You know how much we adore a wedding of colour and for Sophie and Brendan, their bright & vibrant Margaret River day had no shortage of it.  Decked out in hot pink, purple and orange, the palette was just as joyous as the newlyweds, who added their own bubbly personalities to every part of the day. They chose to ask  Gordon Becker along for the ride, and we’re so glad they did! Wait till you see this one unfold! It was a memorable day when Sophie first laid eyes on Brendan. “We officially met at a house party, however, I (Sophie) had remembered him because a while back I was having a really ‘ugly’ day and was driving to uni feeling meh and all of a sudden this silver V8 ute drove past and the guy stuck his head completely out the window to check me out as I drove past and made my day! When we met at the house party I said ‘You have a silver ute don’t you?’ and he said ‘no.’ That ended that conversation pretty quickly! Brendan says he was so nervous this hot chick was actually talking to him! We kept running into each other and he finally admitted he had a silver ute and the rest is history!!”

And a decade later, he finally decided to pop the question! “After being together over 10 years I had given up on the proposal ever happening! But one day after I had just worked a wedding myself doing 10 makeups and was just wanting to sit down and have a wine, he dragged me down to the beach in Busselton, got down on one knee and with our daughter on his knee he popped the question.”

Sophie’s bridesmaids chose gowns in bright colours from Paula & Jo. “I chose their colour and then they chose their dresses. I knew I wanted bright and a touch of champagne to cleanse the palette so it wasn’t too overbearing and it just looked fantastic! They were all comfortable because they got to choose their dress.”

“I fell in love with my dress as soon as I saw it!” tells Sophie of her Brides By Design gown. “I was just scrolling on the web to get ideas and this dress popped up and I couldn’t get it out of my head! I tried on a few dresses but kept going back to this one. The girls at Brides By Design worked tirelessly making sure this dress fit me perfectly as I was a nightmare client who kept losing weight at every fitting!”

Sophie and Brendan chose beautiful country retreat Eight Willows Retreat for their wedding. “Eight Willows Retreat was the first venue we looked at and we were sold straight away! We wanted somewhere that we could stay at so everything was in the same place. Eight Willows Retreat supplied almost all of the fantastic furniture. They were very accommodating with making my dream wedding a reality.”

Sophie’s band (Sophie Jane Music) played “Dreams” by The Cranberries as she walked down the aisle with her father.

Explains Sophie of the ceremony conducted by Jenny Fisher Marriage Celebrant.  “We wanted our ceremony to be very laid back and from the heart. Our celebrant was one of our family friends and she did a great job. As soon as we got engaged we knew Jenny had to be our celebrant! We wrote our own vows which was a really nice personal touch. Brendan isn’t much of a public speaker so hearing him say words from the heart was really nice.”

Sophie admits planning the wedding wasn’t all smooth sailing. “Having a toddler and 2 businesses to run I struggled to find the time and being such a perfectionist meant there were hours and hours spent planning this wedding! I am lucky that my jobs are both in the wedding industry so I had contacts and a pretty good idea of what I wanted as I have been to over 100 weddings!”

Sophie was lucky enough to have a bridesmaid that doubled as the florist! “Flowers By Elli Paige (my bridesmaid) knew exactly what I wanted! I think all I said to her was bright and flower crowns and she just ran with it! Her work is just incredible and I’m so lucky to have her as one of my best mates!”

Sophie and Brendan adored their photographer. “Gordo was phenomenal! He was so chilled out we barely knew he was there! He hadn’t really worked with a bright wedding before so I did warn him and he just took it in his stride and came out with the goods! The number of people that commented on my photographer was insane! He really did such a great job of capturing our day and our personalities.”

Sophie added special touches to the day to honour those she loved. “One of my best friends couldn’t make it because she had been diagnosed with leukaemia and was in the hospital getting treatment. To make sure she was a part of the day I bought a bracelet from the leukaemia foundation and put it in my bouquet so she was there with me the whole time.
I also sewed a butterfly from my grandmother’s wedding dress into my dress and put a pin from my mum’s wedding day into my bouquet.
We also included our daughter who is miracle baby (she was born when I was just 26 weeks pregnant and stayed in the hospital for over 4 months) She was a flower girl and totally stole the show! We also had all of her cousins in it as well which was really nice.”

The pair made sure to put their own personal touch on the day. Sophie explaining “We DIY’d our photo wall. I had this in my head for ages where I wanted to use 2 old gates from the farm and have a neon sign saying ‘Creesy ’bout you’ I loved how this turned out and how we had the water in the background for everyone’s photos. We then strung up the fairy floss so people could take it as their bonbonniere. That gave it a really cool festival vibe.
My mum also spent countless hours cutting out love hearts from leaves for the confetti at the ceremony. She’s a school teacher and even managed to wrangle some of her students to help out!”

The dance floor kicked off with an old favourite song, that meant so much to the newlyweds. “Our first dance song was ‘Lullaby’- Shaun Mullins. It’s a song that Brendan sings to me when I’m having a tough day and he’s giving me a cuddle. My band sang this for us which made it even more special.”

A big congratulations Sophie and Brendan! Thank you for sharing your beautiful day with us. Thank you also to Gordon Becker for sharing today’s stunning celebration.