reallife weddings

Some guests travelled from Cairns and Sydney to attend their wedding, but most were Gold Coast locals. The weather was perfect, the venue was amazing, and they received a lot of positive feedback from their guests about the stunning venue which worked hard to ensure everyone was looked after on the day. Their photographer, Dani from Danielle Webster Photography was incredible. Yandell knew Dani prior to their wedding, so she and her bridal party felt comfortable in her presence, making for great wedding photos. At the end of the night after 4 hours of non-stop dancing to the best tunes from their band, Elevation Band, they finally retired to the guest house with a bottle of Moet from The Valley Estate team and enjoyed some of their wedding cake together. With COVID still circulating, they could only travel within Queensland, so they headed up north to Cairns and Port Douglas for a relaxing honeymoon.

“Married life is amazing” says Yandell, “and even though we didn’t get our original dream wedding, our wedding at The Valley Estate was a dream come true, and still the best day of our lives that we always talk about.”

Yandell and Pete’s wedding advice:

“Do your research for everything. Stay calm through the process, and if you really want something, put the endless hours of research in to make it happen. Use local suppliers and support local businesses as they are so friendly to work with compared to the big guys. It’s the best day of your life and you only do it once, so enjoy the journey.”

A shared passion for fashion and footwear was the spark that first united Olivia and Minh.

It was 2015, at the Railway Hotel in Melbourne, where Minh and his mate were happily queue hopping, that he first noticed Olivia. Stopping him dead in his tracks, he complimented Olivia’s jumper and through further chatting, managed to impress her with his sneaker count. Olivia had met her match - a guy with more sneakers than her!

With their combined love of fashion, top quality sneakers, good coffee, food and travel, they set up a life together in London. It was during the Covid lockdown, on Olivia’s birthday, that Minh proposed to her. They decided on a mixture of conventional and non-conventional ideas for their wedding. So instead of visiting traditional wedding shops for their wedding outfits, they chose outfits by their favourite designers in “wedding colours”. They settled on a traditional church ceremony; however, their reception was less conventional, opting for a daytime cocktail party along the banks of the Brisbane river. Planning their wedding from London came with some issues, especially in choosing a venue. However, with the help of Olivia’s mother and sisters, who inspected prospective venues on their behalf, they soon settled on Bougainvillea House at Howard Smith Wharves.