Beach Wedding by Quinn & Katie Photography

After being in contact via email for the past couple of years I was thrilled to finally meet Katie from Quinn & Katie Photography at the recent workshop that Kate Robinson held. And I'm just as thrilled to have them up on the blog again today with this lovely surprise beachside wedding of Janelle & Mark's. The guests turned up thinking they were there for an engagement party but no... a wedding it was. And a wedding that Janelle had organised from Italy where Mark was playing rugby. Looks like they pulled it off beautifully. Janelle shares more about their day with us...

We had such a neat and beautiful day, the key to that I feel was being well organized and keeping in mind that although you wish for your big day to be amazing and beautiful, the real point of it is marrying the love of your life and sharing it with whom you wish, when you wish and how you wish to - its yours and your husbands day after all. Although we were lucky to have some lovely trimmings, I kept the big picture in mind on the day itself.  That and my beautiful relaxed and fun bridesmaids (and the guys too), helped it to be all we had wished for.

Mark really caught me by surprise when he proposed, we had been together for 7 years so although we knew it was inevitable, I still thought it was a while away. It was just before Christmas and we were sitting getting some fresh air at Mount Maunganui beach, in the drizzle, sheltered under a Pohutukawa tree. Mark popped the ring under my nose and at first I thought he was joking, but he wasn't, and I eventually said yes. We kept it to ourselves for the rest of the day, just taking in the news and treasuring the special time.

The dress must have been meant to be, trying dresses on was a spur of the moment thing mum and I decided to do before a date for the wedding had even been set. In we walked for the appointment and there was this dress hanging up in the entrance - they had just got it in the night before. It was the dress I had imagined for years, as girls do. Tried it on and it was perfect I tried on many others just to be sure I wasn't making an impulse decision, but kept on going back to this one. Vanilla bridal were brilliant and ordered one in for me made to fit.  I truly love it and it's still hanging in the spare room at Mums as I'm too sad to put such a beautiful dress with such fond memories away!’

Photography | Quinn & Katie Photography, Venue | Trinity Wharf Tauranga,  Cake Artist | Kerry McKay of Sugar Town Cakes, Hair Stylist | Karl from Salon One, Wedding dress | Essense at Vanilla Bridal, Flower artist | The brides sister Angela