Planning a wedding is no easy feat. But planning a wedding with your groom living on the whole other side of the Pacific is a serious accomplishment. After dancing between the ideas of eloping to Mexico, meeting halfway(ish) in Hawaii, having an intimate wedding in Thailand, and taking a quick trip to town hall, Aussie bride Tamara and her Californian groom Andrew finally settled on a relaxed beach wedding in the bride’s Queensland hometown. And let us tell you—the pair pulled it off and then some.
T + A’s wedding is chock full of so many sweet details, including a slew of pretty paper goods designed by the bride herself. Oh, and then there are the way beautiful photos from Byron Loves Fawn. Tamara says, I didn’t really choose a theme or a color palette; I just let myself go and incorporated all the things I love without restriction: rustic, bohemian, natural, industrial, geometric, light, and modern.
I designed all of the stationery items for our day and I kind of went to town on them. I wanted them to be like a little gift for our guests to receive and a joy to open. There’s nothing better than awesome packaging, especially when it arrives in the mail.
Tamara attached a sweet little paper fan from BHLDN to each ceremony program, so that guests could cool themselves down during the outdoor ceremony.
We were married under the most wonderful tree that had the perfect horizontal branch stretching out to one side. So I bought some long lengths of Hessian to drape over the branch and just tied them at the base with twine to form an easy and dramatic backdrop to be married in front of. I hand-painted the word ‘joy’ on the middle one for us to be married under.
I felt like a Grecian Goddess in my wedding dress. It was a beautiful Anna Campbell sheath that was light and wispy and blew in the breeze, which was perfect for our beach wedding.
The flowers were all wild and natural, and I tried to include a good selection of Australian natives like spinning gum, tetragona nuts and king proteas.
We wanted to spend some time with our guests at the beach just celebrating and relaxing after our wedding, so we decided to cut our wedding cakes straight after the ceremony, right there at the beach.
I ordered some huge round helium balloons in silver, blush and white and then my awesome husband hand-cut more triangles than I would dare to count to make tails for them.
I had desperately wanted to incorporate rosemary into the place settings but hadn’t been able to get my hands on a large enough amount to do it until the very day before the wedding. My new in-laws were staying at a holiday rental apartment and it turned out the complex had its own herb garden on the grounds that was open for guests to use during their stay—and it had an abundance of rosemary growing in it! There was more than enough to attach a beautiful piece of it to each place setting, and it totally finished them off perfectly.
In lieu of a traditional guest book, T + A had guests leave their mark with Polaroid cameras and little advice cards, strung up on twine.
Here’s more from the gorgeous bride: It’s true what they say about the day passing in a blur, but I would say it was more of a happy daze than a blur. It fills me with joy every time I think about the feelings I had washing over me on our wedding day. We planned a beautiful outdoor beach wedding, right in the middle of Australia’s wet season. I know… crazy! As expected, it poured all week leading up to our wedding day, rained on and off all morning on the day itself, and absolutely bucketed down that night after we left the reception. But for the entire beach ceremony and photo shoot the clouds held their rain in—not a drop fell. It was like a little gift.
Our day was and always will be a pretty hard day to beat, but we both agree one of our favorite parts of our wedding was actually the next morning. We woke up with our hearts still full of all the love from our family and friends and the memory of all of their smiles and hugs from the day before. We stayed in our pajamas all day long and sat out on our deck listening to the ocean, eating our celebratory croissants (glorious carbs!), reading all of the beautiful and heartfelt cards from our guests, and laughing over their Polaroid snaps and words of advice from the night before. I think I shed more tears that day then on our actual wedding day.
Congrats you two!
Photographer: Byron Loves Fawn / Videographer: Aqua Vivus Productions / Ceremony Venue: Maison La Plage Grove, Noosa Heads / Reception Venue: Berardo’s Restaurant / Event Coordinator & Stylist: Kristy Marek from The One Day House / Hair: Kirsti Robinson from SarHair / Makeup: Sophie Bethell / Florist: Kristy Marek from Cotton Blossom / Cake: Mandy Peens from The Cheeseboard Lady / Invitation Designer: One Lantern (the bride) / Rentals: The One Day House / Entertainment: The Merrys / Bride’s Dress & Veil: Anna Campbell from The Babushka Ballerina / Shoes: Robert Robert / Earrings: Samantha Wills / Groom’s Suit: Hugo Boss & J.Crew / Shoes: Aldo / Bridesmaids Tops and Skirts: Witchery and Forever New / Groomsmen’s Bowties: J.Crew / Suspenders: The Grunion Run
