REAL COUPLE WEDDING PLANNING SERIES: PART 3

In the first two parts of this series, we introduced you to our lovely couple Jocelyn and Ethan and got all the insider wedding planning tips from the Bride to be. 

Now, we finally get to share the best part with you, the result of all of their hard work and planning – the wedding! We sat down with Joss as she relived her celebration of love with us.

Tell us about the style of your wedding and where you found your inspiration?

I’ve always had a similar style and been drawn to the same colours and themes, and Ethan and I really wanted our day to feel like ‘us’. We wanted it to be simple, timeless and understated yet classic and elegant. I wanted to keep the décor and styling really fresh and clean with beautiful lighting at night. I actually have my mum to thank for most of our styling inspiration! She spent countless hours on Pinterest in the lead up to the big day and it paid off! She took care of most of the styling and had some amazing ideas, plus we have very similar taste so I pretty much left it all up to her! She made sure there were hundreds of candles, beautiful glassware and amazing florals.

You looked absolutely stunning in Made with Love Bridal. Did you find it hard to choose your dress?

Thank you! That was actually the first dress I tried on and I instantly knew it was the one – so it was a very easy process!

How was your experience with your wedding suppliers? 

I was fortunate enough to have a truly amazing team of suppliers and creatives who did an incredible job of putting everything together for us. Ethan and I have busy work schedules so we didn’t have much time to do any DIY in the lead up to the wedding. Leesha from Little Green Leaf went over and above for us and surprised me on the day with extra signage for our wedding which was so lovely. I hadn’t planned to use any signage other than the table seating charts and menus, but I was so glad I had a beautiful “welcome” sign and a couple others that Leesha obviously knew we needed! And Sarah from Florals and Co did the most incredible job on our flowers – that girl is so talented! She used the floral arrangements from our ceremony at Ancora for our reception which was great to have that versatility.

Love that you announced yourself with a bell ring before walking down the aisle! What song did you walk to, and why did you choose this song? 

That was so fun! It is a tradition at the chapel we got married at for the bride to ring the big bell outside twice (to signify two becoming one) when she arrives. I walked down the aisle to “I get to love you” by Ruelle. I came across it one day when we first got engaged and it felt like the lyrics were written for us. It’s a beautiful song and represents exactly how I feel about Ethan, I’m one lucky lady.

There was a unique mode of transport for your wedding guests, how did that go down? 

We had a Tweed Eco Cruises boat transport our guests from our ceremony in Tumbulgum up to Ancora which was a hit! The guests raved about it. It worked really well as it gave us time to go to the beach to take photos with the bridal party whilst the guests kicked the party off with a sunset cruise! It was also a great way for our out of town and overseas guests to see our beautiful Tweed region from the river.

How was your experience at Ancora? Anything in particular that stood out about the venue?

Ancora did such an amazing job – I have been raving about them and their team ever since! Our reception ran so smoothly and I kept looking around in awe of how beautiful it looked. The staff were absolutely amazing and I felt so well looked after on the night, they really paid attention to the little things. They didn’t approach me with any issues or questions on the night (I was blissfully unaware!) and they really went out of their way to make sure it was a fun, relaxing and stress-free night for Ethan and I. And the food! Oh my goodness. The delicious catering by Taverna had to be one of the highlights for sure.

Looks like your first dance was a blast, tell us about it…

We had so much fun with our first dance. We are always dancing around like weirdos so of course, we had to surprise our guests with a cringe-worthy choreographed dance. We started with a slow waltz and then broke into our routine to a few old school hits. The whole thing was quite a process, we started dance lessons with a friend of ours who is a choreographer about 5 weeks out from the wedding and practiced on our own as often as we could. It was a hilarious process, and we haven’t been able to bring ourselves to watch the entire video yet!

What was your favourite moment of the day?

I have 2 – the first was saying my vows. We wrote personal vows and it was such a special moment sharing our life-long promises to each other. Leesha from Little Green Leaf also gifted us with framed prints of our vows which we absolutely love, we are going to put them up on the wall as a reminder of the wife and husband we vow to be forever! The second moment was at the reception when I took a moment with my mum to look around the room where I was amazed at just how beautiful everything looked. I got to just watch all my favourite people in one place all chatting, eating, laughing and interacting – there was a real atmosphere of joy all night which was so special to be a part of. And while I was there I also took a good look at my incredible “husband” who looked so darn handsome and I realised I had officially won in life by locking him down!

What’s your number one tip for Brides-to-be?

It sounds cliché but RELAX! No one is going to remember what colour your napkins were or what font the menu was written in, they are going to remember the feeling and atmosphere of the day. After all your wedding day is a celebration of your love and that should be the focus of the day. I think I can owe my rather ‘lazy’ approach to wedding planning to this – I didn’t care too much about all the fussy details, as long as Ethan was standing at that altar I was happy! Also another thing that everyone will tell you but I will tell you again – take at least one moment during the day/night to stop and take it all in. I did this a few times throughout the day and I’m so grateful I did. It slows down time in one of the fastest days of your life and gives you a memory to cherish, you only get to live that day once and it really is the most special day so soak in every moment!

To check out more real weddings from Ancora, click here and for more wedding planning tips, click here.

WEDDING SUPPLIERS

Photographer – Lucas & Co Photography + Jenna Agius

Ceremony Venue – Tweed River Chapel

Reception Venue – Ancora

Videographer – Nathan Lapham

Hair – Foxs Lane Styling

Makeup – Ashlea Penfold

Florals – Florals & Co

Bride’s dress – Made with Love

Bridesmaids dresses – Shona Joy

Grooms attire – MJ Bale

Rings – Joss’: Diamond Jewellery Studio. Ethan’s: Ribs and Dust

Transport – Tweed Eco Cruises

Entertainment – Ben and Tyra Byrne + Brok Neilson

Styling + Furniture – Hampton Event Hire

Signage + Stationery – Little Green Leaf

Cake – The Cheesecake Shop