Siouxie & Ben

It wouldn’t be a tropical location without rain, and while the gorgeous misty clouds may not have been what Siouxie & Ben dreamt of for their Port Douglas garden wedding, I have to say that the magic Mother Nature showed up with may have just added something extra beautiful to this tropical inspired wedding day. Siouxie and Ben chose The Picture Box Photography to capture their beautiful day.

Siouxie tells the story of how the pair came to be – and got engaged! “Ben and I met through a mutual friend. Ben proposed on top of the Pyramid in Cairns. It is quite a climb to the top and I wasn’t the best hiking companion that day. I was feeling under the weather and struggled most of the way often stopping to complain how hard it was. Unbeknownst to me, Ben was keen to get to the top so he could propose – I was totally surprised. We were the only people at the top at that stage so we got to enjoy the moment with an amazing view all to ourselves. It was a special feeling knowing that it was just us two and it was like we had this little secret that we shared. Little did Ben know, I had my own surprise for him. I had planned a surprise 30th birthday for him that night – we had all our friends and family there and many travelled to be part of the celebrations. So, we got to announce our engagement only a few hours after! We were lucky enough to celebrate with our nearest and dearest family and friends that very night.”

The groom chose a navy blue suit from Roger David. The groomsmen wore the same attire, without the jacket for a fresh and young look.

The bride chose a strapless lace gown from Allure Bridal . She tells “I wanted to have quite a traditional dress and fell in love with the lace detailing instantly. I had tried on so many styles that I thought would be perfect however, I ended up choosing something completely different to what I had originally pictured. I had the best experience finding my dress. My bridesmaids and I had planned a girls’ trip to Melbourne and they insisted I book into a few bridal shops to try on some dresses. We found ‘the one’ on the last day of our trip. Eight months later, my mum and I flew down to Melbourne to pick the dress up. It was the best excuse to have another trip and it was great that my mum could share the experience with me.”

Siouxie and Ben chose resort Niramaya Villas and Resort  for their wedding day, noting “We wanted an open outdoors wedding, taking full advantage of the paradise we live in, with lots of lush greenery and a real tropics vibe and Niramay Resort was perfectly fit. Along with our bridal party, we both prepared for our day in separate large open bungalow style apartments, rooms were divided simply by small pathways and tropical plants, no walls, allowing us to take in the surroundings all morning.

Our ceremony was held in a private garden on the resort grounds with a rainforest backdrop. As the ceremony was about to commence, in true Far North Queensland style is started to rain, we didn’t allow it to dampen our day and continued on with our outdoor wedding, it couldn’t have been any more perfect for us. I really liked the contrast of the grey skies and the abundant greenery that surrounded our venue. It made it feel very intimate and cosy.”

The newlyweds had friends make the cakes and chose Two Sisters Events & Styling  to assist in styling their tropical glam day, the bride telling “Jess and Krystal from Two Sisters Events and Styling were a stand out for me. They did all of the flowers and styled other parts of the wedding including a candy buffet and table decorations. They are fantastic to work with and they are super creative and had fantastic ideas. They were up for any ideas I had and just made it all work. These girls are exceptional at what they do.”

Siouxie chose a much-loved song for the processional “I walked down the aisle to the Boyce Avenue cover of Use Somebody by Kings of Leon. I remember instantly falling in love with this song years ago. There is just something about it that is really special. I would never have considered it as a wedding song until I heard the cover and I knew instantly the pared back, the acoustic cover was perfect.”

Karen Fry officiated the ceremony, Siouxie noting “Ben and I wanted our ceremony to be simple and short but full of love! We tried to include our family as much as we could. As Ben’s two sisters were my bridesmaids we decided to have my three brothers included in the ceremony in different ways. One of our good friends did a reading called ‘these hands’. It was a beautiful reading that suited our ceremony perfectly. It was special to have so many people part of our ceremony.”

Of their photographer, the bride tells “Our photographer was Talia from The Picture Box. I always knew I would have her as my wedding photographer I have always loved her style. Her photos are natural and organic and they really capture the beauty of nature. I love the lush tropical surroundings of Port Douglas and that’s one of the reasons I had my wedding there, so it was important for me to have a photographer that would be able to capture that. I was blown away by the end result. She really captured the feel of our day perfectly.”

Siouxie reminisces “Although I thought I would be disappointed if it were to rain on my wedding day, I actually handled it a lot better than what I thought. Despite a small emotional moment, I was actually just ready to see Ben and marry him. I think it is so easy to get caught up in what your day is going to look like that you forget that it’s actually just about the two of you sharing a special day with close family and friends. Once I refocused on what our day was about and what was actually important to me, the rain didn’t bother me!”

Reception celebrations soon got underway and as the night crept in, the dancing began, Siouxie remembering “I asked one of my bridesmaids to come up with a simple choreography for our first dance and I even let her choose a song to suit it! Neither Ben or I are too fussed on dancing so we were happy to hand over the reins for this part. We encouraged our bridal party to join us as soon as they wanted. The song was Ben Howard – Only Love.”

Congratulations on your marriage Siouxie and Ben! Thank you for sharing your beautiful day with us and thank you to The Picture Box Photography for sending this wedding our way!