Elysia and Glen

What do you get when you combine paper pinwheels and wedded bliss? It appears you’ll get the fun, whimsical Byron Bay celebration of Elysia and Glen. A day that was truly infused with fun, personal details and plenty of paper pinwheels! Pull up a chair, pour yourself a glass of Pimms and enjoy this splendid summer garden party!

Elysia and Glen met over their love of music. Elysia explains, “We met via our shared love of music. I’m a singer and I was seeking a saxophone and keyboard player for my band and when I heard Glen play at Good Vibrations festival I asked our mutual friends for his phone number to ask him if he could play on a demo I was recording. We became friends and wrote music together for many months before we fell in love.”

Photographs today are by You Can’t Be Serious– I love how Hailey & co capture the fun, the silly and the giggle-worthy! What a splendid recollection of a wedding day to behold. Dan Macarthur shot a film of the day.

Glen wore a suit from Matteo Di Rota from XILE Brisbane with shoes by Vero Cudio. His two groomsmen hired suits from Strictly Formal Hire.

Elysia wore a strapless gown by Hilde Heim paired with vintage jewels she found on eBay. The bridesmaids wore blue gowns from Light In The Box with shoes from Joanne Mercer.

Hair & makeup was styled by Jo Twidale.

Elysia and Glen held their wedding and reception at Coorabella, Coorabel Byron Bay. Elysia recalls “We had an amazing time looking for a wedding venue. We visited many incredible private properties in the Byron Bay hinterland over many fun weekends. We had no idea how the other half lived! When we found Coorabella we knew it was for us. It’s an old farmhouse done up by 2 artists – a stylist and a jewellery designer. It’s an incredible mix of eclectic art from their world travels, over the top glamour and boho chic. It had the perfect old fig tree and gardens for us to get married and have our lawn games in, a tepee, a view of the sunset over the hinterland and a beautiful old house with wide verandahs and an interior full of treasures for the reception.”

Friends of the couple Jeff & Jill sang before the ceremony.

Elysia’s grandfather played the bagpipes as Elysia walked down the aisle. Elysia recalls “My 82 year old  grand father, Dah who I love dearly came over from New Zealand and played the bagpipes. He piped me down the aisle in his kilt and full Scottish regalia, there wasn’t a dry eye amongst us all! He chose the song – Highland Cathedral.”

Estelle Montlouis of The French Petal styled the floral arrangements.

Elysia and Glen were married by Zenith Virago. Elysia remarks “On the recommendation of our celebrant Zenith we wrote our own vows, which we kept secret from each other. She recommended that I read my vows first because I was most likely to cry. But instead of crying, I just had this crazy happy grin on my face like the cat who got the cream the whole time, I just loved the ceremony so much. Glen teared up with emotion when he read his vows to me and I felt so incredibly special because I could tell how much our relationship meant to him and how close we had become over the 8 years we’d been together. The amazing thing was, our vows were so similar even though we wrote them secretly. We both mentioned the things we loved about each other, what we were grateful to each other for and our shared dreams for the future. This made me realise what a great team we are and lucky I am to have one of my best friends as my husband.”

Elysia’s grandmother’s cameo brooch was pinned to her bouquet. Elysia recalls “My  Pop had given the brooch to her as a gift on their wedding day. In this tradition, my husband Glen gave me pearls as a wedding gift the morning of our wedding. I gave him cuff links which were handmade from Etsy with miniature vintage map of the Byron Bay region”

Elysia describes the day as “Vintage glamour meets DIY summer garden party.” Fox Lane Quartet entertained guests while they sipped mojitos and played garden games. Elysia says “Mum and my Step Dad Barry found driftwood and made signs for our lawn games Petanque, Kubb and Totem Tennis.”

Of their photographers, Elysia says “We were looking for the aesthetic we’ve seen on many creative wedding blogs like Style Me Pretty and Polka Dot Bride –  documentary style shots bursting with life, colour and quirky detail. They felt like our friends when we met them and captured our day perfectly. They also make movies and run a great project called 365 grateful and have 2 gorgeous girls. Is there anything they can’t do?”

Elysia remarks “DIY was my middle name! I had so much fun creating and planning the DIY touches for our wedding. I just wished I could have quit work and planned it full time, that’s how much fun I had. We also had so many of our friends and family help us to create our day.”

Elysia says “My incredibly talented Mum spent weeks making handmade paper pinwheels as our centrepieces. We handmade our invitations and I spend hours scouring the net for vintage crystal vases, jars, paper straws, peacock feathers, bunting and decorations. Even our table cloths and ribbon around the napkins were made from rolls of fabric we hand picked from Spotlight.”

The reception was catered by Fig Trees Catering.

The reception was styled by Estelle Monlouis from The French Petal  & Rachel Temily from Coorabella.

Elysia’s step mother made the yellow and white daisy inspired cake.

Elysia notes “Dad even made a silly power point presentation full of embarrassing childhood photos of us and silly stories. We’ve played at so many weddings as the “wedding band” and this helped us to really know what we did and didn’t like about wedding decorations, so making it as quirky, hand made and fun as possible was our aim.”

Elysia remarks “Our wedding was just a lot of fun. From our decision to sing to each other instead of a first dance, to the silly photos we have of us all laughing all day long. Everywhere we looked someone we loved had contributed to our day in a creative way. What was also special was that our whole bridal party and us hired a completely over the top rock star mansion in the hills and spent 4 nights relaxing during and after the wedding to get into the “Byron vibe.” We had a family BBQ the night before and a Sunday recovery brunch by the beach so we could spend time connecting with all our loved ones.”

For a twist on the first dance, Elysia and Glen sang it – to their guests! Elysia recalls “As we are musicians we decided the first dance just wasn’t for us, so we played everyone a song. Glen’s groomsmen Gav and Wil both played guitar, Glen played keys and we both sang to each other. It was “Home” by Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros. A duet about how home is wherever I’m with you.”

Congratulations on the next stage of your lives together Elysia and Glen! Thank you for sharing your wedding day with us on Polka Dot Bride! Thank you also to You Can’t Be Serious for today’s photographs!