Real Life Wedding – Claire and Pat – 5th December 2020

Thank you for sharing Tyneale Hahn – Makeup Artist

Everything about this day was bright, colourful and dressed in smiles! Held in the Lockyer Valley – the farming heart of Queensland. This rural celebration was full of emotion!

Styling Theme: Pops of Colour / Wedding Festival

What the Bride said… Our Wedding was everything we had hoped for. From the very beginning, we wanted a fun, laidback, casual day and were hoping for a festival feel for our guests – we really wanted something that represented us and our relationship. I have such fond memories of attending all of my big cousins’ wedding as a kid, so including all of the little people was a must – I think it adds a fun, fresh feel having them running around and to have all of our loved ones around us was just so special.

We had a popcorn & ice cream machine, Kombi Keg Toowoomba serving drinks, a food truck – Rolls Pho Mi (Vietnamese), lawn games and lot’s of alternate seating including trestle tables and rugs to help give that ‘festival’ vibe. We were just so grateful that our loved ones were able to celebrate with us during these unpredictable times.

There were so many really special moments throughout our day. My brother passed away a couple of years ago, so that was quite emotional for me. My Maid of Honour, Ellie, gave me a gorgeous gift just before the ceremony began which was an opal ring – the birthstone of my brother- it was just so special and bought me to tears. We also had some other special mentions of those that are no longer with us.

I felt so lucky to have my dad walk me down the aisle, he was due to have heart surgery 2 days later, so that was very special- I’m the last one to get married (the youngest of 5 kids) on my side, so that made it quite an emotional day for my parents.

We wrote our own vows and had not read each other’s beforehand. This was a really sweet moment during our ceremony. After Pat read his vows, he did exclaim quite loudly, ‘Good luck following that!’ Pat was awfully surprised when a few guests did find him to say that my vows were in fact better than his… not that it was a competition of course!

I love being creative and making things, I really wanted to represent us and personalise our day.

Handmade touches:

· Pom poms that lined the aisle – these consumed many hours and I had a couple of pom-pom helpers!

· Ribbon to decorate the arch – I just cut and stitched some material together, I wanted to have a more bold look, than just regular ribbon.

· Decorated the bubble guns for the Flower Girls and Page Boys (or Bubble boys and girls)

· Vows – we wrote them on a piece of glass. These are now framed in our home and are so lovely to walk past.

· Confetti – I had dried all of the flowers that Pat had bought me since he proposed and used these for the ‘walk back down the aisle’ moment.

· Twirly sticks – for the kids to twirl. These provided a lot of fun throughout the afternoon.

· Upcycled some furniture to use as our dessert buffet and signing table from Lifeline. These are now wonderful additions in our home.

· Desserts – along with the cake, I made some extra desserts for our guests.

· My Party Dress – I loved sewing the ruffles and tinsel fringe together!

What was your favourite moment of the day?

There were so many favourite moments of the day… I really loved getting ready, it was so lovely to have everyone around and about and for our mother’s to get their makeup done with us. I really loved the moment just before walking down with my dad, it was just the two of us. The vows were a really special moment too!

I was so excited walking back down the aisle, I just wanted to celebrate with everyone – there were quite a few people that I hadn’t seen for a long time.

The Dance Floor! Heidi and Scott are absolutely amazing – they had the ‘all ages’ dance floor going the whole night!

What was the groom’s favourite moment of the day?

My favourite moment of the day was when my beautiful Bride said, ‘I do’!

You were surrounded by beautiful blooms and colour, tell me more?

My mum (and some helpers) did all of the floral arrangements including the bouquets and corsages. She has done a lot of floral design and loves anything colourful. Her style is normally m ore structured, but I had asked for a bright, colourful, whimsical feel – as if I had walked through a flower field and grabbed a bunch of flowers. She is just so talented. I was able to use some leftover flowers to decorate the cake with. I just wanted flowers and colour everywhere. We also had photo’s of both our parents on their wedding day on our dessert table. This was a really sweet addition.

How did you choose your vendors?

Pat and I are both ‘people’ people and love having a chat. Our main criteria was just our general feel. We were very conscious that we would need to be dealing with them on one of the most important days of our lives, so we made sure that this was a priority.

We were so lucky with all of our vendors. They were incredible to work with from the initial emails, even through until the follow up after the wedding.

How did COVID affect your day?

We were really fortunate. We got engaged earlier in the year and we were both set on having a wedding before the year was out. We had some friends and family that were interstate and international, but they all understood. All of the vendors had great COVID protection clauses, so we felt really confident when booking vendors. The whole way through, we were prepared that things may need to change.

Queensland restrictions had eased up on our date, so dancing was allowed! Lot’s of dancing happened!

A little note from me Hair/Makeup/Submission… This day was a true celebration of love, from the moment I arrived Claire’s smile sparkled! Hair and Makeup was a breeze, it was like spending time with an old friend on a really special day. Claire sent through a beautiful overview of this day, and no one said it better than her! So I’m just going to add a little note.

Part way through doing hair, Claire’s nephew walked in and handed her a freshly picked flower – it was a beautiful moment! She turned and passed me the bright purple bloom and said ‘Please put this in my hair’. We made it the centre feature and pinned some other blooms in around it. The smile on his little face was everything as he watched me pin in his sweet gesture. I of course asked for his approval on my placement which was given the thumbs up.

Claire and her loved ones trusted in my vision and left all the decisions to me – this is why it is so important to get to know you in the lead up to your day and see all the details. It really helps your Artists to deliver on what you want. I loved creating the ‘sunset’ eyes and bright lip look – it was perfect. I will always remember my time spent with Claire on her day and I hope to catch up with her soon! How amazing are the photos! – Tyneale