Talented ceramicist, graphic designer and curator of online indie art gallery Udessi, Kim simply glowed at her wedding to Greg in Brisbane. The theme for the day was Australian-Dutch vintage to incorporate both of their countries as a symbol of two heritages uniting as one. Kim and Greg were lucky to have most of their close family and friends visit for the wedding from the Netherlands, USA, Canada, UK, Chile, Darwin and Perth. Oh, and Kim also did an amazing job designing the Real Wedding Ideas Australia website – we think she’s pretty clever!

Couple: Kim and Greg
Date: 29th September, 2006
Location: New Farm and Brisbane CBD, Queensland
Photography: John Bowden Photography. John was so great throughout the day. He guided us through everything, took beautiful photos for us to remember the day by, and was so cool and calm, which really helped us to relax and just enjoy the day!

Gown: ‘Nydie’ from the brand Rembo Styling, purchased in the gorgeous HildeHeim boutique on Park Rd in Milton, Queensland (the boutique has since moved to Alderley, Queensland).
Shoes: I actually had a lot of trouble finding appropriate shoes as I am very tall so I didn’t want to wear high heels. I ended up finding a pair of cream leather Hush Puppies that were just perfect, and I had the heel reduced just a little more.
Suit: A stunning chocolate-coloured suit with a subtle pinstripe.
Wedding Party: We had three bridesmaids and three groomsmen. The bridesmaids wore gorgeous sage-coloured satin dresses from Myer, and we added handmade sashes. The groomsmen hired beautiful tan-coloured suits.
Accessories: My gorgeous necklace, earrings and bracelet were handmade by Tanya from Muckamuck Designs, using stunning freshwater pearls and sterling silver. Eternity symbols were incorporated into the bracelet. Tanya also made the beautiful necklaces for the bridesmaids.
Hair: Hare’s Hair. Margaret did a beautiful job with my thin hair – I just loved the loose curls which were pinned up beautifully and I didn’t have to worry about it for one single second all day!
Flowers: Wedding Stems. The Dutch-Australian theme was once again reflected in our choice of flowers. We wanted to incorporate tulips and blue gum to represent both our countries whilst incorporating a natural feel to the bouquets and reception table arrangements. Wedding Stems created a gorgeous natural stem bridal bouquet of white freesias, roses (dark cream – Sahara, cream – Emmanuelle, and ivory – Eskimo), combined with mini rose buds, white tulips and cream lisianthus, finished off with fine blue gum throughout the bouquet. For the bridesmaids we chose a natural stem bouquet of white freesias, roses (pale pink – Ester, mauve – Antique and Metalina – STUNNING combination!), mini champagne roses, pale pink tulips and cream lisianthus, finished with the beautiful silver foliage of the dusty miller throughout the bouquet, which matched the bridesmaids dresses perfectly. It broke my heart to leave the flowers behind as Greg and I took off on honeymoon, and all our family and relatives were off to explore Australia, however we made one of our bridesmaids and a few friends very happy with these stunning bouquets which lasted for quite some time after the wedding.
Ceremony: We were married at the beautiful Holy Spirit Catholic church in New Farm, Queensland. We chose Brisbane for our wedding as I moved here about ten years ago from the Netherlands, and I now call Australia home. We decided to have another party in the Netherlands for those that weren’t able to travel all that way, which was the perfect solution – especially as we got to celebrate twice!
Reception: The City Garden’s Café in the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens. We wanted something that would really convey the Australian feel and have our reception at a venue which had an inside and outside area. This was not easy to find and we had nearly given up and were about to settle on another venue when we heard of this gorgeous little café in the middle of the City Botanic Gardens. It was just perfect -  a beautiful heritage building, fantastic staff and delicious food. We chose the buffet-style menu so that people would be encouraged to mingle and move around – perfect! We ate inside in the comfort of the air conditioning with the beautiful gardens, which were lit at night, visible through the stunning large windows. After dinner we all came out onto the covered outside area where a dance floor was created and danced the night away! I cannot speak highly enough of the venue, staff and mostly the manager Bill who looked after us like we were royalty and who we will always remember and be thankful to for making our evening truly unforgettable. Sadly, I just noticed on their website that they closed in December 2009.
Music: The View from Madeleine’s Couch. Another key element to making our night unforgettable was this amazing OzBrazilian group. They absolutely made the party and everyone had such a great time, so much so that they ended up having to kick us out in the end! We all just LOVED having the live band!
Stationery: I’m a graphic designer so I was very excited to design our own wedding invitations and all other stationery, incorporating the Dutch and Australian flowers. We then had everything printed at Shotz, a high quality digital printer here in Brisbane.
Decoration: The colour scheme was sage green (to represent Australia) and orange (to represent the Netherlands). We also used different elements to refer back to our home countries, such as eucalyptus and tulips in the flower arrangements and invitation design, and small gifts from each country for the bonbonniere. Other decorations included handmade placecards and candleholders.
Cake: Delicious white chocolate mudcake from Classic Cakes (990 Logan Rd, Holland Park West QLD 4121, ph: (07) 3847 8236).
Budget Tip: My shoes and the bridesmaids dresses were both purchased in department stores on sale, rather than a bridal shop – instantly saving quite a bit! We were also able to share the flowers for the ceremony with the couple getting married after us which worked out perfectly.
Handmade Tip: We made most of our own table decorations by buying plain glass candleholders and wrapping them with gorgeous ribbons, paper and finishing them off with little silk flowers. It was fun to do and made the table setting really special. We also decorated little boxes in the same way which held the little bonbonniere gifts.
I wish: … that we had a video made on our wedding day. We filmed the ceremony on a tripod but just didn’t think at the time about getting someone to film at the reception… Now we’re kicking ourselves that we didn’t!
Something Special:  It was so very special to both of us to have all of our close family and friends together. They had literally come from all sides of the world for our wedding day; Amsterdam and other parts of the Netherlands, New York, Vancouver, Darwin , Chile , UK ,  just to mention a few places! This really was something we’ll never forget, to be able to sit down with everyone and have dinner together – wow! We then spent a few weeks in the Netherlands where we had another party to celebrate for relatives that couldn’t make it to the wedding, so we got to party all over again!

Tags:  Dutch, green and orange, QLD, sage green, Spring

Categories:  Australian, Brisbane, Church Weddings, City Weddings, Green, Orange, Restaurant Weddings, Romantic, Vintage