Jon proposed to me on 10.10.10, so we chose to also get married on 11.11.11 (no kids 12.12.12 i hope!) To follow the theme of our engagement party (We had Giant Foam J&N as decoration), we used the date and J&N Monogram throughout our entire wedding stationary & website (www.jonnat.com). To save costs, I designed the logo and stationary myself. The theme of wedding was ‘Sweet Love’, and we chose blood orange/nude pink & cream as the colour scheme. Both of us are from Sydney, but our family and friends are spread out along the East Coast of Australia or from overseas so we decided to have a ‘Destination Wedding’. We felt it would be nice for us to all have a ‘mini holiday’ and share a weekend together, rather than just one day. We worked hard the week before in Sydney, packing and planning, so all we had to do when we arrived in Kingscliff was to make ourselves beautiful and relax. The wedding planning was quite a breeze, we paid for the wedding ourselves so that prevented having "too many cooks". One of the hardest part was just taking a risk and researching/booking people through the internet. We did do a reconnaissance in February to meet with all of our suppliers, but to ensure we had the date we had to book them very early on before we met them in person. It turned out our instincts and website reviews were right, all of our suppliers were great. The day flowed really well. The only drama we seemed to have was the groom had sunstroke from the day before and a storm looming in the distance. But the weather held out and we were lucky to have our ceremony in sunshine. It was quite windy however, with my veil trying to steal the spotlight. We had to remove this halfway through the ceremony. The ceremony location was beautiful; guests faced a pond and the bridal party entered by crossing a bridge before walking down a beige carpet. The only downside was other resort guests were able to sit on their balcony and get a free show. The contrast of our colours and the beautiful luscious greenery in the garden made it really beautiful. As we were getting married at a resort, the dress for the Bridal Party was resort chic. The boys wore Charcoal Grey Saba Suits with white shirts and pocket squares. The Bridesmaids wore blood orange Carla Zampatti dresses with nude shoes and a gold cuff. I wore an ivory dress with a nude shoe & with Elizabeth Cole Earrings and a necklace i was given by Jonathan as a wedding gift. The Paige boys wore country road white and blue check shirts with cream pants. As well as white & blue Converse Chucks. Our flowers were Posy style bouquet made with peach cymbidium orchids, white lisianthus, white freesia, roses and finished with camellia leaves and stems wrapped in ivory satin ribbon. They were beautifiul. We wanted to make the reception all about the guests so we added many special touches to give it that extra warmth. We felt that rather than putting money into expensive decorations, that little quirky additions would make the wedding more memorable and enjoyable. We created a wedding website for info on the wedding location and wrote a blog before/after the weding, and have posted pics for all to see. Each guest was given a wedding booklet, which contained information on the night, a “Jon & Nat” crossword and a small description of each guest (how we knew them, what they were infamous for) . We also designed these ourselves to save money. We had a ‘Photo Booth’ set up in the corner. To save costs again we used a digital camera on a tripod and had guests pose in front of a large picture that said “you make me feel like dancing”. We also had a box of crazy sunglasses so they could pose. As we had both lost grandparents, we wanted to recognise them at our wedding. So we created a ‘family tree’ which had photographs of our parents & grandparents weddings, as well as photographs of us when we were younger . We also had our f

Your name and your husband's name

Natalie Francis & Jonathan Hawkins

Ceremony and reception venue

Peppers Resort & Spa, Kingscliff NSW

Number of guests

80

Theme of wedding

Sweet Love

Dress style

Lisa Ho, Ivory Draped Strapless Gown.

Dress code

Resort Chic

Hair style

High Elegant Bun, with an ivory Johanna Johnson 124cm veil set with a comb below the bun.

Flowers description

Posy style bouquet made with peach cymbidium orchids, white lisianthus, white freesia, roses and finished with camellia leaves and stems wrapped in ivory satin ribbon

The ceremony description

We had an intimate Garden Ceremony, guests looked over a pond. The wedding party crossed a bridge before walking down the aisle.

Decorations description

Each table had a Crystal candle holder as centrepiece, with tea lights & rose petals scattered below. We had a sweets buffet & family Tree table as well which added colour to the room. The Bridal table was lit upwith white decorative sails and uplights. We had pink shimmer lighting on the ceilings.

Cake description

Chocolate & White Chocolate Cup Cakes with Peach Butter Frosting. These were presented on a cupcake tower, with flowers like those in our boquet scattered around each tier.

Favours description

Each Guest Recieved a Wedding Compilation CD, with songs we played throughout the day. They also recieved a jar of mints, covered in fabric with the J&N Monogram. They could also take home a Wedding Handbook, which contained information on the night, a Jonathan & Natalie Crossword and a small description (how we knew them and what they were infamous for).

Cost

Approx $35 000