Gantheaume Point Wedding in Broome

Breathtaking is an understatement to describe the wedding between this gorgeous couple as they exchanged vows overlooking the Broome coastline. Selecting meaningful – and amazing sites to host their ceremony and reception, meant that Julia Rau’s job capturing the day was easy!! With family and friends joining them from around the country, the couple made the most of the entire week pre and post-wedding to host other events, such as whale watching and horse racing. Wonderful vendors helped to make the entire day run smoothly and we couldn’t be more excited for Justine to share all the details of their incredible day!

I was never into the online dating scene and unbeknown to many relatives and friends, one of my uni besties started an online dating profile for me. She took the reins for a while and mentioned that she had found a potentially good looking rooster who didn’t shy away from a joke, insert Brenton.

Brenton had just had back surgery, was stuck at home recovering and maybe a little lonely, ventured into the online dating world and came across my profile. He liked what he discovered, especially that I was studying to be a nurse – he could do with a nurse. We started chatting, planned our first date of eggs benny and everything started to fall into place.

I liked that he was a little rough around the edges, so genuine, down to earth and I think a trait we’re almost naturally wired to look for, he could make an entire group erupt into laughter. I was also impressed that he well and truly owned downing a VB before 11 am. Between laughing every day, busting a move to Paul Kelly while cooking, travelling and planning our next adventure or getting stuck into our renovations we’ve been together since June 2013.

I chose a beaded gown by Australian designer Jane Hill – The ‘Luna’ gown from the Moroccan Rose SS19 Collection. I chose this gown as the beading work reminded me of the mother of pearl shell (pearling is a major industry in Broome, so it has become well known for its pearls). The stunning custom made v-neck and embroidered mushroom underlay made it stand out for me.

I wore my mum’s pearl earrings as ‘something borrowed’ from Broome’s ‘Galwey Pearls’

Brenton and his groomsmen chose a slim fit sand suit from MJ Bale for a more laid back beach vibe look. They tied this in with a long-sleeved Trenery white linen shirt, tan brown shoes from Aquila and a tan leather Wolf Kanat belt.

The style of our wedding was all about reflecting the stunning landscape of the Dampier Peninsula in Broome. We wanted to show our guests, many of whom had travelled from afar for their first visit to Broome for our wedding, just how stunning the North West of Australia is. The theme was coastal vacay vibes and the atmosphere was to reflect fun, love and laughter, with some laidback ‘Broome’ touches.

I walked down the aisle to ‘Everywhere’ by Fleetwood Mac. AJ (Alan Moore) is a local singer and long time mate of my brother Dan’s. AJ did his live version of ‘Everywhere’ and brought all the feels to the day.

We held our ceremony at Gantheume Point, encompassing a view of a stretch of white sandy beach, overlooking the turquoise waters. We held our ceremony upon the red rock cliff face. We wanted everyone to feel comfortable and just to embrace their surroundings. Elle Saunders, our celebrant read out our story and we loved that we wrote our vows.

Our favourite detail of the day was the ceremony spot we chose to tie the knot. It spoke all things the Kimberley in one view. It was almost as though our arbour framed the Kimberley colours for us in one photo.

We met Julia Rau in Broome the year before our wedding after hearing rave reviews of her style and we just knew instantly after meeting with her that her work was just what we were after. Right from the start, Jules managed to give us a personalised and professional experience. Organising a wedding full of many vendors from Melbourne and communicating via email and phone had its challenges although Jules made us feel at ease throughout all planning stages, she was always so quick to answer any questions.

Jules joined us upon the ‘Karma IV’ catamaran cruise the day before the wedding where she was able to meet all our family and friends before the wedding day and she got some stunning shots of both the guests and the whales. On the day of the wedding, Jules managed to coordinate everything beautifully, she made everything so much fun and no detail was missed. Our photos are everything we had dreamt of and more. Candid, natural and captured everything we love about the beauty of the Kimberley.

My right-hand woman/maid of honour was Elle; my sister who has become my best friend over the years and is always up for an adventure, a laugh and who is just the most thoughtful, caring person. And my bridesmaid Kimmy, my fellow fermented grape enthusiast with a heart of gold.

Brenton had his three brothers, Marcus, Hayden and Lucas.

Our flowers were by the lovely Jenna at Broome Florist. The colour palette request was to tie in with the bridesmaid’s dresses by Bec and Bridge in dusty rose and Jenna nailed it.

Brenton made a grand entrance and flew in on a helicopter to the ceremony with his 3 brothers/groomsmen (Marcus, Hayden, Lucas), his Dad Ross and my brother Dan. They took a 20min flight up to Willie Creek and flew back down Cable Beach. Brenton thought doing a KAS helicopter flight with the gents before the ceremony would not only calm their nerves a little but also be a bit of a thank you to them for being a part of the day and for travelling for our destination wedding.
We made sure we included AJ (my brother Dan’s long time school friend from Broome) as our entertainment for the day. AJ is a local Indigenous Kimberley refrigeration plumber by day and by night uses his exceptional voice to play his live music at all things parties/weddings. AJ sang live at our ceremony and he added members at our reception to have a two-piece playing live music there. AJ learnt 5 of our favourite songs in no time at all and nailed them. The rest of his repertoire was the classic wedding party songs which kept everyone well and truly on the dance floor until the early hours.
The best detail of our wedding week was the events we had organised leading up to and after our wedding. We knew in having everyone travel from all over Australia to Broome was our best opportunity to show off the best that Broome has to offer and for all of our guests to make the most of their time up there. What made this a whole lot easier, was setting up our wedding website, updated weekly, that way we had all things wedding, Broome and ‘your ideal week in the North West’ sorted in one spot.
We had organised a whale watching/sunset catamaran cruise on the ‘Karma IV’ for all of our guests the day before the wedding.

This was without a doubt the best lead up to the wedding. We were lucky enough to be surrounded by a family of Humpback Whales. It was an absolute banger of a day, everyone was just in awe of how beautiful the whales were. The day ended with a ripper sunset and some drinks at the sunset bar. The day following the wedding we all watched the staircase to the moon from the Mangrove Hotel, cocktail in hand and canapés galore. To top off the wedding week, we headed to the race round at the Broome Turf Club for the Broome Cup on Saturday the 17th of August. We threw a few bets down on the horses and got amongst the local two-up post racing.

Our Venue was the Broome SLSC with a backdrop of Cable Beach. You could never get over that view. We chose the Broome SLSC because it is the epitome of Broome and the place where I spent a lot of my childhood.

My dad’s hand made giant ‘B & J’ Letters out of fence palings for our engagement party- we recycled them for our wedding and had them sent up to Broome as a surprise to use at the reception. My dad and sister made a white mesh backdrop with a neon ‘the Jurey’s’ sign for the reception. I also DIY’d my copper sign (recycled from our engagement party) – this was used to hang our ceremony entrance sign-on.

Ash from ‘Aplus Events and Hire’ and Lauren from ‘Sunset Hire’ nailed our reception setup at the Broome SLSC. We gave them the style we were after and they came through with the goods. Both Ash and Lauren were a breeze to deal with and had our reception overlooking the stunning Cable Beach looking an absolute treat.

Carl and his team from ‘Bali Hai Cafe & Restaurant’ catered with some superb food. Their grazing platter was outstanding, freshly shucked coffin bay oysters to die for and no hungry tummies at the end of the night!

Our first dance was to an acoustic version of ‘Never Tear Us Apart’- requested by Brenton – a huge fan of INXS!

Our advice to future couples would be to make sure you take a few minutes, walk away with your bride/groom to take a moment to absorb it altogether. We walked down the beach ramp a little and looked back up to the reception. It was so beautiful to see everyone enjoying themselves and to take that moment together!