Emily & Brendan's Love Filled Sunshine Coast Brewery Wedding

Truly celebrating our Sunshine Coast Issue means sharing the stunning love stories that grace its fair shores! Emily & Brendan’s Love Filled Sunshine Coast Brewery Wedding is the perfect example of relaxed, Noosa nuptials. Just try reading their wedding story & scrolling through their gorgeous images, captured by Girl & The Wolf Photography, without grinning along with Brendan’s infectious and elated smile, and Emily’s radiance at marrying the love of her life. Emily tells us about their day…

We actually met on Tinder, then a week later met face to face at my friend’s birthday party where I was dressed as my friend. I had to remove my wig and contacts before saying hi!

We had been talking about the proposal for a while and I kept dropping *large* hints that I’m getting old so he should propose! Haha! Brendan had asked my parents’ permission a few months prior to accidentally spilling his guts to me after a cheeky pint or two that he had asked them. He was then ring shopping online but asked me to go with him as we had no idea of sizing etc. We tried multiple engagement rings on and the one he picked we both ended up not liking. We ended up at a jeweler and found both an engagement ring and a wedding ring I fell in love with. So, he told me to bugger off and he made his purchase. Then later that day we were at a picnic with friends where he looked as pale as a ghost and then dropped to his knee in front of our friends at New Farm Park and practically threw the ring box at me and asked me to marry him. Neither of us can remember if I said yes but of course, there was no way I was saying no!

I was fortunate enough to have my dad’s mum’s (my nannie) engagement ring passed down through my mum to me as she is no longer with us. With that and the one she had previously gifted me, one with emerald green stones, as she knew that is my favourite colour my mum and I got to redesign a dress ring for me to wear on the day. Brendan also got to put on his dad’s bow tie from his wedding that he sneakily passed me at the wedding for a few photos.

As we were engaged in October 2021 and set a date of February 2022, I had some tight timelines to work with. Originally, I could see myself in a little sparkly playsuit in my favourite colour green. I ended up taking my mum & mother in law to be to a bridal show that was held at Blackbird and the lovely designer Vanessa from When Freddie Met Lilly was actually having a runway show for her new wedding gowns. After seeing her show, I made an appointment, and off my mum and I went to try on gowns. After trying a few on, I fell really quickly for a mocha coloured lace overlay dress. I could not wear white or see myself In a white wedding dress. The colour I chose was so unique and beautiful. Vanessa worked with me to find my ideal fit. The colour and lace of the first dress I loved, however, I liked the cut of another dress better. Vanessa then made me my very own bespoke gown. She made it to fit me like a glove and it was ready within our 8-week timeline, including a Christmas/New Years break. I am so grateful to have worked with Vanessa at When Freddie Met Lilly. She is an absolute gem and didn’t make me feel uncomfortable at any time and let me play with her beautiful sausage dog, Coco. I am obsessed with animals! It was the best experience for me and I am still madly in love with my dress 2 months later.

Luckily for me, Brendan let me have a say in what he wore for our wedding. Brendan is a very laid back caring man and he and I both wanted something simple that would compliment my dress. We ended up going with a simple classy look of cream and white from Tarocash.

It’s hard to pick my favourite moment from the day but I think seeing Brendan before the ceremony was my favourite part. We were both so nervous we barely slept and we were texting the morning of as we were both so excited but nervous. As soon as we got to see each other our nerves subsided and we just felt so in love and couldn’t wait to say I do.

I didn’t want to pay a fortune for flowers, as we had a budget and I wanted to stick to it. I found an amazing lady online through a friend’s Instagram story. Amy, the business owner of Four + Me, creates beautiful dry floral arrangements and candles. I reached out to her on Instagram and asked if she had ever done a wedding. All we wanted was my bouquet, 3 bridesmaids, and then the boutonniere’s for Brendan and the boys. She had not done a wedding before but was willing to work with me. We then worked together on dry floral arrangements for the wedding and they were perfect and are now part of our new home décor.

I walked down the aisle to Ed Sheeran’s “Best Part of Me”. We really had no idea what we wanted our ceremony to be like, but our celebrant, Brendan Anning, definitely helped us with that. We just wanted it to be as comfortable as it could be in front of almost 100 people. We didn’t have any particular readings but our celebrant got someone from our wedding party to ask the ‘will we promise’ each other questions. Which we both loved as we had no idea what there were going to ask us and got them involved throughout the ceremony.

We DIY’d a few jumbo balloons and colourful confetti but the brewery was our backdrop. It is a stunning venue and very much our vibe – chilled and relaxed!

Laura from Girl & The Wolf photography is bright, bubbly, understanding and kind, and honestly, there aren’t enough words to describe how amazing she was to deal with. It was our absolute pleasure to work with her and her assistant photographer (also Laura!). She made us, our families and guests feel completely comfortable and caught beautiful photos for us.

Laura is an absolute star to work with!! My favourite photos are all the photos of our wonderful guests and the ones where she was able to capture every single joyful moment between Brendan and me and our guests. Our first look photos where Brendan is holding a beer and we’re both looking at each other laughing, that is us in a nutshell however we love the kissing photo with the brewery as the background, and really who can go past the confetti photos, they are just gold!

We both wanted a chilled fun atmosphere for our wedding day. We had no idea of a theme or style but we knew we wanted to have our wedding at brewery. We both love visiting breweries so we had looked over Brisbane and then visited my brother and sister-in-law who live on the Sunshine Coast. They took us to a few up there that we had our eyes on but also one we didn’t know about. Surprise, surprise – we absolutely fell in love with the one we hadn’t been to yet, Land & Sea, Noosa Brewing Company in Noosaville. It was big enough to fit all our guests and we could have both the ceremony & reception there. It is a brewery/distillery and was bright, airy, unique, and special, where we could see ourselves saying I do to each other. It really was a one-stop-shop at Land & Sea, perfection!

We honestly weren’t picky, the fact it was at a brewery was unique for us and our guests and we wanted to ensure our guests could enjoy themselves. We were lucky though that Brendan’s grandma is the best cake maker! She offered to make our wedding cake and it was delicious! We had a chocolate layer and caramel layer mud cake. It was divine!

Working with Elise, the on-site manager we dealt with at Land & Sea, was one of the best parts. She was an absolute dream! She was accommodating, flexible and super chill, which was exactly what we needed when planning a wedding under 12 weeks whilst dealing with COVID. My highly anxious self felt a lot better whenever I spoke with her. We managed to organise the whole wedding in 4 weeks, from venue to photographer to cards. Sometimes it pays for me to be super impatient.

We chose “Guess I’m In Love” by Clinton Kane as our first dance song. I actually weirdly found him via TikTok and absolutely fell in love with it and so did Brendan when I shared it with him.