A WIND SWEPT SUNSET BEACH SETTING – STYLED INSPIRATION SHOOT

A Darling Affair 31/08/2015 0 Comments

We loved this gorgeous styled shoot at Point Cartwright on The Sunshine Coast put together by some of the best. A collaboration by When Elephant Met Zebra shot on film (his passion), Simply Style Co, The Beauty Case, The Orange Blossom, Bohemian Brides and Erin Clare Couture.

It was a windswept wintery afternoon, waves were crashing on the rocks. As you walked around the headland there it was, a gorgeous and romantic table setting put together by Simply Style Co.

The dark blue table cloth, grey table runner and crisp white’s were combined with crystal glasses that shimmered in the afternoon light. All were layered effortlessly like beautiful soft ribbons that danced in the wind draping down onto the sandy setting below.

Corals, shells and strands of beads of different textures were scattered through out the table reminding you of the days when you would trawl sandy beaches as a kid and find treasures of different textures, shapes and sizes. A table setting like this makes you feel relaxed and will help the conversations flow.

Soft water colour details on invitations and material with tattered edges to finish them off, all give the feel of the watery surrounds.

If you want this gorgeous look on this beautiful model, be prepared for your hair to feel free in the wind. The Beauty Case had this in mind and chose to have a loose but styled look, elegant with loose curls but pinned to perfection. The soft touch of their makeup brush over a brides face will make her glow in the hours before sunset.

This gorgeous gown stocked by Bohemian Brides is soft and luxurious and is so dainty in the wind. Feminine and beautiful with a flowing hemline. Top it off with a long veil by Sunshine Coasts very own Erin Clare Couture and you have the perfect look that will make your lover swoon.

The bouquet by The Orange Blossom was crisp and fresh as if they were picked from a meadow nearby. Combining a love of land that meets the sea shore. Not tight and stiffly bunched together but lovingly put together.

If you want to have beach side photos on your wedding day, check the wind factor. Brian of When Elephant Met Zebra watches intently in the hours leading up to a shoot or wedding to get the best windswept look. He worked his magic as the day light hours ran out. Just think of you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated by the sea air before you meet with family and friends to party the night away in a celebration of love.

A special thanks goes to Dallys Models for such a pleasant young lady to work with xx

THE SUNSHINE COAST WEDDING FAIR HITS TOWN TOMORROW!!

A Darling Affair 28/08/2015 0 Comments

Get ready! Tomorrow is the big day! The Sunshine Coast Wedding Fair is one sleep away!

Close your eyes and dream of wedding inspiration and wedding suppliers that will make you grin from ear to ear. Then wake up, shower, dress in comfy clothes, grab your partner, bridal party, mum and Gran and head to The Chapel Woombye any time from 10am – 3pm.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW:

Bring cash to buy some delicious food and wedding accessories once you are inside the gates.

2. 11AM – Mini Workshop – by Trent and Jessie Photographers – How to make the most of your wedding day photography – tips and hints

3. 12:30 – FASHION PARADE – ONE TIME ONLY – Smack bang in the middle of the day. Grab some food and sit under Tipi LUXE‘s Tipi to watch the Fashion Parade put together by the head of our fashion team – Khesanh from The Beauty Case.

Featuring: Erin Clare Couture, Willow Hastings, Bohemian Brides, Wil Valor and Black Jacket Suiting.

4. 2PM – Mini Workshop – by Coco Bride – How to create Sensational Stationery – for all the creatives out there!

Before we see you tomorrow here’s a little wedding inspo to send you off to sleep – just in case you missed it in the lead up to the fair – put together by a handful of vendors who will be at the fair tomorrow. Track them down they are eager to meet you!

Photography: When Elephant Met Zebra

Hair & Make up: The Beauty Case

Dress: Erin Clare Couture

Suit: Wil Valor

Flowers: The Orange Blossom

Venue: The Dairy Retreat Eumundi

YOU’VE GOT TO BE IN IT TO WIN IT! – GIVEAWAY BONANZA!

A Darling Affair 27/08/2015 0 Comments

Here at A Darling Affair HQ we wish that we could trade places with our lovely guests who will be at the fair on Saturday and sign up our names for the massive prize pool that is on offer at The Sunshine Coast Wedding Fair!

Our awesome vendors have been so kind enough to donate prizes that are genuinely something to get excited about and are not the run of the mill wedding giveaway’s.

If you pre-purchase your tickets online you are automatically entered into the draw. This means you don’t have to stand in line and write your name on our guest list and can enjoy more time chatting to fabulous wedding suppliers, listening to live music and stuffing your faces with delicious food!

If you choose the other option and sign up on the day, our friendly Darling Helpers will be there to help you! No problems at all!

We love that our prize pool isn’t one major prize for one lucky bride or groom to be – each are individual prizes which means more chances to win! We like to share the love around.

Here is the official full giveaway list for you to get excited about!
The Beauty Case, Trent & Jessie Photographers, Heavenly Blooms and Willow Tree Creative Services are all teaming up for a Lovebirds Engagement Shoot for one lucky couple. Package includes: hair and makeup, photography, flowers and concept styling. Valued to $1000.

Simply Style Co – CONCEPT CREATION & ON THE DAY STYLING PACKAGE – valued up to $1,250.00!

The White Tree – a free 3 piece band, valued at $2200!!!!

This is a line up of Male Vocals/Guitar, Bass and Drums. Their standard inclusions apply…5 hr call, feat up to 4 x 45min sets, full PA system provided

Kombi Celebrations – 3 hour champagne kombi hire package, valued at $750

Bohemian Brides – a Wear 5 ways dress

Coco Bride – $300 bridal illustration

TravelShoot – a $200 Travelshoot Voucher

Chase The Sun Creative – up to 80 calligraphy placecards or a welcome chalkboard both valued at over $200

Erin Clare Couture – 1 of 2 Chapel length veils, one in a Silk white colour the other is Ivory in colour valued at $175 each

Komoberi Bride – a Sterling silver and gemstone headpiece – value $129.99

The Ballerina Bride – are offering a Free Make up Trial!

Sass & Niki’s Wedding Hair – KEVIN.MURPHY Gift package from their styling studio to the Value of $100

Frankie & Mavis – a wedding tea towel by The Smith Collective. The tea towel is hand drawn with every detail to remember your day like the location, date and pictures of the lovely couple themselves, then hand printed in a colour of your choice. Valued at $75.

The Tuck Shop – $50 voucher for little boat espresso

Chef Favours – one of our handmade Taste Crates worth $50. A handmade timber crate with 6 Chef Favours included so it’s all six of their handmade delicious flavours

The Spoken Shop – XO board

L&L Co. Events – menu tasting for 2 people

Big Love Weddings & Celebrations – Name Change Kit.

A downloadable kit full of vital information & forms. It saves a lot of the time and hassle of changing your surname with all the agencies you need to.

Butter cups Cupcakes – a dozen cupcakes.

*Full T&C’s will be shared with the winner of the prize via the wedding vendor who has donated it.

** Winners will be announced the week following the fair.

THE FASHION PARADE – THE MAIN EVENT

A Darling Affair 09/06/2015 0 Comments

The main event that draws a mammoth crowd is always the fashion parade at a wedding fair. Brides and grooms to be quickly jostle for position to see the gowns and suits float down the run way effortlessly on the models that wear them. There are jitters of excitement all round for the models, designers of the dresses and suits, backstage crew and the A Darling Affair team.

A Darling Affairs Gold Coast Fashion Parade was headlined by such a wonderful dream team. The Beauty Case and Interlaced Media rocked it again. Their hair and makeup work is flawless and the backstage crew are calm. Katz management models are getting their last pep talk and briefing. The designers dresses and suits are lined up and ready to go for quick change overs.

Talented fashion designers both local and interstate are behind the scenes. Bohemian Brides, Homebodii, Urbbana, Frankly my Dear and Suzanne Harward who travelled all the way from Melbourne to be at this event.

The anticipation builds and then the music starts.The first model steps out on to the runway…….

THE GOLD COAST WEDDING FESTIVAL – WRAP UP

A Darling Affair 08/06/2015 0 Comments

The Gold Coast Wedding Festival was just amazing if we do say so ourselves.

It was the perfect weather for the end of Autumn as the industrial venue – Rabbit & Cocoon – is a market style set up with both inside and outside areas. The venue was filled to the brim with the most talented and incredibly friendly wedding creatives on the Gold Coast and beyond. It was set to be a fun night you could feel the anticipation growing in the air.

The bands starting cranking just after 5pm when our guests had knocked off work and headed to the festival to have a great night of wedding planning fun. The brides and grooms to be were cheerfully interacting with our vendors, some who are new to the scene and others who have been perfecting their art for years.

The wedding festival had loads of inspiration, colour, laughs and action with a mammoth fashion parade that was maxed out around the red carpet and orchestrated by The Beauty Case team and Interlaced Media. Our guests had eager eyes checking out the finer details of the beautiful gowns and tailored suits not to mention the models from Katz Management. The Fashion parade featured local and interstate designers. We are so excited that we have vendors traveling from other parts of Australia, like Suzanne Harward Designs, to be a part of the action.

With bellies filled with delicious food and drinks, guests and vendors mingled together like they had been friends from way back. The night went off with out a hitch and we couldn’t have been happier for yet another A Darling Affair event to go down in history as an ‘affair to remember’.

Special thanks goes to our ever so supportive and hardworking sponsor Hello May. We love that they come to our events and get to meet all you beautiful guests and their readers up close and personal. Also a HUGE thanks to When Elephant Met Zebra who works themselves to the bone capturing the wonderful night on camera.

Thank you all for coming. We loved seeing your smiling faces!

We hope you found the perfect wedding supplier for your big day!

There will be more in depth details and images to come of who was at the event and what they do this week. So stay tuned xx

Be a beautiful ‘HomeBodii’

A Darling Affair 03/06/2015 0 Comments

When you think about that early morning wake up with butterflies in your stomach for your big day and being able to share it with your closest girlfriends it sounds so lovely. The part that you don’t think of is when the photographer comes in with their big camera. There you are in your big comfy PJ’s which may not look so camera perfect and your bridal party has all different styles and patterns.

Never fear that’s where Homebodii is designed to help put the beauty back into your pre-wedding prep photo’s.

Ingrid Bonnor – the founder and designer of Homebodii – found a niche in the market whilst working for companies such as Calvin Klein and Triumph. Ingrid put her modelling career and experience in the industry to good use and has designed a range of beautiful luxurious robes and pajama sets. Each robe is made from gorgeous fabric to make you look and feel beautiful – even before the hair and make up teams arrive. Beautiful laces, soft silk-satins and floaty chiffons.

These robes are a beautiful keepsake for you and your bridal party long after the day has ended. They’ll even customise your robes and embroider something special them for you.

The Camera is Rolling – Wedding Films

A Darling Affair 28/05/2015 0 Comments

I am a sucker for a good romantic film – my husband likes all the action type movies – so when i find a good wedding film supplier i don’t just watch one film. I usually sit in front of the computer and watch several with a snack, just like the movies.

This is what your wedding day film should be like. Not something that is saved on to a disk and watched once. It’s something that is to be watched over and over again to remind you of your commitment to your spouse on your wedding day and help you to re-commit your love to them each time you watch it.

Now these two companies and some of my favourite finds for the upcoming Gold Coast Wedding Festival this weekend. So much passion and drive oozing from their websites and social media pages that i can’t wait to see what they have in store for you on Fri-YAY night!

GOLDBEAR WEDDING FILMS

Mike and Rich are mates, they have been forever. They have been putting their hand to creative projects for as long as they can remember, everything from painting murals & making websites to playing in bands (Mike did a 4 week tour when he was 16! getting snuck in the back door of venues to play). When they found themselves filming weddings for friends something clicked, and a long way down the track here they are… letting the BEAR roam.

GOLDBEAR creates narrative based wedding films. Artfully shot, creatively driven, to reflect a moment in time and making it last forever.
Their style is described as ‘loose and relaxed’. Rich says, ‘Cheezy wedding vids are just bad, so we take a filmic approach, looking for moments of colour, tone and real personality’.

They view a wedding video more like a partnership between you and them! Which basically means they like the couple to be a part of developing the creative approach, deciding on tone and mood, cool ideas to include etc. They have even structured the packages on offer to help couples feel more in control of their film and create a unique end product that reflects them.

So let the bear roam into your life and the possibilities are endless!

UNIVERSAL YORK

The young and vibrant team behind Universal York love being a part of the local creative community. Sharing the love is very important to them, which is why they donate 5% of all of their profits to charities to support those in needs #humansforhumans

They love quality people, good times and creating rad and unique things. They value quality over quantity, both in people and products.

Universal York are all about ‘collaborating’. Two minds are way better than one, and you as a couple are very much involved in the creative process of your wedding film when working with them. The heart behind every one of Universal York’s projects is to create something unique and inspiring, and above all have a good time while doing it!

They say ‘Life should be lived either (hell yeah!) or not at all’

Show us your dance moves!

A Darling Affair 28/05/2015 0 Comments

What we love about The Gold Coast Wedding Festival is that at the venue Rabbit & Cocoon there is a fully equipped stage so we can all have a rocking good Friday night listening to some of the best wedding bands in the biz!

Vendors and guests can grab some food and watch the performers OR cut loose and let the music take control of their dancing feet. We also have a dance off competition that starts at 8:15pm. Yep that’s right battle on the dance floor or just shake your little behind to win a prize!

No matter what you decide to do, the main thing is you will be able to sample what it’s really like to have one of these bands perform at your wedding.

Get excited! Friday night is going to rock!

LARK MUSIC

Lark Music is a fun-loving band, with a big crush on entertaining and making your special occasion as perfect as you’d hoped for.

They are as excited playing what’s fresh as much as they are playing the classics and your requests. With a repertoire that features new mainstream faves, Triple J cool, soul, jazz, pop and classic rock – they’ll play the right songs to get you up the aisle and your guests busy on the dance floor.

VELVET MARTINI

Velvet Martini are an eclectic party band made up of some of the Gold Coast’s finest musicians. They are young, exciting, energetic and can create the right atmosphere for any Dance, Funk, Jazz, R’n’B, Acoustic, Lounge or Rock party.

They engage audiences with their class and perfect blend of vintage and current music. With an ever evolving repertoire and a healthy dose of spontaneity. Anything from a solo act to an 8 piece band is available on request.

HAMILTON BAND

Hamilton Band has only existed since 2014 and has already had major success in and around Brisbane’s wedding scene.

Lead singer Lai has an amazing vocal ability and energy that explodes from the stage, an energy that draws people to the dance floor. Combine that with discipline and hard work and you’ve got an A class band on your hands. They have been told by their clients that what sets them a part is ‘flawless vocals and joy in their performance’. They pride themselves on this as they are simply a ‘joyous’ group of people.

They love to tailor their entertainment to suit every event they perform at to ensure the guests have as much fun as possible. Lai likes to think that his afro is what makes Hamilton Band unique. You certainly won’t forget an afro like that.

The Belle of The Ball – Hair and Beauty

A Darling Affair 27/05/2015 0 Comments

We love women who are natural, fun loving, and free spirits. When you are getting married your true inner beauty needs to shine through not covered up with a thick layer of make up or a slicked back fierce hair style.

You want to remember your partners face as you walk down the aisle and see tears roll from their eyes when they see you at your very best. We have the perfect women who can help you to achieve your finest look in both hair and make up to give you that picture perfect glow.

THE BEAUTY CASE

Khesahn and her team at The Beauty Case, where do we start? We couldn’t sing enough praises for this hard working and professional team of women. I have serious writer’s block when it comes to Khesahn as she lives and breathes her work day in and day out. Her drive and passion for what she does is amazing and she only employ’s women with the same traits that deliver high quality work.

The Beauty Case team are women who you want to share your one special morning with getting ready for your big day. They are funny, kind and caring and know how to make you feel special. They know what pampering mean that’s for sure.

The Beauty Case’s work has been featured in countless bridal magazines and websites and their application of hair and beauty styles is flawless.

ALEESHA DARKE – A FASHIONABLE HAIR LIFE

Aleesha is a bubbly and lovely hair stylist that we have come to enjoy working closely with. Aleesha was behind the scenes on our last Brisbane Fashion Parade and worked her magic fingers to give our models beautiful natural hairstyles that suited the ladies faces. This is what you should be looking at when you hire a professional to do your wedding day hair, a style to compliment your face.

Aleesha’s signature style, is natural, soft and romantic. Her dedication to her art, her talent for bringing out the best in everyone and infectious personality are evident to all that know her. She currently lives on the Gold Coast traveling Overseas and Australia wide.

AMY LOUISE HAIR

Amy started chasing her dream at the age of 16 working in a small suburban salon, that was 13 years ago. Since then she has had experience that has sent her up and down the eastern Australian coastline to further her skills as a hair stylist.

Amy took the leap two years ago and started her own business fulfilling the dream she always had. Now two years later, it’s going strong and Amy couldn’t be happier!

When Amy is not beautifying her lovely clients in the salon you will find her looking after beautiful brides to be on their special day, travelling as far south as Byron and North to the Sunshine Coast.

MADE WITH LOVE – JEWELLERY DESIGNERS

A Darling Affair 26/05/2015 0 Comments

A Darling Affair’s humble beginnings came with a passion for handmade local arts and crafts. We are avid supporters of hard work and love for a person’s craft in the wedding industry. These two wedding vendors have these qualities overflowing from their very soul.

One of us in the ADA team has a sense of awe when it comes to jewellery making. Have you ever made a piece of jewellery from scratch? Have you visited a jeweller’s workshop? Well you are in for a treat on Friday night when you meet these adorable women at the Gold Coast Wedding Festival.

You will know that every piece that they have made has been touched by the creator’s hand when you put it on. These women craft custom pieces for your wedding day to make you feel extra special, to make you feel like a woman in all her glory.

FRANKLY MY DEAR

Australian duo Samantha Martin and Amber-Jade Scherrenberg’s Frankly My Dear Store has made their mark on the Australian jewellery scene with a love and friendship that has allowed the brand to flourish in the most intimate of ways.

Frankie was born in 2012, sparking not only an indescribable amount of joy in the founder of Frankly My Dear, Samantha Martin, but also, inspiration. Sammi found a synergy of creativity, style along with her love of working with her hands that has consistently transcended through each unique piece.

Amber-Jade Scherrenberg stood alongside Sammi on her wedding day and she continues to stand by her with an incredible talent for developing business’. A Bond University graduate, Amber has joined forces with her dear friend of eight years and former co-worker to continue to create quality and most importantly, memorable statement pieces.

Stemming from an insatiable desire to make every woman feel beautiful, each Frankly My Dear piece is hand made with integrity, love and a bohemian influence that are affordable, unique and above all a reflection of pure friendship.

MEEKZ CONTEMPORARY JEWELLERY

Jemica, from Meekz Contemporary Jewellery has always been passionate about art and design. She studied fine art and trained to become a qualified jeweller. Relocating to the country to be with family, Jemica found home and was able to transform an old horse stable into her studio and pursue her jewellery full time.

Meekz Contemporary Jewellery offers a range of handmade recycled jewellery that is ethically responsible and follow environmentally friendly practices. Inspired by fashion design, costume jewellery and urban geometric form, Jemica creates custom pieces that can be individually personalised to suit your needs.

Jemica also provides a unique experience by holding a one on one masterclass for couples. Why not begin your new journey together and create each other’s unique wedding band. Now that is so beautiful!