My colour scheme was inspired by soft pastels of pink, blue, yellow, and green.
Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…
We are high school sweethearts who married on our ten-year anniversary on 9th March 2024, surrounded by our closest family and friends. We have been through so much together over the past ten years. This wedding was a long time coming, and it feels like such an incredible milestone in our relationship. Our beautiful Labrador Rory, who is the centre of our world, was the ring bearer for our wedding, and getting to see him walk down the aisle to bring us our wedding rings was one of my most cherished moments of the whole day.
I’ve been a Midwife for the past six years, and Terrell is currently studying but was previously in Marine Construction.
We are leaving soon for our long awaited 5 week honeymoon in Japan, after years of health challenges Terrell is finally well enough to travel.
How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?
We met in high school when we were 15, and after a mutual friend encouraged him to message me, he tried to chat me up for a couple of months before I agreed to a first date. Our mums dropped us off at the movies, and I sneakily planned the timing around when the next session of Frozen would start. Terrell had no objections at all to seeing Frozen for our first date, and I knew just from that he was a keeper. We had an instant connection, and I had never felt so comfortable with someone before. Even though we were just kids, I knew within myself how special the connection between us was, and we became immediately inseparable.
When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?
The funny thing is I never had a moment of realisation or made a conscious decision that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him; I kind of always just knew. We are such different people but have similar principles and values and complement each other so beautifully. I love the way we support, uplift, and take care of each other, and I love the fact that at the heart of everything, we are best friends who can always make each other laugh. Terrell has been through so many devastating and life-changing health challenges over the past 4 years, and it has really proved to us how good of a team we are. I truly believe getting through that means we can get through anything together.
Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…
I told Terrell long before the proposal that we were getting married on our ten-year anniversary. I always loved the idea of getting married on our ten-year anniversary, and the fact that it landed on a Saturday made it feel meant to be. He proposed at home after I came home from work with roses and candles and my favourite foods. Surprisingly, even though I helped pick my ring and already had the date of the wedding planned, he managed to catch me off guard and surprise me completely. I love how intimate the proposal felt, just the two of us at home, with our pets.
Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding.
I envisioned an intimate micro-wedding with our nearest and dearest and gravitated towards the idea of a romantic garden wedding that felt whimsical. With 22 guests in attendance, we were married in the garden of a stunning historic Queenslander property that overlooked the hinterlands and mountains of the Great Dividing Range. I felt so inspired after first viewing the property to bring to life a wedding that felt like it took place in the garden of a cottage in the English countryside. I’m not usually a Type-A person, but there was an abundance of PowerPoint presentations, Pinterest pins and Canva mood boards to bring all this inspiration to life, from my dress to the flowers and styling. My colour scheme was inspired by soft pastels of pink, blue, yellow, and green, where I had my beautiful sisters as my bridesmaids, wearing dresses of each colour and bouquets to match. I absolutely adore the pops of colour in my photos and have my incredible florist, Belle, to thank as she brought my vision to life beyond my wildest hopes and dreams. Belle is so talented at creating whimsical florals, and I teamed them with simple styling and breathtaking scenery to create my romantic garden wedding. I wanted the mood of the day to feel relaxed and fun, which I feel like we definitely achieved. One of my fondest memories is sitting on the floor painting my maid of honours toenails for her while she was getting her hair done, it felt so untraditional but so reflective of the relaxed and intimate vibe of the day.
What was one element you were happy to splurge on?
In a perfect world, you would be able to splurge on everything for your dream wedding; I knew very early on in the wedding planning process this wouldn’t be possible for us – especially once the reality of wedding costs dawned on me. I never had an exact budget in mind before we started wedding planning, but I knew we could never afford a traditional wedding. We loved the idea of eloping just the two of us, but we wanted our dog Rory and our family to be with us, so the idea of a micro-wedding was perfect. I wanted to be as budget friendly as possible with our wedding, but I quickly realised florals would definitely need to be my splurge. I had dreams of whimsical bouquets and jaw-dropping, romantic ceremony florals brought to life in a pastel colour scheme, and that’s when I found Belle. I sent Belle an email letting her know she was the florist of my dreams, but we were having a lowkey intimate wedding and not in need of full-service florals. Belle spoke to me about her micro-wedding option with a smaller minimum spend amount, which was a dream come true. The flowers were the highlight of all my wedding photos, as Belle truly brought my vision of a whimsical garden wedding to life.
I spent a long time contemplating over whether a videographer was worth the splurge, I did so much research on the opinions of past brides and, fortunately, decided it was worth the splurge. If a photo can say a thousand words, a video can say a million – being able to relive your wedding day is something you can’t put a price on. We were so lucky to have found the most incredible photographer and videographer husband and wife duo Bella and Matt from Holland Studio, they are insanely talented, and we were so fortunate to have found them. I can’t explain the joy of waking up the day after your wedding to an email with a 200+ sneak peek photo gallery and teaser wedding video. My wedding day was perfect, so it was a huge relief to see how breathtaking my wedding photos were.
Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?
One of the biggest surprises of my wedding day was how calm I was, I always thought I would be the biggest bridezilla ever and I’m sure my sisters were bracing themselves for that as well. I surrendered to the fact that things can and will go wrong and was able to stay calm and relaxed on my wedding day. I was so lucky to have had everything going smoothly during the day. Still, a funny story we laugh about in hindsight is the groom not listening to me about getting out of the sun on the balcony. Then, he eventually ended up in my makeup artist’s chair, getting his sunburnt face covered up an hour before the ceremony.
Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?
I had no idea what kind of wedding dress I was looking for when I first started searching for my dress. I knew I wanted something romantic and whimsical that made me feel like a princess; I eventually tried on an off-the-shoulder dress and realised it was the exact vibe I was looking for. When I tried on dress number 9, I instantly knew it was the dress of my dreams. I fell in love with the intricate lace and beading on the bodice, the layered tulle skirt, and the detachable sleeves, which I had altered to be dainty and off the shoulder instead of full sleeve length. The veil was the finishing touch as the leafy lace embroidery at the ends tied in perfectly with the beading on my bodice.
My reception dress was a silky long sleeve mini dress with lace details that felt so vintage and classic, I love that I had a more comfortable dress to change into as the reception was very laid back. I also adore all the photos we got during golden hour in my reception dress.
For the groom, we went for classic and timeless in a black tuxedo. We had our beloved Labrador Rory as our ring bearer, wearing a black tuxedo to match Dad, and he walked down the aisle to “Hear Comes The Sun” by The Beatles. Rory then sat in front of us for the rest of the ceremony, and our most treasured photo from the day is of our first kiss as Husband and Wife, with Rory right there with us. Rory looked so handsome in his matching tuxedo, and he loved soaking everyone’s attention.
We had my two sisters as my maid of honour and Terrell’s two sisters as my bridesmaids. I couldn’t possibly decide on only one colour for the colour scheme, so I told the girls the four colours I had in mind for the bridesmaid dresses and let them each decide which colour they wanted and also pick their own dresses. I love that they all got to pick a dress that suited their style and they could feel themselves in. The bridesmaid dresses and their colour coordinated bouquets gave our photos so much colour and life, I am so overjoyed by how it all came together.
LOCATION Fairview (Private Property); Tamborine Mountain, @visittamborine PHOTOGRAPHER & VIDEOGRAPHER Holland Studio Weddings, @hollandstudio.weddings FLORIST Bee’s Blossoms, @beesblossomsfloralstudio CELEBRANT Forever By Emma, @foreverbyemma_ CATERING The One Day House, @theonedayhouse; Subway, @subway_australia CAKE Sweet Tooth Brisbane, @sweettooth_brisbane STATIONERY & SIGNAGE Amy Design Templates, @amydesigntemplates ENGAGEMENT RING Von Treskow, @vontreskowluxe BRIDE’S WEDDING RING Molten Store, @moltenstore GROOM’S WEDDING RING Michael Hill, @michaelhillj CEREMONY DRESS Kismet Dress by Stella York – White Lily Couture, @whitelilycouture RECEPTION DRESS Carmen Cutout Dress – Sabo Skirt, @saboskirt BRIDE’S SHOE Wittner, @wittnershoes BRIDE’S ACCESSORIES Earrings – Luna + Stone, @lunaandstone MAKEUP & HAIR Natalie Lucas Studio, @natalielucasmua, @olivia_natalielucasmakeup BRIDE’S FRAGRANCE Wild Vanilla Orchid – Floral Street, @floralstreet_ SUIT Edge Suit, @edgesuitoutlet GROOM’S SHOE Massa Footwear GROOM’S FRAGRANCE Eros – Versace, @versace BRIDESMAIDS DRESSES Billy J, @billy_j_bridal DOG TUXEDO Love Hachi Designs, @lovahachidesigns FLOWER PRESERVATION ARTWORK Brush Talk by Cha, @brushtalkbycha BRIDAL ROBE Bras N Things, @brasnthings
