THE WEDDING // Robbie & Begitta's Fairytale

​BEGITTA & ROBBIE
 
You are my sun, My moon and All of my stars.
 
Days like these are the days of dreams. Long kept in the heart from a young age. The moments you dream will take your breath away, standing at the top of the aisle and awaiting the moment when the music rolls in and you walk forward into a time portal that sucks you right into the next morning. What a whirlwind a day like that day is.
 
As the sun rose over the fields of Queenslands beautiful Warwick. My maid of honour entered my room and opened the massive floor to ceiling 20ft long curtains of the exquisite bridal suite at the Abbey of the Roses. Built in 1891 to 1914 this heritage listed building looks like it was imagined straight out of a fairy-tale. With over 100 years of history this became my dream wedding venue from the moment I laid eyes on it in a photo on Pinterest. And now, years later it became the dream of my prince as well and today, we would be celebrating the happiest day of our lives here.
 
The week Rob proposed to me we were visiting Melbourne for Miss Universe Australia. For our anniversary he had booked the weekend at one of my favourite hotels, The Windsor. The following morning Robbie pulled out the luxe gold ‘Hotel Windsor’ embossed stationery and we decided we should write each other love letters and post them home. Something about snail-mail that is so special when you receive it, so we both went into our own little corner and wrote a little something then sealed off the letters to drop to the concierge to post. That night we got engaged.
 
Days after arriving home from our holiday the postman dropped off the most beautiful mail I have ever received.
A luxe gold embossed ‘Hotel Windsor’ envelope entitled “My Dearest Begitta” had arrived.

“My Dearest Begitta,
I write you this letter on the evening before I ask you a question that will forever change our lives. I write this with my heart full of love and my mind full of dreams for us.
I write this as a promise that I will forever be giving you my love and forever be trying my hardest to keep you happy.
As I write this letter you have no idea what I have in store for you but I will soon be the happiest man alive.
My sweet love, every moment with you is a dream come true.
Every kiss is passionate enough to make my heart skip a beat.
Every cuddle gives enough love to power a rocket to the moon.
To my future wife and mother to our future children, you are the reason I wake up every day and the reason my life is so wonderful.
 
With all of my love,
Your biggest admirer, Rob “
 
This letter is one of the most beautiful things I have ever received and became the theme and feel of our wedding. With quotes used from it throughout our dream day, from the vellum overlay on our invitations to glitter script written over the gown I wore for our first dance. Creating a day with lots of personal touches made our wedding so incredibly intimate and special. It was the most beautiful day of our lives and our love story feels more and more like a fairy-tale each time I relive it in my mind. 

So here it is beautiful lovers, our wedding day with all the details! I am so excited to share them and even more excited to let you know that over the coming weeks and months I'll be visiting each of these amazing aspects in a dedicated blog. Sharing the nitty gritty of the decision making and the process! But for now, enjoy the dreamy images of what was the best day  of our lives!

​VENUE
Abbey of the Roses & St Marks Church
 – Warwick QLD
The feel and the vibe of both these incredible venues was Grand-Old-World perfection.

​PHOTOGRAPHY
Kaitlin Marie Photography
We chose the incredible Kaitlin Maree Photography to capture our day and was over the moon and so honoured to have the principle photographer from Just For Love Photography, Kylie, as our second shooter. The images truly speak for themselves. They are breathtaking.

​STYLING
Ivy & Bleu Events
Wildly Romantic, Fairy-tale, Modern, Whimsical & Chic were the words of the day!
Planning the feel and mood of our wedding was so much fun with the incredible talents of Mandy from Ivy and Bleu Events. Her aesthetic is so beautiful and fairy tale that it aligned perfectly with our romantic venue and whimsical feel. We went for a neutral palette of whites, creams, palest grey, clear acrylic and gold featuring a tiny touch of pink and lots and lots of greenery. 

Little Bliss Events Hire
We were very lucky to work with the amazing Little Bliss Events Hire who provided our lovely Tiffany chairs and gorgeous furniture for our cocktail hour styling. Including a pale blue vintage lounge that we used in our beautiful wedding portraits.

​PLANNING
Ivy & Bleu On The Day Co-ordination
Having the gorgeous Mandi and her amazing team at Ivy & Bleu handling the on-the-day coordination made the day run without a hitch, except of course us getting hitched! It was such a pleasure to work with Mandi on so many facets of our wedding and having her and her team there throughout the day was worth its weight in gold. Everything was thought of and catered to from printing speeches to making last minute button holes!

​BLOOMS
Ivy & Bleu Events
Ivy and Bleu also created our amazing wedding flowers and they were absolutely out of this world. The oversized and “wildly romantic” bridal bouquet was filled with lush blooms of white roses and beautiful white orchids as the focal point with a touch of palest pink. Finished with a hand-dyed silk ribbon that also tied in and featured in our invitations. The bridesmaids carried small posies in all white blossoms. 

​THE BRIDAL GOWNS & VEIL
Begitta – Bridal & Couture
& the Bride wore 5 Gowns….
Well actually, my one gown transformed into 5 different looks. Being a bridal designer I had no choice but to have each and every gown I had always dreamed of. My main gown was a beautiful lace gown featuring an exquisite heavily hand sewn appliqued bodice using a technique I learnt in Paris during my studies there. The neckline featured a subtle V-neck with a keyhole back, scalloped lace applique and exquisite bouffant sleeves. Featuring hidden corset, the bodice was slim cut to the thigh where a beautiful diagonal scalloped lace cascaded into sheer from the thigh down. The full ceremony gown featured a circle skirt with an overlay-skirted belt featuring an extravagant 7-foot train. With the belted skirt removed the skirt had a modest 2-foot train. The skirt then bustled into a skirt belt over my gown, revealing the beautiful sheer detail at the front. For our first dance the circle skirt was removed to reveal a tulle ball gown skirt featuring handwritten quotes in glitter script from a love letter Robbie wrote me the day we got engaged. Down to the final look of the gown without the skirts where I was free to dance the night away. The construction of the gown took over 150 hours with a considerable amount of hand sewing and so many intricate elements. It was truly my dream gown and one of my most favourite creations to date.
 
My veil was a 10-foot cathedral length veil embellished with peals around the crown. It was the perfect addition to an already exquisite gown with just the tiny bit of detailing around the top.

I am so excited to have recorded the creation of my glorious dream gown and will be sharing a HUGE post on it soon! So make sure you have signed up for our newsletter to be sure you don't miss it!
  

​SUITS
Black Jacket Suiting
The handsome groom was dressed head to toe by the amazing Black Jacket Suiting. Choosing Robbie’s suit was a pretty important element for both of us, as I got my dream gown, he deserved his dream tux! Our dapper groomsmen wore all black suits from Black Jacket Suiting. Every detail was accounted for and the service was absolute perfection. 

​BRIDESMAIDS GOWNS
Begitta – Bridal & Couture
I always wished to create a bridesmaid collection that not only emulated my distinct feminine design aesthetic but also the individual wearer. I worked one-on-one with each of my bridesmaids to custom design their dress. Using beautiful hand sewn lace applique and dreamy soft tulle net in the palest grey, all gowns featured full soft flowing skirts and bodices in different styles. 

​HAIR AND MAKEUP
Bella Brides
To say Bella Brides work is amazing is a complete understatement. They effortlessly transform me from a pumpkin into a princess. For makeup we went with a fresh bridal look with a subtle winged eye and a bronzy pink smokiness. For the ceremony I wore my hair up in a large bun, we then let my hair out for the reception for more of a glamorous, softer feel.   

​MUSIC
String Quartet & DJ
For our ceremony we had the beautiful notes of a string quartet “Four Strings” who performed Cannon D whilst I walked down the aisle. They also serenaded our guests during the Cocktail Hour whilst we got our photographs taken. It was such a delight to hear the music playing from afar during our portraits. For our reception we hired a DJ to play our favourite tunes. 

​FIRST DANCE
More Than Words by Amanda
We were incredibly lucky to have our Dance instructor Amanda from More Than Words take us on. We had two 6-hour lessons with this incredible woman and she turned us into a couple from Dancing with the Stars! Our first dance was a combination of the Waltz from the ballet Sleeping Beauty and then half way through the song my overskirt was undone by rob whilst I did a spin out of it to reveal my shimmering tulle ballgown underskirt featuring quotes from Robbie’s love letter to me written in script over the layers. The music then fizzled into Ed Sheerans “Thinking Out Loud”. 

DADDY DAUGHTER DANCE
A very precious moment was the daddy-daughter dance. My dad and I have always been very close and we have a song together about Winnie the Pooh - We danced and he sang the words to me whilst the entire crowd watched with eyes welling. 

​CAKE
Arthur Clives Bakehouse
Created by local bakery, Arthur Clives Bakehouse, the cake was a 5-tiered, salted caramel mud cake encased in an all white icing. Featuring beautiful added blooms beautiful styled from Ivy & Bleu.  It was the most delicious cake, I am soooo excited to reach our first wedding anniversary so I can have more from our saved top tier! 

​THE INVITATIONS
D.I.Y
Our invitations were created using handmade deckled edge linen paper from India. Each invitation featured a vellum paper overlay with a snippet of Robbie’s love letter then layered and tied with a hand dyed silk ribbon and finished with a small sprig of dollar eucalyptus. Our envelopes were also vellum paper and were sealed with a personalized ‘R&B’ monogram wax seal that was used throughout the styling and stationery.

​PERSONALIZED DETAILS
Very Flamingo created a custom-made acrylic shoe box with gold cut letters with MRS HALL and our wedding date. It was the most beautiful addition and I now have the perfect box to keep all my treasures in.
 
On the day of the wedding I gifted Robbie, his dad and his grandpa a personalized handkerchief with a photo of Robs late Grandmother. A little touch to let them know she was watching down on this special day.
 
On our first date, Robbie and I spent the whole night talking till the restaurant closed, we walked the streets afterwards, gazing up at and talking about the stars. We both have said since that we felt we had met in another life. As a gift to Robbie on our wedding day I gave him a star chart of that night. It was such a beautiful reminder of what felt as though it was “Written in the stars”. Both this phrase and the most beautiful love letter Robbie wrote me the day we go engaged (before I knew we were getting engaged!) played a role in our day.
 
Upon arrival each of our guests at the Abbey were given little gift bags with details about the location, a map, timeline of the day to come and snacks, sweets, water bottles, toothbrushes and slippers to make their stay more comfortable. Each gift bag was printed with our R&B Monogram that added a special personalized touch with the added bonus of the bags being a fun memento of the weekend. 

---

​VIDEOGRAPHY
Wrapped Up Media
Our memories in motion. We were so grateful to have the amazing Joel from Wrapped Up Media to capture our memories forever. Joel’s work is beyond beautiful. He has a way of making you feel as if he isn’t even there, capturing those heartfelt intimate moments without disturbing them. The quality of his films are Vogue material, we were so excited he was available to take our memory capturing to a new level!

Here is a little sneak peek of our amazing day...

---

Want to see more? Join our mailing list to be sure you don't miss a thing as we share the in's and out's of WEDDING PLANNING and our BIG DAY!

---

VENDORS & CREDITS 

PHOTOGRAPHY: Kaitlin Maree Photography
VIDEOGRAPHER: Wrapped Up Media
ON THE DAY CO-ORDINATION, STYLING & FLORALS: Ivy & Bleu Events
BRIDAL, BRIDESMAIDS & FLOWER GIRL GOWNS:  Begitta –Bridal & Couture
HAIR AND MAKEUP: Bella Brides
CHAIR & LOUNGE HIRE:  A Little Bliss Events
GROOM & GROOMSMEN SUITS: Black Jacket Suiting
CAKE: Arthur Clive Bakehouse
STRING QUARTET: Four Strings Quartet
CHURCH: St Marks Anglican Church
VENUE: Abbey of The Roses