26 November 2016 | Margaret River Secret Garden and Flutes Restaurant

“My favourite moment? Walking down the aisle and seeing Sandi, the man I was about to marry, the feeling you get in that moment is truly indescribable!”

The Proposal

Our love story began in 2009, over 7 years ago now, when we met through a mutual friend, but it wasn’t until August 2015 whilst on holiday in New York that Sandi got down on one knee. It was during a morning walk through High Line Park with tourists everywhere, staring, that he proposed.

He took me by complete surprise, but as we had been to the USA three times prior and with New York being our favourite city it was the perfect proposal.

The Venue

After visiting the Margaret River Secret Garden as a child I always wanted to one day get married there. All my childhood dreams came true when we booked our ceremony there.

Once I had secured a date at my dream ceremony location I then searched for my reception venue and with the beautiful Flutes Restaurant being conveniently located on the same estate there was no need to look any further.

Wedding Theme

My favourite flowers are peonies and with my wedding day being in November, which is right in the middle of a very short peony season, I knew that I had to take advantage of that and use them as much as I possibly could.

My favourite colours are hot pink, light pink and white, which is why I chose to go for that combination for my bridal bouquet, as well as my colour pallet for the reception.

I loved the bridal table set up, which consisted of; black plates, gold cutlery, a garland of flowers covering the entire bridal table (it looked incredible), gold tea light candles, wood place cards and white linen napkins.

The Bridal Gown

I always knew the shape and style I wanted my dream wedding dress to look like, it had to be a tightly fitted corset with modern beading and lace work, and I wanted everything sucked in! I went to about 3-4 places prior to being recommended by a friend to try Paula and Jo.

My dress was couture that I designed together with Paula, I picked all my own materials and my dream dress came to life after 6 fittings. Paula was very friendly, professional and reasonably priced; she got my vision straight away and was even able to sketch up a design on the day.

Wedding Traditions

Sandi is Croatian and had a lot of family that had traveled from overseas to be with us on our wedding day.

During the reception some Croatian music was played, which turned the whole dancefloor into something along the lines of a conga line (a “kolo”), it was a very memorable and fun experience for his family and even though most of us had no idea what the words or the songs were it made his mum and dad very happy, which was important to us!

DIY Wedding Favours

I put together all of my wedding favours, which comprised of placing all the labels on the vanilla scented candles and the whiskey bottles, as well as filling the whiskey bottles. A time-consuming task but well worth it of course.

Advice to brides

If you work full-time and have a busy lifestyle, planning a wedding is and for me was incredibly stressful, bite the bullet and get a wedding planner or stylist, it relieved so much stress for me leading up to the day, which meant that I could relax knowing that everything was under control.

Regrets

I really regret not having a videographer, as the day just flew by, we just didn’t get it organised in time! However, we did set up multiple go pros around the place to be able to look back on the day but obviously, the quality is not as good.

Outstanding Vendor

Branka from Blonde and Blue was literally a lifesaver she basically coordinated my whole reception, from the vendors to the styling and setting up, all within a reasonable budget. She completely understood my style and vision and I was totally relaxed in the weeks leading up to my wedding knowing all that was taken care of.

Freedom my photographer was excellent, she took charge on the day and stuck to the schedule, she was very patient with Sandi as he hates having his photos taken towards the end he was getting a little bit grumpy with having hundreds of photos taken, so she did well!