Brad and Jess

My partner and I have been together over seven years now.  We first met in high school at a school fete… we often joke that it was “fate at the fete”. In the many years leading up to our engagement, I moved towns to live together, we bought a house, Brad finished his trade and I finished university. It was an obvious step to officially commemorate our commitment to each other with our engagement. I absolutely loved the wedding planning process and would do it over and over again!

The first supplier that we chose was a photographer as we wanted someone who could capture our special moments to create memories that will last a lifetime.  We booked Andrea Sproxton almost 2 years in advance, she probably thought we were crazy!

Next was our celebrant, Shona Anderson which seemed meant to be as she had just moved to the Sunshine Coast from Toowoomba. Perfect! As soon as we booked The Headland Golf Club, Cloud 9 fell into place to provide the cake, flowers, ceremony and reception decorations.

My wedding dress was quite a mission but luckily Quilly from Valentine Bride (Toowoomba Designer) was amazingly patient and helpful… One tip… try on dresses in a similar size to what you are… My first dress was a size 14 in the shop and needed to be ordered in a size 6. The detail in the size 14 sat around my waist, however, when my size 6 dress arrived, little did I realise, when scaled down actually sat just under my bust. I was devastated, however, with some more trying on of dresses (yipee) and a little tweaking of the details, a completely new dress was ordered.

The bridal car was an easy choice, my step-dad has a Valiant which has been used for a lot of other weddings within the family and it always looks classic, without trying too hard. However, we did lash out with a stretch Territory Limo to take our bridal party for photos thanks to GG Limos!

Our bridal party consisted completely of family members… I see a lot of people’s weddings (including my parents!) where you look back and don’t have much to do with those people that were in your bridal party. As I have quite a large family and we all get along really well it was an easy choice.  My matron of honour was my eldest step sister Elise and my bridesmaids were my step sister Samantha and my sister in law Kayla. The best man was Brad’s brother Dan and the groomsmen were my older brother Peter and my brother in law Terry.

My step father Bruce walked me to the aisle from the car and I had my oldest brother Scott walk me down the aisle, as my father passed away when I was 8. This scenario was suggested by our celebrant Shona as a more logistical way than having one man on each arm. I thought it was a great idea!

 

Shona also put special mention into the ceremony of the borrowed, old, new and blue items that I was wearing.  I wore diamond studs given to my Mum from my father for their anniversary (and my birth), a blue sapphire ring which was Brad’s grandmothers and a brooch from an old family friend. My best friend did a reading and we got both of our parents to stand to give us “to  each other”.  There is nothing that I would change about the ceremony.

The time spent away on our bridal party photo shoot was so much fun, and much more relaxed and is clearly evident in the photos, especially with the boys (beers in hand).

Although planning a “destination wedding” meant that we couldn’t put as many personal touches in as we would have liked, Cloud 9 made things so much easier, providing pretty much a one-stop shop. Julieanne from Cloud 9 is amazing. However, we did manage to put together our own bonboniere, the table board (made from a canvas wrapped in gift wrap) and the table numbers (courtesy of bunnings, some glue & some paint!). I also tested out my sewing skills and made a “thanks” bunting for use on our thank you cards.

All of a sudden, the day has been and gone! Although I read so much advice and so many tips I can not emphasise enough how important it is to try and sit back and enjoy the moment… I found this really difficult to do as I am a self proclaimed “stress head”… but that would be my number one tip… Don’t worry about the little things, no one will notice. There seems to be so much expectation with weddings now… with such a range in budgets, the most important thing to remember is at the end of the day you will be married, I think people get caught up in the hype and forget that.

Photography by Andrea Sproxton

Ms Gingham says: What a beautiful and relaxed day! I love that the cake, flowers and decor were all done by one vendor! Congratulations Brad and Jess!

Jess says: “My husband and I have been together for seven years! I think that’s pretty special nowadays :)”