We know pastel weddings are a beautiful spring option, but what about winter weddings? Well, Jessica and Jake embraced the most beautiful pastel colour palette for their stunning August day set deep in the Gold Coast Hinterland. From the beautiful peachy tones of Jessica’s chosen bridesmaid gowns to the sweet pastel-hued floral arrangements, Common Studios captured all the beauty of this stunning day which was not just filled with stealable details (oh and there are many) but of a sweet story that was one for the ages.

“We wanted to create an intimate and fun atmosphere, similar to that of a garden party and this is what we kept coming back to when making decisions.” explains Jessica, “We wanted it to feel cosy and relaxed and didn’t want to shy away from colour. We also wanted to let the location speak for itself. Most of all, it was important to us that everyone had a good time and there were lots of laughs.”

After high school, Jessica moved to Brisbane with her family and began studying at university. She made fast friends, and her brand new best friend introduced her older brother – who just happened to be Jake! The pair hit it off .”We owe his sister big time!” laughs Jess, but it wasn’t until 2021 that Jake asked Jess to marry him. “We planned a trip away to Byron Bay in July 2021 (which happened to be right before we returned to a 3-month lockdown in Melbourne).

Jake insisted on taking a bottle of red wine down to a quiet spot on the beach one afternoon. It turns out I had been carrying the ring down to the beach in my bag, wrapped up in a towel. When we got down to the water, I went to pull out the second towel for us to sit on and Jake insisted we only needed one. I quickly discovered why! After a couple of hours on the beach watching the sunset, we headed to Rae’s Dining Room to continue celebrations over dinner. It is one of the happiest days of our lives.”

Jake chose a classic black suit, complete with a bow tie by  InStitchu pairing it with peach and black polka dot socks. Shares Jake “I remember it being the happiest day of my life by a long stretch!! I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day spent with our closest family and friends. I think the memory that will stick with me the most is seeing Jess when she first started walking down the aisle and being overwhelmed with happiness and joy. There certainly wasn’t a dry eye in the house (me included!).”

Jessica’s dress was a masterful find, stumbling across the puffy sleeve beauty at Rachel Gilbert. “My experience finding a dress was quite relaxed and quick. I wanted to find something that felt a bit more casual (like I was at a garden party!) so focused on brands that I might look to for other events, not just if I was a bride. I saw my dress in pink on Rachel Gilbert’s Instagram page one week and went to their High Street store in Armadale that weekend.   After trying it on and Face Timing my sister in the change-room, I bought it in white.

My experience in finding shoes was similar, and thankfully my Mum helped me hunt down the last of its stock from Christian Dior in Brisbane. I wanted the shoes to have their moment, so had my dress hemmed to just above my ankles. It felt great knowing I had found something that was very me!”

Despite being locked down in Melbourne, it was not hard for these two to fall in love with their hinterland venue Beechmont Estate. “We were in a lockdown in Melbourne when looking at venues. Our lovely wedding planner Ash (from The Other Bridesmaid) and Jake’s mum went to a couple of venues for us and Face Timed us in. With most of our guests from Brisbane, we wanted to have something close by.

Keeping with our desire to create an intimate atmosphere, it was important to us to try and have the option for guests to stay on-site (and with us for the weekend). As soon as I saw the veranda space at Beechmont Estate via FaceTime, I knew I wanted to have our reception outside, under their overhead lights, looking out over the property. Also, the luxe white cabins offered cosiness for guests, each with its firepit, and created almost a community feel with their half-moon positioning around the venue.”

Jessica chose “Georgia” by Vance Joy to play as she walked down the aisle with her dad. “My dad walked me down the aisle. This was right after he burst into tears. It was a big moment for us, and I’m so lucky my sister caught it on film! We chose Georgia by Vance Joy to walk down the aisle to. We had our talented best friend, Timothy Tanzer perform the song and tweak it so that it had a happier ending than the original. This was a favourite song of Jake’s, and we loved how personal it felt having Timmy involved in our day.

We loved having so many of our family and friends involved in elements of our day – made it extra special. We had our talented friend, Timmy singing us down the aisle, I had my two-year-old nephew and mini-me, Jaxon, deliver the rings to Jake and my wonderful hairdresser, Eric from Haus of Hof (who most of my family had been seeing for years) with the wedding party all morning, not to mention all our other guests who participated along the way. It was these kinds of details that meant the most to us.”

The ceremony was officiated by Rachel Green – Two Small Words. “We wanted the ceremony to feel natural and genuine – and Rachel Green, our celebrant, helped us achieve exactly that! I had to rip off my veil halfway through the ceremony and we had a few laughs with our guests. It was perfect.”

“I also had Jake’s wedding band secretly engraved with our initials and wedding date, as a little extra surprise for him during the ceremony.”

Even the wedding party embraced the pastel theme. “I had three bridesmaids and Jake had two groomsmen in our wedding party, all of whom mean a lot to us. We had my sister, Jake’s sister and brother, my oldest best friend and Jake’s best mate who knew us both before we started dating. The bridesmaids wore a peach-coloured dress by L’IDEE. This had been one of the brands I had been looking to for wedding dress inspiration, and thought, if I don’t wear one of their dresses as a wedding dress – my bridesmaids could wear one instead!

The peach colour became the focal point for our wedding colour palette across stationery, florals etc. The groomsmen were very consistent with Jake’s attire and wore custom-made suits with personalised detailing on the inside of their jackets. We love that you can catch a glimpse of their peach socks in some of the images captured.”

The couple worked with Fiflàr Floral to create pastel beautiful floral arrangements for the day. Remembers Jess  “Sheridan from Fiflar blew us away with the floral arrangements, from the tablescape to the florals on the cake to the floor pieces centring us during the ceremony. I am still wrapping my head around the floor pieces three months later! I spoke to Sheridan via phone and sent through some inspo pics in the lead-up, but really, we trusted Sheridan to bring it all to life on the day and we were truly blown away. We also had some flowers dried and framed post-wedding!”

“We have received so many compliments about Lauren and Bryce three months on!”,  remarks Jess of the couple’s chosen photographers. “They are the best! Both Lauren and Bryce from Common Studios were incredibly relaxed and genuine – which was exactly the atmosphere we were going for on the day. They were very calming, gave the perfect amount of direction and most importantly, the process felt natural. We think the photos speak for themselves!”

Jess and Jake say booking a wedding planner? The best decision! The couple chose less stress on their day thanks to wedding planners The Other Bridesmaid. Working with a wedding planner was one of the best decisions we made! Ash and the team from The Other Bridesmaids were amazing and some of the most organised people we have ever met. We loved their process, friendliness, and attention to detail. The team truly made the planning process a dream!”

The reception was filled with pastel-toned flowers and sweet, special touches, says Jess “My favourite part of the planning was designing the styling elements. I love setting a table, so the tablescape for our special day was the ultimate project. It was great working with our wedding planners from The Other Bridesmaid and Laura Elizabeth Design to create the double-sided menu and name cards, as well as the signage, and other tablescape elements.”

The speeches remain one of Jess’s favourite memories of the night. “We absolutely loved and were blown away by all the speeches. Everyone added their own stories of us, and we laughed, but mostly cried throughout all of them.”

The newlyweds kicked off the dance floor antics with “Baby I’m Yours” by The Arctic Monkeys. Says Jess “It felt perfect as soon as we heard it. It was a song we had both never heard before, and Artic Monkeys also happens to be a favourite band of Jake’s. The lyrics are so sweet and it felt just the right length for our first dance. We had no dance lessons, just a few practice runs with a twirl here and kiss there.”

No detail was left forgotten by these two. “There were also other little details we wanted to have throughout the evening, such as a round of Espresso Martinis, ‘Game Over’ stubby coolers, bottles of Powerade for guests to take back to their cabins once the evening ended and a saxophone player to accompany the DJ when we hit the dancefloor. I truly believe there is nothing better than a sax player at a wedding!”

Congratulations to you both Jessica and Jake! What a beautiful day to be able to share. Thank you both and thank you to Common Studios for sharing today’s beautiful day with us.