Thoughts On Our First Wedding Anniversary.

I honestly can't believe it's already been a whole year since I walked down the aisle and married my best friend.

It feels like just yesterday that I was waking up on the Gold Coast in the air bnb I rented out for myself and a couple of friends (who doubled as my hair dresser and celebrant on the day - thank you ladies!) and feeling like an absolute pampered princess. We didn't need to be at the venue until 3pm, so it was a pretty relaxing morning. My mum, brother and photographer joined us around lunch time, and we managed to snap a few nice shots of me getting ready.

My best friend K did an amazing job of my hair, and I decided to do my own makeup which I was extremely happy with. I bought my dress secondhand and once again K came to my rescue and made any minor adjustments that needed to be made to it.

D was at the venue waiting for me at 3pm for our first look ceremony. This wasn't something I had originally wanted to do, however as our ceremony could only take place at 4.30pm, we weren't leaving ourselves much time to get photos taken before dinner unless we had some photos taken before the ceremony as well. Our wedding venue consultant was super helpful though and gave us a private spot where we could have a first look ceremony and capture that special moment when D and I first saw each other on our wedding day. I actually really liked this experience in the end. Not only was it nice to break up all the photos being taken (my mouth was so sore from smiling!) but it also eased my nerves before walking down the aisle.

As you can see, our photographer was just amazing. Her name is Belinda and we came across her at a wedding expo the year before when we won a free engagement photoshoot with her. The photos were so fantastic that we hired her as our wedding photographer on the spot, and we intend on making Belinda our ongoing family photographer. I wish I could share every photo in this post but unfortunately there are just too many. For this reason I have tried to keep the photos to just D and I, as I would hate to leave anyone out.

I could spend all day sharing photos of our ceremony. It truly was the most special moment of the day, and probably of our lives so far. My Dad walked me down the aisle, and my youngest brother, L, was our page boy. Our friend, S, was our celebrant. Neither of us wanted to have a bridal party as to be honest, we have too many close friends to choose from, and we also wanted the focus of the day to be on us. We each wrote our own vows and made everybody laugh, especially ourselves. It really was such a lovely ceremony. I will cherish this little moment in time forever.

I'm thinking I might have to save the rest of our wedding photos for our second wedding anniversary post. There are just far too many for me to share in one go.

Before I go though, I thought I would share some thoughts I have when looking back at our big day. Some thoughts that may help some of you when it comes time for your own big day, or perhaps thoughts that some of my fellow wives will be able to relate to.

1. If you are going to invest in anything, invest in a good photographer. I swear we could have gotten married anywhere and our photographer would have made our day look like a scene out of a fancy wedding movie. These photos bring me so much joy to look back on and were worth every penny.

2. Buy Secondhand. I purchased my wedding dress second hand from a girl on Facebook, and saved myself around $3000. While I was at her house I was also able to get wedding ideas off her, and in the process, ended up going with the same wedding venue that she had done. I was able to see her own wedding photos and really imagine myself in the dress. This was probably the best decision I made after choosing our photographer.

3. Don't go overboard. By this I mean, sometimes simple is better. Take our wedding theme for example. We went with a simple rustic, woodland theme, which was predominantly white with touches of wood, burlap and gold. This allowed for the few decorations we had, such as our vibrant flowers (thanks J!), cake and fairylights to really steal the show.

4. Hire friends where you can. We were super lucky and had some of our friends gift us their time and services, and others who offered us mates rates, but even those we paid in full were worth every penny as they truly cared about making our day special. They also knew us better than a stranger would which made things so much easier.

5. Plan your day to include ample time as a couple. Try to plan your big day so that you have plenty of moments to be alone together, or as alone as possible, to truly enjoy what your big day is really about.. the two of you! As we didn't have a bridal party, D and I were able to spend every meal together at our sweetheart table, which was a welcomed break from all of the photos and congratulations. We also spent a good 20 minutes alone together in-between getting our photos taken and the dinner commencing, which was really special. We were able to share a drink together and take our first selfie as husband and wife. I would definitely recommend making sure to have this time together.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you have any wedding day tips of your own, feel free to leave them in the comments!

Until next time...

 Felicity ♡