Welcome to today’s soft pastel wedding feature, which was overflowing with peachy pinks, classic styling and community. Zoe and Jacob’s extraordinary love story unfolded across three continents and led them to this incredible celebration. Set against the picturesque Summergrove Estate, their wedding was captured beautifully by Cloud Catcher Studio – full of laughter and unwavering joy (our favourite kind!).

It was January of 2014, in Montreal, Canada, where both Zoe and Jacob were doing a university exchange program when they first met. “I came from Brisbane, Australia and he came from Stockholm, Sweden and we never thought the feelings we quickly developed for each other could possibly turn into anything real due to the distance. Despite that, there was no denying that we had fallen in love. So we made the decision to give it a go to see what would happen,” explained Zoe. “This resulted in 14 months of long distance, followed by two years living together in London, followed by another 15 months of long distance, until finally Jacob and I both made the decision to reside together in Sydney, Australia.”

After nearly seven years together, Zoe had thought it was impossible for Jacob to surprise her anymore. “Especially when I made sure that for every holiday we went on together, I had a full manicure ready to receive a ring, just in case!” Despite her confidence, Jacob decided an unassuming Saturday in November was the perfect time for a beach day.

“It was a perfect, sunny day, and he took us to one of our favourite views in NSW: Wybung Head Lookout in Munmorah National Park. Before I could work out what was happening, Jacob had procured a picnic rug, cheese platter and champagne with strawberries out of nowhere. After some beautiful words (for my ears only), he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. Spoiler: I said YES! To say I was surprised is an understatement – I didn’t even have a manicure!”

Jacob wanted to represent his Swedish nationality on his wedding day, so he wore a beautiful black J.Lindeberg tuxedo paired with some Happy Socks full of Swedish motifs, and a pair of hidden Swedish flag budgie smugglers that made their own special appearance later that night.

Within his wedding party, Jacob had five groomsmen – a collection of best friends from various stages of his life. The guys were also representing Sweden in their own way, wearing H&M suits and their own pair of matching budgie smugglers. “I gifted them Australian motif socks to give them a touch of Australia on the day,” said Zoe.

Zoe had four bridesmaids in her wedding party, who wore different styles of champagne-hued Shona Joy dresses recycled from another wedding they’d been to the year prior—we love a sustainable choice!

Her gown and veil were from Brisbane’s Paddington Weddings (now known as The BRIDEHOUSE). The classic, timeless style perfect fit the pastel tones of the wedding and (most importantly!) Zoe was comfortable and felt beautiful in it! “The experience of finding my dress was a really special one. My mum and I went shopping together and I tried a number of dresses that we loved but that weren’t quite right. When we described the features we liked, Anne and Gill at Paddington Brides were incredibly helpful in showing us one that hadn’t hit the shop floor yet. She was perfect. The dress hugged me in all the right places, was flattering on my curves, and was made from a beautiful pebbled Italian silk – it felt so “me”. We knew right away that it was The One.”

What made the experience even more special for Zoe was that since the dress was a brand new style, Anne and Gill decided to name it” Zoe. “Wearing my namesake dress on my wedding day was a truly unique experience!” She paired the outfit with pearl and diamond drop earrings from Kate & Kole Jewellery, a floral porcelain headband from Lena and Rom, and pearl velvet heels from Forever Soles—“which felt like walking on clouds for 10 hours!”

Wanting to include the tradition of something old, new, borrowed, and blue, Zoe’s mum brought a very special sapphire brooch that belonged to her grandmother to pin to the inside of the gown. “This was my something old, borrowed, and blue, while everything else was my something new!”

As a lot of their guests were flying into Australia for the wedding, Zoe and Jacob wanted to get married somewhere that put our beautiful country on display – and Summergrove Estate was exactly that! With its breathtaking views of the Gold Coast Hinterlands on one side and the glimmering coastal beaches on the other, it was the perfect spot. “Summergrove has a chapel and barn on-site, so our ceremony and reception were all in one place, meaning we got to maximise the time we spent with our guests, which was really important to us!”

For their soft florals, Zoe and Jacob worked with local Brisbane florist Natalie Kaptein from Moons Lane Flowers. “Nat was amazing at reading my mind to understand exactly what I wanted for our flowers, despite me not having the language to properly describe it. We wanted a pared-back look with simple, whimsical, soft pastels of pink, oranges, white and greenery. We had a beautiful floating floor arrangement for our ceremony in the chapel, which was reused in the reception space afterwards. This was complemented by single-stem table arrangements, bouquets, and buttonholes for the bridal party and family members.”

As the notes of “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds floated through the air, Zoe began her trip down the aisle with her dad on her arm. “My absolute favourite moment of the day was seeing Jacob’s reaction when the chapel doors opened – it was pure joy, love and excitement. I will never forget that moment,” she explained.

This was also Jacob’s most memorable moment from the day – and we aren’t surprised with a reaction like that!! “A specific moment I will never forget was the moment Zoe stepped into the chapel, and I saw her in her wedding dress for the first time. It was the most amazing feeling to see her walk down the aisle, too, and she was the most beautiful bride there has ever been!”

Their ceremony was bursting with laughter, joy, and celebrations of their love, and it was held in the beautiful chapel on the estate. Led by their celebrant, Annie Molenaar from Celebrant Lady Love, it was a beautifully tailored, lighthearted and sentimental ceremony. “We chose not to have any readings, as we had a lot of speeches lined up for the reception, so we focused on our vows, which we wrote ourselves.”

The top five things that made their soft, pastel wedding so special included:

“1. Celebrating our love and happiness.

2. Having all of our people from all over the world come together in one place.

3. Combining our Swedish and Australian roots through various special elements throughout the day.

4. We had exactly the wedding that we wanted, and we didn’t get too carried away with what we thought we “should” do. From DIY elements to prioritising or deprioritising certain elements, we can confidently say that our wedding day was authentically ours.

5. FINALLY becoming husband and wife after nine years together, 2.5 years engaged and too many years apart!”

Luckily for Zoe and Jacob, they had the incredible Cloud Catcher Studio on their dream team. “We had the most wonderful, fun photography and videography team from Cloud Catcher. Emma, Lizzie and Izzy felt like friends and made us so feel comfortable in front of the camera. They made us laugh; they hyped us up; they were kind and patient and helpful and organised, and they kept the whole thing moving without ever making us feel stressed.”

The one magical thing you can’t plan for your wedding day is a spectacular sunset – but luck was on Zoe and Jacob’s side, and the photos that came from it are unimaginable! “One of our (many) favourites is one of us during the spectacular sunset we were lucky enough to experience on our wedding day. You can only see our silhouettes, but even then, you can see the loving gaze I’m directing towards Jacob.”

The reception was held in the barn on the property and was filled with personal touches. “We made sure to include a table of photos and a memory candle for special family members who are no longer with us but who we know were at our wedding in spirit,” Zoe shared. “It was also important to us to represent both of our cultures in different elements of the day.”

Little touches of culture were sprinkled throughout the decor, like these metallic painted gum leaves with handwritten names. The party favours homemade Swedish snaps infused with native Australian lemon myrtle. And all of their invitations, menus and signage were handmade and written in English and Swedish.

Another special tradition they included was songbooks for guests. “We included lyrics in Swedish and translated them phonetically so non-Swedes could sing along as well. It was a great bonding moment for our guests and a fun way to include Swedish culture in our wedding reception!”

One of Zoe’s favourite moments from the night was the groomsmen’s speech – where the guys continued the Swedish tradition of group sing-a-longs and had rewritten the lyrics to one of Zoe and Jacob’s favourite songs “You’re The Voice” by John Farnham. “They passed around the lyrics – which told the story of us and our love to all of our guests and initiated the most raucous and hilarious sing-a-longs of all time!”

Zoe and Jacob did ten weeks of dance lessons for their first dance preparation. For their song choice, they blended their favourite artists and danced to Miley Cyrus’ cover of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters”.

Congratulations, Zoe and Jacob! You pulled together the perfect soft pastel wedding that welcomed people from around the globe. Thanks to Cloud Catcher Studios for capturing and sharing with us.