Palm Cove Wedding photography ( made groovy ) by Brett and Jane

How did you meet? We were both living in London and a mutual friend of ours organised a trip to the Oktoberfest in Munich. We met on that holiday but didn’t start seeing each other straight away. We saw each other again a few months later at a party, at the same mutual friends house. We started dating but I had already organised a Visa to live in Ireland. Brett’s UK visa was finishing and he was planning to go back to Australia, so we were going to try a long distance relationship. I had to go back to New Zealand for 2 months before my Irish Visa started and Brett was traveling around Europe. I missed him too much and decided I couldn’t be without him so I went and met up with him in Europe, traveled around Europe for a bit and came to live with him in Australia…. Best decision I ever made!!

Describe the proposal? Brett proposed on New Years Eve when we were on holidays in Queen Charlotte Sounds in New Zealand. We’re both a bit awkward and weren’t very good at ‘announcing’ our engagement, we just though “oh people will find out”. We did tell our parents and family straight away though. Our friends always give us a bit for having the most secret engagement. I think most of them found out about 2 months later… oops.

How did you decide on a place to celebrate your wedding day? We looked at heaps of venues and weren’t really excited about any of them. We really wanted somewhere where we could have everything all in the same place – the ceremony, reception and accommodation all in one, just so everyone could just chill out in one place and not have worry about transport. Then we came across Paradise Palms in Kewarra Beach and it had everything we wanted. We had all my family and friends coming over from New Zealand and Bretts family and our friends coming up from Townsville so it was really important to us that they all had a great time as well.

Tell us about finding your wedding dress:

I must admit I did try on quite a few dresses (in many different cities) but I ended up finding a dress when I was on holiday in New Zealand visiting my family, which worked out really great cos my Mum got to be there and help me choose my wedding dress, which was really special in it’s self. I just wanted something simple and classic without too much bling… which believe or not was hard to find.

Describe your wedding flowers:

The flowers for our wedding were really bright, fun and colourful. Nice garden look bouquet with orange parrot tulips, David Austin roses and irish bells. They also helped inspire the design for our wedding invitations, menus and stubby coolers etc.

Describe your wedding cake: 

Our wedding cake had layers of chocolate and carrot cake, our favs. The only decision we had when choosing the cake was if we would have normal or cream cheese icing. I wanted the normal and Brett wanted cream cheese. I won, so the guy who made our cake felt sorry for Brett and I think out of some kind of male solidarity he made Brett a separate carrot cake with a cream cheese icing which was so lovely of him to do. After all that I forgot to eat any cake on the wedding day, luckily there was lots left over – yum!

Any other favourite bits and pieces?

My Maid of Honour, Maria wrote an awesome poem for her speech at the reception, which I think everyone enjoyed… it got heaps of laughs anyway. Our guest book is pretty special too. We had a Polaroid camera and our friend Jo went and took photos of the guests and everyone wrote something next to their photos. All they comments that everyone wrote were so great, it’s like a big book of warm fuzzies and love!

What was the biggest challenge you faced while planning your big day? Trying to organise the wedding from Townsville was a bit tricky. We had to make a few trips up to Cairns to meet with suppliers. 

What was the most memorable moment about your wedding day? Probably the most memorable part of the day was when we were saying our vows. The celebrant was reciting the vows with Brett, he was a bit nervous and jumped in a bit too eagerly with his “I Do”, but this made everyone laugh and broke the ice so he relaxed a bit after that. At least I know he was keen to marry me, ha ha.

Did you write your own vows?  No, our celebrant has some really lovely simple verses that really summed up how we felt in a nutshell.

Where did you go for your honeymoon?  We haven’t been on our honeymoon yet. We’ve booked to go to Singapore and Thailand… can’t wait!!

What’s next for you guys? Wel,l after going to Singapore and Thailand on our honeymoon we’re looking forward to having  babies and just hanging out together, having fun and being in love.

 Dream team included, Celebrant  Eloise Barker-Re –  Flowers - Blush Floral    Cake  Cairns Wedding Cakes  Make up – Shae Howlett + their Fabuloso ceremony and Reception @  Paradise Palms