Olivia and Nathan // Marina Shores

Whitsunday Wedding Suppliers

Ceremony Venue: Marina Shores
Reception Venue: Shamrock Hotel
Photographer: Tropix Photography
Celebrant: Peter Upton
Wedding Planner: at Hotel Group
Decorator: Teepee Events Whitsundays
Florist: Flower Hut
Hair: Hair Airlie Beach
Makeup: Selena Clancy Beauty and Makeup
Accommodation: Girls at Marina Shores Boys at Airlie Beach Hotel

Your Love Story

Nathan and I met at the beach whilst I was completing a placement for my university degree in Mackay. We hit it off and this lead to many more dates. I then moved back to Townsville to finish my university studies and Nathan and I started our long distant relationship. We spent many weekends in Airlie Beach or Bowen.

Once I graduated, I started working in Mackay and we moved in together. We have been on many adventures including building a house and welcoming our two gorgeous dogs into our family.

The Proposal

In March 2019, we had planned a weekend away in Airlie Beach to celebrate Nathan’s 30th birthday. On the first day in Airlie Beach, Nathan wanted to do the Honeyeater Lookout Trail hike (one that we had done when we first started dating) so off we went. At the top of the lookout, Nathan got down on one knee and proposed. It was absolutely perfect and beautiful. He had me fooled!

Honeymoon Heaven

We went on our honeymoon to New Zealand – South Island. We hired a car and drove around to places including Queenstown, Wanaka, Te Anau and Christchurch. Our honeymoon was fun and adventurous. Some of the activities we did included canyon swing, flying fox, rock climbing, hiking, glow worm cave tour and horse riding.

We had so much fun!

Hens and Bucks 

As our wedding was a surprise to most of our guests at our reception/engagement party, we did not have a bucks or hens night. My husband still plans to do one since our wedding however he is not sure what he will do yet.

Splurge Vs Save

I would say we tried not to splurge and we tried to be sensible with our money. We wanted to spend money on things we would have long term i.e. photography. To save money, I bought my wedding dress second hand and we had our own transport. We had always wanted a small and intimate wedding ceremony with a big wedding reception so this allowed us to save some money as well.

Whitsunday Wedding Venue

During the first year of our relationship we spent a lot of time together in the Whitsundays as we would meet half way. It was easy for us to pick Airlie Beach as our wedding destination as we love the town and community, and have so many fond memories of this place.

We chose Marina Shores as we loved the lawn, gardens and the view – we just knew this was the look we were going for. Marina Shores was also perfect as I was staying there as a guest so I able to see them setting up the ceremony and stay in my room with my family and maid of honour until the ceremony was ready to start.

Wedding Day Vision

At our wedding ceremony our colours were nudes, pinks and greens. We wanted our styling to be simple and elegant at our ceremony so we had a floral circular arbour as our statement.

At our surprise wedding reception/engagement party we couldn’t go overboard as we wanted to surprise everyone. So the styling was simple and beautiful. We had our reception outside in the terrace. We had fairy lights in the surrounding gardens and a backdrop used for photos decorated with greenery and fairy lights. Our centrepieces were hessian covered mason jars with babies breath.

I am definitely this kind of person who believes “less is more” and this really shined at our wedding.

Sit Down or Cocktail?

At our ceremony we had 23 guests including Nathan and myself. At our surprise wedding reception/engagement party we had approximately 70 guests.

As we were surprising our engagement party guests with a surprise wedding reception we kept it cocktail theme and had canapés throughout the night. We always wanted it to be fun and more informal therefore we were wanted it to be cocktail style to allow people to mingle throughout the night.

Remarkable Memories

We stayed in Airlie Beach two days prior to the wedding day. My maid of honour surprised me with a sunset sail on the Providence around the Pioneer Bay. This was truly beautiful and perfect for me to keep me busy the night before the wedding!

Supplier Shout Outs

Most of our suppliers were chosen through our wedding planner. The wedding planner supplied Nathan and I with options and we were able to make our decisions together about out suppliers. We were extremely happy with all our wedding suppliers. They all went above and beyond for our special day and we cannot thank them enough.