Growing up in Bermuda, Alayna spent many hours playing on the beach and grew up loving nature and the outdoors. It made sense when it came to planning their nuptials that Alayna share in her special memories of childhood and make new memories with her husband by celebrating their wedding day on the island. For Mark to share in the experience of Bermuda, a place that has meant so much to Alayna all of her life, was a dream come true. And of course the traditional Bermuda moongate was the icing on the cake as the couple walked through the perfect circle and made a wish for good luck in their future together.
The bride's dress was a Justin Alexander design and had lots of bridey beads, rouching and pretty buttons.
Alayna found her ring setting in an ad for Tiffany's. Mark is the kind of man who likes to know what his beloved likes before hand, so she gave him the photo as a guide line to steer him on his way. Mark decided to take no chances and took the image to a jeweler and had it made using a gorgeous 2 carat radiant cut centre diamond, and then had two trillion diamonds to complement the stone and had it set in platinum. Alayna's two dainty wedding bands were eternity rings made in Italy. The bride searched for the perfect ring for Mark and finally found one that she loved and forwarded the photo to a jeweler and had it made up in white gold.
Preparations for the bride and groom and their attendants took place at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess.
The brides hair was done by Ernest from the Inverurie Day Spa and her make up was done by Aurelie from the Inner Sanctum Spa.
Alayna and Mark were keen to wed on a beach but they knew they wanted a secluded one rather than somewhere popular like Horseshoe Bay. They finally decided upon Warwick Long Bay as they wanted somewhere the bride's 86 year old father could access as he has trouble walking Of course, the glorious rock formations and expansive views the beach offers were wonderful perks for the location as well..
In lieu of her father walking her down the long sandy aisle, Alayna's brother, Earl, stepped in to do the honours.
The sand ceremony was special to the couple as for Alayna, it represented the beach and all of the memories she has of the times spent on Horseshoe Beach. Mark loves the beach as well so combining the sands from individual bottles into one heart shaped vessel depicted the two hearts becoming one.
The couple wanted to stay close to nature so created cones out of bay grape leaves and filled them with rose petals to shower the newly weds with for good luck.
The sunglasses were a fun idea to show the girls' personalities at the beach.
Mark achieved the unimaginable and was able to pull one over on Laney by surprising her with a marriage proposal. They were in the middle of a pumpkin field when he popped the question and she was more than a little surprised. The couple celebrated their happy news later with close friends at a winery.
Laney had specifically requested their names be drawn in the sand for a photo. Nikki Begg of Bermuda Bride, who planned the entire event down to the last detail, attempted to script their names in the sand, but with the tide rising, every time she wrote it, the water swept the workds away. In the end, Laney and Mark wrote the inscription themselves and to me, it makes it so much more personal, like two teenagers carving their initials in a tree trunk and writing TLA!
After the beach, we made a special stop on the way to the reception so that the newly weds could make their wishes under the traditional Bermuda moongate.
In keeping with the beach theme, the name cards were slipped into tiny bottles and placed in the sand like lost messages found washed up on a beach. The guest postcards with the well wishes will be placed into a scrapbook to read and remember all their friends who were there that day to celebrate.
The cocktail and dinner receptions were held at Newstead. The view across the Great Sound is spectacular and we just caught the sunset before they had to be introduced into dinner inside the Beau Rivage restaurant.
The couple's first dance was "I Finally Found Someone" by Barbara Streisand and Bryan Adams. Laney and Mark chose it because it was a song by a man and a woman singing to each other, which indeed these two did during their dance (so cute!) and also the lyrics of the song perfectly expressed how they felt.
Mark and Laney - congratulations on your marriage and thank you for including me in such a special time in your lives. It all turned out so perfectly and so many truly special moments between the two of you, and indeed your family and friends, were captured. I wish you much happiness and love in your journey ahead. xxx
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