Weddings with Cara Hodge Archives - Page 4 of 5

The guests were in for a big surprise at this Glengariff Historic Estate Wedding

on May 30, 2014 · 1 Comment

With Celebrant Cara Hodge of Brisbane City Celebrants

Anyone who has had the pleasure of going to Glengariff Historic Estate will tell you this is a venue with wow factor. Needless to say, this bride and groom loved the incredible backdrop and sweeping views so much they booked their wedding here.

Being approximately a 45 minute drive from Brisbane City and with most of their guests traveling from a far, many from overseas, they organised a full size bus to transport their guests to and from the venue for convenience.

While planning the transport they came up with a great idea, ‘as we are providing transport, why not surprise the guests with the venue so they get the full wow factor when they arrive here too’, so that’s what they did.

I loved watching the guests ‘wow’ as they were greeted with this view of the breath taking ‘surprise’ wedding venue, at the lovely Glengariff Historic Estate in Samford.

Glengariff Wedding with Brisbane Celebrant Ciara Hodge

The couple enjoyed a happy and heartfelt ceremony with the grooms sister who traveled all the way from the UK to be here, given the honour of ‘Best Woman’ much to her delight.

Wishing the newly weds every happiness for your future together and thank you for choosing me as your Glengariff Historic Estate wedding Celebrant.

Cara Hodge – Brisbane City Celebrants

If you enjoyed hearing about this exciting wedding and are looking for a Celebrant for your Brisbane wedding, Cara would love to hear from you. Contact Brisbane City Celebrants for more information and to confirm availability for your special day.

A Gatsby styled wedding in Roma Street Parklands

on May 30, 2014 · Leave a Comment

With Celebrant Cara Hodge of Brisbane City Celebrants

It was such a perfect Brisbane day for this happy bride and groom who wed in a sweet and heartfelt ceremony that shared their funny, quirky and romantic love story together.
Their ceremony took place at the gorgeous Palm Tree Court, Roma Street Parklands and so many guests came to see me afterwards to tell me how much they enjoyed the ceremony which really means more to me than I can even begin to explain!

The bride looked radiant wearing a beautiful Gatsby style dress with classic 1920s curls in her hair and a bird cage veil. The bridesmaids looked gorgeous in long mint dresses carrying yellow bouquets.

Roma Street Parklands Wedding with Brisbane Celebrant Ciara Hodge

Roma Street Parklands Wedding with Brisbane Celebrant Cara Hodge

It was a pleasure having a Wedding Coordinator from The Main Event on hand, she admitted to shedding a tear or 2 during their sweet ceremony. Love her!
The happy couple continued the celebrations in the wonderful hands of the Fix Restaurant Weddings team, who I guess must be just a little impressed with me as a Celebrant from the last wedding I did there as they were kind enough to recommend me to this lovely couple.

Wishing the happy newlyweds every success and happiness for their future together and thank you for choosing me to be your Roma Street Parklands Wedding Celebrant.

Cara Hodge – Brisbane City Celebrants

If you enjoyed hearing about this contemporary wedding ceremony and are looking for a Celebrant for your Brisbane wedding, Cara would love to hear from you. Contact Brisbane City Celebrants for more information and to confirm availability for your special day.

Spicers Hidden Vale Wedding Ceremony

on May 26, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Spicers Hidden Vale Wedding Ceremony

With Celebrant Cara Hodge of Brisbane City Celebrants

“Step aside nerves, this is awesome fun” said this Spicers Hidden Vale bride

It is not just normal, but practically unavoidable to experience some degree of pre-wedding nerves on the day of your wedding, which isn’t surprising when the many hours or research, planning, preparation and visualising of everything ‘your wedding’ is finally coming to fruition before your eyes.

Thankfully, many of my couples tell me they feel relaxed and at ease on their wedding day as soon as they are in my presence, having heard this many times now from my brides and grooms I am beginning to realise that the ‘calming presence’ my clients speak of is my ‘Celebrant super power’, well ok, maybe not a super power but certainly a point of difference that enables my couples to really and truly thoroughly enjoy every moment of their ceremony.

It’s worth mentioning that I am a former Yoga Teacher and a Les Mills Body Balance Instructor so perhaps that’s where this calming energy stems from.

One of the most challenging tasks for a Celebrant is to be able to put the bride and groom at ease as much as possible, and to me this is really important as it’s when couples can relax and and put the nerves aside, they can really enjoy their ceremony and everything about it that has been thoughtfully created to make is so special.

Spicers Hidden Vale Wedding Celebrant Ciara Hodge

Lyndal and Brendan married at this spectacular setting at Spicers Hidden Vale in a ceremony full of smiles, laughter and happiness. After the ceremony had concluded and I was saying my farewells, I mentioned to Lyndal how relaxed she seemed throughout the ceremony, to which she responded that once she had walked up the aisle to her waiting groom and the ceremony commenced with me sharing their love story together, she realised ‘hey, this is actually awesome fun!’

Her comments really made my day as my primary focus as a Celebrant (other than ensuring the legal wording and requirements are meticulously accurate) is that EVERYONE present enjoys the ceremony, I love seeing the guests smiling and engaged in the ceremony, the bridal party at ease and a beautiful connection between the bride and groom. Mission Accomplished!

It just goes to show that a ceremony can, be enjoyable and fun whilst being meaningful and special.

After the wedding both sets of Grandparents thanked me for delivering such a lovely and happy service which really means so much to me being a part of facilitating what will become such special memories to all the family.

Congratulations to the happy couple and thank you for choosing me as your Celebrant for your Spicers Hidden Vale wedding.

Cara Hodge – Brisbane City Celebrants

If you enjoyed hearing about this thoroughly enjoyable wedding ceremony and are looking for a Celebrant for your Brisbane wedding, Cara would love to hear from you. Contact Brisbane City Celebrants for more information and to confirm availability for your special day.

A surprise Brisbane wedding at Fix Restaurant

on May 12, 2014 · Leave a Comment

With Celebrant Cara Hodge of Brisbane City Celebrants

Bride and Groom: Justine and Andrew

Wedding Date: 12th May 2013

Wedding Ceremony and Reception Location: Fix Restaurant and Bar (Port Office Hotel)

Tell us about your Ceremony and Reception:

When we thought about how we wanted to get married, we kept coming back to just wanting a big party with all our family and friends; so to do that, we had an engagement party/ surprise wedding.

We wanted it to feel like a party from start to end, only stopping for a short meaningful ceremony in the middle. Our engagement party was a black and white cocktail theme with a splash of colour. I (the bride) started the night in a black dress and 90 minutes in, I snuck away to change in to my knee length white wedding dress, wearing a pair of electric blue pumps with both dresses. While I was out of the room my then fiance mingled with the crowd, there were enough people there it was assumed I was just off talking to someone else, plus allowing the guests 2 hours until the actual ceremony gave ample time for the late comers to arrive in time for the big surprise.

At 6pm the Wedding Coordinator (who also happens to be my sister) gathered everyone together for the ‘speeches’ to start and asked where I was, but really this was just code for the very few in the know that the ceremony was about to begin. The band started playing Pachelbel’s Canon, I appeared from a door at the back of the room and the guests were surprised and delighted to see the engagement party had just become a wedding. There were lots of gasps, cheers, clapping and a flourish of tears. The reaction was better than we had ever imagined and quite unlike the usual response you normally get to a bride walking down the aisle.

Our actual ceremony would have been around 10 minutes from start to finish, but in that time we included our unique meeting story, some meaningful vows (with a couple of humorous ones thrown in), exchanged the rings, and of course included all the required legal wording. To us, it was just perfect!

Engagement party turned surprise wedding with Brisbane Celebrant Cara Hodge

What we loved:

The venue was set up superbly, the existing decor is dark leather and wood, and the elegance was enhanced by little lantern lighting placed throughout the venue. To top it off the centre piece of the room was an amazing 3m tall, cherry blossom LED tree – it was definitely a talking point, and a perfect backdrop to the ceremony.

Fix Restaurant surprise wedding ceremony with Brisbane Celebrant Ciara Hodge

We also loved the laid back feel a surprise wedding had, everyone was having fun from the moment they walked through the door – only helped by the amazing band. We both really loved having kids there too, they entertained themselves for a lot of the night, at one stage the band gave them instruments and had them involved in one or two songs – it was fantastic. But overall my most favourite part was seeing everyones reaction to the ‘big surprise’. I will never forget that!

The magical moment Justine and Andrews Fix Restaurant surprise wedding was unveiled.

The magical moment Justine and Andrews Fix Restaurant surprise Brisbane wedding was unveiled.

Describe your experience with Cara from Brisbane City Celebrants:

As mentioned earlier my sister is a Wedding Coordinator, so she has seen a LOT of Celebrants in action, so I knew the moment she recommended Cara to be my Celebrant, that she was going to be fantastic.

I was always imperative from the start that we thought Cara could successfully help us ‘pull off’ the surprise component – and she was really an integral part. She gave us guidance from start to end, but also allowed flexibility for us to put our own touches in to the ceremony.

Cara also allowed us to prepare everything in our own time, so we never felt any unnecessary pressure. It really was an easy, stress free experience – and for that we are very grateful!

Tell us about any wedding suppliers that you were impressed with and why:

The following suppliers were exceptional:

– Emma Stephenson at The Port Office Hotel was outstanding even though we are sisters she treated me as she would any client, she was thorough and professional. There was nothing that was not thought of, planned, or executed perfectly. The staff serving us on the night also need to be congratulated.

– Benjam (band) if you ever wanted the most outstanding wedding band in Brisbane these guys are it. They add to, and create the perfect atmosphere. You can choose between having 1, 2 or 3 band members for differing prices, but we went the whole 3, and it was outstanding. You can indicate the kind of music you want, but apart from choosing the ‘walking down the aisle’ song and the ‘bridal waltz’, we left the rest up to them, they really knew what they were doing. The bridal waltz song we wanted wasn’t very mainstream, but they happily learnt it and executed it fantastically.

– LED Tree Hire by Creative Loop, hiring the LED tree helped us add that point of difference to our wedding. The amazing cherry blossom tree stood 3m tall and really became the centre piece of the room. I am still hearing really positive comments about how amazing it was. They came in to set it up and took it away at the end of the night, so all we had to do was enjoy it’s beauty.

– and of course Brisbane City Celebrants Cara Hodge, she was just amazing.

The newlyweds enjoying a moment following their seriously awesome and super sweet Fix Restaurant surprise wedding.

Your advice to bride and grooms to be:

Our advice is…… a wedding doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out, overly expensive, or stressful affair. If you choose professional suppliers, they will take care of all the stuff that bogs some couples down. We were the hosts of the engagement party/ surprise wedding, but we just showed up and enjoyed it like the rest of our guests. Although we always knew we were going to have a surprise wedding, we only gave ourselves 8 weeks to prepare, but to be honest over 90% of it was organised in less than 4 days.

We would highly recommend a surprise wedding too, there were no preconceived ideas of what should happen, we had no pushy opinions, we saved quite a lot of money and we didn’t need to organise things that often get forgotten e.g. table arrangements, what colour the napkins are, bonbonnieres etc.

We just wish we could do it all again!

Surprise Wedding at Fix Restaurant with Brisbane Celebrant Cara Hodge.

Images courtesy of Max Loxton Photography.

If you enjoyed hearing about this surprise Brisbane wedding ceremony and are looking for a Celebrant for your Brisbane wedding, Cara would love to hear from you. Contact Brisbane City Celebrants for more information and to confirm availability for your special day.

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Wedding at Henzell Chapel – The cutest wedding chapel

on April 9, 2014 · 1 Comment

Wedding at Henzell Chapel – The cutest little wedding chapel you ever did see!

With Celebrant Cara Hodge of Brisbane City Celebrants

I loved everything about Lisa and Simon’s beautiful wedding at the super cute Henzell Chapel at Mt Pleasant. This was the first time I have performed a wedding at this chapel and having seen photos of this wedding chapel I was super excited about this ceremony venue.

Lisa and Simon were kind enough to organise transport for their guests to the Chapel which is approximately a 1 hr drive North of Brisbane, and they were super sweet in also providing me a seat on the bus that they hired through Rolo transport.

When we arrived we were greeted by the amazing sight of the cutest little stone chapel you ever did see, surrounded by panoramic views of rolling hills and lakes, you couldn’t imagine more beautiful surrounds, it felt so peaceful and serene and perfectly suited this couples wedding theme, as Lisa mentioned to me a few days prior, their theme for the day is ‘relaxed’. What a great state of mind for enjoying your own wedding day!

Henzell Chapel Wedding with Celebrant Ciara Hodge

Henzell Chapel Wedding with Celebrant Cara Hodge

The Chapel was the perfect size to comfortably seat all of their 44 weddings guests. The bride and groom decided on having no bridal party, which gave the groom the opportunity to pick his own outfit and colours as he didn’t need to be matching anyone else. In keeping with tradition while the groom was yet to see what the bride was wearing, she was also about to be surprised in seeing what he had picked.

The bride was beaming as she arrived wearing the most beautiful lace wedding dress with a keyhole back as she was walked down the aisle by her mother while the groom managed to hold back the tears (just!). With much enthusiasm, the brides whole family ‘gave her away’ and the short yet relaxed and enjoyable ceremony commenced and included some really great interaction with the guests.

After they shared their first kiss as husband and wife, we made our way outside to the signing table, positioned perfectly on the top of the hill, taking in the amazing expansive views. Where I pronounced the bride and groom as husband and wife and they were congratulated by their equally happy and excited wedding guests.

The wedding ceremony was followed by an afternoon tea outside which included some delicious home made baking by the couples friends, before the bus headed back to West End for the reception which took place at the funky Gun Shop Cafe.

Here is some lovely feedback from this Henzell Chapel bride:

“Thanks Cara, We had the most perfect day we could ever have dreamed of!

Thank you for a beautiful ceremony, it was perfect, exactly what we wanted. Lisa Xx”

It was such a pleasure being the Celebrant for this couples Henzell Chapel wedding and I wish them every happiness for their future together.

Cara Hodge – Brisbane City Celebrants

If you enjoyed hearing about this Henzell Chapel wedding and are looking for a Celebrant for your Brisbane wedding, Cara would love to hear from you. Contact Brisbane City Celebrants for more information and to confirm availability for your special day.

Mirra Private Dining – a stunning and unique wedding venue

on March 29, 2014 · 1 Comment

It was such a pleasure being the Celebrant for Cathy and Shaun’s wedding at Mirra Private Dining and Events in Fortitude Valley.

This lovely couple, traveled all the way from Melbourne with an entourage of family and friends to enjoy an outdoor wedding here in Brisbane, and despite the out of the norm constant rain over the past week, and after a huge down pour earlier that afternoon, miraculously the clouds parted and a clear blue sky made their dream of an outdoor wedding a reality.

Mirra is a stunning and unique Brisbane wedding venue

The Courtyard at Mirra where wedding ceremonies take place.

Mirra is such a fabulous venue, it oozes style and elegance and certainly has that wow factor. It is also situated beside a busy railway track and there is no mistaking the sound of the passing trains from outside in the courtyard where the ceremony took place, but instead of being perturbed by this, Cathy and Shaun completely embraced this and had fun with it by incorporating a London underground train theme in to their reception styling. The tables were named after the London underground stations, cards from the guests were ‘posted’ in to a British style ‘Royal Mail’ letterbox and even the biodegradable confetti carried the train theme.

While we did hear trains passing during the ceremony, thankfully my good strong PA System worked it’s magic and the ceremony wasn’t interrupted.

The bride and groom were seated at a ‘sweetheart’ table which is a huge wedding trend in the states, I think this seating arrangement is really cute, plus it allows the bride and groom to have that time to themselves and take it all in.

This sweet couple provided a donation to charity (the Cancer Council) in place of favours for all their guests which goes to show that they are just as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside. What a lovely gesture and a charity that everyone is touched by.

Charity donation in place of wedding favours

I loved being the Celebrant for this wedding at Mirra Bar in Fortitude Valley and wish this gorgeous couple every happiness for their future together.

Cara Hodge – Brisbane City Celebrants

If you enjoyed hearing about this contemporary wedding ceremony at Mirra Bar and are looking for a Celebrant for your Brisbane wedding, Cara would love to hear from you. Contact Brisbane City Celebrants for more information and to confirm availability for your special day.

Brisbane Hilton Weddings

on March 25, 2014 · 3 Comments

Brisbane Hilton Weddings

With Celebrant Cara Hodge of Brisbane City Celebrants

Conveniently located in the centre of Brisbane’s CBD, the exquisite Brisbane Hilton is home to a fabulous selection of wedding ceremony locations, ideal for the bride and groom that love the idea of having their ceremony and reception at the same venue.

If you envisage an opulent venue where yourself and your guests will receive 5 star service you won’t be disappointed here.

The Brisbane Hilton Hotel’s Vintaged grill and chef table

I was fortunate enough to be invited for a guided tour of the Hilton Hotels ceremony sites and I loved the great variety of options this venue offers, including a spacious air conditioned area with floor to ceiling windows boasting an urban backdrop, and the shaded and sheltered Tropicana pool deck which conveniently has a bar at hand, perfect for cocktail hour.

While it is hard to pick a favourite a definite contender would be the cellar private dining room, with a beautiful oversized table that seats up to 14 with plenty of space for your choice of centre pieces or table décor. This venue also provides enough space for the ceremony to take place with the fabulous backdrop of the Brisbane Hiltons fine wine cellar, perfect for the wine loving connoisseur. This venue is also a great choice for the increasing number of brides and grooms that are looking for a modern ceremony and reception venue suited to smaller weddings.

The Brisbane Hilton Hotels Private Dining Cellar Room – perfect for small and intimate wedding groups

For more information on weddings at the Brisbane Hilton hotel, contact the delightful team here.

If you enjoyed hearing about this wedding venue and are looking for a Celebrant for your Brisbane wedding, Cara would love to hear from you. Contact Brisbane City Celebrants for more information and to confirm availability for your special day.

Brisbane Powerhouse Weddings with Celebrant Cara Hodge

on March 22, 2014 · 3 Comments

With Celebrant Cara Hodge of Brisbane City Celebrants

Even though we’ve performed many weddings at The Brisbane Powerhouse, when we get booked for weddings at Brisbane Powerhouse we always get that extra bit excited as this venue is so ‘us’. In fact I often envisage having my own vow renewal ceremony here one day! The reason this venue resonates so well with us is perhaps because as savvy, fresh modern Celebrants we have so much in common.

This venue with is ultra modern, with a funky edgy feel, embraces it’s unique characteristics like it’s graffiti styled walls and it’s towering white washed exterior brick walls. This venue doesn’t try to conform to what it believes the typical wedding venue should be, instead it stands proud in it’s own unique way. It also boasts 2 roof top ceremony sites, both capturing panoramic views as the Brisbane river snuggles around this iconic building. While this wedding venue isn’t for everyone, personally we love it!

We have always had great experiences with the onsite Wedding Coordinator which also adds to the great experience of this venue.

Here are just some of the gorgeous weddings I have had the pleasure of performing at this venue.

Corinne and Steve's Powerhouse wedding, I love this shot of them being showered in rose petals

Corinne and Steve’s Powerhouse wedding, love this shot of them being showered in rose petals

Brisbane Powerhouse wedding with Celebrant Ciara Hodge

Brisbane Powerhouse weddings with Celebrant Cara Hodge
Image: Boots Photography

If you are looking for a Celebrant for your Brisbane Powerhouse wedding Brisbane City Celebrants would love to hear from you. Contact us

A Sofitel Brisbane Wedding with a cool Parisian vibe

on March 15, 2014 · 4 Comments

A Sofitel Brisbane Wedding with a cool Parisian vibe

With Celebrant Cara Hodge of Brisbane City Celebrants

Congratulations to Jo & Ben, the first couple ever to marry at Prive 249, in Sofitel Brisbane. The recently refurbished lush decor and furnishings and regal purple space was the perfect venue for their subtle Parisian themed wedding, the Eiffel tower cake stand looked great and the venue was just perfect for their small intimate wedding ceremony and reception.

Wishing this gorgeous couple all the very best for your future together and wishing you an amazing 2 month honeymoon in Europe, starting where else but Paris!
J’adore your style!

Cara Hodge – Brisbane City Celebrants

P.S. We are perfectionists here at Brisbane City Celebrants and always provide our couples with laser printed marriage certificates, no scruffy writing in sight here!

Sofitel Brisbane Wedding with Ciara Hodge - Brisbane City Celebrants

Sofitel Brisbane Wedding with Cara Hodge – Brisbane City Celebrants

A beautiful unplugged wedding at Roma Street Parklands

on December 21, 2013 · 1 Comment

A beautiful unplugged wedding at Roma Street Parklands

With Celebrant Cara Hodge of Brisbane City Celebrants

I first met with Aimi and Greg over the Christmas holidays, they wisely decided to use the Christmas break to plan their wedding and lock in all their chosen suppliers for their special day. I could see from the moment I met them what a sweet couple they were and I had no doubt what an adorable bride and groom they would make.

Before the day arrived, I contacted Aimi to confirm the details of the ceremony and we also discussed what announcements they would like me to make prior to the ceremony commencing. In addition to advising the guests about the details of the reception, Aimi also advised that they would like me to request that guests don’t take any photos during the ceremony, this is also referred to as an ‘unplugged wedding ceremony’.

Aimi and Greg loved having an unplugged wedding at Roma Street Parklands. Image kindly supplied by Naomi V Photography

Aimi explained that she didn’t want photos of the guests at the ceremony with their faces and expressions hidden behind cameras, plus she had organised a professional photographer, Naomi from Naomi V Photography with a 2nd shooter to come along and capture the day so they were confident that between the 2 photographers they would capture everything and more!

As requested I added an announcement to be read prior to the ceremony asking guests to kindly put down their cameras and phones and encouraging them to relax and enjoy the ceremony without the distraction of technology. Aimi confirmed that she loved the wording I had added as it really captured the purpose of the message.

When I arrived at the Palm Tree Court wedding ceremony site at Roma Street Parklands, the wedding ceremony decorators were just finishing setting up and they did a wonderful job with an all white ceremony arch with draping and matching chairs.

Right on cue the clouds parted revealing the most perfect clear blue sky, I have no doubt at that very moment the bride and groom would have had smiles beaming across their faces as they finished getting ready in their respective hotel rooms.

The combination of the gorgeous August day, the breath taking ceremony site at the parklands and the beautiful ceremony decor added to the excitement of each guest as they arrived.

Once the guests were seated and the groomsmen were in their places, I made the pre-wedding announcements including the request for guests to kindly place their cameras and phones down, I joked that the penalty for guests taking photos during the ceremony was that they would have to pick up the bar tab later! Obligingly there was not a face hidden behind a camera in site, well, except for the 2nd shooter who the cheeky groom Greg jokingly tried to make accountable for the bar tab hehe!

The beautiful bride arrived with her super cute 6 year old little sister and her glamorous mother dressed in purple as her bridal party, what an absolutely gorgeous bond the 3 of them must have to be chosen to be in her bridal party.

The couple were full of happiness throughout their meaningful and sweet ceremony and plenty of happy tears didn’t go a miss with most of the bridal party needing tissues too!

Roma Street Parklands Wedding. Image kindly provided by Naomi V Photography

I believe they made a great decision having an unplugged wedding ceremony as it’s too easy for guests to unintentionally disengage from the ceremony, the emotions and the words that have been carefully chosen by the couple if they are preoccupied with snapping away, composing their images, zooming in and out and weaving their cameras between the iPhones held in the air to get another shot.

The tissues that were being passed around the guests seating to capture the happy tears from this wedding tell me that the guests really were truly present and able to connect with the happiness of the bride and groom during this ceremony.

I believe that going forward we will see more and more couples choosing to have an unplugged wedding ceremony to allow guests to really focus on enjoying the ceremony and to feel how special it really is.

Congratulations Aimi and Greg on a truly beautiful wedding!

Cara Hodge, Authorised Celebrant, Brisbane City Celebrants x

If you enjoyed hearing about this unplugged wedding at Roma Street Parklands and are looking for a Celebrant for your Brisbane wedding, Cara would love to hear from you. Contact Brisbane City Celebrants for more information and to confirm availability for your special day.