Couple are roaring back to the 1920s

By Tania Martin
AN EMERALD couple has stepped back in time to celebrate their nuptials in a 1920s style garden party.
The couple, Michael Reed and Irene Soon, recently purchased the Sycamore Lodge on Emerald’s Nobelius Hill and wanted to recreate a bit of 1920s magic.
Mr Reed said like many houses on Nobelius Hill, Sycamore Lodge is heritage listed and was originally part of the Emerald Country Club 1920s estate sub-division.
The lodge featured in the Australian Home Beautiful Magazine in 1928 and the couple wanted to share the beauty of the homestead with their friends and family on their special day. Following a church service at St Augustines in Bourke Street on Saturday, 9 December, the couple invited their guests back to the lodge for an old fashioned garden party.
“We wanted to recreate some of the magic of the 1920s,” Mr Reed said.
The wedding party arrived in style in 1920s cars, which drove Michael and Irene from the city to the hills.
Keeping to the 1920s vintage theme, Irene, 30, wore a dress made by Michael’s mother, Marj, who has been making costumes for years.
Mr Reed said moving to Emerald last year from North Melbourne has signified his family’s return to the Dandenong Ranges.
His ancestors settled in the ranges and now he has returned to begin his married life in Emerald.
Mr Reed says the original architect of the lodge would be pleased to see the return of the Great Gatsby style garden parties, which is what the wedding was set around.