Hannah & Jake

I love every moment of today’s sweet Townsville wedding. From the excited father of the bride trying so hard not to give hints about the proposal, to the wide-eyed grins and double over in laughter moments of the newlywed as they share their first moments as husband and wife. Every moment, capture beautifully by Vicki Miller Photography tells the story of the day.

It has been a long road for Hannah and Jake, who met in high school while they were working together at Bunnings. Jake proposed in what turned out to be not much of a surprise to Hannah, She remembers “I knew something was coming as Jake can’t keep a secret to save himself and he had been on the phone with his mum, who lives in Warwick 3 hours out of Brisbane, non-stop for a week or more and even resorted to locking me inside the house at one stage so he could talk to his mum because I knew something was going on. My dad kept ringing me all morning asking me how my day was going, what I was doing, which I later found out that Jake had asked him if he could marry me the day before he was set to do it. As my dad cannot keep a secret to save himself he is TERRIBLE with secrets, so when he kept ringing me I didn’t think anything of it because that’s just my dad but once it happened and he rang me he said “Oh thank god I couldn’t keep it a secret any longer, a whole 12 hours almost killed me!” Just before everyone showed up Saturday afternoon for our housewarming party, I just sitting around getting ready for the afternoon that when Jake popped the question! Just simple, just us and his family and he was up and down within a few seconds and I said yes and here we are!”

Hannah chose a beautiful gown by Grace Loves Lace, telling “The dress was Harriet by Grace Loves Lace. I tried on a lot of dresses around Townsville and I liked them but I didn’t love them I didn’t have that “wow” moment that everyone talks about so I just kept looking and someone showed me the Grace Loves Lace website and then I was HOOKED. I knew I wanted one of those dresses, I fell in love with the Harriet dress when looking at it online and at that point, I couldn’t afford it but I wanted one so badly.

I found a lady selling one and I chanced it and ordered one online and when it turned up it couldn’t have been more perfect! I loved it and I knew it was perfect! I chose that dress because it was pretty simple and had its own elegance. I think using a second-hand wedding dress is just as good as a new one it just means the dress has a great story to tell when someone else has had it before you.”

The bride made sure to include special family pieces in her day, explaining “I wore my Great Grandmother’s wedding ring, she had passed away when I was about 12 and it was passed down to my Nan and she wears it now every day. So that was a little piece of both my Nan and Grandma. I had a piece of mum’s wedding gown shaped into a little heart sewn into my dress and wore my dad’s wedding ring so I had a piece of both of them with me. I’m incredibly close to my parents so it was important for me to have something of theirs on the day.”

Hannah remembers “My dad Terry walked me down the aisle and in true dad form he told me jokes the whole way down the aisle.”

“We stuck with the simple quick Catholic service” tells Hannah “We had a few readings during the ceremony. One by Jake’s Uncle, one by my uncle and the prayers of the faithful by Jake’s Aunty. We kept it quick and simple and there were smiles all around. The church was naturally beautiful and we left it as it was because it was its own decoration it was stunning, which is what attracted us to it in the beginning.”

Hannah and Jake chose Sacred Heart Cathedral, Townsville for their ceremony, the bride explaining “The Sacred Heart Cathedral was where my parents got married so it had a lot of meaning for us to get married there. Jake was from Warwick and they have some amazing churches there and Jake always wanted to get married in a church as they were beautiful so once we saw the cathedral we knew it was meant to be.”

Blossom Shoppe created the lush and beautiful bouquets. “WOW. I had sent Gayette a photo of something that I liked and the rough colours that I thought would be nice and she just hit it out of the park. The flowers and the photos were the things I was most excited about for the wedding and when I saw Gayette driving down the driveway of our house I ran out with half my hair done and a jar of Nutella in the other hand as I was SO excited.

When I saw them I could have cried they were absolutely incredible and way beyond anything I could ever have imagined. Gayette drove from Charters Towers to us to drop off the flowers then went straight up to the Tea Rooms and set up everything there for us all the table centrepieces and stunning arbour pieces that I’m still in love with!”

Says Hannah “We loved how above and beyond our vendors went for us it was more like meeting new friends than vendors.”

Of their photographer, Hannah remarks “When we first got engaged the first and only thing I knew I wanted was Vicki Miller Photography. I had been following Vicki’s work for a while and couldn’t wait until one day I got the chance to get in front of her camera. We had to chop and change a few wedding dates to work in with everything but as long as I had Vicki I didn’t care! We felt so comfortable and relaxed and the day went perfectly and when we got the photos back, wow. It was everything we could have imagined and more.”

Herveys Range Heritage Tea Rooms  hosted the reception, Hannah telling “It is a fantastic venue and it suits us down to a T. It was open with beautiful landscapes and scenery and the staff and team there were incredible we felt so comfortable and at home, we couldn’t have chosen a better place.”

Hannah’s mother helped create the centrepieces. “I made the wedding invitations, mum collected and decorated all the jars for our centrepieces, all 45 of them, she took these jars everywhere with her in her car in case she got some time to decorate them. We have a family business and of a weekend we just took the place over and had wedding stuff everywhere! All the customers loved it and were involved too!” tells the bride.

Lovers of country music, the newlyweds choosing Luke Bryan’s “To The Moon & Back” for their first dance, “We both love country music and I loved this song because it was slow and simple and Luke sings it with his wife and when you listen to the words they have a great meaning behind them and that seemed like us.”

The groom’s favourite photo includes his pride and joy, Hannah remembering  “We (Jake) really wanted to have his ute included in the day because he is known for his ute, it’s so old that Jesus drove it but it is his pride in joy. It’s an old HJ 47 from 1984 that he bought about a year after we met and did it up himself.”

The team at KGHD Videography created this beautiful film that captures the sweetness of the day.

Congratulations Hannah and Jake! Thank you for sharing this beautiful day with us! Thank you also to Vicki Miller Photography for sharing today’s stunning photographs with us!