Noosa Style – Stunning Beach Weddings

Internationally renowned Noosa is listed as one of Australia’s top wedding locations. With rolling surf, secluded canals and crystal blue waterways, Noosa offers a perfect location for a wedding destination that won’t disappoint.

If a beach wedding is your style, then look no further than Noosa. Beachfront ceremonies and waterway hot spots provide stylish settings and stunning inspiration for wedding celebrations.

Noosa offers pristine beaches just perfect for a romantic beach ceremony. A multitude of reception options are available, all within walking distance of Noosa’s famous Laguna Bay. From intimate dinner party style celebrations to extravagant events, Noosa offers cosmopolitan dining experiences with relaxing water views.

Acclaimed restaurants line the footsteps of Noosa’s main street. Noosaville and the river area also offer an extensive array of alfresco venues. Endless culinary delights await couples wanting contemporary style receptions or chic, yet sophisticated beach style weddings.

Noosa offers something for everyone – casual elegance to gala black tie affairs, savvy and stylish or relaxed and laid back. Great food and modern dining is synonymous with Noosa. Whether it’s a cosmopolitan café, a beachfront restaurant or a more tranquil river eatery, the choices are endless.

Boasting some of Australia’s best architecture, Noosa’s accommodation choices are also exceptional. Luxury properties, river front residences and stylish apartments are all on offer. Whether you choose to elope or plan a gala event, Noosa makes it easy to stay for more than just one day. Your wedding celebration with family and friends has the opportunity to become an extraordinary event with extended stays and a weekend of festivities. From pristine beaches to National Parks, the area offers a diverse range of sightseeing, water sport or even relaxed shopping activities. Hastings Street in the heart of Noosa, is renowned for boutique style shopping and designer fashion.

Noosa attracts many couples from interstate and overseas to celebrate their wedding day. Daily flights arrive and depart from Maroochydore airport, which is just 35 minutes from Noosa. With an extensive representation of wedding professionals available, your wedding day can be perfectly planned and styled before you even arrive.

One thing is for certain, Noosa will provide you and your guests with the perfect setting for your special day. You won’t believe it until you experience it, and you will find it a very hard place to forget.

Breathtaking Maleny

Nestled in the hills of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, is magical Maleny. Boasting panoramic views of the Glass House Mountains, breathtaking landscapes and the stunning coastline of the Sunshine Coast, Maleny is the essence of tranquility with an international reputation as a romantic wedding destination.

Maleny is a wedding photographer’s dream and a bride and groom’s fairytale. The surrounding evergreen hills of Maleny provide a picture perfect backdrop for that special wedding day. Cascading waterfalls, rolling green pastures and magnificent mountain ranges are nestled within this truly beautiful landscape.

Award Winning Venues and Wedding Professionals

Situated in the gorgeous hinterland region of The Sunshine Coast and encapsulating The Blackall Range, Maleny is represented by award winning venues and a comprehensive selection of leading wedding professionals.

With many of the top venues offering both ceremonies and receptions on-site, together with boutique style accommodation, everything you need for your special day is provided for in the one location. Various ceremony choices are available in stone chapels, pavilions and garden gazebos. Reception options range from intimate dining in chic restaurants to larger scale affairs at award winning venues catering solely for wedding celebrations.

Accomodation and Things To Do

Maleny offers a wonderful opportunity for a family reunion and a weekend wedding day for you and your guests. The Hinterland is brimming with  accommodation venues of all types, including caravan parks, motels, hotels, luxury style bed and breakfasts, resorts, and even farm stays too!

The Hinterland is renowned for its arts and craft galleries, wineries and cheese producers. Cutting edge restaurants with delicious cuisine captivate the educated palette, and boutique style retail outlets offer an array of unique and interesting items to entice any visitor.

Interstate and international guests can explore the hinterland whilst experiencing the close proximity of The Sunshine Coast. Just 25 minutes to Caloundra and 55 minutes to Noosa, it provides the perfect opportunity to experience serene countryside and rolling surf all in the one day.

Elegant country escapes like Maleny really do offer couples the perfect romantic wedding with picturesque landscapes and a quaint village charm. Boutique style weddings to marquee extravaganzas, manicured garden ceremonies and formal pavilion celebrations, Maleny has it all.

Well Planned Affairs – Professional Wedding Co-ordinators

Your wedding day goes by in a flash, why not enjoy the journey and let a professional plan your day.

With a dazzling diamond glistening on your finger you begin to embark on the journey of planning a wedding. Creating a list of what needs to be done can be overwhelming, particularly if you have chosen a destination style wedding and you live away from that location. It can become exhausting, and can prove to be a difficult feat to accomplish especially if you are already committed to a fast paced and demanding job.

Professional wedding planners specialise in co-ordinating every aspect necessary to achieve the wedding of your dreams. Most wedding planners will offer varying scales of assistance from initial guidance and advice, to full-scale co-ordination of the entire event.

Wedding planners offer invaluable guidance in selecting the right professional, as they work very closely with service providers who are experts in their field. With hundreds of wedding professionals to choose from, a wedding planner can skilfully sort out the best from the rest.

If you can imagine the style of your wedding day but just can’t seem to find a way to pull it all together, a professional wedding planner can help you create your dream event. A wedding planner can suggest creative ideas and offer hints on designer styling to personalise your wedding day.

Wedding planners understand that each wedding is unique and can instinctively connect with clients and their individual style. Their job is to deliver the wedding day of your dreams, but it is ultimately your vision, and a wedding planner works closely with you to co-ordinate all the details.

Wedding planners become a big part of your life throughout the process of planning a wedding. With so many decisions to make it is often hard to know where to begin. It’s great to know you have an ally in your corner – a best friend, mediator, negotiator and director.

Choosing a wedding planner is a big decision though. They will become a major part of your wedding planning journey, so it is essential that you feel very comfortable with the person who will be in charge of co-ordinating your day. You will benefit enormously from their experience, and your day could well prove to be all the more special for having a professional on board.

Why choose a wedding planner?

• You have chosen a destination style wedding.
• You live overseas or away from the wedding location and don’t know where to begin in finding and choosing wedding suppliers.
• You work full-time and have a demanding job.
• You have a budget in mind but need assistance sticking to it.
• You need inspiration and guidance with styling.
• You need to pull a wedding together in a short time frame.
• You want to enjoy your engagement and would rather a professional take care of your plans.
• You want to ensure that someone is overseeing the events of the wedding day.
• You want a wedding day to run smoothly and for it to be free of stress.

Professional Photography

Expenses mount when planning a wedding but can you afford not to have a professional capture those memories that will be cherished for a lifetime?

“That’s a great picture, you must have a really good camera…” It’s something every professional photographer has heard many times. It’s as if it’s the camera that takes the picture rather than the photographer.

Indeed, research conducted by the Australian Institute of Professional Photography has revealed that a startling number of couples do not hire a  professional photographer at all! Presumably they rely on friends and family to document what is possibly the most important event of their lives, no doubt on the basis that ‘they have a really good camera…’.

Yet, when the food has all been eaten and the drinks have been consumed, all a couple has to remember their wedding by is their photography. Every couple who are planning their wedding firmly believe this will be the only wedding they will have in their lives so it does make sense to ensure they have the very best wedding photography they can afford.

What’s the difference?

So what really is the difference between a professional, a talented amateur and ‘Uncle Bob?”.

First is consistency. While a talented and knowledgeable amateur may produce very good – even an occasional great image, a professional has to produce many hundreds of very good images every time he or she goes to work. It’s what they’re trained and paid for and what their reputations are made of. Every professional has to deliver or they’re very soon out of business.

Second, photographers at the top of their game have a clear and defined style by which they can be recognised. It may be the way they interact with the bride and groom, it may be the post-production techniques they apply, or it may be the way they construct an image that demonstrates the uniqueness of their eye. This is the result of years of experience and while it doesn’t necessarily make them better than other wedding photographers, they do often get hired purely because of their individual style.

Third, all good professional photographers guarantee their work. The terms of their guarantees will vary so it’s a very good idea to ask your photographer just what their guarantee covers.

Copyright and the ‘digital negatives’

Copyright is misunderstood and can get quite complicated. So here’s all you really need to understand. In almost all cases a professional photographer will retain copyright of all their images.

Now this doesn’t mean they won’t sell you image files for you to print for yourself. Many photographers do. But it does mean that you can’t, for example, sell those images to a publication for gain, use them in promoting your own business or materially alter them in any way. As an example, this last point means that you can’t take a photographer’s image and photo-montage it with one of your own. But you won’t have any problems printing files
you have been given.

Beautiful Blooms

That gorgeous bridal gown is ready and waiting. The most amazing pair of stiletto heels, the vintage earrings and matching necklet, all boxed away in anticipation. Your wedding day perfectly planned and filled with essential details, but what would a wedding day be without beautiful flowers?

Your wedding day is the one-day of your life where you don’t need any excuses to surround yourself with flowers. Whether you prefer timeless elegance or unique floral designs, wedding flowers can be styled to enhance your special day and highlight that soft palette of colour that creates your fairytale wedding theme.

So where do you start?

How do you choose that perfect bouquet? What flowers are best suited to your gown? Before you choose your wedding flowers, it is important to confirm some key elements. Your dress, your bridal party’s colour, styling, plus the overall theme of your wedding day should be decided.

Classic chic, casual elegance, black tie extravaganza, it’s your celebration of love, and flowers will complete the most subtle or sensational details. Other than dress styles, colours and theme, the location and month you are getting married may also impact your choice of floral designs.

Like most brides you probably have an armful of inspirational magazines, filled with hundreds of ideas. It’s a great idea to start cataloguing these  styles and details. Work towards a theme and a feel for your wedding. Start looking at wedding bouquets and floral designs that might suit the look and feel you are wanting to achieve.

Wedding flowers like fashion is diverse and individual. So designs that appeal to you and your budget will assist your floral designer to understand your vision and connect with your style.

How to choose your floral designer

The first step is choosing your florist. As with every decision you have made for your wedding day you tend to rely on the advice of that particular professional who is an expert at what they do.

Choosing your floral designer shouldn’t be any different. A good florist will guide you through the cross roads of decisions, and assist you with making the important choices. Once your floral designs are chosen, the rest of your styling will seem to fall gracefully into place.

Choosing your florist is a big decision and it is often advisable to consult with at least two floral designers prior to confirming your preferred florist.

Ask the important questions:

1. Their background and experience with wedding floral designs.
2. Request to see portfolios of their work as this is a great opportunity to see what they have previously designed and created.
3. Enquire about the delivery of your wedding flowers. It is important to be assured that your wedding flowers are handled with tender loving care. Some florists will personally deliver your wedding flowers on the day. If they are unable to do that, make sure the wedding bouquets aren’t sitting in a couriers van for hours or delivered too early on the day.
4. The cheapest quote is not necessarily the best option, there is probably a valid reason why one quotation differs largely from another. Ask your florist why.
5. Take colour swatches, inspirational concepts and ideas and any images that reflect the look you would like to achieve. Ask your designer their advice on what best matches your styling and colour themes.

Hair and Make-up Tips

“A wedding is a really special time for the bridal party to look their best for the big day. Even though it can seem as just another expense, the importance of professional make up and hair is sometimes over looked. A lot of money is spent on things such as flowers, outfits and accessories, these things will come and go… but your photos (guaranteed to be one of the main expenses) will be what you have of your wedding day for years to come.. that isn’t worth compromising, leave it to a professional.”
Kim Bartlett from Kim Image Specialist
www.kimimagespecialist.com.au

“When sourcing your Makeup Artist for your wedding day, work with somebody who has had experience in editorial and photographic makeup. A professional Makeup Artist understands lighting, photography and uses professional product to suit. This will ensure flawless images and a paparazzi perfect look!”
Pru Edwards from Pru Edwards Make-up
www.pruedwards.com.au

“The most beautiful makeup look for your wedding day is one that allows you to radiate confidence that your own unique beauty has been captured and enhanced. Whether your proffered look is sultry, smoky eyes or soft and romantic, easy communication and a good makeup artist are the keys!”
Trish from Beautiful Brides
www.beautifulbrides.com.au

“When choosing a  Hairdresser make sure you are happy with the service provided for you  from your first enquiry right through  to the wedding day, have a  trial  the month leading up to the wedding, make sure your choice of style is the right for your dream wedding.”
Sandi from Rolling Scissors Mobile Hairdressing
www.rollingscissors.com.au

“Ensure your hair stylists take photos of your style from every angle on the day of your hair trial. This gives you a better idea of the look and can help you to choose between hair jewels, flowers, veil or a fascinator. These photographs will also be invaluable on the wedding day as a blueprint for your stylist.

For a stress-free wedding day you can’t go past enlisting the talents of a professional. Makeup artists are trained to perfect and enhance your most beautiful features, allowing you to look flawless and radiant on your special day.

A pre-wedding makeup trial is a must to ensure you are comfortable with your chosen makeup artist and to allow you to completely relax on the day.”
Karla and Kim from Allure Hair and Beauty Spa
www.allurehairandbeauty.com

“While a bride’s smile may be radiant, her true beauty is in the eyes. To make the most of your eyes, it’s your eyelashes that bring out their best. We apply individual false lashes to 90% of our Brides for their Wedding, as the lashes add a bit of intensity- that is still natural looking, but enhances the eyes for photography!”
Kylie from Kylie-Jane Make-Up Artistry
www.kyliejane.com

“Be cautious when considering a spray tan, I find a spray tan only looks great (done professionally) when it is 1-2 shades darker than your natural complexion. For some brides it may not appear dark enough when first applied… but wait 24hrs as it will oxidize on the skin and become darker!

Otherwise you will run the risk of looking to dark or having hands and feet looking like a cousin of an ‘oompha loompa’…yes orange skin ladies! Also your make up artist will find it difficult to match in your foundation as your complexion should look even from your décolletage’ to your face. Most photographers also would agree that spray tans can be a nightmare to fix in your photographs if not applied correctly. The camera doesn’t lie! So yes you will appear orange in your photos and if applied unevenly it will certainly look blotchy in your photos, consider these points before making your decision.”
Trish Falzon from TF Make up Artist
www.tfmakeup.com

“Plan ahead for the hairstyle you desire for your wedding day. Cut pictures out of the types of hairstyles you like and you think may suit you. Book your consultation and hair trial several weeks ahead of the wedding day. This allows you to take full advantage of the many options available to create your perfect hairstyle.”
Evalyn Parsons from Evalyn Parsons Hair
www.evalynparsons.com