Newcastle Wedding Photography Fun with Nat & Mark

Nat and Mark were recently married in Newcastle and photographed by Jonathan and Natalie from our Newcastle studio. I put a few questions to the newly married couple to get a bit of an insight to their wedding day and the story behind the two of them – sounds like they like to PARTAY!

What’s the story behind the two of you, how and where did you meet?

We first met at King St Hotel through mutual friends in 2004. We became good friends straight away but it was a few years later before we got together as a couple.

Can you tell me about the proposal?

Mark and I were engaged in Central Park, New York City. Mark surprised me with a diamond and ruby ring he’d designed and had made. He was very romantic and got down on one knee on Bow Bridge. It was only later that a tour guide told us that bridge is often referred to as ‘Proposal Bridge’ as it is one of the most scenic and romantic spots in the park! Well done Mark!

He also timed it perfectly as I had a hard-to-get reservation at Per Se restaurant for dinner that night. He had phoned ahead and told them about the engagement. When we arrived, the staff came and lined the hallway into the main dining area and said ‘Congratualtions’. They printed our names, the date and ‘engagement dinner’ on the menus too. As if our 12 course dinner wasn’t special enough!

Where was the wedding and why?

We wanted a city wedding. We live, work and play in the city so it was a natural choice for us. We had our ceremony at Newcastle Museum and our reception at Bacchus restaurant in Newcastle. We liked the fact they were both in the city and pretty close to one another, making it easy for guests. I wanted a restaurant setting for the reception and Bacchus has both amazing food and a beautiful room. Mark and I are definitely lovers of good food and good wines and Bacchus did not disappoint! Having a venue that didn’t require much decorating was a bonus.

The museum had a great room with exposed bricks we could decorate as we liked. I wanted somewhere we could seat our 100 guests for the ceremony and this was the perfect size. We organised champagne for everyone so we could have a toast at the end of our ceremony. We wanted the party to start straight away. The guests could easily walk to Honeysuckle bars overlooking Newcastle harbour to have a drink between the ceremony and reception.

Were you going for a certain theme or style?

I was never quite sure what to say when asked what our ‘theme’ was! All I could think was “um, wedding themed?” hahaha! No, just tried to keep it quite neutral I guess. Whites, black and pops of bling here and there.

Was there a journey in finding your dress?

After seeing a few dresses by Melanie Ford in the past, I knew right away that she had to make my dress. It was such a fun process to go through leading up to the wedding. It really made things exciting and was a great way for my mum and sister to be involved with the planning. They travelled from Tamworth for each fitting which was really nice.

I changed my dress after dessert into a white dress by Camilla & Marc. It was a great excuse for another dress and much easier to dance the night away in!

Brides Shoes by: Giuseppe Zanotti Design. They were swarovski crystal embellished heels, quite the fairytale wedding shoe.

Jewellery and Accessories by: Engagement ring and wedding bands designed and made by John Whitaker of Whitakers Jewellers on Darby Street, Cooks Hill. Mark’s watch, my earrings and diamond bracelet also from Whitakers.

The bridesmaids wore Mimco earrings.

Hair and Makeup by: Makeup by Jess Chapman Makeup Artist.

Jess was amazing! She was so calm, friendly and professional. She understood exactly the look I was after for myself and the bridal party, which was quite natural and not too heavy. She is one super talented lady, I couldn’t recommend her highly enough!
Hair was by The New Black Industries at Honeysuckle. The salon was perfect for my larger wedding party. We were able to have my sisters-in-law, Nannas and mums all come and get hair and makeup done at the same time. I really loved getting to spend extra time with family members in the morning.

Groomsmen Suits by: Grooms suit by Roberto Cavalli. We found Mark’s suit whilst on holiday in Italy a few months before the wedding. We knew he had to have something a little different as he wears suits daily for work and wanted his wedding suit to feel special.
The Groomsmen hired or bought their black suits from Gentlemen’s Outfitters in Hunter Street, Newcastle.

The Flowers by: Brooke Boughton from Bloom Rush did an incredible job with my flowers. It took my breath away when I saw my bouquets for the first time. They looked and smelled divine!

The Cake by: Richelle at Pandora’s Cake Box. I had 3 separate cakes, each with an element inspired by my dress. The flavours were ‘snickers mud cake’, ‘banana coconut mud cake’ and a ‘vanilla bean butter cake’.

Bomboniere: One of my bridesmaids, who is also a head chef from Brisbane, made the most delicious vanilla almond nougat! We put it in calico bags which I had stamped with a thank you message.

The Honeymoon: We went to Sydney to relax for a few days after the wedding and are going overseas in July this year. I’m glad we put the honeymoon off a little while as I don’t think I would have been organised enough to go on a trip straight away!

What the most important piece of advice you would like to share with brides to be? Pinterest! hahaha, seriously! If you don’t already use it to store images of things you love, start right now!

Do you have a favourite photo? The shot of us sticking our ring fingers out 🙂

How did you enjoy the photography part of the day? I knew the photos were an important part of the day, but it was hard to stay in the moment. I was very excited about getting to the reception and seeing all our friends and family. It was great to have the black stretch chrysler (from Arrive First Class) for transport during the shoot, we really had some fun moments with our bridal party! One of the highlights of the day!

Nat was so helpful (impressively assertive!) with directing people where they needed to be during the photos. It can be hard with a large bridal party to keep things moving along and to have the photography stay on time. I’m sure under her calm facade there was a little frustration at times!

If you had the chance to redo the whole thing again, would you change anything? No, but I really wish I could go and do it all again. It really was an incredibly fun day. Actually, I would probably have slightly less champagne!

Anything else you’d like to add? As we aren’t the type of people to leave a party early, we threw an ‘after party’ after our reception finished. The best man kindly hosted it at his house and we could dance away until the wee hours!