Elly & Eric

With winter closing in on us, it’s a great time to take an escape to this wonderful waterside wedding in Noosa today. This is Elly and Eric’s intimate Noosa wedding in their own words and the images are captured by Nicole Laufer Photography.

From the moment we met, it was never going to be a “normal” wedding. No white dress (it was pink), no bridal party (but there was wine and cookies) and no official first dance (there was an unofficial version – a drunken attempt at the after party, 12 hours later, to a 90’s love song). But before all of that, there was this…

The founder of Petal & Paper Stationery, Elly has been in the wedding industry for a while now. Helping make bride’s and groom’s dreams come true on the regular, it was hard to believe that the day had come when she had to make her OWN dreams come true (and her soon-to-be-husband Eric’s, of course… grooms totally count too). Originally the couple had settled on a big grand wedding with lots of people, lots of food, lots of tradition and lots of, well, everything… in Northern NSW in front of the picturesque Mount Warning. In fact, this is the exact location that Eric said to her – before they were even engaged – “hey, when we get married, we should get married here!”. Elly scoffed, “”WHEN” hey?” – someone was counting their chickens before they hatched!

A little over 6 months later, and after Elly had undergone a pretty substantial spine operation, she was lying in bed, recovering when something really bizarre and unexpected happened…

There she was, in her t-shirt nightie with “DO NOT DISTURB” boldly emblazoned on the front (introvert at heart, obviously), her hair a mess, no makeup and unable to do much of anything since she was on bed rest for 6 weeks. “Eric, can you help me up so I can go have a shower?” (still need to keep the bod clean, shower chairs and aids helped – a lot). He said “Sure!” and as he knelt beside the bed to help her up he stayed there.. a little too long… weirdly long. Why so long? HE PULLED OUT A RING!

Can you believe it! Obviously her outer physical appearance wasn’t detrimental to the occasion. She sobbed, he asked the big question, she didn’t even say yes! “Soooo, is that a yes?” asked Eric with the ring already firmly on her finger. “OH MY GOD, YES OF COURSE!” she laughed. What a story. One she definitely didn’t really want to tell anyone about, but here we are.

Fast forward almost a year and Elly and Eric decided, to heck with a big wedding, they want to travel! Ergo, big mountains were traded for little mountains, big ideas were traded for smaller ideas and a huge guest list was traded for close friends and immediate family only. I believe they call those “micro-weddings” these days. Which is probably the most on-trend thing these two nerds have ever done!

Their discovery of Sunshine Coast’s Fancy and Free Weddings – a wedding and elopement service offering small, intimate packed or packaged for a larger wedding – made everything super easy. Natalie Skye, The Sunny Celebrant owns and operates Fancy and Free Weddings and is just about the biggest and bubbliest personality you can find in someone who’s so tiny! She took care of all the essentials and coordinated the day perfectly. Cat Shipton from the well-known Sunshine Coast based Wedding Florist Woods & Bloom not only provided the florals for the day, but also provided styling as well as being a guest at the wedding! Cat and Elly met previously a couple of years ago at a styled shoot and hit it off immediately (we’re told it’s because Elly brought doughnuts) – the rest is history! The day was captured by Nicole Laufer Photography a Sunshine Coast based Wedding Photographer who is one of the easiest and loveliest people to be around and certainly knows how to whip a rowdy wedding crowd into shape!

Like every wedding, there were problems. For one, we actually forgot to decide on a song to walk down the aisle too, so 10 minutes before Elly was to walk the aisle, she called Eric and said “ummm did we actually end up picking a song?” the answer was no and the end result was to “just wing it”! The weather was also pretty poor (although for some of the photos you wouldn’t have guessed it!) – the rain was on and off for the whole day and the wind was horrendous! Originally planning to have the wedding at Hidden Grove, they had to give that idea up 2 hours before the ceremony. At the end of the day, the two things that matter most to these two are family and friends (and food if Elly is being 100% honest with everyone) and to have the day filled with both is more than they ever could have asked for.

His Vows: “I will always shower you with hugs, kisses and so much cat fur “furever”, and I will always call you my “Shorty”.

Her Vows: “I vow to agree to disagree on a lot of things especially who’s taller…”

Our favourite part of the day (apart from the celebrations after) was escaping after their very important “I Do’s” and hopping in the car to go take some photos around Noosa. Laughing, windows down, breeze flowing through the open windows and reflecting on moments and memories. Cat had the forethought to pack them a celebratory snack package including Elly’s favourite Moscato and some incredible cookies made by Sweet P Cakes & Cookies. What a gem! Those went down nicely, even Nicole agreed (it’s always nice to feed the photographer a little somethin’ somethin’)!

The decision to have a small wedding is not one we regret at all. The close-knit ceremony meant they didn’t miss anything, including when Eric accidentally tried to put the wedding ring on the wrong finger and their 7 year old niece rolled her eyes and said “gosh, how hard is it!?”. The incredible photos from Nicole Laufer are definitely ones that will be flicked through on a regular occasion – memories are great, but we all know they have a tendency to fade overtime. The importance of having a skilled professional to capture the day was not lost on us – we’ll be cherishing these photos for a very long time to come.

Ms Zigzag says: Such a colourful, joyous day! The weather may not have been on this couple’s side but it didn’t stop them from having the best day of their lives. Thank you so much to Elli (founder of Petal and Paper) and her husband Eric for sharing your perfect day with us. 

About Petal and Paper: Petal & Paper Stationery are your local Brisbane wedding invitation & stationery specialists. Throughout our time in the industry, our work has been published in many prestigious and well-known wedding blogs and magazines throughout Australia including Polka Dot Bride and White Magazine.

We create custom designs to reflect your unique and special day. We create everything from invitations and information cards, custom maps and save the dates, to on the day stationery and signage. Weather you’re looking for a budget friendly option or want to go all out with foil and laser cut designs, we can do it all.