Virginia Bride Magazine
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Real Weddings: Suzy and Braydon

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Disclaimer: Virginia Bride features weddings weekly here on the blog. The featured blog weddings are not necessarily mean they are featured in the print magazine.

This wedding tale comes to us from Down Under for a unique look at weddings around the world. Suzy and Braydon said “I do” in fabulous Gold Coast of Australia (Queensland).

“We both worked for Flight Centre in the stores and met at a Valentine’s Day buzz night which is a monthly area get together and achievement celebration. He gave me a little confetti love heart, which I still have somewhere. The next work event we were at together my boss made us kiss after way too many drinks and it grew from there!”

When it came time for the proposal, “Braydon hired out a private island when we were staying at Hurawalhi in the Maldives and had ‘Will you marry me, Suzy?’ written in the sand with rose petals inside a big love heart. He walked me around to the side of the island where I could see it and got down on one knee. Obviously, I said yes!

“We then celebrated on our little island with champagne and swims for a few hours. When we got back to our room they had set up the bath with rose petals on our balcony and our bed was decorated with flowers to say congratulations. We then made our way to the Champagne Pavillion to watch the sun set over the water with more champagne and nibbles.”

The Scoop:

Bride: Suzy, Corporate Travel Agent

Groom: Braydon, Corporate Travel Agent

Wedding Date: 30/10/2021

Number of guests: 74

In Suzy and Braydon’s words, their wedding was an extravagant party. To get things started, they found invitations that open up “with the flowers on one side and our names on the other and they seemed perfect. Braydon found the website and the design and we liked a few and narrowed it down to the white flower ones that flipped out. I loved that they were elegant yet simple which is the theme we were going for after booking the venue. The font styles were a big factor in deciding as I loved the way it was set out and how it looked, it was easy to ready and a little fancy, but not so much that it was hard to read. The cost was very reasonable compared to some other websites and the editing process was so easy and hassle free.”

Finding her wedding gown as an adventure for Suzy! “My wedding dress appointment fell just after one of the QLD lockdowns in January 21 and they were only allowing 1 person to go with you so I decided to book the private room with champs and nibbles with a senior stylist at White Lily Couture so I could have most of my bridesmaids and mums there. I can’t begin to explain how much it is worth paying the extra for the room, nibbles, champs and the service there. I fell in love with Oberon by Pronovias as it was simple but not plain and looked good in the right places. Then I attached a big bow on the back for just a little tiny bit of drama. It ended up being too big on the day, but I made it work.”

For their venue, they “found everything we looked at online thanks to covid lockdowns, mostly through instagram. We wanted something that was all in the one place so it was easy and the guests didn’t have to figure out how to get from ceremony to reception. We also wanted to include food and many drinks. We’d had a look at a few other properties that had all these as well and thought we’d check out The Valley Estate to eliminate it from the list. When we went to see the property it was not built yet and they only had one house built there and video footage of what they envisaged it would look like. They had a little mini set up of what the table settings would be like under the house and some of their features that had arrived waiting to for the rest to be built like the chandeliers. From looking at the footage, the quality and detailing of the house that they had already built and the table settings we decided that was enough to book it in, so we deposited on it in December 20 without actually seeing it! We first saw the property after it was fully built in May 21 and were absolutely shocked and taken back by the beauty of the property and how extravagant the reception hall is and we knew we’d made the perfect choice.”

Their ceremony was in the chapel and only went for 30 minutes. “We found the perfect celebrant, Anthony Lewis, through a friend who did such an amazing job. Neither of us are religious so it was more about the two of us, our story and coming together. We had our mate Blake as the flower boy who absolutely nailed it coming down the aisle before all the bridesmaids. We also got to do a pretty cool exit where we rung the bell of the chapel and then had all of our guests lined up outside. We walked through them as they threw confetti up in the air in front of us. It was kind of like the end of Grease but the wedding version. Our entrance to the reception was amazing. The Groomsmen and Bridesmaids made their way down this grand set of stairs into the reception hall, through where everyone was seated and to the head table. We lined up some confetti cannons and a mad drop about 30 seconds into a song for Braydon and I to come out and make the littest entrance to a wedding reception ever to.”

Their cake was a three-tier chocolate mud cake on the bottom, with caramel mud as the middle and white chocolate raspberry as the top tier. “We had a simple white cake with a green bow around it and a cake topper that looked somewhat similar to us. What flowers did you use in the bouquet and at the venue? Ashleigh from the Other Bridesmaid put together the bouquets, flower arches, table settings, boutonnieres and corsage for my mum. I had some white orchids, white and light/dusty pink roses and a mixture of other flowers in the similar color palette (white/creamy with a tiny bit of light pink).”

“Everything was supplied by the Valley Estate which was one of the reasons we chose them – they made it so easy. We had a very small amount of flowers throughout the guest tables to keep it simple and then some bigger flower arrangements on the head table. Ashleigh also supplied some long pink candles to mix with the flowers. The candle holders were already there from The Valley Estate. Lyn from Cakeit4u who did our cake was also able to do laser cut names. We used these as the place cards and almost everyone took it home with them.

Suzy offers this advice for future brides planning their own weddings:

  • “Pay the extra for the private dress consultation – it’s so worth it and fun too.
  • “If you’re on the border of 2 dress sizes and plan to lose weight don’t order the bigger size. It might be the safer option and they say they can alter it down 4 sizes but the reality is a lot of the time they can’t.
  • “You don’t need to spend $400 on wedding shoes… no one sees them. I wore slippers for my reception.
  • “Enter all the competitions!
  • Think about the songs you want earlier rather than later. It’s a big job that you often don’t think about and can be stressful if you leave it to the last minute.
  • Do the things that you want to do and make you happy (like having mac and cheese for your wedding dinner) and invite the people you want there. It’s YOUR DAY!

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Tags : beautiful brideluxury weddingsreal romancesReal Weddingvirginia bride magazineweddings from around the world
rita

The author: rita

Rita Juanita Pike is the granddaughter of aviatrix, Jerrie Mock, first woman to pilot an airplane around the world. Rita has taken inspiration from her grandmother’s life and flight and pursued many of her own dreams in theatre, podcasting, novel writing, and cooking up delicious food from around the world. She now writes on food, travel, pets, faith, and the arts. She’s happily married to Matt, and faithfully serves the very fluffy kitten queen, Lady Stardust.

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