Kristen & Callan - Pronovias Mariana Wedding Gown

The suave story of catching each others eyes all night long then Callan finally getting the courage to make his way over to Kristen with a drink. Who doesn’t love a man with that kind of confidence? This gorgeous couples first official date story had us in laughter at Kristen’s uneducated attempt at eating oysters. Married in the stunning Noosa, regardless if the sun wasn’t out it was still glowing in these striking photos.

#RCREALBRIDE Kristen wore the gorgeous ‘Mariana’ gown by Pronovias. This mermaid wedding dress in tulle with lace, guipure and gemstone embroidery is ideal for romantic brides. The bodice has a deep V neckline finished with gemstones, a wide tulle skirt with lace and a deep opening at the back decorated with gemstone embroidery.

Photographer:  The White Tree

THE FIRST SIGHT

The first time I met Cal was actually in a bar, it was my friends birthday on easter weekend of 2012. We were sort of catching one another’s eyes a number of times, then he bought me a drink. We parted ways to be with our friends and ran into each other again later on in the night. There was definitely an instant attraction, Cal is very easy on the eye! We exchanged numbers and the rest is history!

My birthday was not long after we started seeing one another, we had been hanging out a number of times and really enjoyed one another’s company but were just going with the flow of it all. Our first official date was Cal taking me out to a really lovely dinner for my birthday. He picked me up and took me out to a seafood restaurant. He got me to try oysters for the first time, which I was a bit unsure about… (I now devour them) however, at the time I completely embarrassed myself by thinking the lemon water to rinse your hands in was actually a topping for the oysters. Even to this day, i’ve not lived that one down. Safe to say I’ve developed myself into a seafood connoisseur now and I most certainly do not use the lemon water as a topping for my oysters!

THE PROPOSAL

The proposal is something I honestly will never forget. We were on a holiday in New Caledonia and we had stopped over in this stunning little place called Isle of Pines. Picture this – still blue water and pine trees around the perimeter for as far as you can see, we went for a walk to do a little bit of exploring and found a small bit of beach, nobody was around it was like our private little spot. I was walking towards the rocks, Cal was behind me and as I turned around he was drawing a big love heart in the sand. At this point I was still oblivious to what was going on, then all of sudden he got down on one knee and the butterflies within me just exploded. I couldn’t believe it, he was asking me to marry him. I’m an emotional person so I was unable to even give him an answer after he asked because I was crying!! Although I finally managed to say yes!

I knew Cal and I were going to be together forever and I knew at some point he would ask me to marry him but at what particular time I didn’t know. I didn’t see this coming and it was the most beautiful surprise, he had been planning and paying off the most stunning engagement ring for a year, the morning he proposed he didn’t even eat breakfast because he was so nervous, I just thought he may not have been feeling well. It all makes sense now! He completely outdid himself and it was a day just bursting of happiness and love!

THE VENUE

Cal and I packed up our car in mid 2016 and road-tripped up the east coast for three weeks on our way to relocate ourselves to the Sunshine Coast. This was a big move for us and a lifestyle change we thought we would embrace, Cal surfs a lot and I love the beach and we both love a good walk around the national park and up the many mountains of the coast so we found ourselves exploring Noosa a lot. It became our happy place and we wanted to share our happy place with friends and family, and couldn’t think of a more perfect place for us to get married. We looked at maybe 3 or 4 places within Noosa, but fell in love with Noosa Waterfront Restaurant. Cal and I are huge foodies, and the food there is honestly to die for, plus the staff are outstanding and so incredibly accommodating! It is the most stunning location on the river, and the picture perfect trees and interior absolutely sold us!

FAVOURITE MOMENT

It’s hard to choose a favourite part of the most amazing day however, walking up the aisle was a feeling I won’t ever forget. As much as all of our beautiful friends and family were on either sides of the aisle and my mum and dad were on each of my arms it was as if the whole room was empty and all I could see was Cal standing there waiting for me, looking incredibly handsome I must add. I just kept thinking honestly, I swear I’m the luckiest little human alive!! My heart was unbelievably full every minute of the day and it was amazing having all our closest friends and family up from Victoria in one room celebrating our love.

THE DRESS

The only place I went to was Raffaele Ciuca, it was the only place I went to because I fell in love with my wedding dress as soon as I tried it on and knew I didn’t need to go anywhere else. I probably tried on about 5 dresses at the Brunswick emporium, the dress I chose was maybe number 3. You want your dress to make you feel beautiful and to be everything you’ve imagined, this was it for me. My favourite part of the dress was that it was backless and it had the most beautiful and intricate details. It was stunningly made and fitted my body just perfectly.

FINDING THE ONE

Bridal shopping is an experience in itself, embrace it all, being able to try on a number of beautiful dresses and then finding the one that you want to walk up aisle in is wonderful! We celebrated finding the dress with champagne, the girls at RC were great, Tina from RC assisted me and she was lovely and made finding the right dress so much fun!

ADVICE FOR OTHER BRIDES

As funny as this sounds, the day and week prior to our wedding the Sunshine Coast decided to rain more than it had ever rained for the year! This was relatively stressful in the week leading up as our ceremony was supposed to be outside on Noosa main beach. The morning of the wedding, the rain was not letting up so we had to bite the bullet and make a change. Cal consulted with our celebrant Jacqui and Noosa Waterfront Restaurant and it was all organised and coordinated that we would have the ceremony inside with the reception following straight after, he was amazing with organising it all last minute and not letting me worry about it plus, Noosa Waterfront staff were incredible at changing this up and making it work for us.

I guess the moral of this is and my advice to future brides is don’t let things stress you out to much because it will ruin the planning fun and if you’re panicing on the actual wedding day it will mess with the good vibes that should be everywhere, just go with the flow. You’re marrying the love of your life, how can anything ruin that?

I was rather relaxed throughout the planning and lead up and I think that made a big difference. Embrace the day, take it all in, spend that quality time with your bridal party in the morning and take in every minute of your ceremony and reception, because it goes so very fast. Enjoy every single little second, I also recommend taking some time out at the reception with your husband. Stand back and look at all the people that are there for the both of you, the gratitude within you will just explode!

Tips on a happy relationship – Communication is a huge one and also I genuinely believe there is no substitute for shared quality time. When you make a point of being together, always treating each other with respect, listening and talking to one another and regularly reminding your partner how much they mean to you always enriches a relationship in indescribable ways. Appreciate each other and most importantly be a team, an unstoppable one!