N E J K A & C A M E R O N
F R O M T H E B R I D E
Love...
Just before we were celebrating 6 months, a week before Christmas, Cam suggested flying to Europe to visit my sick father. I wasn't planning to go home that year. We flew to Slovenia, my home country and surprised my family on Christmas Eve. It was the last time I saw my father and the only time Cam met him. He passed away 10 months later. For Cam to initiate the trip which definitely wasn't easy or fun was the biggest proof of his love and the biggest thing anyone has ever done for me. That's when I knew he would be the man I will marry one day.
Proposal...
Cam is a perfectionist so he was carrying the ring around for five months waiting for that perfect, magical day. 7th May 2011 was one of those days, a crispy sunny autumn day. We had a fun surf in the morning with dolphins cruising by and that's when he decided it would be the day. He took me up to Barrenjoey headland in Palm Beach which is one of our favourite spots. It was just perfect and I was over the moon when I saw the ring!
Planning...
I always dreamt of a beach wedding, which is quite funny considering I didn't grow up close to the beach but in the mountains! We both love the ocean and surfing is a big part of our lives so it was quite clear it would be a relaxed, fun beach style wedding. We just wanted people to have fun and to enjoy the day. I also wanted to combine both of our different cultural backgrounds and get our friends and families to mingle and to meet each other so cocktail style was what we both agreed on straight away.
The dress...
I wanted a flowy, simple dress that would go well with the beach setting. In general I'm not a girly girl and just couldn't see myself wearing a big heavy dress. I spotted this dress in a boutique in Manly which I fell in love with straight away but it was in a brown colour. I contacted Queensland designer Lisa Brown who agreed to make the dress for me in white. It was perfect. Beautiful silk, a bit different, just so me.
Theme...
I wanted a natural, rustic beach look with natural colours, a lot of wood with brown and white in the decoration.
Flowers...
I wanted natural, mostly white with a bit of green colour in my bouquets. I don't know too much about flowers so I contacted Del from Flowers By Delwyn and just trusted her completely. She gave me great advice about which flowers are good or no good for summer heat. She did an amazing job and I loved it.
The Wedding...
The ceremony was held at our favourite surfing beach called Celito Beach on NSW Mid North Coast. The walk to the beach is through a little rainforest, it's amazing.
One of our friends owns this amazing property close by called Magic Mountain. Well, the name says it all! Set on 350 acres of private bushland it directly overlooks the beaches from Smiths Lakes to Forster. We spent many weekend up here in the past so we knew straight away that it was the place we wanted our reception to be.
I realised very soon that the venue itself was so stunning that we didn't need many decorations. I played around with light - using a lot of candles, paper lanterns and solar lights. We collected any kind of jars for months and used them as hanging candleholders in trees. We used a lot of wood and created wooden signs with country names from which our guests were from and used hay for sitting. I also had a dessert and cheese table with self made cake holders made out of tree trunks! I used white/creamy David Austin roses as table decorations and again, more candles
We had a cocktail reception and the food was fantastic. Catered by the local café in Bluey's called 20 by 12, the team was extremely professional with 2 chefs cooking and preparing everything fresh. We had a big selection of canapés including mushroom and goats cheese bruschetta and parmesan crumbed risotto balls - really yummy! We also had little bowl meals with the choice of crusted chicken on roasted almond cous cous with salsa or Thai prawn noodles.
At the end of the night 15 bales of hay turned into 6.... The rest was destroyed in a so called hay fight! The marquee was covered in it and the hire company wasn't happy about it the next day.
Future Plans...
Keep surfing and enjoying little things in life that makes us happy. Kids are definitely on the list, too.
Suppliers...
Photography: Alex Marks Photography Gown: Lisa Brown Ceremony Venue: Celito Beach Reception Venue: Private residence Catering: 20 by 12 Flowers: Flowers By Delwyn Cake: Michel's Patisserie
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