I have to admit, I am smitten with today’s wedding. I love the landscape of Broome and I couldn’t think of a more stunning location for a garden wedding than this remote Western Australian town.

Emmanuelle and Brett have a thing for sunsets you see, and it just so happens that Broome is probably one of the best Australian locations to find one (fitting don’t you think?) So they enlisted We Are All Stardust to bring her camera, hired out The Billi Resort and set about crafting up a storm to create a magical wedding weekend.
Tropical heat and tropical summer style is nothing new for these two, who actually became engaged in beautiful Fiji. Emmanuelle remembers “Brett proposed to me while on holiday in Fiji in 2015. He had planned everything and I had no idea. He had organised a helicopter flight out to one of the little romantic islands called Matamanoa. When we arrived at the island we had a private boat take us out to another little island to snorkel for the day, after an amazing day we decided to sit and watch the sunset before going for dinner to the little island restaurant. As we sat admiring the sunset and me talking about how wonderful today had been, Brett got down on one knee into the sand and pulled out this amazing sparkly engagement ring. I was so shocked we had been together for 7 years already and we had been on so many holidays where we sat enjoying the sunsets and today was the day he was going to propose. I was so excited, so happy, and so in love that I just burst into tears. repeating “omg really, are you sure, really omg wow, Brett this is amazing”. Finally allowing Brett to get a word in and actually ask “will you marry me” of course my answer was “YES!!”!”

The day kicked off with brunch, Emmanuelle fills us in. “We decided to have breakfast with each other the morning of the wedding. Breaking the tradition of not seeing each other for the day. Doing this made us feel more relaxed to see each other before the crazy day of the wedding began.”

The bride’s sister gifted her a very special present, she tells “On the morning of the wedding while getting ready my sister gave me my wedding gift. As I opened my present it was a beautiful pearl + rose quartz bohemian headpiece. I absolutely loved it. I had no idea she was making this gorgeous gift for me and she had hand made it too. This was a perfect last minute addition to my wedding outfit that meant so much to me. I wore it all day and night.”

The bride chose a second hand Steph Audino Couture gown which she had altered by Anthony Van Pham. She explains “When deciding on my wedding dress I already knew I didn’t want a brand new dress. There are so many beautiful dresses with the most amazing materials just sitting in peoples’ cupboards never to be used again. I loved the idea of finding a vintage or preloved wedding dress that I could recycle and recreate into something amazing for me. I was lucky enough to find a preloved Steph Audino Couture dress that the material was in such beautiful condition, the design was simple yet elegant. I knew straight away this was my dress and all it need was a little love and a few alterations to custom fit it to the shape of my body.

I was recommended to see the amazing Anthony Van Pham who made me feel like a princess as he pinned and measured my preloved dress into a brand new design for me. He removed the halter neck that was attached to the dress and completely created a new sweetheart bust with boning for support. He pinned the dress into shape, making sure the dress emphasised the shape of my booty (one of my husband’s favourite features of mine). Once he had finished the alterations and I was able to put all my accessories together it was perfect, everything I had hoped my dress would be and completely customised to me.”

Emmanuelle and Brett chose The Billi Resort for their wedding, Emmanuelle sharing “We hired the resort for three days from Friday – Sunday. This made it basically a wedding weekend. We had the entire resort full of just our guests and everyone was able to stay on the premises. We chose this venue because it was absolutely beautiful. A small resort full of lush green gardens, a canopy of trees that showered hundreds of fairy lights over the top of the reception area. There were two separate areas that allowed us to have the intimate little ceremony and a section to have our reception. This space was then surrounded by a few gorgeous villas and glamping tents.”

Both the bride and groom’s mothers contributed to the ceremony, Emmanuelle explains “We were lucky enough to have both our mums to contribute to our wedding ceremony. My mum prepared a traditional Indigenous Australian cleansing smoking ceremony – to bring positive energy and good luck with our new commitment to each other. Brett’s mum read out a wedding poem called ‘The art of marriage’ by Wilferd A. Peterson.”

Emmanuelle walked down the aisle to Beyonce’s version of Etta James’ “At Last”.

The resort’s gardens with their dappled shade were bliss for the afternoon ceremony the bride remembered “We wanted a small intimate ceremony with close friends and family and chose a garden style ceremony with a simple rustic but elegant feel. Our wedding celebrant was a good friend of mine for 20 years and this made it very special to have her marry us. We decided to read out our own vows to each other.”

And of course, there were just married celebrations – with a champagne tower toast!

 

Of their photographer, Emmanuelle tells “Nat came highly recommended by a few of my clients who had their weddings photographed by her. Looking through her pictures, excited me. I loved her amazing & unusual style in capturing each wedding moment. So, of course, we had to have her. It was also so wonderful she was happy to travel to Broome to photograph our wedding.”

The couple chose Broome Florist to create their floral arrangements, with simple white flowers and textured foliage, The bride tells “Our flower arrangement was again very simple and elegant. Full of different types of greenery and an array of only white flowers. This theme of only green and white followed through from wedding bouquets, small glass jars with flowers, to the arbour, signs and wedding cake arrangements.”

“My favourite part of the wedding planning was working as a team with my new husband to make our dream happen” says Emmanuelle. “We both had input into the things we wanted for the wedding and how we wanted it to look. But my all time favourite was going into Stefan Diamonds jewellery store and picking out my diamond wedding band. I was so excited sitting in front of all these beautiful rings trying to decide which one was going to be mine. Aaah so exciting!!!”

 

Emmanuelle shares “Our favourite images are of the sunset photos down at Gantheaume Point beach. As the sun set the beautiful rocks set off a soft golden glow. On many of our holidays, we are always obsessed with taking beautiful sunset photos, so it was only fitting for us to have a beautiful sunset photo for our wedding day photos.”

Guests enjoyed a garden party style reception, planned and coordinated by Sunset Hire who Emmanuelle and Brett chose to ensure their day ran smoothly. “The Billi Resort gives you space and you have free reign to design the venue however you want. I had spent the last year finding the best people for our wedding day. Living in Perth and trying to plan a Broome wedding had a few difficulties however with the help of our wedding planner, I was pointed in the right direction.
From hiring vintage furniture, catering, bar staff, food servers, florists, Lauren helped find Band music and the DJ. My mum also picked some native wildflowers and eucalyptus leaves from her block of land. Then my little team of helpers made up jars of flowers to decorate the tables.”

The first dance under the stars was one of the bride’s favourite parts of the day. She tells “Our first dance was really magical. We played one of my favourite songs. It’s a beautiful love song by Erykah Badu & Stephen Marley – ‘In love with you’. When our song started and I got up to dance with my new husband, it sounds cliche but it felt like we were the only two. Dancing and laughing under the millions of fairy lights to my favourite song. It felt so wonderful to finally be at this point, the day had gone by so quickly but at this moment we had time to stop and spend this song with each other. It made me feel so special that I got to marry this beautiful human and we were about to start the rest of our lives together.”

 

The couple worked with Cinemaze Films to capture this gorgeous film of the day – that sunset!

A big thank you to Emmanuelle and Brett for sharing all the stories of their day with us! Thank you! Thank you also to We Are All Stardust for sharing today’s beautiful day!