editor, Author at Brisbane City Celebrants

Brisbane Wedding Decorators Jacaranda wedding styling tips

on January 5, 2018 · 2 Comments

Guest post by Brisbane Wedding Decorators and Amazing Proposals

Brisbane Wedding Decorators share their Jacaranda wedding styling tips

Jacaranda season in Brisbane conveniently coincides with Brisbane’s most popular wedding months, with these beauties blooming their signature purple florals from around mid-September to early November and what a stunning time of year it is!

In the essence of choosing your wedding theme and colours to compliment your wedding location, every year Brisbane Wedding Decorators get inundated with requests to create ceremony settings to compliment a jacaranda wedding theme.

Nearly every Brisbane park with allocated wedding hire sites has it’s fair share of blooming Jacarandas so choosing a location is a breeze. New Farm Park has an abundance of jacarandas lining the circular road, which also makes for great location photos post ceremony.

This Brisbane Wedding Decorators jacaranda wedding has huge old trees framing the ceremony set up.

Here Brisbane Wedding Decorators have showcased some of their favourite jacaranda inspired ceremony settings to demonstrate how this colour and theme can be coordinated in to the wedding ceremony décor in an elegant and luxurious way.

Our first tip when planning the styling of your jacaranda themed wedding ceremony, is when it comes to adding colour, often less is more.

It can be very tempting to fill your entire ceremony with that gorgeous shade of jacaranda blooms, from the arbour draping through to the bridesmaids dresses, however the colour will actual pop more if it is showcased as a ‘highlight’ colour as opposed to the primary colour.

We love keeping the primary (main) colour of the palette neutral, for example white Americana chairs or clear ghost chairs, and white arbour draping and aisle pillars, incorporating the highlight colour as perfectly coordinated fresh flowers as pictured here.

We love how the lilac and purple fresh flowers in our aisle pillars perfectly compliment the surrounding jacaranda trees while subtlety tying the white and pop of colour together.

Our second tip is to consider patterned bridesmaids dresses or dresses with more than one colour or shade, instead of plain dresses to compliment the elegant mix of colours.

If we’re well in to Jacaranda season and the blooms are falling, we can actually rake these in to the shape of an aisle creating a luxurious aisle to walk down, as pictured here:

Image captured at New Farm Park Rotunda by Brisbane Wedding Decorators Stylist.

Our final tip is that you don’t actually need to add shades of purple for a jacaranda themed wedding. This all white set up looks absolutely stunning framed by the blooming trees.

Wedding Ceremony Styling by Brisbane Wedding Decorators and Amazing Proposals

Photography Brischetto Photography

If you are require a ceremony set up for your Brisbane wedding, that can be custom designed to perfectly suit your ceremony location, the team at Brisbane Wedding Decorators would love to hear from you, head to their website to view their packages and pricing and contact them to confirm availability for your special day.

Summit Restaurant Wedding Ceremony

on December 27, 2017 · 4 Comments

With Celebrant Jamie Eastgate of Brisbane City Celebrants

Summit Restaurant Wedding Ceremony with Brisbane City Celebrants Jamie Eastgate. Overlooking Brisbane, the bays and beyond this venue offers an amazing backdrop for couples to say “I Do”. Emily and Ash tied the knot in a sweet and heartfelt ceremony at Summit Restaurant and the connection they shared throughout the ceremony was simply undeniable.

It may have poured down with rain mid ceremony, however they were so full of love for each other that a down pour wasn’t going to dampen this happy couples special day.

I was so happy to receive the following feedback and images from the happy newly weds.

“Hi Jamie,

We cant thank you enough for being our celebrant and doing such a brilliant job. Aside from making the process so easy and stress free, I feel like you really got to know us and made our vows so heart felt and personal ( and of course powering on during the torrential down pore of rain.) Even with the rain you made it perfect for us.

I’ve attached a few photos for you to see,

Thanks again,

Emily & Ash Roberts” Summit Restaurant wedding ceremony, Mt Coot-tha

Anthony Webb Photographer was on hand to capture all these special moments.

Congratulations to the happy newly weds and thank you for choosing me as your Celebrant for your special day.

If you enjoyed this post and are are planning to get married at Summit Restaurant in Mt Coot-tha, Jamie Eastgate from Brisbane City Celebrants would love to hear from you. Contact Jamie now to confirm availability for your special day and to make a time to meet.

A Happiness filled wedding at Roma Street Park

on December 8, 2017 · 5 Comments

With Jamie Eastgate of Brisbane City Celebrants

Melissa and Matt’s wedding at Roma Street Park was filled with happiness. Their ceremony took place on a sunny Brisbane winter afternoon at the Sunset Glade ceremony site at Roma Street Parklands.

Jamie was thrilled to receive the following feedback from the happy couple.

5 STARS “Thank you Jamie. You made our day so easy and listened to what we wanted. You made what could be a stressful day so fun and carefree.”\

Congratulations to the happy newly-weds!

If you enjoyed hearing about this wedding at Roma Street Park, and are looking for a Celebrant for your Brisbane wedding, Jamie Eastgate of Brisbane City Celebrants would love to hear from you. Contact him now to confirm availability for your special day.

PO Cruise Ship Elopement

on November 21, 2017 · 4 Comments

With Jamie Eastgate of Brisbane City Celebrants

Suzanne and Dean travelled from Dunedin in New Zealand to elope at Portside Wharf with the P&O cruise ship glimmering in the background. Their PO cruise ship elopement was relaxed, short and full of love.

The wedding took place exactly 10 years from the date they became a couple and they opted to exchange surprise gifts to each other, with Dean gifting Suzanne a memory charm bracelet, and explained how each individual charm represented her and their relationship together.

Suzanne gifted Dean a watch with the following vows:

Dean, I give you this watch as a symbol of time

Time we have already had together, 10 years to the day

The “about time” from friends and family that we get married

And more importantly, the time we will have in the future together, forever

I love you

The happy couple kindly shared these photos with Jamie along with the following kind feedback:

“I just wanted to thank you for making our day so special and fun. It was exactly what we wanted.”

Following the ceremony the excited newly weds enjoyed some photos along the wharf with their Photography Camera Boy before jumping on the P&O cruise ship together for a week long celebration.

PO Cruise ship elopement with Brisbane City Celebrants

If you enjoyed hearing about this P&O cruise ship elopement and are looking for a Celebrant for your wedding or elopement in Brisbane, Jamie would love to hear from you contact Celebrant Jamie Eastgate to confirm availability for your special day.

Preston Peak Winery Wedding

on November 16, 2017 · 4 Comments

Preston Peak Winery Wedding with Celebrant Jamie Eastgate

Jade and Aaron’s Preston Peak Winery wedding was a day full of happiness, celebration and fun!

The couple who met while both training for a half iron man, created a day that was truly ‘them’ with their own unique handmade rustic style decorations for both the ceremony and reception, coupled with injecting their fun personalities in to their day with elements like a custom made floral crown for the resident donkey, and a fire pit for guests to gather around over a wine as the sun set.

“Our ceremony was overlooking the Toowoomba Range with a gorgeous arch way we created.

Jamie and Brisbane City Celebrants were just amazing, everyone loved the ceremony and how it was so Aaron and I. Jamie pre wedding was fantastic and available for any questions or help we required.”

Jade and Aaron wrote personalised wedding vows to each other which they shared for the very first time during their ceremony.

While the forecast was for a massive amount of rain, unbelievably as Jade arrived with her bridesmaids, the clouds cleared and the sun shone through the dramatic clouds with not a drop of rain to be seen.

Aaron’s Legendary Wedding Vows to Jade at their stunning Preston Peak Winery wedding with Jamie Eastgate Brisbane City Celebrant from Brisbane City Celebrants on Vimeo.

Preston Peak Winery has a breath taking backdrop and Jade and Aaron raved about the delicious food they all enjoyed. Photographer Tall Timber Studio was on hand to capture all the happiness of the day.

Brides Dress: Pronovias

Floristry: Sweet Moments

Celebrant: Jamie Eastgate of Brisbane City Celebrants

If you enjoyed hearing about this Preston Peak Winery Wedding and are looking for a Celebrant for your wedding in Toowoomba or elsewhere, we would love to hear from you! Contact Brisbane City Celebrants now to confirm availability for your special day.

A Married at First Sight Proposal

on November 16, 2017 · 8 Comments

The Brisbane Celebrants Directory & Blog Admin team couldn’t be more excited to share this beautiful Married At First Sight proposal featuring the TV Show”s favourite and Brisbane local Keller and his beautiful fiancée Katie.

Tell us how you met, what drew you to each other and how you became a couple:

Katie and I have been friends for so many years, I remember going to band camp with her in grade 4 and we played the clarinet together.

Through high school I used to admire her every day but always knew she was out of my league.

After serving in the military after 6 years and then going on a reality TV show (Married at First Sight Australia) where I learnt how to date properly, I gained a great confidence in myself.

There was a lot of adversity I had to face after what I went through with the TV situation. I was out one night having dinner with the boys and in walks this drop dead gorgeous brunette in a long white dress, I literally had to pick my jaw up off the floor and HAD to talk to her.

Turns out it was Katie and she remembered me, we got to talking as I found out she loves the Beatles and has a full Beatles side tattoo and coincidently I have a full Beatles sleeve tattoo.

I could feel the electricity and chemistry between us so I just grabbed her face and forced a kiss and she kissed me back, time stopped and I knew this was different to anything I had ever felt.

We have spent every single day together ever since

Katie Describe Keller in 3 words

Kind hearted. Character. Bestie

Keller, Describe Katie in 3 words

Mother. Goddess. Bestie

Tell us about the proposal (from how the surprise was pulled off, to the cars, colour theme, anything what he said and anything/ everything else that made it so special).

The amazing Cara at Brisbane Wedding Decorators and Amazing Proposals were a great help when it came to pulling off something extra special, I was planning on making this special for a long time but with my work I couldn’t put it all together myself.

I called this amazing human for help and honestly it was the best decision I could have very made for this process.

I told her Katie’s favourite colour was yellow and that her favourite flowers were chrysanthemums, and we designed an elegant setting based on this.

We nutted out a plan to tell Katie that we had a photo shoot with each other as I had to get her to get the day off work, luckily I could use my TV story as an excuse as to why we needed a photo shoot.

Cara got me onto Elite car hires owner Don who was more than happy to get us some cars to escort us to the location and add to the unforgettable day. Cara also organised us our wonderful photographer Leanne from Brischetto Photography and the film crew Mitch Richardson Films who have made the most perfect video to remember out special day.

On the day I was ready to go and got picked up by Don in the Lamborghini at 8am and Katie got picked up in the Mustang at 8.20am, giving me enough time to meet the team at the location and make sure everything was going to run perfectly.

I arrived to the most magical set up with Bublé playing in the background there were beautiful flowers and the most stunning arbour set up decorated with an abundance of yellow flowers!

The fine details made it so special even having our names on a “Will you marry me?’ sign, the beautiful yellow flowers with bees buzzing around them and the line of trees in the background, I got out of the car and my hart skipped a beat.

I just looked at it and thought yep this is it this is perfect I even let a tear slip. I got mic’d up by the videographers and waited for Katie to get there. We waited for a while and I thought oh no she had sussed this out and has turned around she’s not coming!! but the team kept me calm and soon enough I saw the mustang driving down the road.

Katie got there and was in full shock and I yelled out “Surprise baby this isn’t a shoot!!”

She walked over to me waiting in front of the sign and I just let my heart go and said everything I felt, how in love I am how she is my world and my best friend how lucky I am to have her and the kids in my life and then dropped down on one knee and popped the question “will you marry me?” ……. Boom she said yes and my heart filled with complete love and satisfaction it was in that moment my life was now complete and I knew I have made the right choice in my life partner because this is going to be us for the rest of our lives and I couldn’t be happier or more certain of anything. The day was perfect and she was even better. I couldn’t have brought it all together without the team, they honestly helped me achieve the most perfect proposal to the one I love most.

Tell us about the ring (describe the ring and tell us why you picked that style)

The ring was hard because I wanted something different and unique that could represent how Katie makes me feel and that she’s not like anyone else I have met so a normal ring wouldn’t do. I went to Prouds the Jewelers where my sister in law works and told her what I wanted.

We went through so many books and I got bits and pieces from all different rings and designed a custom ring which they made.

A heart of diamonds because she has the strongest heart to love me and the kids and honestly anyone else that comes into her life. Also the heart shape is unique like her.

I got pink diamonds put in it for the kids she has 2 of her own and I want 2 of my own. As soon as I saw the diamond I knew it was perfect it was the clearest and best grade money could get and I could not wipe the smile off my face. The hardest thing was when I picked up the ring not blowing the whole plan and proposing to her on the spot as I’m the worst with secrets.

Finally, tell us about the kind of wedding you envisage

Our wedding will be a very small family and friends event at my parents place on their property. We will have a live band who will be my mate max who plays in a Beatles cover band and is flying down from Darwin just for us. We envisage singing and dancing all through the night with the love of our family and close friends. I think there will be nice white chairs set up for everyone and some photo booths and a nice buffet. We will hire a bar to come and cater for everyone’s beverage needs. It will be beautiful elegant and simple, just for us.

Vendor Credits

Proposal Planning Styling Hire & Flowers:

Amazing Proposals and Brisbane Wedding Decorators

Cars Elite Car Hire

Photography Brischetto Photography

Proposal Film Mitch Richardson Films

Engagement Ring: Ashleigh Keller at Proud’s the Jewelers

Katie’s Hair by Kristis Kuts

Stamford Plaza Wedding on a rainy day

on November 1, 2017 · 6 Comments

Stamford Plaza Brisbane Wedding with Celebrant Jamie Eastgate

Sarah and John planned a garden wedding overlooking the Brisbane river at Brisbane’s Stamford Plaza Hotel. When their big day arrived the rain clouds gathered and their ceremony was moved indoors. As you can see their Stamford Plaza wedding on a rainy day was so full of love and laughter that the rain didn’t dampen their day one little drop!

” I think this photo sums up how much fun and laughter we had on the day! Jamie from Brisbane City Celebrants was amazing! He is so funny, kind and professional. We are really glad we chose Brisbane City Celebrants for our wedding day. I can’t recommend them highly enough, the whole process was very easy. Thank you very much for making our day so special.”

Image by Jenny Cuerel Photography

If you enjoyed hearing about this Stamford Plaza wedding with Celebrant Jamie Eastgate and are looking for a Celebrant for your special day, Jamie would love to hear from you. Contact Celebrant Jamie Eastgate now to confirm availability for your special day.

A surprise wedding at Minnippi Parklands

on October 18, 2017 · 4 Comments

After many years and two lovely children, Erin and Kelvin couldn’t wait to tie the knot and become husband and wife.

They envisaged a relaxed and stress-free celebration and decided that having a surprise wedding would be the perfect way to celebrate with those close to them, so one Sunday afternoon they planned a family BBQ, asking guests to arrive at 1pm sharp.

On arrival, Erin was nowhere to be seen, as friends and family mingled, Kelvin ducked off, then re-emerged dressed sharply in a very smart suit with a boutonniere to boot! Guests were momentarily miffed as to why he was dressed so smart for a Sunday afternoon BBQ, which prompted him to share the exciting news “SURPRISE – We’re getting married”

Guests then joined Kelvin as they headed to a favourite local park of their’s; Minnippi Parklands in Carina, where white americana chairs were set up between two tall trees, completely surrounded by greenery.

The couples daughter, followed by the radiant bride and her father made their way down the aisle, the guests were in awe, still taking in that they were actually at a wedding!

Following a simple and happy wedding ceremony at Minnippi Parklands with their son as the official ring bearer, they were announced as husband and wife to the cheers of their surprised guests, before having bridal and family photos with their photographer from Edge Photography GC.

Thank you Erin and Kelvin for the 5 star review and for sharing your day and these photos of your wedding at Minnippi Parklands with me:

“Jamie, Thank you again for helping our wedding day be so special, you did such an amazing job and we were so happy with our choice!”

If you enjoyed hearing about this surprise wedding and are looking for a Celebrant for your special day, Brisbane Celebrant Jamie Eastgate would love to hear from you. Contact Jamie now to confirm availability for your special day

A love and light filled Brisbane wedding

on September 27, 2017 · 3 Comments

With Celebrant Jamie Eastgate of Brisbane City Celebrants

A love and light filled Brisbane wedding

We worked together during our university days at the local cinema. I was intrigued by his unusual surname and wondered if he was related to a girl I went to high school with who had the same last name. It turned out it was his sister! From there, we started talking, and hanging out and the rest is history!

Andy says he knew he loved me when he heard me blowing my nose under the shower water and admired how I always finished everything on my dinner plate (how unromantic is that?)

I knew I loved him when he bought a brand new bed and linen 3 weeks after we met, after I threatened to never stay at his house again after witnessing the state of his old mattress and manky doona!

Our Celebrant Jamie actually shared these corkers during our ceremony much to the amusement of our guests.

On a more sentimental note, we actually both said “the L word” on New Year’s Eve 2006. Ironically we’d both spoken to our friends about divulging how we felt about each other prior to this (without the other knowing) and after we were winding down after a fun night out celebrating, the conversation started and out it came…..

When it came to the proposal, Andy had actually designed and purchased the ring almost 12 months before he proposed.

One night I went to the hairdresser after work and Andy asked me to stop and get some Thai takeaway on the way home. When I got home, I noticed that there weren’t any lights on in the house, but the front door was open. When I got inside, I was amazed to see there was a trail of fairy lights along the floor, that led me out to our back deck.

Here I found Andy waiting for me looking very nervous, he’d decorated our whole deck in candles and lights, the candles spelt ‘MARRY ME’.

He’d pre-prepared a little speech outlining the reasons why I should marry him, why he’d be a good husband and hilariously, the reasons why he’d understand if I said no (e.g. his ear hair). Then he called our pug Baxter over who had the ring on his collar and proposed. I laughed nervously the whole time but of course I said YES!!!

When planning our wedding, the important elements to us were that it was spacious, standing affair, preferably outdoors or with a view and live music. The rest just came together and evolved in to an elegant modern vintage style with bursts of brightly coloured florals.

We hired the 2 lawns at Lower River Terrace in Kangaroo Point, one for the wedding ceremony, the other for cocktail hour drinks, nibbles and lawn games.

Jamie Eastgate from Brisbane City Celebrants performed our ceremony and he was awesome! So helpful both before and on the day. Our 2 dogs Baxter and Ollie joined us for the ceremony and wore suits that perfectly matched Andy’s!

We also had an amazing long table and arbour set up with the most exquisite hanging florals and décor created by Brisbane Wedding Decorators. What I had in my mind and what they created were worlds apart, for all the right reasons.

Brisbane Wedding Decorators made an ‘idea’ into the most beautiful reality – I was so gobsmacked when I saw the tables, chairs, arch and floral work, I couldn’t recommend them more highly! We were so lucky to have their help on our special day.

We celebrated our reception with ‘fork and walk’ style catering at Riverlife beneath a marquee on the Brisbane river.

Following cocktail hour, the tolix style bar tables and stools we hired through Brisbane Wedding Decorators for the post ceremony nibbles and drinks, were relocated to the reception area and decorated with small vases of pink and white blooms. The whole look was candle lit without being too soft. We loved it.

Instead of having a cake, my mum cooked up a storm of her well known favourites (e.g. magic slice, caramel slice) and my best friend Kim made her world famous choc chip cookies for dessert.

We also surprised our guests with Ruby the Red Ice Cream Van who made her arrival at about 9pm. Our guests loved being able to go and get an ‘old school’ ice-cream on the night.

We have so many memorable moments from our day!

I loved seeing my Dad’s face when he saw me all dressed for the first time;
Getting goosebumps when we were announced by our Celebrant Jamie Eastgate as husband and wife;
Seeing Brisbane Wedding Decorators beautiful long table set up in the park;
Dancing with my dad (it was quite the scene and involved all sorts of shoulder shimmying!);
Standing at the back of the deck watching all our guests jumping around dancing to the band;
and the amazing gondola my parents hired to pick us up at the end of the night and take us for a beautiful ride down the river and to our accommodation at Stamford Plaza. We had about an hour, just the two of us on the gondola, watching the city go by – it was our first chance to really ‘catch up’ with one another about the day.

My advice for brides and grooms to be is to spend the time getting your run sheet for the day accurate and detailed.

Give copies to a few trusted friends and your MC. This helped our day run smoothly as the order of events/ timing was knowledge shared and everyone helped keep things going along. Include contact details for key people – it made the world of difference. Oh and eat! Eat breakfast and lunch, and snack where you can. All the adrenaline makes you hungry!

Finally, from the bride’s perspective – pack yourself a pair of those little fold up ballet flats….!

Penny and Andy’s dream team of wedding vendors

Celebrant Jamie Eastgate of Brisbane City Celebrants

Photography Marcus Bell of Studio Impressions

Cocktail hour floral arbour by Brisbane Wedding Decorators

Brides Dress Karen Willis Holmes

Men’s suits George and King

Ice Cream van Ruby the red ice cream van

Wedding Transport The Mini Owners Club

Entertainment Baker Boys Band www.bakerboysband.com.au/

Dogs Suits by Fluppies

If you enjoyed hearing about this love and light filled Brisbane wedding and are looking for a Celebrant for your Brisbane wedding, Jamie would love to hear from you. Contact Brisbane City Celebrants for more information and to confirm availability for your special day.

Wedding Tips – Here’s some things you need to know

on September 26, 2017 · 4 Comments

With Celebrant Cara Hodge of Brisbane City Celebrants

Wedding Tips – If you’re newly engaged here’s some things you need to know

Wedding Vows – You don’t need to memorise your vows, yes really! Leave the memorising of wedding vows to the movies!

We suggest asking your Celebrant to print up each of your vows, and have them beautifully presented on vow cards, ready to pass to you during your ceremony

Benefits:

One less thing to worry about having to remember to bring along on the day
Your Celebrant can stand to the side out of camera shot while your photographer captures the memorable moments as you read your vows to each other.

Image: Twig and Fawn Photography

I’m petrified at just the thought of saying my own vows? Well the good news is you don’t have to write/ share your own vows if you don’t want to. There is 1 simple sentence that is mandatory to say (e.g. I ask everyone here to witness that I full name take you full name to be my wedded wife/husband)

If the thought of sharing your heartfelt promises, in front of everyone you know is giving you a pang of nerves and anxiety every time you think about it, consider sharing your beautiful words to each other via letter earlier in the day while you are getting ready (your photographer/ videographer will love capturing this moment)

Or if you’re the type that prefers to keep things simple, you could stick with just the simple mandatory wording.

Wedding Time – There was once a time that every wedding took place at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon.

Then couples began to realise that this didn’t always work for them, their guests, and what they envisioned for their day.

Not everyone wants to go from the blissful high of becoming husband and wife, to soon being separated from their nearest and dearest to head off for photos.

So couples are increasingly adopting what is known as the ‘First Look’ idea, where they meet before the wedding and the photographer captures the grooms reaction seeing his bride for the first time, followed by their bridal photo shoot.

This usually involves in a slightly later ceremony time – view our tips on sunset ceremonies, and one of the main benefits to both the couple and the guests is get they get to go from the ceremony, straight in to the celebrations – together!

Sunset Wedding Photos by Leah Cruikshank Photography

Sunset Wedding Photo by Leah Cruikshank Photography

We also find couples with young children, often opt for mid-morning ceremonies followed by a lunch time reception.

In summary, don’t be afraid to think outside of tradition and choose a ceremony time that works best for the kind of wedding you have planned.

Signing the marriage documents – Brides, your name doesn’t automatically change when you marry, and thus the marriage certificates must be signed in your maiden name.

Image by Jonas C Photography

Book your honeymoon in your maiden name – I know, this doesn’t feel as romantic as you imagined, but unless you have allowed plenty of time between your wedding and honeymoon, for your marriage to be registered, for your official marriage certificate to be issued, and then for your new passport to be issued, it’s a much safer bet to book your flights in your maiden name.

Airlines won’t allow you on a flight if the name on your passport is different to that on your ticket.

While we’re speaking of honeymoons, some resorts offer newlyweds honeymoon upgrades or inclusions, they occasionally ask for evidence of your marriage to ensure you are a genuine honeymooner. We suggest taking a phone pic or photo copy of your marriage certificate along with you so you don’t miss out.

If you enjoyed hearing these newly engaged wedding ceremony tips and are looking for a Celebrant for your Brisbane wedding, Cara would love to hear from you. Contact Brisbane City Celebrants for more information and to confirm availability for your special day.