Eleanor and Jason’s Hamilton Island Wedding

 Eleanor & Jason

A destination wedding on Hamilton Island might be just the ticket for the cold weather blues I know many are experiencing this week. Eleanor and Jason chose somewhere special to them for their wedding locale, Eleanor explaining, “I have been to Hamilton Island many times over the years, and it was always a special place. In fact, 7 years ago, a long time before Jason came along, I looked at that little white chapel on the hill and told my friends I was going to get married there, so I did! Jason was very happy with the decision too, he much preferred a tropical island, than the winery’s I was looking at when we were originally thinking of getting married in Melbourne, where we live. In his words long after the decision was made, was “why would I want to get married in a winery, I don’t even like wine”!

We actually met online! After a few weeks of emails, we finally met up at Little Creatures on Brunswick St Melbourne, and we hit it off straight away!”

Wesley Beelders captured today’s beautiful images!

“We did all the stationery ourselves, which had a travel theme. We sent out save the dates shaped as airline tickets, our proper invitations were presented as passports, and our RSVP cards were luggage tags! We also did our own menus, place cards and table plan. I am proud that we could do it all ourselves, but it was certainly very time consuming, so there were a few stressful tears along the way, but as long as you give yourself plenty of time, it doesn’t have to be that way, and so rewarding at the end.”

Eleanor chose a strapless gown by Mariana Hardwick. Noting, “It was so hard finding a store that I felt I could choose a number of dresses, not just finding one if I was lucky! Beautiful dresses, made in Melbourne.”

For the processional, Eleanor remembers, “My bridesmaids and myself walked down the aisle to ‘Beloved One’, by Ben Harper. Such beautiful lyrics, it had a few people in tears! ” The ceremony was held at All Saints Chapel.

Of their photographer, Eleanor tells,  “He did a great job, above and beyond what we could have hoped for. There are so many wedding photographers out there, but there are few who I believe are really talented. We were even very lucky to be able to use him, because Hamilton Island is actually a private island and you need a license to work up there. We originally were told we couldn’t use anyone external (they have there own photographers) but they ended up making an exception in this case. ”

“We headed up a week before the wedding and told our 79 guests that they were more than welcome to join us, and many of them did! It was so nice sharing the lead up to the wedding with them, especially on a tropical island! It really allowed us to catch up with people properly, because on the day itself it is almost impossible to get around to everyone to say hello, let alone have a decent conversation with them.”

“A special moment was when Jason stole me away from the reception for 5 minutes just to have a moment together to take it all in. The day flies by, and you just have to stand there sometimes and watch it, otherwise you might end up with great memories of the two of you, but not everyone else.”

Hamilton Island Yacht Club was chosen for the reception, Eleanor noting, “We had our reception at the Hamilton Island Yacht Club, Ketter and Cutch rooms, and it was amazing! Such beautiful views out over the water and there was a deck that our guests could go out on, which is where they had canapés and watched the sunset whilst we had our photos taken. Everyone keeps telling us how amazing the food was there too, and it was! Everything was simply delicious, it turned into a highlight for us!”

“My 80 year old Nanna, who was petrified of flying, and couldn’t fly alone was determined to come up. It wasn’t until about a month before the wedding that my Aunty (who couldn’t take any time off work) decided she also had to come, so they flew up Saturday, and flew home Sunday, that’s an enormous effort for anyone, let alone someone petrified of flying, 80 and not very well! Also, Jason (who is South African) had a surprise guest from South Africa that we managed to keep a secret right until the end. It was so good to surprise him like that, he was so happy! I wished we had kept a few more a secret!”

“There were a few “traditions” that we didn’t have, and the first dance was one of them. Some people were a bit shocked by what we were leaving out (particularly the first dance and no cake!), but we don’t think anything was lacking on the day, and if anything allowed people to really enjoy themselves and let their hair down early on, as we got the formalities out of the way quite quickly!”

Congratulations Eleanor and Jason! Thank you for sharing your day with us! Thank you also to Wesley Beelders for sharing today’s images with us!