Olivia & Nathan

I’m always excited to have a venue or a photographer we’ve never featured before on Polka Dot Bride and today’s ios a double header because we have a fresh venue and a fresh photographer making their first wedding appearances!

Today’s wedding is the beautiful Autumn celebration of Olivia and Nathan- it has everything I love about Australian weddings- lots of smiles and laughter, elegance and the laid back beautiful style that Australian’s know how to execute so perfectly!

Olivia shared the story of how she & Nathan came to be “Eight years ago as nineteen year olds we met at a dinner date through friends – my girlfriend was asked out by Nathan’s best friend and we went along with other friends to break the ice between the new lovers – lucky for us it was love at first sight and we have been together ever since.”

Luisa Brimble of Serendipity Corner Photography is today’s photographer. I’ve been dreaming over Luisa’s work for a little while now, because there is well. a dreaminess to it that captures the mood and feeling of her events with such beauty.

Olivia carried a dusty pink and white bouquet by GrandiFlora. Her makeup was by Stoj and her gown by Sydney designer, Helen English. She says “I had never had a dress made before so I was anxious about choosing a style and hoping that it would look great without trying it on but Helen was so calming and confident about our ideas that I felt completely at ease and had the most fun dancing around her beautiful terrace studio in a calico dress full of pins! Helen loved the new design so much that it is now part of her collection as the Olivia dress”.

Olivia styled the event herself and has now launched her own event styling business Mrs Bentwood.  She created the stationery herself along with the decorations with her essential elements of ” The Bentwood chair + Linen fabric + Brown paper + Natural timber + Huge balloons”. The ceremony was decorated with a welcome sign (made by Olivia’s sister and husband from a fallen down tree on their farm), a rose petal aisle, pails of roses and masses of white balloons.

Olivia’s bridesmaids wore blush pink gowns from (now closed) Rose & Ruby while Nathan and his groomsmen wore suits from Hugo Boss.

Olivia & Nathan married in the rose gardens at Sydney’s Centennial Park. Olivia says “A park not far from home, we spend many Sundays reading the paper in the shade of the trees we got married under. And in the days to come it will be here for our family to enjoy and for us to visit when we’re feeling sentimental.” Olivia walked down the aisle with her best friend, her sister and arm in arm with her little brother to “”Down to the River to Pray” by Paris Wells  from Brother Where Art Thou?

After a glass of champagne and some photos in the gardens, Olivia and Nathan joined their guests in the park’s restaurant. Olivia put her own special touch on the reception held at Centennial Parklands Dining. Olivia says “With the creative direction of my sister (matron of honour), my sister-in-law  (who flew in from Boston) and my best friend (who flew in from Paris) we crafted invitations, ceremony booklets, menus, cute blackboard signs around the venue, cootie catchers for the tables and the most beautiful seating plan using screen printed linen that I bought extra meters of to upholster a chair or bed head or cushions in our new home one day.”

Simmone Logue made a two tier white cake which was topped with metallic birds. Olivia loved that somehow Nathan got the most “kisses” from the cootie catcher.

For their guestbook, Olivia worked with Luisa to create a Polaroid boo where guests snapped their photos and wrote heartfelt messages. Olivia decorated the reception with her favourite things “The relaxed rose and snow-berry arrangements, masses of festoon lights, long linen table runners, and my favourite bentwood chairs made to restaurant look so dreamy – it was just perfect.”

The first dance was a particuarly memorable moment for Olivia “Nathan chose Coldplay’s ‘Til Kingdom Come and as he asked his new wife to dance after his speech and as the guitar strums started my tears started rolling  – I was a hopeless dancer but loved every second shuffling around the dancefloor laughing and crying together.”

Family made the day so very special to the newlyweds “All my family are from Perth and they flew into Sydney for us all to be together – it was like Christmas having everyone in the same place – so we went on a harbour cruise the day before the wedding and I think that was the best thing – to just get some sun, relax and not worry about anything – whatever we didn’t get finished was not a big deal – it was just so great to have all the family together in our beautiful city Sydney!”

Guests danced all night to music by The Secondhand Band- Olivia remembers thinking it was almost over but looking at the clock and realising it was only 10pm! She says “I loved dancing the night away with my 80 year old Nan & Pop there until the last song and then hitching a ride home with us in the wedding car”

A big thank you to Olivia and Nathan for sharing their wedding day with us on Polka Dot Bride! Wonderful wishes to you both! Thank you also to Jessica of Silk Truffle (do you remember Jessica and her fabulous eco-friendly wedding dress design?) who gave me the heads up on the beautiful work of Luisa Brimble of Serendipity Corner Photography who allowed us to share today’s stunning wedding!

Photos by Serendipity Corner

I’m so excited to share the work of an Australian videographer team I’m been eyeing off for a little while!

Paper Cranes Productions are based out of Sydney and produces some really beautiful work. They have a special way of telling the story and I love to watch their creations!

Today’s wedding video is that of Karina and Adrian- two lovers of dance, two lovers of surprises and now newlyweds! Karina and Adrian married at Miramare Gardens. were photographed by Tea Lily Photography,

Adrian & Karina Wedding Video Trailer (Double Surprises and a lot of Dancing) from Paper Cranes Productions on Vimeo.

In the words of Paper Cranes Productions “The wedding day begins with a Hong Kong tradition, where the groom had to go through several assignments / games which created by the bridesmaids before he can enter the bride house to pick her up.

Adrian is a very fun and down to earth guy where Karina is a humble and sweet angelic girl. From the moment we met with this couple, we knew that their wedding would be different than just a normal wedding.

The wedding reception was held in beautiful Miramare Gardens at Terrey Hills. Their wedding was all about fun and dancing. Adrian and Karina are really talented in dancing and surprisingly so are a lot of their guests. Their dance party at the end of the night is like one of the episode in “So You Think You Can Dance”

The highlight of the night was “the double surprises”. It was the funniest thing when each of them emailed us about their own surprises to one another and asking us to keep it secret from “each” of them… This also happens to all of the people/vendors at the wedding where we had a bit of laugh with. Then after that, came the gorgeous first dance, funky bridal dance, the thriller dance and the fun games where karina squish her own father’s bum…”

Charlotte and Warren

I seem to be on a bit of a Sydney kick lately, but honestly there are such beautiful weddings coming out of the beautiful city that I can’t resist sharing them! Today’s is completely dreamy- gentle and soft, with the flutter of petals and the soft draping of the bride’s gown.

Charlotte tells the tale of how they met “We met on a Sunday night out at the Beach Palace Hotel – ‘I met my prince in a palace’ . I spotted Warren from the third floor coming up the escalators and did my utmost to get his attention. We married 7 years later.”

Photos today are by SugarLove Weddings.

Charlotte handmade the bouquets silk and feathers. She purchased additional flowers  from Waverley Exotic.

Charlotte wore a draping strapless gown from Jian Adore. She says “Jian designed and made my dress and veil, she could not have done a more perfect job. It was a pleasure to catch up with her at each fitting. She kindly made me a silk flower for my hair and crystal bracelet which matched my veil, she is so kind.”

Charlotte and Warren were married at Vaucluse House.

A string trio (Anton Koritni 0439 432 226) played “The Prayer” as Charlotte walked down the aisle.

The bridesmaids wore custom made pink gowns while Warren wore a suit from Hugo Boss. The groomsmen wore grey suits from Roger David.

The couple held their wedding reception at the The Tea Room Gunners Barracks.    Guests traveled to the venue on a sunset cruise and enjoyed a tapas style menu.

Sweet Art created a two tier masterpiece cake to fit in with Charlotte and Warren’s styling. It featured duck egg blue, soft pinks and copper accents.

The reception was filled with special touches, Charlotte and Warren made the bouquets, stationery and styled their event. Charlotte says “Warren’s mum made and embroidered our napkins, we had personalised pad printing on our plates.”

The first dance added a touch of humor to the wedding day, Charlotte says “Hmmmm! Well it started off well but then I ended up on my head…. To this day Warren and I debate over who tripped who up but it is something we can laugh about. Truth is I can be clumsy when trying to be all serious and Warren had commented in his speech that he was impressed that I made my way to and down the aisle without any spills. It really was very funny.”

But there’s one more special moment to tell from today’s story…and I’ll leave it to Charlotte “We got married because we wanted to start our family… we conceived on our honeymoon and now have a beautiful boy ‘Harrison’ (9months old).”

A big thank you to Charlotte and Warren for sharing their wedding day with us today on Polka Dot Bride! Thank you also to SugarLove Weddings for sharing today’s photographs!

Photos by SugarLove Weddings

Elaine and Damian

Sometimes it’s the simply elegant weddings that get me – the stunning dress, a beautiful bouquet, a happy bride. Today’s wedding was like that! Culture Bridal sent over Elaine and Damian’s stunning Sydney wedding. After meeting each other seven years ago through university friends, they decided it was time to tie the knot.

Photos today are by Inlighten Photography

Elaine wore a custom made gown from Culture Bridal. Bouquets of purple, cream and pink blooms were styled by Brides In Bloom.

Elaine and Damian married at St Francis of Assisi Church in Paddington. The bridesmaids wore deep violet gowns from Chic Collections, while the groom and the groomsmen wore suits from Peppers Formal Hire.

Right in the heart of Sydney lies Centennial Park, Elaine and Damian held their reception at Centennial Parklands Dining, Centennial Park. Elaine says “I loved Centennial Park because it was a venue that would look beautiful even if it wasn’t a perfect Sydney day. The beautiful fig trees looked amazing with flood lights in them and all our guests said it was a great venue, convenient for most Sydney people too!”. In lieu of a wedding cake, the couple had a Croquembouche made by The Croquembouche Patisserie.

A candle was lit beside photos of loved ones to honour their memory. Elaine says “It was everything that we wanted, it was fun, and we were happy. We had the formalities in a Church, then a lovely dinner with good food and wine, a slide show of a selection of wedding photos from Inlighten, some great speeches and then the party.”

While Elaine chose to stay away from anything DIY for her wedding, she did decorate the favors. “Between buying a house and moving a month before the wedding and working full time there wasn’t much time to do any DIY, so I didn’t really. But I did put fabric over the jams we had as bonbonniere which included 3 trips to Spotlight for the right fabric & ribbon, and a trip to Kmart at 2am looking for rubber bands. I was really happy I didn’t DIY anything, you just don’t have time.  I was starting to crack up as it was!”

One of Elaine’s favourite moments was traditional. “The speeches were really great. Those that spoke put in a lot of effort and spoke from the heart, I don’t think they used the internet for material! I spoke too, which was important. Our MC was my brother in law Michael. He was an excellent MC, he put in so many extra special touches, he knows us so well, he had lots of funny stories and he put in so much effort to make our evening fun and relaxed.”

Of their first dance “We did some dancing lessons before hand and I was really happy with our dance, although the choreography was reduced the closer we got to the wedding and the more I wasn’t able to learn the dance! It was a fun dance but I’m glad we had lessons before hand, it would be a long three or four minutes if you didn’t!”

Thank you for sharing your wedding day on Polka Dot Bride Elaine and Damian! Congratulations on your marriage! Thank you also to Inlighten Photography for allowing us to share today’s captures!

Photos by Inlighten Photography