Nick and Trish’s wedding: the Piccadilly, Pockets and Hot Apple Cider at the Quarry

The actual invitations were inspired by an invitation of similar shape (folded card with pocket and smaller cards) but totally different style which I saw right at the beginning of the planning process. We planned out how we wanted it all to look – what went on each card, colours and style etc but were very lucky that my mother in law and one of her collegues who has graphic design abilities made them look so much more brilliant than we imagined. There was a lot of cutting, folding and gluing (we even ended up making lined envelopes from scratch so they were the right size) but oh how I love my invitations.

All my years of coming to this cinema and I never before noticed the naked lady on this mirror!

We had popcorn and it was brilliant fun fooling around in the cinema with our white cardboard 3D glasses on. A fun and relaxing afternoon.

We then all went back through town and let me say, if you get the chance, walk around in public in your bridal ‘get up’. It’s such a bizarre experience! We then jumped in the minibus we’d hired (which my brother-in-law generously drove) and headed off to the Quarry Amphitheatre in City Beach, stopping for some photos in the middle of a beautiful avenue of trees.

The wedding and reception was all in one at the Quarry. What an amazing place. Nick and I have been coming here for years in the summer to watch ballet and very early on decided this was it. We had a marquee and some outdoor heaters, and lucked out with a crisp clear August day. I’m a strange bride who instead of crying if it rained, would have been devasted if it was hot!

For before, during and after the ceremony we had a trio (arranged by Adrian Kelly), playing trumpet, piano and drums. We’d asked them to play a number of tunes and the rest were along the same vein – old crooner songs with the trumpet playing the vocal line. They sounded amazing!!

The Bridesmaids walked down the aisle to Pretty Women (Steven Sondheim from the musical Sweeney Todd) which had me crying at the top of the stairs! I walked down the aisle, where Nick was waiting with celebrant Ken Booth, to Feeling Good by Nina Simone. During the signing the trio played Dream Dream Dream by the Everly Brothers and during the champagne pour they played I get a Kick Out of You by Cole Porter. Nick made a great song list to play for the rest of the night. Our first dance was to the Beach Boys ‘Don’t Worry Baby.’

I made all of the gingerbread a few days prior, and had bought ribbons and bags, again, from ebay. Everyone got their own first initial which was hard work – but pretty impressive when it worked, and we allowed for screw ups by making a bunch of love hearts as spares.

Our gorgeous bisque cake topper was one of my first wedding purchases, about 18 months early. I loved it on ebay and was very pleased with how it turned out when I cleaned it and replaced the old, yellowed tulle with a scrap that you can’t quite tell but does actually have polka dots on it. I made the two tier “red velvet” cake with butter icing and the candy lovehearts did a great job of hiding the slightly dodgy joining place.

I love the wedding tree stamp idea. My theory was, guests have written a meaningful message in their card, and it’s hard not to be trite when put on the spot for a book. An etsy seller customised the tree and we printed it at Officeworks. Three green inkpads, some pebbles for paperweights and some hand wipes later and we have a great reminder on our wall. If you want to be sure that every guest is on there be sure to put a tenacious and confident good friend in charge of making it happen!

After the wedding we scanned the tree and had the image printed on to tea towels that we sent out to all our guests with our thankyou cards. They looked great and I (who tends to pick up a tea towel from every place we travel to) love the idea of our friends drying their dishes in many years time and thinking back to our wedding day.

I love to bake and eat cakes. I have quite a few gorgeous depression era glass cake stands and added to my collection leading up to the wedding. As a feature in front of the bridal table the stands were all set out, and after the main meal our cakes came out. My little sister drove around that morning to many different cake and donut stores to collect all of Nick and my favourites. I made a flourless chocolate cake as well as the ‘wedding cake’, my mum made her delicious pavlova, and we also had several different kinds of donuts, apple strudel, carrot cake, citron tart, rhubarb and raspberry tart, black forest cake, marbled mousse cake and an orange brulee tart. Needless to say several people (mostly men!) made themselves slightly ill with too much cake.

It was a wonderful finish to amazing food provided by Word of Mouth Catering. Lee and his team were sooo marvelous. Our food and the service was excellent. I really cannot recommend them highly enough.

I did most of the planning because I enjoyed it, but Nick consulted and stepped up when he was needed. I like to be organised and am a list maker. From a very young age I arranged every detail of mine and my sisters’ birthday parties (whether they wanted me to or not), but I did not want to end up chucking a tantrum because a guest wasn’t following the schedule (as I may have done during almost every birthday in my youth). Looking back I was pretty much oblivious to the behind the scenes stuff that usually concerns me.

Trish’s Top Ten Hints for Brides:

• Check out ebay and online stores, but also those discount ones like the reject shop, crazy clarks and the $2 shop. It’s amazing how good some of their items can look once you’ve painted them a matt colour.

• Awesome paper stock can really made your stationary; be it invitations, signs or name tags.

• Printing in a really dark grey looks much much fancier than black.

• Anything which can be done in advance – bathroom baskets, table numbers etc, do in advance.

• Think of scent when you’re looking at flowers -my bouquet smelt amazing, and it was really grounding to have that beautiful smell when I was close to losing it during the ceremony.

• Accept at the beginning that there will be minimum one family disagreement about the guest list, but be prepared that it will still hurt and frustrate when it happens. I gave in because the fight made me too angry (and after all that they didn’t turn up!!!)

• If you’re wearing stockings, bring at least two spares. They’ll probably break.

• If, (like me) you will perhaps sob out each word of your vows, remember a handkerchief or several.

• Make your ceremony and celebrations about you and your spouse and have fun. My dress has polka dots and pockets and I wore a cardigan; we did a champagne pour and later served hot apple cider (which no-one in Australia has heard of); our music was a trumpet, drums and a piano and we played Disney’s Silly Symphonies in the background of the reception. When I described these plans most people made an ‘okaaaay’ face. But everything was brilliant and amazing and I still reflect on it and can’t get over how wonderful my wedding day was.

• Don’t forget to make it meaningful. If nothing else, that is what your wedding day should be.