Blog
Meet the Bride: Kimberley, the Whitsundays
The Busy Bride's Founder, Kimberley, shares destination wedding planning advice to help other couples achieve the wedding of their dreams. Hear about choosing vendors, managing your budget, planning the elusive honeymoon and so much more, while swooning over picturesque Whitsundays photos.
Advice and Inspiration
from The Busy Bride community
The Basics:
- Kimberley and Bobby
- 19 September 2021
- The Whitsundays, Queensland
- Micro wedding (up to 20 people)
- 6 – 9 months spent planning
Wedding Planning Experience
What was the most enjoyable aspect in planning your wedding?
Although the research was challenging, it was also the most enjoyable part in the wedding planning process. I’m a highly organised person with immaculate attention-to-detail, so investing the time into this part of the experience was satisfying. I had my spreadsheet set up and away I went!
What was the biggest challenge in planning your wedding?
The biggest challenge for us was planning a destination wedding. We live in Brisbane and decided to get married in the tropical Whitsundays, so researching vendors and communicating back and forth was time consuming and often stressful. We didn’t see our venue in-person at all before the wedding day, nor could I get a hair and makeup trial with my stylists or taste-test any of the food, but it all turned out beautifully.
First 3 vendors booked...
- Venue
- Photographer
- Hair and make-up
Top 3 priorities when choosing vendors...
- Aesthetic/ appeal
- Availability
- Support small business
How did you keep costs down?
- Research! Don’t just settle for the first vendor that gets back to you, the first one you find or the ones recommended by your venue.
- Look for cheaper alternatives, e.g., we ordered cupcakes instead of a cake.
- Consider what’s really important to you. For example, our venue was really expensive but was one of our top priorities, as were the food and our outfits. Other things, like styling and florals, were less important to us, so we looked for ways to do these cheaper.
Wedding planning advice, from one bride to another...
Kimberley says, “Trust your gut. When you are looking for vendors, any communication you have with them, or any image they present of themselves online, is super important to go by. This is especially true when planning a destination wedding, as you don’t have much else. So, it’s important to get a feel of who your vendors are, how reliable they will be and the quality of their work. We spent a lot of time finding the right people and were so glad we did, because they were all so amazing.”
Wedding Day Details
On the morning of my wedding, I...
- Ate a good breakfast
- Relaxed
- Got my hair and makeup done
- Was with my mum and sister-in-law
- Woke up early and admired the view from my Airbnb’s balcony
In my wedding day bag I packed...
- Touch-up makeup
- A change of clothes
- Bag of toiletries for freshening up
- Different reviews for the reception
What I wish I had packed was...
- Mozzie repellant
- Pantyliners
Kimberley's top tip for the day is...
“Breathe. Let go of control and let others do things for you. Try to “schedule” some time for just you and your new husband/ wife, so that you can take in the day and create a special moment to remember forever.”
Honeymoon & Post-Wedding
Honeymoon Destination
Elysian Retreat, Long Island, the Whitsundays.
Factors that affected our honeymoon decisions...
- Privacy/ seclusion
- Inclusions/ package options
- Location – beautiful surrounds
What advice do you have for couples when it comes to choosing and booking their honeymoon?
Kimberley says, “Again, it all comes down to research. Consider what you want to get out of it too – do you want to relax? Do you want an adventure? Maybe a bit of both? Can it be laid back, or do you want it to be more luxurious? Think about how much time you have off to go on your honeymoon and how far you can travel in that time. You don’t want to be spending half the time travelling to and from your destination!”
What we did post-wedding was...
- Opened gifts and cards
- Sent thank you notes and photos to our guests
- Ordered a wedding album from our photographer
- Created our own wedding album
- Posted photos to social media
- Wrote reviews of our wedding vendors
- Got our outfits dry-cleaned
Vendors
A special shout-out goes to...
Coastal Food Design Whitsundays
“Tara had not long started her own catering business, after having worked as a professional chef for years before that. We loved how open and friendly she was, but at the same time, she was also very knowledgeable and flexible with the menu. We ordered lunch and dinner packages off her, which were catered to suit our requirements.
Tara went above and beyond – sourcing cutlery and crockery for us (the venue didn’t provide this), putting together a special lunch hamper for us that was different to our guests, and even dropped the lunches off to my husband’s accommodation so that this could be easily transported on the private bus we’d hired for him and the guests.
Nothing was too much to ask, and we are so thankful for that!”
- Venue: Paradise Cove Villa
- Photographer: Tella Photography
- Celebrant: Amanda Flanagan – Love Like You Ceremonies
- Florist: Sofi & Flora
- Catering: Coastal Food Design
- Cake: Bake My Day
- Stylist: TeepeEvents Whitsundays
- Hair stylist: Whitsundays Wedding Hair Lounge
- Makeup artist: Airlie Beach Beauty
- Transport: Whitsunday Transit and Airlie Beach Executive Services
- Jewellery: Bellrose Fine Jewellers
- Bridal gown: When Freddie Met Lilly
- Menswear: Germanicos Bespoke Tailors
Final words from Kimberley...
“Enjoy the process. (Hopefully) it’ll only happen once in your lifetime, so take it all in and make the most of it. It really is lots of fun.”
It’s been such a pleasure sharing my wedding day with The Busy Bride community. The experience Bobby and I had in planning our wedding was the inspiration behind starting the business. We hope you enjoyed reading about it!
With warm wedding regards,
Kimberley xx
