Fran & Lex

When a wedding theme is inspired by German beer gardens, has customised steins, the couples’ favourite beers flowing, espresso martins and alpacas (!), you know it’s going to be a fun one. Today, take a virtual trip with us to Brookfield Hall in Queensland where Fran and Lex’s wedding took place. Think party vibes. A food truck. Friends and family. Long tables. Hay bales. And festoon lighting! Capturing this wedding in all its glory was the talented Lauren Olivia. Below, Fran details how their dream day came to life.

Lex and I first met in high school and drifted in and out of contact, but reconnected years later after finding each other on Tinder.

We were married at Brookfield Hall on July 27, 2019. There was no set theme for our wedding, but we took inspiration from German beer gardens since we got engaged in Germany. The steins, long bench seating, trestle tables, as well as the hanging greenery. Also we had bretzles! We had a bit of a country feel, which worked well with the beer garden theme. The festoon lighting and hay bales made it very chilled out. Our aim was to just have the biggest and best party of our lives where everyone has a great time.

My dress was ‘Cordelia’ by Maggie Sottero.

The dress was the biggest extravagance of the wedding. I originally planned to just wear a simple gown that I found online. One day I stumbled accidentally on a picture of this dress and couldn’t get it out of my head. I tried on similar dresses and in the end bought it unseen, which was a huge risk… but it looked perfect. It also had pockets! It suited me perfectly. I also wore Lex’s grandmother’s pearls.

I had a great florist (Daisy & Co) who made it very easy. I have no idea what kind of flowers I like so all I did was send pictures I liked and the perfect bouquets arrived. I especially liked the lavender and thistles.

I wanted a small bridal party but Lex has a big heart and lots of close friends and two brothers. I ended up with three close friends; two from high school and one from my work as a midwife. I also had Lex’s youngest brother as a bridesman. Lex had his three good friends from high school and his middle brother. We didn’t have best man or maid of honour.

Lex isn’t very picky and just chose a suit he’d like to wear again. He has the date embroidered in the jacket. You’ll notice after the sun goes down the fancy RMs are replaced with his comfy work boots.

We chose to have our wedding at a hall mostly because it allowed us to supply our own alcohol. We chose to have both ceremony and reception at one location to make it easier to transition. Also, this location was the closest thing to a country wedding we could get without travelling too far from the city. We liked the bushland and country feel to the setting and the cute country hall with turrets. It had a very laidback and relaxed feeling to it.

Lex made the arbour we were married under by hand.

 

I walked down the aisle to an instrumental version of the Jurassic Park theme because I’m a dinosaur nerd.

We wanted our ceremony to be relaxed and happy but also quite short! I think we balanced it nicely. We had two readings: ‘Union’ by Robert Fulghum, which was read by a friend of ours. Also, ‘All I Know About Love’ by Neil Gaiman was read by Lex’s aunts.

Nobody excepted it so the alpacas were a huge surprise. So much so that one of the aunts nearly went and told them to get out, thinking they were just wandering through our reception – she worked it out quick though and thought it was hilarious.

Having Lauren Olivia as our wedding photographer was probably the easiest part of the wedding. I never had to worry about anything to do with the photography. She knew exactly what needed to happen and when, and she was so full of surprises. Can’t praise her enough!

My favourite photo is probably the one on the hill with me twirling in my dress.

 

My favourite detail of the day was the dinosaur cake toppers. I pretty much just had a cake for those toppers!

The table flowers and hanging greenery were DIY’ed by family and friends. Most of the furniture and décor is from our parents’ houses.

The food truck La Parrilla was amazing, extremely tasty and very easy to deal with, flexible and accommodating dietary restrictions.

The beer choices were important to us. Lex is a huge beer nerd and works in the industry. We spent a lot of time fine tuning the drinks menu to include our favourites.

We almost didn’t have a first dance because we couldn’t pick a song! But on the night we decided to just dive in and do it so we danced to ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ by INXS almost at random. So glad we did because it was one of my favourite parts. Lex absolutely can’t dance though and we didn’t practice at all, so good thing our friends and family love us enough to not laugh (openly).

My advice for future marrieds to be is don’t do stuff you don’t really want to just because everyone does. The day is so short!

Ms Floral Says: Congratulations Fran and Lex on such a fun-filled, joyous wedding! Wishing you all the best in your married life together.