I am proud to be exhibiting at the showcase on January 14th and 15th 2017.
Come visit me at Maleny Manor.
Treat yourself and come to the showcase weekend, check out the myriad of choices in venues and all your wedding needs.
Pop into Maleny Manor and visit me while you’re there for a chat.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Congratulations to Karla and Matt. Theirs was a winning Maleny wedding.
This wedding was nominated as one of only five weddings shortlisted for “Wedding of the Year” by Junebug Weddings.
Most importantly, their day appeared as if out of a storybook. It was a fairytale come true at Maleny Retreat, which is one of Australia’s most breath taking wedding locations. Maleny Retreat offers you freedom. That is to say, you get to design your own wedding. You are free to create your own style on a blank canvas. For a wedding in Maleny area, it is delightful choice.
Maleny Retreat is a sumptuous canvas to which you can add your detailing and style.
Looking out over the Glass House Mountains, Karla and Matt’s wedding ceremony looked picture perfect. The vista takes in the serene Tibrogargan, and his family of mountain peeks. Guests arrived to drop their gear in luxury tent style accommodation. The party began before the wedding even started!
A sultry sky provided an awesome and dreamy backdrop for the photos taken by the awesome Bec of Ash and Stone Photography.
Take a peek at the storyboard of their ceremony:
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
We do not live by bread alone, and we cannot survive without salt. In Russia there is a wedding tradition….
But first a story.
I remember from childhood a story about three sisters, the daughters of a king. He asked of them, “How much do you love me?”
One replied, “Father I love you like all the diamonds in your crown.”
Another said, “Daddy, I love you as much as all the gold in your vault.”
The third thoughtfully and simply said, “Dad, I love you like salt”.
Unfortunately the king did not appreciate this sentiment, and banished his daughter from his kingdom.
Many years later, during his travels as an ageing man, he stumbled across another far away kingdom, and was welcomed by the royal family. Not recognising his long lost daughter at the head of the family, she served up a banquet with no salt. The food was tasteless and terrible, and he spat out the food saying it was inedible.
So she brought to the table a bowl of salt and asked if he wished to add this to the food. “Father, I still love you like salt. I meant that life is not only tasteless without you, I can not live without you.”
There is a Russian wedding tradition of bread and salt. And it is Alex and Scott who introduced me to this tradition.
So in love
So congratulations to Alex and Scott married with such joy at Maleny Manor.
Alex and Scott were a delight from day one. They are so in love, and out to have fun, yet are very comfortable with their respective heritage.
In recognition of Alex’s Russian background she chose to honour a tradition passed down the line of women in her family. And what women! Her Mother and Auntie came out from Germany and Russia to make it happen!
Bread and Salt
There is a Russian wedding tradition of Bread and Salt.
“Bread is the head of everything”. This Russian proverb explains the importance of bread in Russia for many centuries.
Bread is life and bread is hospitality.
Salt is a symbol of wealth and prosperity.
The night before the wedding day, Alex’s Mum, Marina and Aunt Ira baked a special bread with salt in the centre. At the completion of their wedding ceremony, Alex and Scott broke the bread, dipped it in salt and shared this gift of food with each other. It was a touching moment, a nod to family and a sweet (or should I say tasty) completion to a ceremony.
This tradition symbolises that they’ll never be without the necessities of life and they will always take care of each other. And I trust that in this case they always will.
This is what they said:
From the very first meeting we were sure that our ceremony was in good hands with Kari.
We felt an instant connection and understanding by her of who we are and what our relationship is all about. The writing of the ceremony was painless, easy and just wonderful, including many personal touches and a great flow. Communication was effortless and we had the most wonderful ceremony reflecting who we truly are. We received many compliments from our family and friends on our ceremony and it will be a treasured part of our magical wedding day.
Thank you Kari! You are all that we ever wished for and more!
Alexandra & Scott
Thank you to Talitha and James from Artography for the wonderful images.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_masonry_media_grid grid_id=”vc_gid:1714442880624-c2cd1b8c-75fe-0″ include=”37677,37678,37679,37680,37681,37682,37683″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
When McNamara married MacKinnon, there was bound to be somescotsman around somewhere!!! And what a lovely use of tartan. And what a choice of place! Congratulations Sandra and Jason, married at Gardeners Falls, Maleny. Unique, different, touching, romantic and down to earth, their DIY wedding was simply perfect.
When Sandra and Jason first met in Canada they recall talking about travelling Australia and the food they both missed. Jason proceeded to load up the juke box while Sandra picked most of the songs and introduced him to her love for disco. Not less than two days later Jason had to leave Canada!! Mere hours before his flight took off they were enjoying their first “date”. The conversation flowed easily and touched on so many subjects that they would have forgot to order food, if the waitress hadn’t kept reappearing to ask if they were ready to order. Jason’s friends were worried he was cutting it close for time to catch his flight. There was really no time for eating!
It was not long before they were together again, in Australia.
Sandra describes Jason as her calm in the storm. Jason describes Sandra as his down to earth rock. No wonder it threatened to storm on their wedding day. But come the right time, they stood on a rock mid stream, with not a drop of rain.
They relish each other’s company, laugh at each other’s jokes and make fun happen every day. These are qualities that will sustain a relationship. They are also great qualities for planning an extraordinary wedding.
They turned up to their wedding dressed as Scotsman in family tartan (complete with sporan I may add) and forest nymph. They wanted something quite unique and intimate for their ceremony, and yet grand in meaning. Choosing Gardeners Falls, a small out of the way place, with running creek and rainforest all around, they created a wonderland.
Sandra and Jason asked if they could be wed on the water. We took off our shoes and stepped onto a rock in the stream. Guests gathered on a larger rock close by. They chose a hand binding ceremony to seal their vows. In this way drawing on Celtic traditions from ancient times, bringing the ceremony into modern day with our own twist on the promises and bindings. Jason had prepared a strip of tartan for the bindings. For wedding rings they had special rings created, each a combination of an Australian saphire and two Canadian diamonds.
At the conclusion of the service, Jason draped a MacKinnon tartan sash over his new Mrs MacKinnon, and had photos taken in the middle of the running creek. He carried her across the water. Later that weekend they continued the fun by taking their own wedding photos, with just tripod and themselves.
Here is a glimpse of their DIY wedding day:
What they said:
Kari was an amazing celebrant. She was just what we were looking for, she listened to our suggestions, went with our ideas adding her own input when we knew what we wanted but weren’t sure how to do it.
Kari got a good feel for how we were as a couple and what we liked. She even offered us choices to choose her dress colour for the ceremony and was even willing to go barefoot.
Kari helped a lot making our ceremony just what we wanted and we had an amazing day. Sandra and Jason MacKinnon
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”40044″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]
Decorating your wedding day can be such fun. There are ideas for special themes, colours or designs.
Sometimes it is helpful to have a specialist help you, sometimes you just want to DIY the entire day. At a recent wedding at Kenilworth Homestead, Jess co-opted her female family and friends, and they did it all themselves. From bunting to cocktails, through to vintage teapots full of cottage garden flowers, and hand picked crockery from op-shops. Read about Jess inspiration.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”40045″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]
Here is a totally unique and environmentally friendly solution, not yet seen in any Bridal mag, from local cane, coconut frond and festival artist, Kris Martin.
His new wedding and event decoration business called Artisean was recently launched at a wedding on Stradbroke Island.
The business, based in Mapleton in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, uses natural materials such as bamboo, coconut palm leaf and vines top create fabulous wedding arches, aisles and arbours.
Kris Martin, artist and founder of this creative endeavour is excited to bring some of the magic of the festival and event work that he has been doing for over ten years, to the wedding industry.
Along with his partner Alex, and a team of artists, they have been recognised for their dedication to environmental arts through winning the Glossies award in 2012 (for ‘Ship of Fools’ Project, Floating Land, 2011) and 2011 (for ‘Kabi Canoes’ Project, Woodford, 2010).
Here’s a peek at some of the current designs being developed. But Kris will design something all new for you too, made to order. Check out Artisean.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”40047″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_single_image image=”40046″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]
Carly Laczko runs a gorgeous decorating and wedding planning business, CL Weddings & Events, creating beautiful weddings using simple ingredients that together make that ‘wow’ feeling when guests walk into a room.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”40051″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]
Wedding styling can be so variant, from sparkling prettiness to elegant dark shades or charcoals and rich red over to fun vibrant colours that pop with personality. The main aim of styling, Carly espouses, is to ensure it reflects the couple and your personalities together as a couple.
Cl Events’ style is so broad, there really isn’t a certain theme that they don’t like! And they specialise in creating a theme with the couples name on it, rather than a ‘modern vintage’ or ‘rustic’ tag. Sometimes the best styles are when they get to make a mix of themes to create unique look.
Carly says: “The décor on your day should be handled much like the way you dress, it should fit you.”
[/vc_column_text][dt_gallery_masonry bwb_columns=”desktop:3|h_tablet:3|v_tablet:3|phone:2″ image_border_radius=”0px” project_icon_border_width=”0px” include=”40057,40054,40051,40055,40056,40058,40053″][vc_column_text]
But if it’s DIY you’re into, then check out Jessica and Joel’s wedding decor.
[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”39677″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]
The girls, did it all. Mum, Aunties, Gran and the bridesmaids all chipped in making all the decor.
It came together over a fun evening the night before the wedding, when the bridal party went to town in a rustic old Barn.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]
~ with Sunshine Coast wedding celebrant Kari ~
Many a bride wishes to arrive at her wedding in a glamorous car. However when I was a bride, I arrived with my husband-to-be in a retro wooden canoe …… but that’s another story.
Cars have been the traditional wedding arrival vehicle for as long as the car has graced our lives. And many modern weddings hark back to that early era of cars with classic vintage wedding cars and lovingly restored retro beauties for their wedding day.
I have had the privilege of working with some absolute classic wedding cars. Today I’d like to share some Sunshine Coast classic cars with you, one totally vintage and two definitely retro.
First cab off the rank, actually is a cab!!! It’s a genuine London cab, residing in Australia, at Maleny. Classical with poise.
BLACK LONDON CAB
Steeped in history and full of stories this shiny black Taxi Cab was originally used by the London Metropolitan Police as an ‘undercover’ vehicle. Then he was used as a cab in London. If you’ve ever been to London, you’ll understand how iconic these cars are…. and how roomy they are in the back. I nearly sat on the floor when I jumped into one the first time! So there’s heaps of room for a large bride dress, train and bridesmaids.
But back to the tale of the car….the cab was next brought out to Australia by Lumley’s Insurance to be used as a chauffeur cab for their directors. They restored the cab, together with a new engine. It was next purchased at Shannon’s Auctions and driven to the hills of the Sunshine Coast hinterland.
“After many years of working in London, I now live in Maleny. My name is Dickens. Boris is my uniformed chauffeur. He provides a professional service to our clients. Let us roll out the red carpet for you!”
If you have chosen a classic hinterland wedding location, this car will enhance your wedding photos with absolute class and vintage English style. Your love story will add to Boris’ already colourful tale. See Dickens in the background here:
Next is for the Elvis within you. A topless car treat.
RED MUSTANG
As I promised in another story, here is the Red Mustang. Absolutely immaculate, shiny as new, upholstered in creamy white leather, this car is a classic wedding car with attitude. Matt, the young handsome chauffeur brings his pride and joy to put the rock’ n ‘roll into your wedding day. The fellas will adore a ride in this car, and the girls can’t wait for their turn. Shiny and red, with the top wound down, this classic car is a hoot. Please can I have a turn?
And for the laid back and casual beach wedding for the surfing spirit within you.
A CLASSIC KOMBI
If you’re into red car or classic car how can one go past the newly restored 60’s Kombi from Kombi Deluxe. Rescued from a car graveyard and restored over four years by a local family business with a passion for Volkswagons, this van has most of its original features and is maintained impeccably. You can hear it coming with its classic VW sound, and watch the guests smile. This classic and genuine Kombi car is beautifully finished in lotus white over salmon red. Hm-Hmmmmmm.
As a Sunshine Coast wedding celebrant I’m in love with retro weddings or vintage wedding style. My own car is a retro Pt Cruiser, so it is no wonder that I adore this Kombi. Many of us dream of a surf themed wedding, so here is the car to match. Hey I’ll even wed you on your surfboards if you wish, at your beach wedding!
On the other hand, up in the hills overlooking the coastal view, I have seen this car draw up at classic Hinterland wedding locations and cause the awaiting wedding party to go,”Awwwhhhhh” with delight. What a way to get the guests in a happy mood before the ceremony starts.
I can’t wait for a ride.
*********
