Byron Bay Wedding By Sophie Baker

Even though they grew up in the same area, it took moving 1600kms for Steph & Josh to finally meet up. Through out the planning Steph was drawn towards the a boho look, and created her own interpretation of it with rainbow coloured bridesmaids dresses, a ééòmagic’ bus and for herself, natural makeup with bold pink lips. Sophie Baker was on hand to capture all the magic of their day.

What was the inspiration for your wedding? I think I really knew what I wanted from the get go. I have been a flower girl twice, bridesmaid twice and Maid of Honour twiceééò So I’ve been to a few weddings and gotten the feel for it! I wanted a pretty fun, relaxed atmosphere, definitely not formal or church wedding. I love bright colours and the outdoors so I started looking ééò Pinterest was a godsend. I found the Gold Coast where we live is very much made up of Hotel weddings, golf courses or overpriced tiny restaurants. We went for a drive to Byron Bay and found the Dune Room which was a blank canvas for us to play on. Across the road from this was a little park. It wasn’t much at all, it had a volleyball court next to a grassed area and it was lined by trees and then the road and a sand dune to which the beach was on the other side. I fell in love with the little darling and could see it’s potential. I was excited!

Describe your wedding flowers? WILD!! I never thought I would ever love a bunch of flowers so much! I wanted lots of greenery and deep colours with some pops of bright orange as well. I also had a floral wreath which I also loved. My girls had a different colour themed bouquet each. Lots of comments about the flowers on the day and I was very happy with all of them! I still have my floral wreath which I will frame sooner or later!!

Favourite Detail of the day? Ohh I know everyone says it’s hard to pick just one, and I’m no different! Number one would be marrying that man that I love with all my heart, and having all my nearest and dearest there to witness it. Two would be that EVERYTHING, yes everything went exactly as I had hoped. If we are talking in detail though, my favourite things would be our spiral aisle. It worked so well for us. I got to hug everyone on the way out! Also riding around in the Magic Bus from Byron Bay was so much fun! Ooo ooo and we had our dog Charley (kelpie x border collie) walk with my sister and best man down the aisle holding the rings! We had a Minime Cake Topper as wellééò very cute and a great keepsake alternative to the top tier of your wedding cake!! Ok I’ll stop now!

Tell us about your proposal: Hmmm It’s not the normal type of proposal but looking back I wouldn’t have imagined it any other way! Josh had planned to take me for a picnic with our dog Charley to a lake and propose on Good Friday 2012. He played a practice match of football on the Thursday night and ended up in hospital with a dislocated, fractured and broken wrist. I came back to the hospital to stay with him until he was booked in for surgery that next afternoon. I was so stressed out, I’d never seen him in so much pain! Although it could have been what he knew he was going to have to do as well. So I showered him with his wrist in a plastic bag and wheeled his little hospital drip wheely trolley, then he got back into bed and he had a little more morphine! A while later he said he wanted to sit by the window so I rushed around getting blankets and pillows to make him comfortable, he said he wanted to give me something before I went ( I had to fly out for a friends wedding the next day). I got excited thinking it was Chocolate!!! It was Easter come on!! So here he is pulling out a ring box, in his backless hospital gown with his cute little bum poking through! And I hear him mumbling through the morphine something about ééòthis wasn’t the way I planned it but I couldn’t wait any longerééò (he was in enough pain!) and he was down on one knee asking me to marry him! You can imagine my disappointment about not having any chocolateééò but very quickly replaced by bright and shiny diamonds that I had waited 7 years to see. The running joke after this was that I got my bling and he had his, he had to have external fixtures up his arm for a few months made from titanium. And now he carries his ééòEngagement Scarsééò proudly!

Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I always pictured myself in a mermaid dress, but as soon as I tried on a sheath gown I knew it was for me. It still took me through about 30 gowns but after that I was sure! I wanted to be very comfortable but still with the sparkle that I love.

Any DIY/ Budget Elements? Yes!!! I hand stamped the names of our guests onto Jenga pieces to use as name places and also as our registry. We have some really great ones that people have written on there and I love that we will be able to play with them and laugh at them as we go! I also glittered jars for the flowers and over the 18 months collected different size and coloured vases, within my colour scheme, as well as half buying and half DIYing the tissue paper pom poms for the roof in the Dune Room. The day before the wedding I picked up flower bunches and did the table flowers ourselves. I also collected books in the colour scheme and that had titles associated with weddings or love, or something that I knew would make people laugh if they noticed it!

Favourite Detail of the day? Ohh I know everyone says it’s hard to pick just one, and I’m no different! Number one would be marrying that man that I love with all my heart, and having all my nearest and dearest there to witness it. Two would be that EVERYTHING, yes everything went exactly as I had hoped. If we are talking in detail though, my favourite things would be our spiral aisle. It worked so well for us. I got to hug everyone on the way out! Also riding around in the Magic Bus from Byron Bay was so much fun! Ooo ooo and we had our dog Charley (kelpie x
border collie) walk with my sister and best man down the aisle holding the rings! We had a Minime Cake Topper as wellééò very cute and a great keepsake alternative to the top tier of your wedding cake!! Ok I’ll stop now!!

What would I advise to a couple planning their wedding? Write down the things that are important to you. Focus on them when working out your budget. Oh yea, and your budget will double.. sorry, it’s a proven fact!! Also make sure you are prepared to have everything finished the day before, because there is no way anything will happen on the day unless you trust someone else to do it. I was up until 10pm with just my brother putting the final crazy touches on everything. I was calm the next day however because I knew I had done it how I wanted it, and it was ALL done! Control freak I know! But it’s that one day!!!!

Read reviews and look at people’s work!! And keep in touch with everyone as often as you can. We lost a deposit on a wedding photographer as she started not showing up to other couple’s weddings, and I would not have known about it if my celebrant didn’t call me! Luckily we got an even better photographer though!

Get your guy to organise just one or 2 things if he’s not very into wedding stuff! Cars and the music is usually a good start and will get him interested! Book a celebrant earlyééò Im talking a year or 2ééò the good ones go quickly, they make a huge difference to your ceremony. I found ours through the Videographer! That’s another thing! Use these wonderful people who are in the industry!! Photographers, Videographers, caterers, venues, Celebrants! They all work together and with each other at different stages and can give you some really useful information!