When Alicia and Rob’s original wedding plans came to a firm halt thanks to a Brisbane lockdown, the pair decided that they just couldn’t wait, enlisting a select group of their vendors (including photographer The Fox and The Bear), to help them make it official on their original wedding date. Just what we need for The Ceremony Issue!

With the rest of their guests dialled in on Zoom and supporting from afar (including Alicia’s bridesmaid making a wedding cake) and a promise of a reception celebration to come, it turns out, that it was actual perfection for these two, who tell “Remember that the reason for the day is to marry your partner, you can’t control everything and even if things go wrong, it will still be the most amazing day.”

The pair met online over a love of books, Alicia laughing  “Rob’s opening line was ‘if you like books, then you must like book shops’. We chatted for a bit and agreed to meet up for our first date at a cocktail bar.”

The proposal, not a total surprise, however, with plenty of hints, and plenty of discussions ahead of the secret surprise moment, says Rob “We had discussed marriage for a while, with Alicia sending through many Instagram messages of rings she liked. Once I had settled on a jeweller, I went in to get the ring made. We are fairly private people so I didn’t want to do anything in public. I booked a secret dinner at one of our favourite restaurants and planned to propose while getting ready. While it was nearly derailed by Alicia making plans for dinner with her friend, it went ahead as planned, with me crying so much I didn’t finish my little speech, Alicia tearfully saying yes and many happy phone calls too.”

While Rob was not able to be with his groomsmen, the group made sure they marked the occasion with plenty of love tells Alicia.  “Rob’s groomsmen got together and made a video to wish him well on for our wedding and give some advice for our marriage. It was a lovely idea as they were unable to join us on the day and a let us both have a good cry in the morning.”

The couple even managed to have their wedding cake made by Liz Paynter Alicia’s bridesmaid.  “Neither of us overly enjoyed the planning process, all of our vendors were amazing to deal with and once we had booked everything in it was a relief. We did really enjoy the cake tasting!”

The groom, who wore green tweed, chose his look from Oscar Hunt. He notes “I wore a tailored jacket in a forest green “tweed-esque” fabric with tan chinos from Oscar Hunt. I chose that combination because I didn’t want to wear a formal suit, keeping with the theme and vibe we were going for with our wedding. I chose forest green because I was searching for something different beyond the standard navy/grey/black colours, and when I found a Pinterest link with a wedding party with green tweed, I was sold.”

Alicia adding “Rob wore his Granddad’s watch which was gifted to him by Rob’s Grandmother, which was then passed down to him from his Dad when he graduated university.”

Alicia’s beautiful lace gown was by Lost In Paris Bridal. She tells  “I wore the Free Spirit gown made by Lost in Paris I had never really wanted a traditional wedding dress; I originally wasn’t even looking at wedding dresses but rather a beautiful gown. I came across Lost in Paris on Instagram and fell in love with the style, I was sent three dresses to try on at home and absolutely adored the Free Spirit gown. I loved that it made me feel beautiful but I also thought that I could easily eat lots of pizza and still feel comfortable in the dress.”

The couple had booked Kate Dawes Flower Design for their wedding and worked with the florist to use some of the flowers ordered for their wedding on the day in different ways. Alicia explained “I am more than happy to admit that I know nothing about flowers, my brief to my florist was “I want bright flowers” and I showed her my bridesmaids’ dresses. She was absolutely amazing and gave me a design board which helped me understand how it would all come together on the day. My florist did make my bouquet but the rest of the flowers were assembled by Alicia.

As we are having a larger ceremony and reception next year, we opted to move our full florals package to then. Our florist had already purchased the flowers for the day so she made me my bouquet and gave us the rest of the flowers that were going to be used. I put those flowers in some vases the night before the wedding, panicking heavily about trying to make them look pretty but had a glass of wine and got the job done perfectly.

I also had to do my own hair and make-up on the day (again thanks to the lockdown). This was another extremely stressful task and I would highly recommend getting professionals in to do the job so you can relax and enjoy the morning.”

The couple shared a first look before the ceremony, the moment resulting in some of Rob’s favourite photos of the day. “It was the first time I saw how beautiful Alicia was on the wedding day”.

“Our style was industrial with pops of colour. Our wedding was supposed to be at Factory 51 but because of the Brisbane lockdown, we ended up eloping. After visiting a few different spots around Brisbane our photographer, Keira, suggested the Powerhouse because it had a similar atmosphere as Factory 51. I am a huge fan of wearing bright colours so I had planned for my bridesmaids to all be wearing different brightly coloured dresses. From this, our style and theme went to include lots of bright colours.”

Alicia and Rob loved the industrial vibes of their chosen ceremony spot – right outside the Brisbane Powerhouse. “It is a very cool spot with exposed brick that was similar to our original venue. As it was lockdown, we didn’t technically use a specific venue, we just set up outside the venue and it came together perfectly.”

Alicia and Rob walked hand in hand d to their wedding together, to “POur LovE” by Gary Clark Jnr.  “We walked down the aisle together.” They tell “Originally Alicia’s Dad was going to walk her down the aisle but as we were eloping, we decided to walk down together.”

Alicia and Rob chose Paul Voge to officiate their intimate ceremony, telling “We always wanted our ceremony to be short and sweet but it became slightly shorter when we eloped. Our celebrant, Paul Voge, is quite possibly one of the coolest people we have ever met and has such high energy about him. We chose him because we knew that he would ensure that the ceremony was fun and he definitely delivered that one the day. Paul told the story of our engagement and then we each said our vows, it was the most perfect ceremony.”

“Try not to stress about the little details because you won’t remember/care about them on the day, you will be so focussed on your partner that nothing else will really matter. Take time to enjoy yourselves, it will go so quickly, make sure you take a moment to enjoy it as a newly married couple.”

The wedding was witnessed by just ten guests. “Lockdown meant that we could have a total of 10 guests. Alicia had her parents, Anita and Tony and one of her sisters, Madeline attend. Rob had his parents, Sheryl and Rodney and one of his sisters, Natalie attend.”

Although it was an elopement Alicia and Rob still had plenty of guests with them in spirit. “We got Rob’s sister to bring her laptop and set it up on an ironing board so that we could have our guests join us via Zoom.”

With only a select group of vendors with them on their day, Alicia and Rob were thrilled with the two they spent the most time with, including photographer Keira and celebrant Paul. “Keira was fantastic. From when we first contacted her, she was so helpful and communicative. Our engagement photoshoot with her really helped us feel comfortable and took off some of the nerves we were feeling about being photographed for the wedding. When we found out that lockdown meant we couldn’t have our wedding as we originally planned, Keira stepped into action and pretty much became our wedding coordinator. She gave us suggestions as to where we could have the ceremony, she ensured that everything ran accordingly and was a huge reason that we didn’t feel so stressed about the smaller details of the day.

Both Keira and Paul were absolutely amazing. Keira and Paul were so easy to chat with during our initial wedding planning as they were always willing to answer any questions and it felt like we were chatting with friends. They were the only photographer and celebrant we contacted as after we met them, we knew they were the perfect vendors for us. When we decided to elope, they quickly snapped into action and helped us plan our elopement in four days. They were so encouraging of us eloping and ensuring that we had the most amazing day ever. We can’t wait to have both of them back for our larger ceremony and reception next year.”

The newlyweds celebrated their new status with pizza and gelato. “After we eloped we went back to our Airbnb, to celebrate we had pizza and pasta from Beccofino and gelato from La Macelleria gelateria. We didn’t get to have our reception (that will come along next year) but we had a little dance back at the Airbnb we were staying at to “Beyond” by Leon Bridges.”

Alicia and Rob also had The Fox and The Bear capture this beautiful film of their day.

The biggest of congratulations to you to Alicia and Rob! Thank you for telling us the stories of your day and allowing us to share them and thank you to The Fox and The Bear for sharing the imagery with us today.