I don’t know that I’ve ever come across a beach wedding I don’t absolutely love. But a beach wedding in Australia is a whole different beautiful ballgame. It’s classic populated with fresh Spring touches and a Bride and Groom who just so happen to be drop dead gorgeous AND head over heels. Lucky ducks. See all the beauty captured by Jerome Cole Photography right here.
In our eyes, our wedding was perfect. We were surrounded by our family and friends, we were blessed with a beautiful day and all the planning and help we received ensured that everything went off without a hitch. Our guests had a wonderful time and felt very looked after. It was elegant, classic and fresh. The theming flowed through all aspects of the day and our suppliers went above and beyond for us. All day we felt incredibly thankful to everyone that contributed and lucky to have found each other.
We spent just over a year and 3 months planning our wedding. We were married on a gorgeous sunny April day (April 6 2013), which was the week after Easter. Our ceremony was held at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Hampton, which is the church in which I was Christened, where my parents were married and also where my grandparents were married (both my mother’s parents and my father’s parents). A number of other family members were also married there, which added to the significance of choosing this as our wedding venue.
I spent the morning of our wedding day getting ready at my mum and stepdad’s house with my bridesmaids and we had a few visitors pop in and out to be part of the excitement. Our hair and make-up artists came to the house which meant we could just have a lovely, relaxing morning getting ready without rushing around. My hairdresser was very patient with me in the lead up to the wedding and we had lots of fun doing trials and trying to get my veil to hold! She did a lovely curled up-do on the day, held with a Mimco comb that my mum gave me. My make-up artist was also wonderful, so relaxed and easy to work with and her work was really natural.
My younger brother and sister picked up the buttonholes (simple white spray roses, jip and some greenery) from Mordialloc Florist and dropped them at Scott’s parents house, where he was getting ready with his groomsmen. My brother brought back a CD which Scott had put together (with his sister’s help) of love songs. Each day for 10 days in the lead up to the wedding Scott had sent me the lyrics to a love song, and on the wedding morning I got to listen to them all as I was getting ready which was a lovely surprise.
Once we were almost ready, our photographer arrived to capture the final touches. My dress was Lisa Gowing’s Tallulah, which was ivory liquid silk overlaid with beaded French Chantilly lace. It had a hand draped cross-over bodice with scalloped lace cap sleeves and a slim skirt with a scalloped lace edged sweeping train. I had a veil which had the same beaded lace edging and fell to about knee length. My shoes were from the Diana Ferrari bridal range – satin with some simple diamante detail and not too high (very comfortable!). I carried a gold glomesh purse that belonged to my grandmother on my dad’s side, who is no longer with us. My bouquet was made up of white flowers (spray roses, tulips, jip, lisianthus, tuberoses etc) with a touch of green. My bridesmaids bouquets were smaller but similar in look. Megan from Mordialloc Florist even wrapped my bouquet with some of the spare lace from my dress to tie it all in.
Our reception was held at Encore St Kilda Beach and the venue, service and food very perfect. We chose it as it was on the beach and had beautiful floor to ceiling windows overlooking the water, it was modern and there was a huge dance floor. Our guests arrived for canapés at 6.30pm and a 2 piece band entertained them in the outside area of the venue while we finished our photos on the beach. The sunset was absolutely stunning that day, so we were really lucky.
The night was everything we had hoped for – the food was delicious, the speeches were wonderful and the band was fantastic. The band played a number of sets building from the two piece acoustic to a 9-piece band for later on in the evening and we were able to select all of the songs from a large list. The dance floor was filled with guests whenever the band was playing which was great to see. Scott and I had our first dance to Nat King Cole’s L.O.V.E, having had a few lesson’s to learn the foxtrot in the lead up to the wedding. We danced to a CD version to ensure the timing was right, and then the band kicked in straight away with the same song when the guests were invited to join in.
My grandma and grandpa gave us our wedding cake which Janelle (the other half of Cake Ink) created. It was a beautiful 4 tiered wedding cake. Janelle and Samone worked together to replicate the chantilly lace detail of my dress onto the cake, using a scanned picture of my lace to create a template for the icing and piping. The cake was a chocolate and white chocolate mud cake with chocolate ganache. The result was visually stunning and tasted delicious! My mum and stepfather gave us a beautiful Vera Wang cake knife and server as a wedding present .The cake boxes we purchased online and they were sealed with monogrammed stickers that Samone from Cake Ink created to tie in with our stationery.
Scott and I escaped to the beach with our Matron of Honor, Best Man and photographer close to the end of the night to take some sparkler and night shots which was a laugh and lots of fun – they turned out really well too! Our photographer Jerome photographed my Matron of Honor’s wedding in Lorne and was wonderful, so our choice was easy. Jerome was very professional but relaxed at the same time, which put our whole bridal party at ease, meaning our photos were very natural. Jerome seemed to capture moments without us even noticing he was there.
We organized a getaway car to whisk us off into the night as husband and wife.
The next day, our families came together at my mum and stepdad’s house to reminisce. The backyard was filled with the flowers from the reception and everyone left with their arms full of flowers to take to their homes.
Photography: Jerome Cole Photography | Flowers: Mordialloc Florist | Wedding Dress: Lisa Gowing | Cake: Cake Ink | Invitations: Cake Ink | Church: Holy Trinity, Hampton, Melbourne, Australia | Reception: Encore St Kilda Beach | Shoes: Diana Ferrari | Jewelry: Myer | Rings: Ralf Fisch Fine Jewellery | Bridesmaid Dresses: Review | Make up: Jacinta D’Angelo | Hair: Art Hair Studios | Cars: Triple R Luxury Car Hire