The QLD WEOA awards night

With Brisbane City Celebrants

We are so excited to share our experience of the amazing QLD WEOA awards night.

Jamie and I were so thrilled to be recognised as finalists for the QLD Celebrant award for excellence, especially considering the high standard and level of professionalism required to be recognised as one of WEOA’s elite wedding suppliers.

WEOA are incredibly passionate about recognising the elite of the wedding industry, the best of the best. More on WEOA, their criteria and how we became finalists in our previous blog post here.

So back to the awards night. The Marriott Hotel in Surfers Paradise was the venue for this event to take place. We booked a room in the hotel so we could ready and make the most of the night, and the Moet!

From the moment we arrived we were so impressed with this hotel, we received the warmest welcome and a glass of champagne and chocolates on check in which was the perfect way to commence the celebrations of the evening ahead.

Shortly after check in my hair and make up angels arrived. While I am familiar with the many amazing Brisbane hair and make up artists as I see their gorgeous work up close every weekend on my beautiful brides, I was at a loss of who from the Gold Coast I should book, until I remembered a recent ‘Real Wedding’ testimonial from one of Jamie’s brides Louise, absolutely raving about her hair and make up artist Closeup Hair and Make Up.

I was so excited that they were kind enough to agree to give up their Sunday afternoon to get me red carpet ready.

Mel created beautiful big curls in my hair which I adored, once she had finished she popped a hair net on to keep my hair out of my face while Amelda did my make up. Meanwhile, Jamie who had been getting ready, stepped out of the bathroom looking dashing in his black tie attire, if you ask me he was definitely channeling James Bond!

Looking like a nanna with the hair net still in place I spun around and said ‘da da, all finished what do you think?’ he immediately showed about 10 drastically different facial expressions in about 2 seconds flat, from confused to awkward and a vast array of other various expressions, then the 3 of us burst in to laughter and he figured the hair net wasn’t really staying on, which he was pretty relieved about, I think he was also pretty relieved he didn’t have to find a way of telling me I looked ridiculous without offending me or the hair dresser with his brutal honesty.

While Jamie began on the champagne, Amelda began on my make up.  She told me how she teaches make up artistry at TAFE which was evident in her level of professionalism. I really enjoyed chatting and getting to know Amelda as she airbrushed my face, painted my eye lids and applied a set of luscious lashes.

We quickly realised we had a lot in common, including a passion for animal welfare, an appreciation for Ricky Gervais humour and an obsession with our super cute Maltese X Silky Terrier pups!

Once the girls had worked their magic I added the most beautiful sparkling head piece that was very kindly gifted to me by Begitta who was a finalist for ‘Bridal Gown Couture Designer of the year’ however she was unable to attend so she gave me the huge honour of representing her beautiful brand for the evening.

I proceeded to receive so many compliments on this gorgeous head piece throughout the night.

Once we had finished getting ready we took a walk around the grounds before heading to the Moet bar for pre drinks.

We made our way down the red carpet where we paused for a photo at the media wall. Once the photographer finished taking his photo and moved the camera away from his face, Jamie and the photographer Aaron from Milque immediately recognised each other from a Mt Cooth-tha botanical gardens wedding that they worked together at just 2 weeks earlier.

 

Aaron is super friendly and all round nice guy and Jamie had really enjoyed working alongside him. Milque Photography were also a finalists and went on to win the award for photographer of the year, they are all such lovely people and we were so happy for them.

We proceeded to mingle at the pre-drinks where we met the founders of Candy Addictions. It’s always interesting hearing what motivated other businesses to come to fruition. We also met the lovely Sarah from Studio Cakes who was accompanied by an awesome support crew who we later ended up dancing much of the night away with! Sarah was also the cake sponsor for the event so we got to try her delicious cake which was amazing!

We made our way to our table to find we were seated with the lovely Pauline from Limoso Limousines, Jordanna Regan a couture designer and her sister, the lovely girls from Sugar and Spice and also the Owner of Silk Hair and Make up. It was amazing to see we actually had connections to all of them from previous weddings, shoots or other industry professionals.

The evening kicked off with a presentation from Jessica the founder of WEOA who shared her vision of how the system will evolve over the coming year.

Then before we knew it we were straight in to the awards, first off was the award for ‘Bridal Gown Couture Designer of the Year’ they read the shortlist and then the next thing we heard was “and the winner is…….. pause………. Begitta!” the whole room filled with applause and cheers and Jamie elbowed me to head up to the stage to accept the award on Begittas behalf.

I was handed the award plaque and directed to the lectern to say some words, I introduced myself as Ciara from Brisbane City Celebrants and explained that I was accepting the award on behalf of Begitta as regrettably she was unable to be here. Then I looked up expecting to make eye contact with all the friendly smiling faces but instead I was faced with the brightest of lights staring back at me, it was blinding and totally caught me off guard. Momentarily feeling like a deer in the headlights, I quickly wrapped up, congratulated Begitta and the room filled with applause for the very passionate and deserving winner while I swiftly made my way away from the limelight, award plaque in hand.

Several more awards were presented then a short recess took place while entrees were served, after which the Celebrant award was announced. We were so happy when Bill Scurry from the Sunshine Coast won for QLD and not just because it meant I didn’t have to make my way up to the stage again (Phew!). Bill is a very well respected Celebrant in his local area, as we are in ours so we believe the judges did a wonderful job.

After several more awards there was another recess before mains were served, a seriously awesome band called ‘Sex and Chocolate’ were warming up the dance floor so it was great having our hotel room at hand so I could quickly switch in to my dancing shoes to hit the dance floor!

When we returned we met Bill and had a great chat with him, he really is a lovely chap. The moment the awards concluded the band went off! It’s not often you see more people on the dance floor than in their seats but no one could help themselves, they really were that awesome!

We spent the rest of the evening, mingling, dancing, laughing and having so much fun!

We jumped ‘In the booth‘ for some photo booth fun, then before we knew it the night drew to a close, well they do say time flies when you’re having fun. It was such a fun night and we had a blast!

Big thanks to Jess from WEOA for all your hard work in putting an amazing night together, to the band ‘Sex and Chocolate‘ for the rocking night, and to all the lovely professional wedding vendors we had the pleasure of catching up with or meeting for the first time.

Images of Brisbane City Celebrants kindly provided by Maz Photography.

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