Manage My Wedding Podcast

What Made Our Wedding Truly Epic, Even 10 Years Later MMW 210

• Yvette Sitters • Episode 210

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Ten years ago this month, amidst the tranquil waters and yachts gently bobbing at the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club in Perth, I, Yvette Sitters, said "I do" to the love of my life. Join me as I revisit the stunning location, filled with love and nostalgia, and share my story. You'll  collect pearls of wisdom on how to keep your wedding guests comfortable and your nuptials picture-perfect, even when the weather decides to turn the heat up.

Through my personal reflections, you'll be encouraged to hold steadfast to your vision, ensuring your big day is full in the happiness that comes from true personalisation. My wedding guests still say 'best wedding ever' and I am sharing with you exactly how you achieve that yourself.

This episode will likely bring a tear to your eye.

Visit our website for full shownotes HERE!

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Yvette Sitters:

Welcome to the Manage my Wedding podcast, where we believe your wedding is the most important time in your life and you deserve to feel supported and organised when planning the wedding of your dreams. I'm your host, yvette Sidders. Hello, welcome back to the Manage my Wedding podcast. I am your host, yvette, and today I'm going to be talking about my own wedding venue, because this week is my 10th wedding anniversary. We got married on the 24th of January 2014 and last week, after 10 years, we went back to our wedding venue and it was absolutely incredible. It was just beautiful and magic and, oh my gosh, I just love it as much today as I did back then. I live in Queensland.

Yvette Sitters:

For those of you who don't know and might be new to the podcast, I live on the Gold Coast in sunny Queensland. I got married in Perth, which is like a six hour flight away. It's the other side of Australia and Western Australia and it feels like it's the other side of earth. I love it. It's a beautiful place. The water is amazing, the beaches, everything is incredible, but it's just. It is quite far and I realise that now and all my wedding guests travelled to come there because we were living there. We fell in love there. We wanted everyone to see how much we loved the place. So, yeah, everyone travelled to come and see us. But, honestly, going back there was just really magical. Like we wandered around with the biggest, biggest miles on our face. It just felt amazing. We parked like right down on the street in the car park because it's actually a private venue so you can't actually we're not meant to go there unless you are a member. It's called the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club. It's in Peppermint Grove in Perth and you actually can only have your wedding or events there, if you remember. But luckily at the time I was working for quite a big company in Perth and I knew had a contact who got me in. So that was pretty amazing because the venue is just beautiful.

Yvette Sitters:

So we kind of snuck through the front gate and we walked right from like the bottom of the driveway right up. We walked up the balcony that I guess would have walked on and around the massive balcony that went around our reception down to the ceremony area. And oh my gosh, I tell you what it was just so nostalgic, it truly was just amazing. We just loved it so much. But it was funny because everything looks so much smaller than when we got married, like you know, when you are a kid, and everything just looks massive. Well, it was like that and we're like, oh, it's like outside in the ceremony area was so much smaller than we remember but like maybe the trees in that grove or whatever, but the actual looking in at the reception room, we couldn't get into that because it was locked. But looking into the reception room, we're like, oh yeah, that still looks the same size. That was really big. But we had these beautiful big balconies that wrapped around this reception room, which is something we really always like visualise for our wedding.

Yvette Sitters:

And when we found it, we just knew that that was our wedding venue, because we wanted everyone to look out at the beautiful river that Perth has and we just, yeah, we wanted everyone to have that feel and how much we loved it. So we were just so happy when we found that venue and then we had a contact to get in there. But, oh my gosh, it was just magic. I shared a really cute Instagram reel, actually, of us there and I showed like my husband, james, like waiting at the end of the aisle and then I showed me walking down to him. So I'm going to link it in the show notes if you want to go and have a look, because it's really sweet and I just I don't know I just felt so happy there. I really felt so happy. That's when you know that you really truly booked a venue that you both loved and that was your love story. Like it really really ticked all the boxes for us. It met all our priorities that we wanted for our wedding. You know, it really really hit the nail on it. What I would envision was and we could actually look back together and still to this day so that they say that there is not one thing we would have changed, like not one thing.

Yvette Sitters:

But there were some things that did stand out to us and that we kind of talked about as we were there. And one of those things which actually I talk about in my reel, was how hot it really was and how hot it would have been for our wedding guests. So when we were there visiting last week it was 37 degrees and now wedding day, I think it said I think I remember the temperature thing on my phone saying it was going to be 38 that day. But we were in wedding heaven. The adrenaline was high, the nerves, everything. So we didn't notice as much as the wedding guests. I do remember having to like pull my wedding dress up a lot to let like air flow, so it was obviously hot, but for our wedding guests it must have been so hot, but it, like last week, the sweat was just streaming down us like we couldn't actually be there too long because it was so hot. But luckily on our wedding day there was this beautiful breeze that came up from the water. So that wasn't there last week. So we're like old tick. But I'm also so glad that that ceremony space that we booked had lots of shady trees, so that made a huge difference and we were there at about the exact same time as what our wedding guests would have been arriving for our ceremony. So I just stood there going, oh my gosh, I'm so glad that there was so much shade and we actually put two massive big white umbrellas up for the bridal party so that they were under shade as well. So I highly recommend that that is something you consider. You know, we always talk about wet weather backup plans, but we often forget to think about, you know, hot summer backup plans as well, or insane wind, when you really can't have your wedding outside because it's so windy and things like that. So make sure you are covering all weather backup plans. I'll link actually in the show notes as well, to a podcast I did years ago where the backup plans and you can have a listen to that.

Yvette Sitters:

The second thing that we noticed was that we actually walked on the most unsaifest, scariest little skinny planks over the water for photographs and my husband was like James was like, oh my gosh, look look at those planks, remember those? He goes. I was so scared walking on those that we're gonna fall in. But I don't remember being scared because I'm one of those people. I'm like no, it'll be fine, let's go on it. But when I looked at it last week I was like oh my gosh, that is crazy. You know he just wanted photos on it because it had this beautiful scenery kind of around it and it was basically like two wooden planks that was super long that went to this like shed over the water. And I just think to myself, oh my gosh, I remember nearly slipping actually in here and James grabbing me just in time. But I'm just thinking to myself. I didn't have a second dress. A second dress wasn't a thing back then. So why we did that, I don't know, and they're not my favorite photos. Actually out of all of them they're nice but they're not my favorite. And then none of those ones I have printed. I'll make sure this week actually I'll show you those photos on Instagram as well and Facebook.

Yvette Sitters:

The third thing was I wish that having someone film content was a thing back then, and not because I wanted to be in my wanted my wedding to be Insta worthy, because I didn't know. I'm really cared back then and I still don't believe in that now. I've done a whole podcast episode on that to link that in the show notes to. But really for my own memories, because I know you now see, and if some people are like what is you know, getting content filmed, mean there's people now that you can hire that basically do like snippets of videos as your day is kind of going and my gosh them. They're so amazing. I see them sometimes on social media and they're just little clips and the photographer still doing it sing and they're not in the way, but they just get so much behind the scenes and the emotions and I was like, oh my gosh, I wish that was a thing when I got married. We didn't get a videographer because they are so expensive and we spent a lot of money on our wedding, but that would have been an amazing option. So do look into that and consider it.

Yvette Sitters:

The fourth thing was that we talked about was that we're so glad that we extended for an extra hour, because you know, most drink packages are like five hours, but we knew everyone had travelled so far for our wedding and we always know at the end of the night everyone says, oh my gosh, that went so fast. The night's over and people are dancing and having the best time and although us as a couple, we were totally exhausted, like exhausted, like I couldn't actually wait for it to end, in the end, in the last like I reckon, half an hour, I was like I'm done, I can't talk to anyone anymore, I'm shattered. But all our guests were having the best time and I remember when it ended, even after the extension, my, I remember out my parents particularly being so sad and going, oh my gosh, where did that go? It's what, it's already over, like they were devastated. So I'm so glad that I did that. I really, truly am.

Yvette Sitters:

The fifth thing is that I'm really glad that we had everything in one space, so you know, the ceremony and the reception in the one venue, because we had 90% of our guests travelling and it just made everything so much easier and it just made such a huge difference, like it really did, and we had a bus bring them there and a bus take them back to the hotel and there were a couple other stops along the way. But I'm just so glad that we did that, because I just think when you've got that many guests travelling, it's just difficult enough for them and costly enough. So, yeah, that was something we were so glad for. And the other thing, the last thing I want to mention, the sixth thing is I'm so glad that we did things the way we wanted. We didn't worry about other people's opinions and thoughts and what other people wanted, and we were very lucky we didn't have a lot of that and it made such a big difference. You know, doing what we wanted and it was a tough decision to make everyone travel. That was a big decision, but I'm so glad we did because in the end we got our dream day. We got everything that we wished for.

Yvette Sitters:

Our wedding vision truly came alive. And that to me now is just so important and it's why I just go on about it so much in all of my episodes. You know, it's also why I do lessons on it in the calm bride planner course because you know I help couples in there come up with how to handle those objections and do those things. Because it honestly makes the difference to your memories. You know. Honestly it just makes the biggest difference because, like I said, there is 10 years on. There is still nothing we would change because we did everything the way we wanted. It was our love story, it was our decisions, it was our dreams and we honestly woke up the next day going that was the best day of our life. That was the best day of our life.

Yvette Sitters:

And the other biggest thing I said that was my last one, but one of the biggest things that stood out to us and this is a little bit different, it's more about marriage and not so much about the wedding but stood out to us is that we truly married the love of our life, that we have loved each other so much for the past 10 years of our life and you know there's been massive ups and downs for us, not so much in our relationship. We've got an amazing relationship and our communication is beautiful, but we've had huge ups and downs. You know, with COVID, my husband worked in the travel industry, had a wedding business. You know, we've moved into state twice. We had a premature baby Like we've had so many things happen. We've had health scares with my daughter. She has a couple of things about a lifelong. You know, I've had health scares Like we've had so many things that life throws at you. But honestly, they have felt so easy to handle with the right person by my side and we truly, truly love each other and I really believe that on that day it showed, because everyone talks about how it was the best wedding ever.

Yvette Sitters:

And, yeah, they talk about all the fun things that we organised and all the. You know the oyster shaka and the ice cream van that rocked up and you know the fairy glow in the dark fairy floss and all those little things they talk about. But everyone always comments about how in love we looked and how happy we looked and that just flowed through our wedding day and we both remembered that when we were at the venue. We were just like, yeah, it's, it was. It's really hard to put into words, but it's really special and we both looked at each other last week at the venue and we were just looked at each other, just going. We just knew what we were thinking. We're just nodding our heads, big smiles on our faces, and just looking and feeling in love and just going.

Yvette Sitters:

Wow, how amazing. So glad we picked this venue, so glad, all the decisions that we made, so, so glad. So I wanted to share that. I really wanted to share it, and I wanted you to understand the importance of having a vision and doing what you want for your day. So that is it. I hope that gives you something to think about. And to my husband, if you're listening, happy anniversary. I love you so, so, very much. I'm so glad I get to do this life with you and everyone. Until next time, enjoy being engaged and staying stress free and organized while planning the wedding of your dreams.