Bride Lauren started out her day with a family surf at Coolum on her new board, a present from her groom, Morgan. The two next met at their ceremony at The Rocks, Yandina, overlooking the serene Maroochy River. They then went on a little adventure with their photographers from When Elephant Met Zebra, and found some dreamy long grass nearby with a magical mountainous backdrop.
The rejoined their 100-odd guests for canapés and a family-style banquet, catered by First Class Functions back at The Rocks, and when everyone was merry and full, they all danced the night away.
“We made a “no gifts” pact, but Morgan surprised me with a brand new surfboard to go for a pre-wedding surf with my Dad and brothers, which was one of my favourite parts of the day.” 
“My family have a very quirky beach house in Coolum so we had the getting ready photos there and then the creative photographers from When Elephant Met Zebra did a great job scouting fields near the wedding venue.”
“It was a family affair from start to finish, this meant we had so many meaningful moments with our favourite people before we even got to the main event.”
“My sister calligraphied a 10-metre aisle runner with our favourite song lyrics and the names of our guests.”
“A thunderous storm blew in as I was preparing to walk down the aisle, causing a wind gust to knock over and smash the mirror seating plan and cattle in the background to stampede, we certainly made an entry but the rain miraculously stayed away and the storm gave way to the most amazing sunset by the riverside.”
“I wore Morgan’s Great Great Grandmother’s veil and had my Great Aunt’s travel charm bracelet around my bouquet.”
“We wanted a big family love-in; I quickly fell into the Pinterest and wedding blog rabbit hole and Morgan DIY’ed with the patience of a saint until he could take no more.”
The happy couple chose secluded exclusive property The Rocks for their destination wedding. Their guests from all corners of the globe experienced the true charm of a countryside Yandina wedding, only ten minutes from the beach.
“We planned our wedding together as a team, when we sat down to plan the wedding, I was surprised by the things that Morgan felt strongly about, like having a formal sit down reception.”
“My Bridesmaids are as far apart in personality and style as they are geographically (Hong Kong, New York and Brisbane), so they each picked their own dress. They came from J Crew, Sheike & Zimmerman.”
“I purchased my Caleche “Jenna” gown from Gumtree for $750. I just knew the dress would be lucky when I met the beautiful bride who owned it before me.”
Wedding Secrets
Biggest splurge: Food and drink.
Best money-saver: Gumtree is your friend, this is where I found my dream dress and was able to offload a lot of our decorations to future brides to be recycled.
Bridal gown: Caleche “Jenna” gown, purchased second-hand on Gumtree for $750.
Accessories + shoes: I had Romano’s Jeweller make a mate to match my Granny’s missing earring (which I lost in my wild youth), I pulled apart a bejewelled belt I bought on Gumtree for $50 to create three separate diamante broaches, one to go on the comb with Morgan’s great great grandmothers veil and 2 to create some custom wedding shoes from plain white ones purchased for $30.
Bridesmaids’ dresses: Each chose their own – J Crew, Sheike and Zimmerman.
Groom and Groomsmens’ suits and shoes: Michael Innes suits, Bow ties to Match leather bow ties, The Iconic shoes.
DIY: 80 bow ties for the bow tie bar, calligraphied aisle runner, a sign post showing the distances travelled by guests, wine bottle table numbers.
Honeymoon: Fiji
Number of guests: 104
Wedding budget: $27,000
“We loved the idea of shared family style meal which would be incomplete without great wine. We got our wines from Naked Wines who fund independent wine makers directly, I am a bit obsessed with them and it meant we had unique wines for our guests to try.
“Our table numbers were bottles of wine we labelled and asked our guests to sign, we have cellared these and will open them on each anniversary corresponding to the table number.”
“We were passionate about two things; 1. That our guests felt like they were taken care of as so many travelled so far to be part of the day and, 2. To create a wedding day that felt uniquely us, little touches of our personalities and passions from the place settings to our vows.”
Photographer: When Elephant Met Zebra | Venue: The Rocks, Yandina | Videographer: One Mustard Seed | Wedding planner: First Class Functions | Caterer: First Class Functions | Transport: Sisals Bus Lines | Makeup Artist: Ruby Jade Makeup | Hair Stylist: Alice Blue | Rentals: First Class Functions, Noosa Hay Bale Hire | Entertainment: Sunshine Coast DJ Hire, J&R Music (acoustic duo) | Photo booth: The Photo Booth Collective | Stationery: Jean & Joyce | Gift registry: Myer Gift Registry + Wishing Well | Celebrant: Pam Salway | Wedding night accommodation: Pandanus, Coolum
