Sigrid & Blake’s Elegant Maleny Manor Wedding

Sigrid & Blake

Our engagement was quite a surprise! Blake told me we were travelling to see our parents one weekend so my bags were packed and ready to go. When we go into the car, Blake put a blindfold on me and drove me to O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat in Lamington National Park. For anyone who knows this location, they know the drive there is very steep and I felt so sick when we had only arrived at the bottom of the mountain! Blake let me take my blindfold off and it was another 20 minute drive up the range.

At this point he said that he had organised a weekend away, which I though was so romantic of him. I didn’t think anything of a proposal at this stage because Blake’s grandparents own one of the tree houses in this retreat so we have been lucky enough to stay here before as guests of the family. On the drive up, Blake took a phone call from someone saying that ‘we were running ten minutes late’ which I thought was weird because it was early in the morning so we couldn’t be running late for check in.

Once we got to the top, Blake pulled into the luxury spa sanctuary that we had never been to before. At this point I thought he was being so thoughtful because I had just come off night duty (I’m a nurse) and he wanted me to relax. We had a couple’s massage inside a beautiful room that overlooked the entire hinterland. After the massage Blake said we are going on a bushwalk. As we started to trek I noticed the name of the bushwalk was called ‘The Wishing Tree’. After we had been walking for approximately 15 minutes, we arrived at this beautiful old overgrown tree whose roots were so large you could stand up in between them.

Blake asked me to close my eyes and make a wish. At this point, like any girl would, I wished for Blake to propose to me…but he didn’t. I opened my eyes and he placed in my hand a love heart rock that we had found when we were on the school camp together in Year 11 (when we met). Yes, I cried when I saw it! Then we headed back up to the tree house to get dressed for dinner. When we were ready, Blake told me to go into the lounge room and watch a video on the Ipad on the kitchen table. There were tea light candles all over the table and the sun was setting outside. The video started with photos of when we first met all the way up until the day before the proposal. He had chosen our favorite songs as background music. At the end it said..”We have made so many beautiful memories together and I am ready to make a lifetime more… turn around”. And there he was standing in a circle of tea light candles down on one knee. After his beautiful proposal we celebrated with a beautiful dinner at the guesthouse lodge.

And then it was time to start planning our wedding! My dress was from Karen Willis Holmes. It was from her bespoke collection and was called the ‘Lucinda’ gown. My experience at Karen Willis Holmes was perfect. I was made to feel like I was the only one who fitted the dress like a princess. I was obsessed with the exquisite French lace peplum feature just under the bust line. The fabric was heavy and luxurious, but so soft.

I had always pictured myself in a big puffy princess gown but once I had tried on this dress and realised that shorter people like myself could wear slim fitting dresses, I fell in love! My husband did not expect this at all and was so amazed by the dress. I also wore the single tier, long glimmer circle veil from Karen Willis Holmes.

My Nana’s brooch which has two pearls and a ruby (my birthstone) was my ‘something old’; my Karen Willis Holmes earrings were ‘something new’ and Mum lent me her Chanel Coco Noir Perfume for ‘something borrowed’. A little blue bow on the back of my gown made up the ‘something blue’.

My makeup was done by a friend and Elyse Minatel at EH Studios did my hair; they both did such a wonderful job!

Blake designed my engagement ring through a company called James Allen in America. It was exactly what I had always dreamed of!

The theme for our wedding was fresh flowers. All I wanted was to be surrounded but the most beautiful fresh flowers and to be able to breathe in that crisp moist smell of the hinterland. Our florist, Mondo Floral Designs, was amazing! I wanted everything to have elegance as well as bringing out the purity of white; I added a pop of colour for freshness. After our wedding, we donated all the flowers to a local nursing home to bring the same amount of joy the flowers gave us on our wedding day.

Maleny Manor was the perfect venue – it is a pure white cottage building surrounded by vineyards and beautiful blooming foliage. I didn’t have much to do to make things beautiful!

I had vases of fresh seasonal flowers all carrying through the soft pastel colours. Our cake from Eden Cakes & Cupcakes looked so pretty, and decorated with fresh flowers, it matched back to our theme perfectly!

Blake and I asked out bridal party to be a part of our wedding in different ways. Blake made small packages of scotch glasses with mini scotch bottles and stone ice cubes, all wrapped in white with a black bow tie; he presented these to his friends as he asked them to be his groomsmen.

I asked all my party seperately also but through individualized little packages that meant something to each of them. For example, my sister Kristy lives in Canada and I made her a video of all her Australian friends and family saying they missed her and couldn’t wait to see her when she came home to Australia for my wedding. At the end of the film, I was holding a big poster asking if she would be my bridesmaid. I sent that in a package with a beautiful handmade card and a letter asking her if she would.

Our bridal party was amazing and so helpful on the day. It honestly makes such a difference if you are surrounded by people who don’t care about themselves but are there to make sure you have the best day possible!

Our beautiful photographs were taken by Calli B Photography; Calli captured everything we wanted to keep for a lifetime of memories.

Ms Chinoiserie Says: Congratulations Sigrid and Blake; what a beautiful day spent with loved ones; your flower theme suited the picturesque backdrop perfectly!