Gold Coast Wedding from NGG Studios
When you wake up on the morning of your beach wedding and see rain outside your window, it's not so fun. But this adorable bride rolled with the punches, dodged some light rain drops and ended up having the beach ceremony she had always dreamed of. NGG Studios captured all the memories and good times including the couple's furry and oh-so-cute aisle attendants! Click here for even more of this pretty beach fete!
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From the Bride...On the day of the wedding I woke up to every bride's worst nightmare - rain! I couldn't believe it! Luckily as the morning progressed the rain died off and we were still able to go ahead with our beach ceremony. We would have been devastated if we couldn't have had the ceremony at Fingal Beach as it is our favourite place in the World and we have said for years that that is where we would get married.
Walking (well power walking!) through the forest track with my dad and best friends to get to the ceremony was one of the most amazing feelings I'd ever had in my life. I'll never forget that feeling of such joy. When we reached the ceremony on the beach, seeing my handsome fiancé and our much loved family and friends made everything seem real! Everything was set up perfectly and the decorations were just as I had created in my mind. One particular decoration that was very important to both of us was for guests to wear flowers in their hair in memory of our much loved nannas. They were definitely there in spirit. We were also thankful we had decided on having a bar as it helped to create the relaxing atmosphere we had wanted. The girls really enjoyed the punch!
I walked down the aisle to the song 'Feels Like Home' by Chantal Kreviazuk, which was beautiful. The ceremony was conducted by a fellow teacher friend of mine and it was just lovely. There were quite a few laughs especially when our beloved dogs, who were flower girl and page boy, were let off their leads half way through and proceeded to run up and down the beach and in the water still dressed in their outfits. It was hilarious! They had a really good time which was important to us.
After the ceremony we had a quick catch up with everyone then it was time for photos. Our photos took place on the beach, in the forest and in front of the cutest lighthouse on the headland at Fingal. I really enjoyed this time. We were praying we could get to the end of the photos without the rain coming. Literally two minutes after getting in the Chrysler stretch limo to go to the reception it poured down! All the guests were luckily long gone when this occurred. We had hired a 1979 red double decker London bus to transfer them to and from the ceremony. Everybody enjoyed it!
Photography was another essential decision for us. From the moment I saw NGG Studios work I knew I had to hire them. They did the most incredible job considering it wasn’t the best weather on the day and were very friendly and professional. I’m in love with the photos and just love looking through and reminiscing on the day. They also shot our engagement shoot photos, which turned out beautiful.
Pre-dinner drinks were at a beachside bar/restaurant on Burleigh Headland called Meesha's. Tapas style canapés such as mini fillet steak, prawn rolls and grilled chorizo were served to guests. The restaurant went above and beyond to make sure everybody was happy.
The reception was held upstairs at a bar/restaurant called Point Break. It has outstanding views over the ocean. The owner and staff at Point Break also went above and beyond to make sure everything was perfect. Guests were greeted with strawberry martinis with the rim dipped in hundreds and thousands. They were supposed to be for the ladies but the guys couldn't get enough of them! By the time the wedding party had arrived to the reception everyone was in party mood and it was such a fun atmosphere to walk into. Guests were also served canapés of salt and pepper squid and chicken ballotines. So many guests said it was the best salt and pepper squid they had ever had! One of the reasons we chose Point Break as our reception venue is because of their food. It is absolutely delicious and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the modern style entrees and mains that were served up to them.
I hired Katy from Humming Bird Vintage Hire to style and set up. She made the restaurant look like a dream! It was everything I had designed in my mind and so much more. On the tables there were vintage style vases and jars which were wrapped in hessian, twine or lace. Our florist filled the jars with mixed fresh flowers. They looked so pretty! On each table we opted for table names instead of numbers. Each table was named after our favourite cities in the World that we had visited. Thankyou message cards replaced place cards and were presented on each guest’s place setting. The menu was on the back of these cards.
In the centre of the room we had mis-matched paper lanterns and pom poms hanging from the roof. Behind the bridal table was large bunting that read 'Just Married'. A friend of mine designed all the stationary I used for the wedding. All the stationary was designed with the same vintage style theme. Antique style bird cages were used as a wishing well and old photographs of our parents and grandparents on their wedding day helped to create the pretty vintage theme. We also had the table seating cards in a mixture of vintage style frames in the entrance way, which looked fantastic.
We had the most exquisite and mouth-watering dessert table I have ever seen. It consisted of a two tiered rich chocolate mud cake with butter cream icing as the wedding cake, cake pops, cupcakes, heart shaped cookies, musk sticks and strawberry bon bons. The sweet treats were quickly devoured and enjoyed by everyone straight after main course. I must admit that everything was truly delicious.
I wanted to do something different for the guest book. Being a primary school teacher I'm a big fan of Dr Seuss books, so "Oh the Place You'll Go' was an easy choice. I ordered the pop up version from overseas and it looked fantastic and guests enjoyed looking through it and writing their messages.
One of the best purchases I bought for the big day was a Fuji Mini Instax polaroid camera. It was a huge hit. We had a vintage style photo both set up between the band and the dessert table. So many funny memories were captured because of this camera and guests had a lot of fun playing with it.
Another element that was really important to us was to have a great band. Music can really make or break a wedding and in our case it made it. We were lucky enough to hire 'Sex and Chocolate'. They were absolutely UNBEILIEVABLE!!! They had every one of all ages up and dancing even before main course was served! Everybody loved them and spent a lot of the night carving up the dance floor!
Before the reception the bridal party also had pre-dinner drinks at Meesh’s. One of my beautiful bridesmaids wanted to surprise me with a real life butterfly release at the ceremony, but due to rushing out the door and baby brain they were left in the fridge. We were able to release them at pre-dinner drinks which ended up being really special.
We chose a variety of music for the reception. The grooms men entered to the song ‘Simply the Best’ by Tina Turner, and revealed their little secret of wearing their favourite rugby leagues team socks up to their knees. The bridesmaids entered to a separate song each that I had chosen and cut for them. Marty and I entered to ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ by Queen. For cutting of the cake we chose ‘Kiss’ by Prince. My favourite all time movie is Dirty Dancing so we chose ‘Time of My Life’ as our first dance song.
We spent our first night as husband and wife at the Palazzo Versace hotel in the Gold Coast which was perfect. Overall, we had the most incredible and memorable day. It was everything and more then we could have imagined. And best of all – we became husband and wife
Wedding Photography: NGG Studios / Ceremony: Fingal Beach in Fingal Head, New South Wales / Reception: Pointbreak Bar + Restaurant Burleigh Heads in Burleigh Heads, Queensland / Floral Design: Too Good Flowers Gold Coast / Wedding Cinematography: The Groom's Brother, Tony / Wedding Cake + Sweet Treats: Sweet Treats by Chris / Wedding Stationery: Milc Design / Ceremony Furniture Hire: Imbue Weddings / Reception Set-Up: Hummingbird Vintage Hire / Band: Sex and Chocolate / Wedding Dress: Handmade by a Dressmaker in Sydney + Lace Shoulder Strap by Anna Campbell / Bride's Shoes: Badgley Mischka / Hair: Amanda Higl / Makeup: Jodie Lee / Bridesmaids' Dresses: Anna Campbell / Bridal Party Robes: Plum Pretty Sugar / Men's Attire: Tarocash / Dog's Outfits: Camargo Creations