A Secluded Garden Wedding in Queensland

Photography by Lost In Love for Joanna & George

Hidden from the prying eyes of paparazzi, Joanna and George’s wedding was held in a private oasis on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Family and friends descended on the venue, housed over the weekend in properties enveloped by lush greenery and perfumed blooms.

Vows were exchanged beneath an ancient tree, dappled light subtly filtered through its leafy canopy. Paying homage to their garden surrounds, Joanna’s gown (a bespoke creation by Pallas Couture) was interwoven with botanic motifs, shapes balanced by a bare back and dramatic bell sleeves that fell like liquid over the hands.

A perfect alchemy of effortless style and botanic beauty, each frame speaks to love and life, a chimerical Eden of family, friends and luscious surrounds.

Photography by LANE handpicked photographer Lost In Love.

Our Story

Names / Joanna and George

Wedding Date / December 2, 2016

Guests / 85

Our Engagement story…

It was the first day of 2016 and George flew me to Coffs Harbour, where he had asked me to be his girlfriend two years prior. Our good friend has a beautiful property with a secluded chapel and this is where George asked me to be his wife in a romantic candle lit setting.

Details

Wedding Location

George and I are big on family and saw our wedding as a perfect opportunity to get our immediate family and bridal party together. We found a gorgeous private property in Eumundi in Queensland that had two homesteads (one for the boys and one for the girls). This allowed everyone to stay in the same location in the lead up to our wedding.

George and I held our ceremony on the property, surrounded by nature and under an ancient leafy tree that was perfect for shade on the day. We both love the ocean so decided to have our reception in Noosa at the Noosa Beach House. Noosa is an important place for the both of us – I have family there and so we often holiday in the area. This was one of the main reasons we decided to hold our special day there.

Theme & Style

Effortlessly romantic, intimate and relaxed.

Photography

We came across Lost In Love Photography very early on in our planning process. Lyndel and Daniel are based in Melbourne so we flew from Sydney to meet with them and instantly had a connection with the pair. Having a good connection to our photographers and videographers was extremely important to us as they would be a part of our day as much as the guests. Having two photographers at our wedding meant there was not a moment missed. We were quick to receive our photos and they captured every moment perfectly.

Fashion Notes

Bride’s Dress

I was lucky enough to wear a stunning Pallas Couture wedding gown that was one of a kind and made to fit my body and my baby bump! The details were made with gorgeous European laces and soft mesh which were perfect for the humid Queensland heat and covered me in all the right places.

Exactly seven months after my husband proposed we found out we were expecting our first baby, which threw a spanner in the works! Instead of months of fittings we had to narrow it down to just weeks before the wedding. The team at Pallas Couture did an exceptional job at accommodating my ever-growing baby bump and changing figure.

Bride’s Shoes

I wore a beautiful Manning Cartel heel that I had previously worn to my hens and that I knew I could last in for the entire celebration.

Bridesmaids’ Dresses

One of my bridesmaids, Ariana, came across a gorgeous white Viktoria & Woods strapless jumpsuit. It was light and airy and flowed beautifully as the girls walked down the aisle.

Flower Girl & Pageboy

At the time, our three-year-old niece had an obsession with Elsa from Frozen and wanted to wear a blue dress just like her. I found a gorgeous Arctic Ice tulle dress designed by Nelly Stella which tied in with the bridal party perfectly (not quiet Elsa but close enough!). My nephew looked very handsome in a linen off-white suit, together they looked cute as ever!

Wedding Rings

George secretly picked out my engagement ring from Isabella’s Fine & Antique Jewellery in Noosa which is where we went back to get our wedding bands made. George liked the idea of going for a gold ring to match mine, which was a matte finished ring with my new initials and our wedding date engraved inside the band.

My engagement ring was made in 1930, so the jeweller and I created a wedding band that fit around it in order to avoid damaging or scraping away any of the antique gold. George’s lucky number is eight so I added eight small diamonds to my wedding band (this number proved to be even more special when our baby boy was born on the eighth!).

Groom & Groomsmen

George and his groomsmen all have a larger frame which can be difficult to dress at times. George opted for a custom made light grey suit by M.J. Bale. He decided to keep the suits a total surprise until the actual day just like my dress. Funnily enough, Thomas (George’s best man and brother) shared the final suit fitting on his Instagram story which gave me a sneaky preview to what the boys were wearing on the day!

Hair

I had my hair down with a loose wave and parted slightly off centre. My bridesmaids had a loose low bun to suit the feel of our wedding. George and I have been going to Brown Sugar Hair and Beauty for three years now so we decided to stick to our comfort zone and ended up flying a stylist to join us for the day. The boys all had a quick trim the morning of our wedding.

Makeup

I went for a natural look so I could feel like myself. My bridesmaids don’t wear a lot of make-up so also stuck with neutral tones. My close friend Gabrielle is a make-up artist and I trusted her with full control of our make-up.

Videographers

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Style Notes

Stationery & Invitations

The Distillery created our invitations. We managed to get our hands on a high res image of the ancient tree we planned to say our vows under and embossed it onto our invitations. To flow with the style of our wedding, our invitations were on an off-white card with gold foil writing to match the colour of our rings. It was important for us to make our invitations as personal as possible.

Flowers & Bouquets

For the styling of our flowers we wanted an organic array of flowers that suited our outdoor surrounds and referenced the garden even inside our reception venue. Twig & Grace had the perfect portfolio of previous work that caught our eye. They put a lot of thought into the small details of styling our wedding day.

Videography

Our footage from our day was like watching a mini love movie. Gareth from C2 Films captured every moment and created a moody/romantic highlight reel to share with our guests and an extended version that we could share with family which included our vows and speeches.

Wedding Planner

George and I really wanted to take on the challenge of planning the entire celebration between the two of us. We had a specific vision and knew exactly what we wanted. With the help of the internet planning a destination wedding was easy to organise.

Reception Notes

Entertainment

At our ceremony we had acoustic duo Aniella and Simon sing a variety of songs at our ceremony. Thomas wanted to organise our reception entertainment as our wedding gift. He surprised us with singer Paulini Curuenavuli who performed at our reception, singing our first dance song and entertaining us through the night.

Food & Beverages

Noosa Beach House had a special tailored menu created by Peter Kuruvita. The guests could choose a four-course meal alongside a large selection of drink choices. I was very spoilt and the Noosa Beach House kindly organised a non-alcoholic champagne for me. We decided to not go with a cake as we had delicious deserts to choose from in our menu.