The Goddess By Nature Melanie gown was customized by our bride Mel from Mel Silva Photography.

On a Boeing 717 aircraft somewhere between Darwin and Alice Springs. Brad is a pilot, and I am a flight attendant and fate had us working together that day.

When I went to meet his family for the first time. I saw what a loving family man he was, and this is when I realized he was the one.

Brad proposed on our 6-week Europe holiday in November 2019. Unbeknown to me at the time, there were several failed attempts in Iceland earlier in the trip (because I kept complaining of the cold so this kept ruining Brad’s original plans of proposing under the northern lights). In week 5 of the trip, Brad got down on one knee in the middle of St Mark’s Square, in Venice, Italy. It was the biggest and best shock of my life. It was a truly surreal experience and through tears, Brad eventually prompted me to answer. I, of course, said yes.

After trying on over 18 dresses at other stores, I couldn’t find anything that suited. Plus all of the stores had very large dresses and no option to try on my actual size. I came across Goddess By Nature on Instagram, and flew to Brisbane and made an appointment with my Bridesmaids at GBN. The dresses there were all in my size, which was a huge help. They all fit me like a glove. I fell in love with two. The bottom part of the Eliza gown and the top part of the Breanna gown. I asked GBN if they could merge the two, and they said they could. This is how my Goddess By Nature Melanie gown came to be. There was another dress from another designer that looked very similar to what I wanted, however after terrible service at other dress stores and amazing service at Goddess By Nature, I wanted them to be the ones to make my gown.

No theme, however, I wanted it to be just like my photography business slogan “Timeless, natural, beautiful” – and it was. After photographing over 100 weddings myself, I knew I had to have a cocktail style event, that was outdoors. I always found these weddings were more interactive and fun, and there was much more dancing. I never liked the seated formal idea. I had a neutral colour scheme, and the bridesmaids all chose their own nude/beige coloured gown. The flower brief was soft greens, soft whites and blush pinks. Laura from Gilded Florals did an amazing job. Brookleigh Estate in the Swan Valley was the perfect venue, we were married in the secret garden and had our reception on the Lakeside Terrace. One of the best things about Brookleigh is we didn’t have to leave the venue. We got ready there, were married there, had photos there and our reception. We danced the night away to our awesome DJ Brandon from Off The Wall Promotions, and didn’t finish up until 1am.

Make sure you are super organized on the day, so you can relax during the getting ready experience. You don’t want to be ringing around to different vendors and people still trying to confirm things. Hire GOOD vendors who you trust to do a good job. Hire them, and then let them do their job. You get what you pay for!!