Teresa and Paul

What a stunning wedding Teresa and Paul had! A morning celebration so they could eat, drink and mingle with their guests before spending the sunset in a beautiful forest having photographs taken to commemorate their day,

Teresa recalls how she and Paul met. “We met while playing a friendly game of Ultimate Frisbee on the Gold Coast. We quickly became good friends through our love of spending quality time together and thrashing out the deeper questions of life. Paul helped me through many tough times and we bonded very quickly and deeply. After we were friends for a year, we realised our bond was stronger than just mere friendship. We started dating and Paul proposed on our year and a half anniversary.”

Paul Bamford shot the photographs today and oh my gosh- his forest captures are completely stunning! What a way with light he has! I think he has made really beautiful images for Teresa and Paul today!

The girl’s hair was styled by Tony Walker with their makeup by Amy Jones.

The bride bought her dress on Ebay, her shoes were ones she’d wore as a bridesmaid for a friend’s weddings and she made the bouquets with her bridesmaids the night before the wedding.

Paul designed the stationery himself. Teresa and Paul were married at Hinterland Baptist Church, Worongary. Teresa walked down the aisle to “Just The Way You Are”  a Boyce Avenue cover, the same song that was playing when Paul proposed to Teresa.

The groom wore a suit custom made by a Thailand tailor and the groom and groomsmen wore ties from David Jones.

Teresa remarks “Our whole day was injected with love and laughter. At our ceremony, the vows which included traditional and modern vows were written by us which had some funny and personal details of our relationship. Both of us love God and we imitated Jesus by washing each other’s feet, which is a demonstration of love and laying down our lives to serve each other all the days of our lives. When I took Paul’s socks off, he wrote ‘I love you’ on it!”

Guests had s surprise in store for them at the end of the ceremony, Teresa recalls “At the end of the ceremony, we made up a surprise dance with our bridal party to exit out the door, with moves from Michael Jackson’s thriller, the movie Hitch and we congo out of the church. We had some hilarious moves that got the crowd laughing to tears and created a great atmosphere to start the reception.”

The couple held their reception in a downstairs events room of the church and decorated it themselves. Theresa says “I really enjoyed being able to add my creativity to our wedding. I loved the process and we were blessed to have so many people helping us bring our creativity to life. We loved the spring theme, with lots of fresh flowers and touches of pale yellow.”

Of their timing for the day, Teresa explains “We had the ceremony at 11:30am, reception straight after at 12:30pm, photos at 3:30pm, and the bridal party and I were back at our house by 6pm. We didn’t want a long drawn out day and wanted to spend the evening with the closest people to us. We decided to have the photos taken after the reception and many of our guests commented that they appreciated not having to wait for a long time while we got our photos taken.”

So many details were handmade, Teresa remarks “We made origami hearts to decorate the reception area, props for the photobooth, a photo wall that was made in the shape of a heart and gingerbread men with each guests’ names and a personalised note attached as favours. Since our wedding, many of our guests have commented how much they liked the attention to detail and beautiful decorations that really demonstrated our personalities. Zoe, who is studying to be a wedding planner, also added her creative touches to the ceremony that came together beautifully.”

The wedding cake was made by Teresa’s sister in law Jenny.

Teresa describes the day as “Personal, fun, creative, casual, authentic and is a great representation of our personalities.”

Music was a big part of the reception says Teresa. “We have many musicians among our friends and a few of them played and sang us songs that were dedicated to us. One good friend of ours changed the words to a song that told the story of our relationship… It was a very special moment!” Michael Eotvos was just one of the artists.

The spontaneous first dance turned into one of Teresa’s favourite memories. She recalls “We didn’t have any intention of doing the first dance as we didn’t value that tradition in weddings. But after a bridesmaid’s prompting, my husband grabbed my hands and asked me to dance. I’m glad we did because it turned out to be a memorable moment for us, and the photos really captured it too.”

Even leaving the reception was fun. “At the end of the reception, all the guests made an archway for us to leave, it was a great way to let everyone see us off.”

Teresa says “Having our ceremony and reception at the same venue was a real blessing, so that the guests didn’t have to travel to the reception. We decided to have the photos taken after the reception and many of our guests commented that they appreciated not having to wait for a long time while we got our photos taken. We wanted our photos to be real, fun and relaxed, just like us. So lawn bowls was a great option for our photos. Paul captured some fantastic facial expressions from our bridal party. And we loved the park and rainforest theme from our engagement shoot, so we really loved the photos taken at the tree forest near our house, the afternoon gave the photos such a beautiful glow also.”

Of their photographer, Teresa says “We did a shoot with him for our engagement a few months before the wedding, so we felt very comfortable with him and loved his creative style. We wanted our wedding photos to tell a story of the day, with a variety of creative input from us. Paul was always encouraging and supportive of our creative ways, and loved that we think outside the box, like he did. We loved bouncing off ideas with him. He is always calm, friendly, and professional. He totally captured our day to the T. We are a big fan of his work and would happily recommend him to anybody for any event.”

The bridesmaids wore black gowns from Events.

The photographs were just right to end the day, Teresa says. “We played lawn bowls for the first part of our photos, which captured some great moments of us being silly. Then we went to this beautiful rainforest with long tree trunks, the afternoon rays were just shining through, which created beautiful photos.”

The hungry bride and groom devoured a treat on their wedding night. Teresa recalls “On the way home from the photos, Paul and I picked up pizza at our local pizza shop in our wedding dress and suit. Unbeknownst to me, one of my students that I teach was working behind the counter!”

Congratulations Teresa and Paul! Thank you for sharing your wedding day on Polka Dot Bride! Thank you also to Paul Bamford for sharing today’s photographs with us!