Modern Brisbane Warehouse Wedding – Polka Dot Wedding

Karla and Seana wanted their wedding day to reflect their own personal style. “We wanted the style of our wedding to reflect our day to day kinda style which is classic, simple and nothing too out there. We hope the styling we chose will be something we can look back on for years to come and love.” Beautiful white gowns, a warehouse wedding venue and classic floral arrangements in tones of vintage orange, bronze browns, beige pinks and creams – this is a wedding that mixes modern touches with elegant styling and my oh my, how we are here for it! Aisling Bourke Photography captured every beautiful detail of this story as it unfolded (including a sneaky stop for chocolate icecream!).

A classic tale of “Tinderella” sets the scene for how Karla and Seana first met, the couple laughed “Our celebrant described our meeting as a “Tinderella story” and we couldn’t describe it any better than that. As with most love stories these days, that little app helped us find each other. We were living on separate sides of town and if we hadn’t swiped right on each other, who knows where we’d be now. Even to this day, there is still some contention around who swiped first and sent the first message but regardless we are over the moon that something in the universe brought us together and allowed us to build our life together, now as WIVES!”

The proposal, it seems was foretold from the get-go, the duo always knowing that Seana would be the one to pop the question. “Thanks to Karla’s not so subtle hints or constant conversations that always included “when you finally propose…”. ” They remark “Seana had a few ideas but Covid managed to get it in the way of most of them. She decided on a romantic picnic at sunset at their favourite picnic spot in Southbank.

Two days before the big event, the picnic company cancelled due to expected bad weather. Plan B quickly formed which was the idea to re-create their first date night consisting of cocktails at Canvas, dinner at 1889 Enoteca and then a surprise destination, the Piano Bar at the Emporium as the perfect way to end the night, listening to tunes and enjoying a cocktail. When Karla needed to use the restroom, Seana snuck up to the hotel room she had booked for the special weekend and grabbed the essentials of a picnic blanket, champagne, flowers and most importantly, the bling!

She messaged Karla to meet her at their favourite picnic spot (sidenote: it was perfect picnic weather) and got down on one knee after telling her she knew from their first date that Karla was absolutely perfect and never knew that a love like this existed. Karla struggled to say yes through the happy tears and couldn’t believe the many screenshots sent through to Seana of her dream ring had paid off and Seana was on one knee presenting her with what is now her absolute favourite piece of jewellery.”

Karla and Seana opted out of bridesmaids, instead, Karla asked a couple of her dearest friends to support her “unofficially”. The team getting ready in matching robes from All Things Nice. “We went back and forth about whether we wanted to have an official wedding party for the day. In the end, we decided against it and we liked the symbolism of just the two of us standing together becoming wives in front of all of our family and friends. However, Karla decided she wanted to set a colour theme for her sisters and best friend who played a big part in getting her through all the stress and decisions involved in planning such a special day.”

Both Karla and Seana found their gowns at White Lily Couture, an experience they adored. “Having two brides and deciding that we wanted to keep our dresses a surprise to each other until the big day meant we needed to loop a select few others in to make sure our dresses were similar in style. We coincidentally both got our dresses from White Lily Couture and both chose them on the first visit we each made there. White Lily Couture gave us both the perfect bride-to-be experience which of course included champagne.

We both had the lovely Lisa from White Lily help us choose our dresses and as Seana had visited first, we asked for a note to be made to take the dress Seana had chosen off the rack so there was no chance that Karla could’ve chosen the same one. Both of us had envisioned very different dresses for our soon to be brides but on the day we both agreed that we had each chosen the perfect dress. Karla chose to wear a veil as it was something both of her sisters had worn for their weddings and she wanted to keep the tradition going. Jewellery and shoes weren’t kept a secret from each other and we both discussed what kind of hairstyle we were wanting to have. We think it all came together pretty nicely and we wouldn’t change a thing about any of it.”

The couple got ready for their day at Brookfield Retreat. “An important venue for us was the getting ready location. We knew it was important to us to get ready separately but be close enough that we could spend most of the day together. We found a big house in Brookfield on Airbnb (Brookfield Retreat) which was perfect. The host Lara was so responsive and was amazing to sort out the finer details leading up to the wedding. The property had a big, beautiful garden which was a big must for those pre-wedding photos and the greenery was all blooming and made the perfect backdrop to some of our favourite photographs. There were enough bedrooms for everyone close to us to stay and it wasn’t too far away from our next venue,..”

The couple chose The Warehouse for their wedding. The industrial-style venue located in Fortitude Valley, “The Warehouse was the first wedding venue to went to see in person and we both knew instantly that it was the perfect one for us. The huge windows at the front of the room let in all of the natural light and the exposed brick walls throughout the venue created a cosy and intimate atmosphere and there seemed to be endless areas for people to have a chat. The Warehouse could conveniently host both the ceremony and the reception meaning guests could settle in once they arrived. Its central location in the Valley meant accommodation and transport were easy for our guests and we were both just blown away by the staff on the day. They, and especially our wedding coordinator Bianca made our day run flawlessly from beginning to end. The atmosphere on the day was relaxed and full of love. Neither of us could fault a single thing about the venue and would recommend it to anyone that asked.

Choosing a venue that can host the ceremony and reception was a choice I’d recommend 100 times over. We wanted the least amount of time spent travelling between venues for us and our guests and it helped that the food and drink packages were exactly what we were after as well. We went to a tasting night a couple of months before the wedding and met with the coordinator Bianca to run through the timeline and finer details. It all helped take a lot of the stress out of planning such a big event.”

The couple knew they couldn’t do it all (in fact, had decided early on DIY was not for them) so they handed over the styling of the day to Main Event Weddings. “Our favourite details were either the arbour which we got married in front of or the “Better Together” neon sign and leather couch set up in our reception area. Main Events Wedding nailed our vision of the day and after going back and forth a few times about what kind of arbour we would like (who knew there were so many options!?), we settled on a classic round design with asymmetrical florals on the two sides. We like to think the asymmetry reflects us as a couple as Seana is a bit shorter and Karla is a bit taller.

When discussing our vision for the venue with Cassie at Main Events Wedding, we said we wanted a feature/photo area and she came through with the climbing florals up the exposed brick wall with the “Better Together” sign above the amazing brown leather couch. It was close to the dancefloor and was a central point for resting in between boogieing down throughout the night.”

“Something important to Karla was being able to include her nephews somehow in the day. We had 2 little flower boys walk down the aisle before we came out and although some people had warned us about including toddlers in the day (too unpredictable), it was something that meant a lot to us. Karla had spent multiple Saturday and Sunday afternoons with both of the boys practising their flower dropping techniques together and getting them as used to their job as possible.

Of course, no amount of practice could prepare them for having 80 people staring at them while the music played but on that day one of the flower boys (Hugo) did his job perfectly! The other was a lot shyer (Elliott) and needed his Mum there to carry him down but still made it down the aisle. Karla loved searching for their little bow ties and suspenders to match our colour scheme and having them be part of the day even if it didn’t quite go to plan.”

Both Karla and Seana walked down the aisle to “I’m With You” by Vance Joy with their fathers. They tell  “From the very beginning we knew that both of us would walk down the aisle but deciding who would go first was a different story. In the end, since Seana had proposed, it was Karla who walked down the aisle first with her father, Michael. Seana had her father, Noel and her stepfather, John walk her down the aisle. It was important to Seana that John was by her side as well as he has been such a big part of her life, and he has always there supporting her.

We were very quick to decide on “I’m With You” by Vance Joy as our song to walk down to. Vance Joy is one of our favourite musicians and we spent a lot of time listening to him when we first started dating and even saw him live in concert as one of our first dates. The lyrics and meaning behind “I’m With You” made it an easy choice for us since it held such a special place in our hearts.”

Karla and Seana wanted a particular feel for their wedding ceremony, and they chose Jac of Moore Celebrations to bring it to life. “The main things we wanted our ceremony to consist of were that we wanted it to be personalised and upbeat. As neither of us is religious, we didn’t bring any religious themes into our ceremony and thankfully we very quickly found a celebrant who suited us to a tee.

We can’t recommend our celebrant Jac Moore (Moore Celebrations) any more highly. Her brand of wedding ceremony is fun and personal aiming to get to know the couple by meeting up in person and by sending a questionnaire asking for all the juicy details of their relationship. Using our answers, she then put together our unique ceremony full of our favourite things about each other, our relationship history and inside jokes that our friends and family members seemed to enjoy. Jac even went so far as to coordinate her outfit to our wedding theme and we’re not sure how many celebrants there are out there that would go that extra mile!”

The pair have this advice for you. “We would say that although it can be good to talk to other married couples to get their opinions on things (we did!), at the end of the day what worked for someone else may not be the right choice for you. There can be a lot of pressure on you and your future husband/wife to do everything to make all of your family/friends happy but there is just no pleasing everyone.

You and your partner need to remember that it is YOUR day and to try and always bring it back to what makes you both happy and to try and block out the noise of everything else. The day truly passes in the blink of an eye so stressing yourselves out too much and not being able to enjoy the lead up to the day is just not worth it! Make the time to take a moment out after all of the official part of your is completed to be with the person you just married and try and be as present as possible in each moment throughout the day.”

The beautiful blooms on the day were also put together by the couple’s wedding stylist Main Event Weddings. “It took us a while to find flowers that suited what we envisioned for our big day. We knew the colours we wanted to include in our bouquets to match the overall theme for the day which consisted of rust, peach and cream tones. We also wanted both bouquets to be almost identical to each other (‘we want them to be sisters, not twins’ were our exact words for this).

When our bouquets arrived on the morning of our wedding, we couldn’t have been any happier with what Main Event Weddings had done with them. Our bouquets featured cream and peach coloured roses and a feature orchid on each, Karla had pink and Seana had white. They photographed beautifully and added something special to the 2 simple white dresses we had chosen.”

The newlyweds spent their photo session alone, with a treat of chocolate ice cream. They chose Aisling Bourke as their photographer, and both give her rave reviews. “From the very beginning, Ash truly went above and beyond to get to know us and help us through the stress of planning such a big day. We instantly felt at ease in her company after our initial meeting and we knew that she was exactly the photographer for us. After spending the whole day with her on our wedding day, it further cemented for us that we’d made the right choice and when we got our first preview of the pictures the morning after right after breakfast, we couldn’t wipe the smiles off our faces.

When Ash had our full album ready for viewing just a few short weeks later, we thought what better way to do the big reveal than by having Ash over to view them with us and some wine and cheese. Ash’s style of photography is capturing real intimate moments and making you forget she’s even there taking the picture. There’s nothing posed or forced while she is there and seeing the end product with her amazing editing skills is second to none! We’ve had so many compliments about how beautiful our photos have turned out and we have loved looking back and reminiscing on our day thanks to all of the little moments and details that Ash has captured so perfectly.

We can’t recommend Ash any more highly, she was amazing to deal with the whole way through planning and delivery of our photos and we can’t wait to be able to get her to photograph all of our future milestones!”

The wedding was as much about the planning for these two as it was about the day. “We luckily were always on pretty similar pages when it came to planning our wedding. We were a bit worried that with 2 brides, we might’ve had bridezillas emerging but we were glad to find that was not the case with one of us (Karla) going along with the flow a lot more and the other (Seana) being super organized and making short work of a huge to-do list.

As anyone who’s had their wedding knows, there are a LOT of decisions involved for just one day. When we started our planning, we both had a lot of ideas and part of the fun was slowly narrowing our options down and being able to book all the different vendors. We loved speaking to our family and friends and getting their opinions on different options for the day and then bringing all of that information together and making a decision that suited us. Seana had an excel spreadsheet going for our planning which kept track of the budget, guest list, vendors, and seating plan – basically, anything you can imagine – she had a sheet for it. Seeing all of our hard work come together and create the most amazing day made all the time we spent going back and forth about different options more than worthwhile.”

A standout vendor for Karla and Seana? The team at The Warehouse where they also held their reception. “Our wedding coordinator Bianca (from Katarzyna Group) was an absolute superstar. She was an excellent communicator the whole way through the planning process and when it came to the big day itself, she made us feel relaxed and we knew she was in control of ensuring our day ran as smoothly as possible. She kept us on schedule and anticipated our every need before we’d had time to ask.

Bianca and her assistant, Laura, even insisted on cleaning our filthy feet after we trekked through the Valley to get our photos post-ceremony (worth it though!). Bianca helped get the stain out of Karla’s dress after she spilt chocolate ice cream and had two Espresso Martinis waiting for us on arrival at our reception. When starting our wedding planning process, we couldn’t have imagined how necessary a coordinator would be to ensure the day ran smoothly but it does make a huge difference!”

The speeches, remain a special highlight for Seana and Karla. “We were so lucky in the timing of our wedding coinciding with the restrictions lifting in QLD and most of our guests being able to attend (with no face masks!). However, one special person that was unable to be with us to celebrate was Seana’s sister, Lauren. At the time, Lauren was working across the border in NSW and no amount of applications for a special circumstances border pass was enough to get her to QLD in time to be able to attend our wedding.

Our MC, Sarah, had – unbeknownst to us – messaged Lauren to ask her whether she could send the speech that she had written to Sarah so she could recite it on her behalf on the day. It was so lovely to have Lauren be included in the day in some way after all and I think there were a lot of tears shed after hearing kind words and knowing the love behind the words Sarah was reciting. We did end up live-streaming most of the day through a Facebook group for our international and interstate family and friends and are very thankful that technology made this possible.”

The newlyweds took to the dance floor to Kate McGill’s cover of “Wouldn’t it be Nice” by the Beach Boys with a little help from Orchard’s Dance Studio. “As neither of us is particularly co-ordinated, we decided that doing some dance lessons was the way to go for us. We found Orchard’s Dance Studio at Coopers Plains after a bit of research and upon meeting Karen, we knew we were in it for the long haul. Karen took on the challenge of choreographing a two bride dance like it was no challenge at all and when she saw how stiff we both were trying to learn a foxtrot routine, she took it in her stride. Karen upped the ante even more and suggested we should switch roles as leads halfway through the dance and although we were a little worried we couldn’t handle that, after a lot of practice, we had the steps memorised. Karen made us feel comfortable and made the lessons something to look forward to each week.

On the day, we definitely had our work cut out for us with the 2 entangled dresses and not being sure which way to face the routine but looking back it was something we can always have a laugh over and remember fondly. We wanted to have a song that was special to us whilst also being easy enough to dance to. The Beach Boys are our favourite Saturday morning wake up the music so being able to include them in our day in such a special way was another little touch that made it all the better.”

Also invited along for the day was Fiddle Fig Films, who captured this incredible film.

A big congratulations to you both Karla & Seana! Thank you for taking the time to share your stories with us. Thank you also to Aisling Bourke Photography for sharing today’s beautiful captures.