Tegan and Marty's Divine Oceanview Wedding

Tegan & Marty

Marty and I first met over ten years ago. Our relationship spans over a decade and it’s filled with beautiful memories, including our ‘Epic Engagement’ which took place during the Category 5 Cyclone that hit Yeppoon in 2015. But our favourite memory to date is our wedding day. On July 1st 2016 we tied the knot in our home town surrounded by our friends and family at the Yeppoon Keppel Bay Sailing Club.

We exchanged vows on the deck looking over the ocean; we were blessed with perfect weather and there was barely a cloud in sight. The string quartet played romantic songs, which set the mood for our intimate ceremony. The deck was covered in yellow and ivory rose petals which lead to our ribbon garland which would serve as the backdrop for our ceremony. Our celebrant Zac Garven was kind enough to share his role with my life long friend Rodney Pratt. It was incredible to have one of my best friends assist Zac with the proceedings. It made the ceremony very personal and when Rodney said, “Congratulations Marty, you may kiss your bride” it really took everyone’s breath away.

Marty and I chose to write our own vows to each other. I ended with telling Marty “I loved you yesterday, I love you still, I always have and I always will”. Marty concluded his with “I vow to love you, care for you and support you endlessly babe, I pledge my love to you in front of our guests here today.” My great friend Belinda Crawley then sang ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ while we signed our marriage certificate.

We had six bridesmaids and six groomsmen. Marty and I had all of our siblings and closest friends in our bridal party. It meant the world to us to share our special day with the people closest to us. The bridesmaids wore yellow Carla Zampatti gowns, crusted gold shoes, accessories by Collete and Adorne. For the groomsmen we chose Roger David dress pants, a white button up shirt, suspenders and bow ties. As gifts to his groomsmen, Marty gave each of the boys a pair of supporter socks for the football team they followed.

It was my dream to get married wearing a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes and that dream came true. I wore yellow satin Manolo’s under my couture designer wedding gown. I chose pale yellow Swarovski earrings and wore my grandmother’s blue sapphire ring. It was my something old, something borrowed and something blue.

My dress was made by the incredible team at Paddington Weddings; it was the ‘Ivy Gown’ – a high neck A line design covered in tiny crystals. Marty wore a Gibson navy suit and also added the bow tie and suspenders to match in with the groomsmen.

My close friend Clair owns her own mobile hair and makeup business, Hair By ClairP, and she along with her friend Nicole were our ‘Glam Squad’ for the day. We chose a classic soft makeup for the bridesmaids and myself. I opted for a classic bridal up do and for the bridesmaids we chose the elegant French twist. I had the ideal wedding morning with my bridesmaids listening to music, drinking French champagne and eating soft cheeses. It was everything I wanted and more.

We decided to use artificial flowers for our day, that way we could keep them afterwards and use them in our home and perhaps show them to our kids one day. I had all the flowers and corsages made by Premier Cane in Toowoomba. The quality was amazing and so life like with many people not realizing they were artificial flowers.

My Mum did the majority of designing and decorating for our special day. We chose yellow, gold and ivory as our main colour scheme. We wanted an elegant and romantic setting. My mother and my sister created a ribbon garland that was the backdrop for both our ceremony and reception. For the centrepieces we collected Moet bottles and painted them in gold glitter, we also added a tea light candle wrapped in gold, a vase with baby’s breath and an artificial yellow rose and a small gold frame with a love quote; all this sat upon a square mirror piece with a gold embossed doily.

For our gifts we had small scented candles made; these also sat on our tables to add colour and the wonderful scent of vanilla filled the entire reception room. Our cake was made locally Cakes by Jess; we chose a white three tiered cake with each tier being a different flavour. Our wedding knife set was Vera Wang and was also gold. We had Ferrero Rocher chocolates for all our guests to snack on through out the night; they were displayed on a gold cake stand accompanied by a sign that said “Love is Sweet…Take a Treat”.

Instead of a guest book we chose to get our guests to sign a Magnum bottle of Moet which we will open on our first wedding anniversary. We left it up to our guests whether to give gifts or donate to a wishing well and we were blessed with many amazing presents and money we received to spend for our honeymoon in Koh Samui Thailand. We had a lit candle throughout the night accompanied with a sign that read “In honour of those who are watching from heaven, we love you”.

My uncle was the perfect choice for MC, he ran the whole night like the Oscars, even having three outfit changes! He was entertaining and managed the time efficiently – exactly what we wanted for our night. He awarded Marty and me the Oscar for most glamorous couple. All the formalities and speeches were over by 9pm which gave us plenty of time for dancing and mingling with our guests. We provided a photo booth too which proved to be a hit with all our guests.

Instead of waiting till the end of the night Marty and I decided to have our first dance straight after our entrance to the reception. We had been taking dance lessons and we wanted our first dance to be a special moment. We chose Savage Garden “I Knew I Loved You Before I Met You”. A song perfectly suited to us as we always said when we met it felt like we already knew one another, already loved one another. When Marty lifted me and spun me around all of our guests cheered and stood to their feet; it was an amazing way for the reception to begin.

For the father and daughter dance, I asked one of my best friends Tessa Coulter to sing “I Just Called To Say I Love You’ which was actually the song my parents danced to at their wedding. It was such an incredible moment and then during the song everyone joined us on the dance floor; you could actually feel the love in the air, it was nothing short of magic. We ended the night with returning to the deck for a sparkler send off. Which was the perfect way to end our special day.

Our beautiful photographs were taken by Dejavu Photo and Film; The hashtag we used for the day was #SoDevine (my surname is Devine) and our wedding day certainly was so divine!