Letizia and Hunter

Letizia and Hunter

Good morning lovely Polka Dot Bride readers! Today I have a Tweed Heads/Coolangatta wedding to share with you shot by a photographer who makes me laugh. Which on a Wednesday after a public holiday is always a good sign! (It helps that I love his work too!)

An American groom and an Australian bride return to Australia and put a unique Australian flair on their wedding day. As I love a good story, here is Letizia’s (or Tish as she is known) story of how she and Hunter met:

“We  met in Sydney 4 years ago and started dating a year later. My husband Hunter is from Nebraska USA and was studying a the university of NSW. We were introduced by a mutual friend. We danced around the idea of dating for a year before taking the plunge. We did not look back. Hunter was living on a catamaran when we first started dating so spending the night at his place was interesting in the beginning! We now live permanently in the states but returned to Australia for our ‘Australian wedding’. We had 30 international guests and 105 guests total.”

Today’s wedding is shot by Todd Hunter McGaw

Tish hired a graphic designer to create Australian images (featuring gum nuts, roses, gum leaves and flannel flowers) which were turned into stamps. Each invite had the stamp hand applied and hand painted with watercolour. The same stamps were used throughout the wedding on the wedding program, menus, place cards and even save the date card. The invitations were printed on paper stock from Mrs John L Strong by a local printer in Nebraska in brown ink.

Tish wore a silk and Chantilly gown from Strictly Bridal. She wore two pairs of shoes- one by Badgley Mischka and a second pair from Mollini. Tish wore diamond and pearl drop earrings from Wallace Bishop Jewellers and carried a bouquet of Australian natives by Cherub’s Rose Cottage in Main Beach.

After discovering the “Blushing Bride” native Australian flower on the recommendation of her photographer, Tish fell in love with them and used them everywhere- in her hair,  in her bouquet and at the reception.

Tish and Hunter were married at St Joseph’s Church where Tish was baptised, grew up in and went to primary school opposite!. The church was decorated with native Australian flowers in arrangements created by Tish’s mother and nan (who asked her neighbours if she could cut down her gum nuts!)

Tish’s bridesmaids walked down the aisle to “The Time Is Now” by Moloko and Tish walked to her future husband to “Ava Maria”.

Check back soon for Tish and Hunter’s too cool for school (that will make sense soon!) portraits and reception shots!