What we bang on about more than anything else here at Polka Dot Wedding, is doing your day your way, and for Danielle and Henry that looked like a colour love and fun-filled wedding festival in the bush. A day packed with food trucks, glitter sideburns, bubble machines, face-painting sequins and the most incredible blooms. It meant switching up the order of the day to welcome their guests with cocktails, to a group African dance after dance (in sequins of course) as a nod to Henry’s Zimbabwean heritage. With a dress code marked simply as “pizazz” and the mood simply good vibes, we’re more than thrilled that Photogerson was along for the ride so we can dive into every single detail with you today.

The couple met while living in the UK, sharing “Henry is from Zimbabwe but was in the British Royal Marines and Danielle was an OT living & working in her hometown of Plymouth, where Henry was based. We met one drunken night out at a local popular pub hit it off immediately which, resulted in Danielle sneaking on to a military base at 3 am with Henry and the rest is history, we have been together 10 years this year.”

And the proposal? As full of joy and as fun as it sounds like these two live the rest of their lives, “Henry totally and utterly surprised Danielle by proposing in a packed restaurant in Denmark WA whilst we were there for a holiday for Danielle’s birthday. It was awesome, many couples were out celebrating special dinners and wedding anniversaries etc and came over with bottles of bubbles and restaurant staff all came out with sparklers; Henry had pre-planned it all much to Danielle’s surprise.”

This was a day full of handmade details, and the newlywed’s credit wedding planner  The Wedding Concept for making sure it all came together without a hitch. Danielle explained “We had an amazing wedding coordinator – Kim from The Wedding Concept – who fully embraced the love fest theme. We DIY’d lots of the decor for this including a huge feature sign, neon sign, bubble machine, and many lengths of glitter bunting and disco balls, and huge light spheres hung in the trees.

Kim was a pleasure to work with and we genuinely just had heaps of fun finding decor and creating design ideas; she worked so hard and invested so much for us we are so grateful to her. All her vendor recommendations were perfect and we had zero issues or complaints.”

The flowers, were, of course, every colour of the rainbow, the beautiful arrangements styled by Deep Blooms. “Our flowers were amazing – the only brief was colourful vibrant pizzazz. They created a flower installation around the tree, by the band and dance floor. Danielle’s bouquet and all button holes were just stunning, our florist even found a traditional flower – a flame lily from Zimbabwe.  Henry’s oversized buttonhole was just brilliant.”

A wedding as packed to the brim as this needs a venue that can hold up to the task, and the couple found it in Margaret River Retreat.  “This place was great, a gorgeous setting and a blank canvas for an outdoor festival wedding. We had a festival space for the main event with a short walk to a gorge huge tree where the ceremony was held.”

The couple switched up the schedule for the day, greeting their guests on arrival with cocktails (Whiskey Sours and Limoncello Spritzes) mixed up by Juniper Events, a decision which turned out to be one of their favourites, tells Danielle “We loved the relaxed fun vibe including music pumping on arrival so the party was on straight away rather than quiet waiting around for ceremony to begin. We made sure the festival theme ran through the day from welcome cocktails with the band cranking on arrival, where we also greeted everyone, to the mirror booth, glitter caravan, and both making a dancing entrance down the aisle.”

Henry’s two wedding day outfits matched the festival vibes, the couple sharing  “Henry wore a glitter bow tie and braces to greet guests, added a serious amount of glitter to his sideburns at the glitter caravan during cocktail hour and then made his entrance dancing down the aisle in chinos, RM Williams crocodile belt, RM marching boots and blue jacket, with a huge colourful statement buttonhole.”

Danielle wore not one, but three different outfits on the day. “It was a Love Fest theme, the vibe is everything so we decided to greet our guests in different outfits to have an hour of cocktails before the ceremony.
So my  first outfit was a  full length electric blue sequin gown, then I disappeared to change and came down the aisle in a white glittery gown covered in a leaf pattern; it was awesome at night it kind of glowed in the dark. We also a planned group African dance so for this I changed into a multicoloured sequin playsuit with matching slides.”

“Danielle’s immediate family all helped with outfit changes, and rocked their outfit changes from colourful gowns as they came down the aisle, to sequins for nighttime, and Henry’s family rocked traditional very bright African outfits.”

Both Danielle and Henry made their statement entries to the ceremony, “Both making an entrance, this was Danielle’s idea but once Henry and his family embraced it just added to the special day and overall vibe.” Henry going first, “Henry made a dancing entrance first with his father and brother dancing to an acoustic version of “Addicted to Love” by Robert Palmer.”

Danielle walked down the aisle with her sisters, niece and Mum and Dad to “Cover Me In Sunshine” by Pink played by the couple’s chosen band Monty Cotton.

“In the love fest theme we had a fun and heartfelt ceremony and our celebrant was James McHale, a former newsreader from ABC who we know as a friend” explain Danielle and Henry. “James the celebrant wore a glitter headband, carried a banksia staff sprayed gold and blew a French antique horn to announce the marriage. We asked him for his best version of eccentric pizzazz and he did not disappoint, telling the how we met story, we both did our vows, Henry read his poem and Danielle told the story of the moment she knew she had fallen for Henry.”

The couple opted out of a wedding party. “It meant many people felt involved when we both went to get changed; many family members and close friends piled in with Danielle for some bubbles and to get a white dress on, and Henry with a family friend to cheers with a whiskey before the main event.”

These two were thrilled with their choice of photographer. “Luke was amazing and recommended by our wedding coordinator Kim as she thought he would embrace our non-traditional theme, timeline etc. He sure did, so relaxed and loving the vibe helped everyone to feel comfortable about having photos taken. The photos we got are just incredible and truly capture the whole event, he was just brilliant!!!”

The couple credit the amazing vibes of their day to their incredible band. “Monty Cotton band went over and above to get the crowd going including playing the didgeridoo and his guitar amongst the dancing crowd of guests – an absolute legend.”

In keeping with the mood of the day, Henry and Danielle’s first dance was a group effort. “For our first dance we had “Clarity” by Vance Joy, but in Love Fest style the main dance event was us and seven other couples doing a planned choreographed dance to an African dance song.”

 

A big beautiful congratulations to you both Danielle and Henry! Thank you for sharing your stories and all the fun with us and thank you to Photogerson for sharing today’s images!