Gem & Brie

If you’re thinking today’s beautiful brides Gem & Brie look familiar, well you’d be right! We first met Gem & Brie back when we featured their gorgeous waterfall engagement session (complete with a proposal!) and today? We get to share their delightful wedding! The beautiful historical estate of Stanley Park providing just the most beautiful backdrop for a day captured by Lauren Anne Photography.

It was a day that was all about celebration. “We just wanted a party with our favourite people” explaining Brie, who fell in love with Gem after the pair first bonded as friends. She shares “Gem and I have known each other for over 20 years becoming best friends at the age of 15 to eventually realising it was always more than that at the ages of 21 & 22.”

And if you want to see how these two became engaged, you’ll need to click on over to engagement session, but here’s the short & snappy version!  “Lauren Anne Photography captured our surprise engagement shoot at Somersby Falls in 2016. I had convinced Gem we were going to do a same-sex couples shoot to help Lauren with her portfolio. Lauren and I had planned signals and code words for when we were in a good spot for me to pop the question. It is still one of our favourite days.”

Brie donned a beautiful wedding gown from Grace Loves Lace, while Gem chose a dress from Made With Love. Brie sharing “We made a weekend out of finding our dresses taking our best friends with us for a girls’ weekend in Burleigh Heads QLD. We had the same friends come with us to try dresses on as we didn’t want them to clash or be too similar as we weren’t seeing each other’s dresses until the wedding day. I cannot recommend Grace Loves Lace enough! From start to finish they went above and beyond and made the experience more than I ever could have dreamed of.”

Both brides chose their songs as they walked down the aisle with their parents. Brie remembering “I walked down the aisle to an acoustic version of “Halo” by Beyonce with my mum and dad. Gem then walked down the aisle to “Tenerife Sea” by Ed Sheeran, halfway with her mum and stepdad then the other half with her mum and dad.”

The vibe for the ceremony was very important for Brie & Gem, the couple choosing Love is Love to marry them. Shares Brie “We wanted it to be personal but also not drag on for too long. For this reason, we had a beautiful friend Julee Graham from Love is Love Lake Macquarie marry us. She made it fun, sassy but short and sweet. We also wrote our vows.”

One of the most special parts of the day for these brides? The way they were able to include their daughter Ryan in the celebration.

When asked for advice for couples still to tie the knot, Brie says this “Take a moment at least every couple of hours to stop and soak it all in. It goes so quick and it will be the best day of your life, enjoy every second and don’t sweat the small stuff.”

“We were absolutely in love!” tells bride Brie of the beautiful floral details for the day styled by The Little Garden.

Gem & Brie adored every interaction with photographer Lauren.  “Lauren is an extremely talented, beautiful soul who understands your wants and 100% delivers! We have had Lauren for our wedding, engagement shoot and family shoot and would never even consider having someone else for all these special moments. She is beyond amazing.”

“Our wedding party are all of our favourite people! “notes Brie. “My brother was the best man wearing a suit from YD Clothing. All six of our bridesmaids wore skirts from Sportsgirl We had them choose their white tops to suit their shapes and make sure they were comfortable. All our shoes are from Billini.”

Beautiful Stanley Park was chosen as the venue for Brie and Gem to not just tie the knot but to celebrate with their favourite people. “Stanley Park is a beautiful property set alongside the Hunter River. We stayed the night before and night of the wedding in the luxurious mansion on the property which sleeps up to 18 people. It was so nice to have all our closest friends and family be with us for the whole weekend. Our ceremony was in front of the mansion as on the day it was ridiculously windy. There are so many ceremony options on the grounds which we loved. Our reception was in their purpose-built barn with glass sliding doors to open out to a lush grassed area, we loved it was a blank canvas for us to set tables, decorations etc as we pleased.”

The reception was hosted by MC “Patch” says Brie. “Our MC was one of our close friends “Patch”. He honestly made the night, from games and banter to giving the most sincere speech of his own and making sure everyone was comfortable and having a great time while we were off having our photos. In our opinion, he made the wedding!”

And in amongst the unforgettable speeches, guests enjoyed a delicious dinner catered by Fennel & Co. “Good food and plenty of wine! Good food was a must for us and Fennel and Co. were beyond amazing. We also made sure we had a feast instead of alternate meals. It was important to us that our guests had options on how much and what they would like to eat and also gave everyone a reason to start a conversation… “can you please pass the chicken”. Our friends to this day still tell us how amazing the food was.”

Dance floor action was a must for these two. “We went a bit untraditional and didn’t have a first dance as such” explains Brie. “Just a first song for the whole wedding to be up and get the dance floor started. Our first song was “Levels” by Avicii. It is our favourite song.”

Oh and how we have even more of this story to share thanks to this beautiful film by Little Ruby Visual.

A big congratulations to you both Brie & Gem! I am so glad we were able to share your day! Thank you to Lauren Anne Photography for sharing today’s beautiful photographs.