Leigh & Talitha's Classic Brisbane Wedding

Leigh and Talitha

Leigh and I met at Film school in Brisbane and were friends throughout the 3 year course. During third year, I produced a short film which Leigh edited and our friend Tarren directed so we spent a lot of time together. We started dating at the end of the degree. Shortly after, we moved to Sydney together to pursue our careers in the industry. After we got engaged, we were adamant that we wanted to go back to Brisbane to get married so that we could celebrate with all our friends and family. We found that we had a lot of people coming to Brisbane for the wedding from interstate and internationally so we wanted a venue where we could have both the ceremony and the reception. That’s where the Brisbane International Hotel Virginia came in. They were great! We had the ceremony in the same room as the reception and had everyone sitting around tables for the whole time. It saved us money to have the ceremony in the same location as the reception and everyone appreciated not having to travel from the ceremony to the reception. We also stayed at the hotel (including everyone who had travelled to come to the wedding) so we made a whole weekend of it with our bridal party. We had so much fun making a really relaxed time of it. Our parents were so generous and helpful throughout the whole engagement too. I can’t thank them enough for every way they helped.

I had to plan our entire wedding from Sydney via email and phone so I wasn’t able to do the fun things like cake tastings or flower picking but we made sure that we made very clear plans with each of the companies we booked through. On the day, I had a folder with me with all the important emails printed out and highlighted in case anyone didn’t deliver what had been organised etc. A friend of one of my bridesmaids did our hair and our makeup was done by Kate Witherington. She did a fantastic job and was so professional and fast on the day. I bought my dress off EBAY along with the bridesmaid’s dresses. My cute little glitter ballet flats were from Betts shoes. My hair piece was given to me from a friend.

I found a beautiful florist who did a great deal for us. They were always helpful and they stayed within my requirements at all times. I wasn’t very picky on the types of flowers (as I realised that it depended on what was in season) but I did want particular colours used and we were all so happy with the bouquets that were delivered on the day. They were so fresh and beautiful.

It was a great ceremony. We had my family pastor conduct the ceremony, our beautifully talented friends Keshia and Leah sang me down the aisle with “Northern Wind” by City and Colour and we had Leigh’s brother and one of my good friends, Gail, share a small speech about what marriage means to them.

My Bridesmaids were my best friend from film school Tarren and my childhood best friend Catherine. Leigh’s Best men were Michael; our good friend from film school and Jeremy, our good friend from church. My girls were amazing. They really helped me through the whole process. Tarren designed the invitations and the order of service. They kept me so calm and grounded on the day and I really forgot I was getting married until I was putting on my wedding dress.

Stacey Schramm took our photos. She was very professional, enthusiastic and calm. I was so happy with the final images as this too was booked via email from Sydney. Stacey understood what I was going for and she was so helpful with keeping to the schedule of the day. We had our photos taken at the Nundah golf club.

While we were away having photos taken, we had a photo booth at the reception to keep our guests entertained. It was a fun way to get photos of them, plus a guest book and present for them as they were able to take the photos home to remember the day. The company we used was Get A Photo Booth. They were great!

Our cake was made by my mum’s friend. The bottom tier was choc mud, the middle tier was white mud and the top tier was marble. We kept the top tier for our one year wedding anniversary.

The reception was a beautiful 3 course sit down meal with our wedding cake served as dessert.

My talented brother was our DJ for the night.

My favourite part of the day was our first dance. I hadn’t cried the whole day as I didn’t want to ruin my makeup but when it came to dancing with my husband for the first time to a song which meant so much to me, I couldn’t help myself. He was whispering the most beautiful words into my ear and holding me close. I also loved our speeches. The speeches from our bridesmaids were so heartfelt and honest. The boys were so funny and genuine. Our parents gave plenty of advice and told lots of stories; some stories we didn’t want people to hear but I guess we’re meant to hear embarrassing stories like that on our wedding day.

Overall, I remember that day with so much joy in my heart, I almost burst. We couldn’t have asked for a better weekend. I can still see the look on Leigh’s face when he saw me walking down the aisle towards him.