Beck & James

For me, the wedding that connects instantly are the ones where it is SO truly personal that you really couldn’t place any other couple in the picture. From the blush pink wedding gown, the statement spectacles, the epic dessert table, – it all showed off the personalities of Beck and James and it did so succinctly, beautifully and filled with whimsy and you don’t even need to scroll far to see how absolutely joy filled it made it, not just them, but every single person around them.

With  Cloud Catcher Studio behind the camera, it was an exciting new beginning for the couple who met while working together. “I had excitedly just started a new job with Boeing and it was in a different environment to what I was used to, ” explains Beck “I had worked at Airports before but I’d never worked alongside the Military so it was an exciting new challenge. On my first day, I was introduced to James and we became fast friends! Things developed pretty quickly after that and we were a couple about 8 weeks later.”

James popped the big question on a beachside weekend away. Beck kicks it all off with the story. “We had gone away for the weekend to Peregian Beach on the Sunshine Coast. My spidey senses were telling me that it was probably going to happen this weekend but I just didn’t know when or how. (James didn’t know when or how either, haha!). We had gone out to dinner and it just so happened there was a full moon that night and it was just this dazzling white disco ball hanging above the ocean and it was spectacular! We were on the beach and I was busy trying to take a picture of it and I turned around to see what James was doing and he was down on one knee with the ring box open and this perfect ring was just dazzling in the moonlight. It was just such a pretty moment.”

On her ears, as her something borrowed, Beck wore her mother’s diamond earrings, adding a penny from her mother’s coin collection as her “sixpence”, a blue hidden piece of jewellery and an old lace handkerchief.

Beck wore blush! Her beautiful ballgown was created by The GC Bridal Lounge. She tells “I had never really had any idea of my heart set on any particular style or dress so I went into the experience with a completely open mind. The only thing I ‘knew’ I didn’t want was a strapless dress. I had been to a couple of stores before I visited the GC Bridal Lounge on the Gold Coast. I was at my second appointment there and I had decided that I wanted to combine three dresses together and was going to have a dress made. I was standing there when I spotted a blush pink strapless ball gown on a mannequin. I turned to Kate and casually asked when that gorgeous pink gown came in and Kate replied: “YOU should try it on!” So, I immediately popped on the pink gown and I just never wanted to take it off. It was unlike any dress I had seen and it was just so so pretty! It has a subtle blush pink hue, patterned sequins all over the skirt, patterned lace on the bottom of the skirt, and it had a lace-up corset on the back of the dress.”

Beck and James chose a garden ceremony to tie the knot at the beautiful Roma Street Parklands. Beck explains “We wanted to be outside in the sunshine and I’ve always been quite partial to garden weddings. I just love walking around and being in a beautifully manicured garden so Roma Street Parkland was perfect for the ceremony.”

Shares Beck “My father accompanied me down the aisle and we sashayed down the aisle to Post Modern Jukebox’s New Orleans Jazz Style cover version of Sweet Child of Mine. I chose this song and band because Guns N Roses is James’s favourite band and Post Modern Jukebox is mine. Plus PMJ cover of this song is just awesome!”

Officiated by Alicia Zeller, the ceremony went way too fast for Beck, who tells “We each wrote our own short vows. When it was James turn to say his – I lost it again and the giggles became belly laughs because I quickly realised his vows were a bastardization of the lyrics to Wonderwall. (Wonderwall is one of James’s favourite songs so I was in no way surprised he did this. Hahaha!). And then boom! Just as soon as I arrived – the Celebrant announced it was time for the kiss and I exclaimed “ALREADY!!!!????” Cue laughter from everyone and we kissed and that was it! Married!”

Beck chose her two best friends as her bridesmaids, while James was accompanied by his stepson.

The bride to be had a very special way of choosing her wedding photographers. She shares “Cloudcatcher Studios are the bombdiggity! We had Alyce and her sister Alex on our day and at our follow up portrait shoot and they are so much fun! Never a dull moment with them and they are hilarious! Their enquiry page is the best – I knew they were the photographers for us when their inquiry page asks only 1 question: Tupac or Biggie Smalls?
I asked 1 question back: Metallica or Pearl Jam – our relationship was cemented over these important life-altering questions. Their awesome fun personalities aside – they were 100% professional, efficient, attentive and genuine in every way and you would be lucky to have them supporting and documenting you and your loved ones on your day!”

Kate Dawes Flower Design  styled the floral details of the day, Beck sharing “Everyone we hired had an important role to play on the day and we have made friends with nearly all of them. Everyone worked so hard to provide and pull off for us the perfect day we wanted and it all went to plan swimmingly. We have zero complaints from our suppliers – only love and praise! (And google and Facebook recommendations! hahaha)”

Tells Beck “We wouldn’t change anything about the day and we would do it every day for the rest of our lives if we could – the whole day was perfect for us and I can’t think or narrow down any detail that was our favourite. We loved it all.”

And then it was off to the pub to celebrate! Or rather, The Transcontinental Hotel. Beck tells “We chose the Transcontinental Hotel as our reception venue for a number of reasons. Initially, we wanted to inquire there because of its close proximity to our ceremony location but as soon as we got there and met Ashley we knew this was our venue. No question or request was too silly or small and Ash and Jordi made our wedding reception experience for us and our guests so special. The Trans is the oldest pub in Brisbane and the dedicated venue space has been restored beautifully, with exposed brick walls, polished concrete floors, massive oak bar and a typical Queenslander terraced balcony.  The food and the service was beyond exceptional. Our guests had only compliments to the chef and to the service staff. Our glasses were never empty! I seemed to have my own personal server who was on top of my top ups all night! It was the best!”

A stunning gate took centre stage at the reception, Beck tells “There was only 1 thing that we supplied to the floral stylist that was DIY. A couple of years ago we picked up an old wrought iron church window shaped church notice sign frame from a junk shop in Mullumbimby (this is where James grew up). My father is an electrical engineer and he is super clever with lighting. Growing up I always had crazy lighting systems in my bedroom with remote controls and things. (I digress). So when I saw this window frame I thought – ‘this would look amazing with strip backlighting installed on the back and then mounted to a wall somewhere in the house…’
And this idea quickly evolved into – ‘wouldn’t this look amazing mounted to the wall behind our reception table filled with and surrounded by flowers…?’ and voila – so it was done and it looked spectacular. Incredibly unique and the lighting coming through the frame with the flowers all over the wall – it just looked like something you’d imagine seeing in a fairy tale. Kate added some extra fairy lights and it was so ethereal.”

The newlyweds left it to Kate Dawes Flower Design to whip up stunning arrangements of bright pink flowers with plenty of greenery. The bride remembers “The flowers! My heroes! Apart from wanting everyone to have a good time – and from us being the stars of our day – I wanted Flowers to be the unsung hero! And I budgeted quite a bit for it. The flowers were the most expensive part of the day. I just wanted flowers everywhere – in my hair, in the bridesmaid’s hair, on the arbour, on all the tables, on the bar, and all over the wall behind the reception table. I just wanted to be wowed when I walked in and Kate Dawes and her flower fairies didn’t disappoint. The room looked and smelt divine and I just cried it was so so beautiful. The colour palette for all the florals were all shades of pink and burgundy. I love natives so proteas and gum leaves featured heavily with lots of roses, peppercorn berry, carnations, snapdragons, peonies and scabiosa. It was beautiful!”

Guests were gifted handcrafted wooden spoons, tied with tags which complemented the Lindqvist Ink crafted invitations. Beck explaining “Our invitations were a unique set by Danielle from Lindqvisk Ink. It was a set she had designed for her own engagement party but I fell in love with it when I saw it because she has drawn her 2 cats on the invitation –  she adapted the other cat to look like our second cat and we also wanted to include our dog who has recently passed away at the time and she was more than happy to oblige.”

Beck and James wanted more than just cake they wanted an entire table of desserts! So they enlisted Hansel & Gretel Cakes to help, telling “I had seen Pinterest and Instagram images of tables beautifully laid out with loads and loads of different desserts and we really like the idea for a number of reasons. Megan from Hansel & Gretel Cakes was a dream to work with – she got our vibe straight away and we had a lot of fun working out the dessert and cake details with her. We bonded over our love of cheese and we are tight friends to this day! Our table created this visually beautiful scene that just made you want to look, touch, feel and talk about it. You just wanted to try a piece of everything and it was so drool worthy! Everything was thoughtfully and carefully created and decorated and of course, it was delicious! It was so popular we had only a small box of leftovers! ”

The bride’s love of jazz influenced the first dance, choosing a Frank Sinatra tune. “We chose Frank Sinatra, “The Way You Look Tonight” because I just looooooove Jazz and swing music and I love this song. The only thing I’ve always wanted at my wedding growing up was a proper wedding dance that didn’t look like 2 penguins shuffling around. So even though James has zero dancing experience he happily agreed to get dancing lessons with me because he knew how much I really wanted to do that. We hired Rebecca from Orchard’s Dancing School to choreograph a really fun swing routine for us and it had dips, turns and lifts – she did an awesome job! We had so much fun with it. James was completely out of his comfort zone but he tried and practised really hard and I was so proud of him. We performed it perfectly on the day which was amazing because my dress was just all skirt and super heavy and it made the lifts that little bit harder – but we nailed it! If we had been holding a mic – we would have dropped it!”

A big congratulations to you both Beck & James! Thank you for sharing your magical day with us! Thank you also to Cloud Catcher Studio for today’s stunning imagery.