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Unlike many couples organising their wedding this year, Steph and Sim are doing it from The Other Side of the World (Brisbane, Australia, to be exact)
I know with the advent of modern technology and the fabulous Internet, this is no longer an impossible feat, and although they are by no means alone (we have 3 couples this year who are doing the same thing this year) I still think it must come with additional challenges! So I thought I would ask Steph to share some of her thoughts on the matter…

“We met in gorgeous Byron Bay on Easter weekend 2003 – Sim was in town for the Blues & Roots Festival and I was backpacking my way up the east coast with best friend Gemma. It was the usual story of meeting in a dodgy bar after many drinks – Sim thought I was Brazilian and chatted me up – only to find out to his disappointment that I was English!

I love Brisbane and our life here, but it just feels right to go home and be married with the people that I’ve missed for the last 6 years! I feel that it balances out the fact that we’ve lived on the other side of the world since 2006. Sim never tried to persuade me otherwise. We’re also incredibly lucky that Sim’s family and friends have fully supported this decision and haven’t hesitated in booking their round the world trip. Plus I LOVE English country weddings that last all day, and are full of beautiful flowers and lots of ladies in hats!

Given I’m an event organiser by profession, it’s crazy that we booked the venue without even doing a site visit! Mum and Dad were fantastic in researching lots of venues and even filmed our top 5 to help us decide. I’ve loved every minute of organising it and because everything is done by email, I can’t say I’ve found it too difficult. We have a great wedding planner at the venue who has been invaluable in pulling details together for us. It’s not always easy though – I’m missing out on not being able to go bridesmaid dress shopping with my sisters and Mum.

We have a long list of jobs to do between now and June but the main things are done. We confirmed the venue, photographer and band first as we thought the best ones would get booked up early! I bought the dress very soon after getting engaged as my Mum and sister were in Brisbane, and this gave us the chance to do it together. As for the Groom, not too many decisions have been made on what he’s wearing but I’m sure it’ll occur to him to decide soon!!

I have loved trawling through wedding blogs from around the world. They have been a great source of ideas and helped me in finding suppliers. My favourites are rock my wedding, magnolia rouge, eat drink chic and style me pretty. I think it’s very easy to get caught up in wedding fever and feel that every detail needs to be styled and considered. It’s good to remind yourself that the day is about us celebrating our love for each other in front of our closest friends and family…and it’s even more special because this is a joining of hemispheres….the first and probably only time in our lives that we both get to have our loved ones in one place, one country and in one time zone! That should be enough to make it the best day of our lives!!”

From our point of view, we’re super grateful the Internet helped Steph and Sim to find us (thank you, Rock My Wedding!), and after seeing the pictures, I’m sure you understand why!

Recently we’ve been asking our couples, where possible, if they would consider having their pre-wedding shoot done at home.

I passionately believe this will give the images much more context in 10, 20, 30 years time; when you remember doing a pre-wedding shoot, but you’ve long forgotten the true layout of that living room, or the trinkets you used to keep on your dresser. I know you’ll savour the images for the hundreds of memories the background details hold, and they will mean so much more to you than simply a pre-wedding shoot.

I won’t lie, it’s also a fab opportunity for me to have a good nosey in your home (I wanted to be an estate agent once upon a time, just so I could have a good ol’ ganders at other people’s homes) but it is also about getting a greater insight into you. You can learn so much about someone, about a couple, from their home; and this all informs our photography on the big day itself…

So when we walked into Sam and Joe’s house, we just knew.
Their wedding is going to be awesome.