with photographs at Centennial Park. Despite our forethought, you can’t plan for everything (and believe me we tried), unfortunately, on their day, there was a power outage that caused gridlock in Sydney’s west. We didn’t have much choice but to postpone their Centennial Park wedding photography session to another date a few weeks later. I’ve got to give it to these guys for going with the flow on this. Sometimes, the unexpected can happen, and on your wedding day, it can often be better to trust the mystery. Instead, we went for a small night photography session in the garden at The Grounds. The fairy lights, lush plants and the industrial environment is really awesome! For a few more images and detail on their Centennial Park wedding photos, head on over to this blog post.
Natalie and Matthew were keen for a wedding film, so Zain – a friend of mine, brought some cameras along and recorded an awesome film for them. You can see their highlights and mini-movie below. The Grounds of Alexandria wedding styling is on point, so I’m glad that these two requested a wedding film!
This is the story of Natalie and Matthew – two beautiful souls.
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