Colourful Rainforest Wedding

Rosie & Pat

A colourful rainforest wedding ? What better way to combine beautiful blooms, a stunning location and an epic love story than in a beautiful wedding celebration? Rosie and Pat’s Queensland celebration was captured by photographer Wendy Maley Photography.

Rosie tells the story of how they met. “We met in 2008; I’d been living in Brisbane for 3 days before my best friend dragged me along to a rehearsal for her uni choir. This is where Pat and I met. Over the course of 3 years Pat and I were friends, colleagues on the choir executive, and house mates. We dated other people, got frustrated with each other about living habits, and learnt that we both love to cook. We finally realised the attraction in 2011 and made things official. We already knew each other’s bad habits and we’ve always been good at working as a team so it just seemed so natural to take the next step…. I promise it was more romantic than it sounds!”

“A poignant part of our day was our flower girl, Hannah. Hannah’s mum (my cousin) was flower girl for my parents’ wedding almost 28 years previously. Watching Hannah grow, learn and become the most beautiful little girl has helped me immensely through my struggle with mental illness. It was such an honour to have her (and her doll, Baby Esther!) join our wedding party.”

“Rosie chose a lace wedding gown designed by Wendy Makin Bridal Designs, noting, “It was really important to me that I was comfortable in my dress. I wanted to be able to move and thoroughly enjoy the food that we chose. I chose my gown from Wendy Makin Bridal Designs. I’ve admired Wendy’s designs for years and her gowns are gorgeous. The team at Wendy Makin are wonderful; they’re so accommodating, friendly, warm, and honest. I love the lace on my dress as it tied in beautifully with the textured florals that we used.”

Rosie and Pat chose O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat for their wedding, remarking, “O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat is special to both of us – Pat has some wonderful childhood memories of O’Reilly’s, and it was where he took me to celebrate our first year together. When it came time to choosing a venue, O’Reilly’s was top of the list. Our ceremony was held in St Joseph’s Church – a little church that was built in 1858 and moved to O’Reilly’s in 1951. It’s small and quaint and had enough seating for all our guests. It is a very intimate space so our guests felt loved, welcomed, and involved.”

Rosie made the paper pieces herself, remembering, “I created all of the invitations, the programs, the menus, and the “thank you” notes for the bonbonniere. I also found 3 large picture frames at Lifeline, sanded them back, painted them gold, and turned them into our welcome sign, the table seating chart, and a photo board of our parents’ and grandparents’ weddings. It was weeks of our living room being covered in paper while I drafted, printed, cut, and glued everything, all while binge watching Downton Abbey and Star Trek, but it really was great fun and kept me busy on weekends.”

Rosie remembers, “I walked down the aisle to “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” by Johann Sebastian Bach. Music is such a big part of our relationship and I wanted to walk down the aisle to something beautiful and fun. “Joy” skips along while still feeling elegant and regal.

I wanted to ensure that the music for our ceremony was appropriate for the church, the service, and our guests. My sister played the piano during our ceremony and a close family friend sang for us, which was really special. All of our music, except for “Joy”, were songs that Pat and I had performed together in the choir.”

Of the ceremony, Rosie remembers, “My family have a very strong Catholic faith and both Pat and I wanted to be married in the eyes of God, so the ceremony was very important. We wanted our ceremony to be warm, welcoming to all, and fun – most of our guests are not religious so we didn’t want to make them feel uncomfortable. The priest who married us is close to my family and he has a fantastic sense of humour. He can make even the most uncomfortable person feel welcome. He injected the perfect amount of love, faith, and laughter into our ceremony.

We chose Corinthians 12.31-13.8 for our first reading, reminding us of what love is and what it stands for. Our Gospel reading was John 15:12-16 where Jesus tells the disciples to “love one another, as I have loved you.” It goes on to tell of the equality of friendship and love.”

“Family is very important to both of us and we wanted our families to be involved in our wedding. Pat’s cousins are very much like siblings to him and I’m the eldest of 4 children so we had plenty of people to choose from! My siblings and Pat’s cousins read the prayers and the readings for us, Pat’s cousin was our best man, and my brother and another of Pat’s cousins were our MC’s for the evening.”

Of their photographer, Rosie tells, “Wendy was fantastic! I met her at a bridal expo in April 2014 and, after telling her where and when our wedding was, she said, “I’m shooting your wedding! You’re going to hire me!” I love her style, her enthusiasm, her patience, and how easy she is to talk to. She made both of us so comfortable and her excitement was infectious. She is my favourite kind of quirky! Wendy was so discrete and unobtrusive, which is really hard in such a small little church! And she was very efficient; our guests and families didn’t have to pose or hang around for ages for photos.”

Bella Bloom Floral Designs created the floral arrangements for the day, Rosie telling, “Kelly from Bella Bloom Floral Designs is truly the queen of florists! I love peonies, but had to resign myself to the fact that they were out of season and unavailable for my wedding. Kelly turned up at 7am on the day of the wedding with two beautiful bouquets that were so much more amazing than what I’d imagined and they featured, of all things, peonies! I was over the moon! She was so wonderful, practical, and patient to work with. She listened to all of my ideas and provided flowers that went beyond what I had expected.”

Reception celebrations kicked off at Lost World Conference Centre, O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat, Rosie telling, “We held our reception at the Lost World Conference Centre. The Conference Centre has a relaxing atmosphere as soon as you walk in the door as it shares its entrance with the Lost World Spa. The other drawcard for the Conference Centre is the outlook – our guests had an amazing view of the stunning sunset over the hinterland while they enjoyed canapes!”

Gillian Bell Cake created a two tier cake for the newlyweds, who note, “Gillian from Gillian Bell Cake has hired herself for every birthday and event for the rest of her life! She was a dream to work with! Out of everything, Pat and I were probably most excited about the cake. Gillian’s cakes are wonderful! She only uses sustainable sourced ingredients, her cakes taste absolutely amazing, and she makes the cake on the day of your wedding. She must have been up from 2am! We chose a two tier cake; the bottom tier was coconut with lime curd and the top was dark chocolate with peppermint buttercream. Both cakes were AMAZING! She is an absolute superstar! ”

Ivy & Bleu Events styled the reception, Rosie noting, “Mandi from Ivy & Bleu Events is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Pat and I had been struggling to combine our decor ideas into something that worked. Mandi listened to everything we said and created the most beautiful ceremony and reception venue for us. It was a wonderful surprise to walk into both venues and see everything come to life so beautifully!”

“Pat’s mother put together the bonbonniere – little pots of herbs that she grew from seedlings. She was in Europe until 2 weeks before our wedding and was ordering all her supplies while over there so they were ready on her return.”

“I can’t say enough good things about the staff at O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat. The events coordinator, Carla, is such a lovely person in every way. She was so accommodating and patient with us. She took the time to really listen to what we wanted and worked with us to achieve it. The real star of the day though was our event manager on the day, Sylvia. This gorgeous young woman was our saving grace.

We had a few major hiccups on the day, but Sylvia ensured that everything went to plan regardless. She was so organised, efficient, and accommodating to the point of driving down the hill to buy Scotch for Pat because he’d forgotten to bring his special bottle for the night. If we needed something, all we had to do was turn around and Sylvia was there. I have never experienced such amazing service, anywhere in the world.”

“All of the speeches were fantastic and so funny! And having my brother and Pat’s cousin as our MCs – two really charismatic young men – was just so special. They brought the house down!”

Of their first dance, Rosie remembers, “Our first dance was to “Lucky” by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat. We’ve never had an “our song” so choosing a song for our first dance was quite the mission – we both have very different tastes in music! We chose “Lucky” for it’s lyrics and it’s fun, laid back sound. We felt that it said everything for us.”