Katie and Stephen Bishop,
Married Saturday, 1 December 2007

We first met over eight years ago in secondary school and have been together ever since. During this time we have shared many special moments including Stephen’s marriage proposal to me in Paris on the morning of my 21st birthday. The day was perfect and involved exploring the delights of Paris, followed by a candlelit dinner and a magical show at the Moulin Rouge.

In the nine months leading up to our wedding we spent hours upon hours searching wedding magazines for inspiration. We decided on an Elegant, yet relaxed with our favourite colours and pearls. Once we had an idea of what we wanted we would search the internet to compare prices. The internet was a huge help as we were living in Maroochydore, Queensland and getting married in Lakes Entrance, Victoria.

Ebay was also a huge help, as this is where we bought the majority of our decorations including bali flags, chair covers, table runners, tulle, tea candles, fresh water pearls, white umbrellas and fairy lights. I even bought my brand new Maggie Sottero wedding dress off ebay! As we lived over 2,000kms away from our wedding venue all of our purchases were posted to my parent’s house on a regular basis.

In the week leading up to the wedding we along with our families transformed the Surf Life Saving Club function room from an empty space into a magnificent white wonderland filled with soft tulle and fairy lights and all of the magnificent floral arrangements for the reception were created by my auntie.

The night before the wedding we held a rehearsal on the beach, followed by dinner with our entire bridal party. It was a fantastic opportunity to finalise everything, settle the nerves and to enjoy such as special event.

I spent the night before the wedding at the Esplanade Resort Penthouse along with my three bridesmaids (best friend and my two sisters). In the morning the girls ran me a lovely bath with roses, chocolates and a cup of tea. I then had seventeen of my closest girlfriends, mum, mum’s best friends and my aunties around for a champagne breakfast before we ducked off to the hairdresser. Two of my close friends then did our make-up back at the penthouse before we got dressed and travelled down to the ceremony.

A simple civil ceremony was held amongst the sand dunes at the Main Beach Lakes Entrance in near perfect weather with a backdrop of the front lake and the blue sea. The aisle was lined with eight white bali flags streaming in the light breeze and rose petals scattered on the sand. I was so excited walking down the aisle with my Dad by my side to the song ‘At Last’ by Etta James. As soon as I saw Stephen I couldn’t keep my eyes off him for the entire ceremony, everything else was a blur.

Our reception was held at Surf Life Saving Lakes Entrance function rooms overlooking the beautiful Cunningham Arm and township of Lakes Entrance.

For our honeymoon we had 10 amazing nights at the Aquamarine Resort and Villa, Phuket, Thailand www.aquamarineresort.com.

Brides Dress: I wore a stunning white full princess Maggie Sottero gown with tulle skirt and lace up bodice encrusted with Swarovski crystals.
Bridesmaids Dresses: Gorgeous Seduce aqua knee length dresses featuring a diamante clasp and t-bar back.
Bridal Party: I had a maid of honour and my two sisters were my bridesmaid’s and Stephen had a best man and two groomsmen.
Brides Bouquet: I carried a bouquet of amazing pink oriental lilies and roses, surrounded by raffia palm.
Bridesmaids Flowers: Spray of pink oriental lilies
Brides Hair: I wore my hair down in romantic curls which were swept back at the top.
Attendants Gifts: I designed and hand made our attendants gifts which were lifesavers in a wrapper. The wording on the wrapper said ‘Love Savers, Stephen and Katie’s Wedding, 1st December 2007, Thank you for sharing our special day’. They were a huge hit on the night as they disappeared very quickly!
Decorations: The ceiling was lined with white tulle and soft fairy lights. The tables and chairs were covered with white linen. A silver table runner ran down the centre of each table with an aqua vase holding a single stem of oriental lilies sitting in the middle. This was then surrounded with tea light candles, then larger candles sitting on aqua plates with sand and scattered fresh water pearls. The napkins were wrapped with a piece of fuchsia coloured ribbon. A fuchsia pink day bed scattered with matching pillows was positioned in front of a window overlooking the stunning lake.
Cake: White chocolate mud cup cake tower with silver patty cups with white frosting and sugar flowers (Sweet Delites).