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The Ceremony
We had the wedding ceremony on Sunday afternoon Meelup Beach, with the service led by my church minister who drove down from Perth. It was magical weather, and I walked down the aisle with both mum and dad, to the sounds of two of my girlfriends singing and another accompanying them on the guitar. We had provided parasols for all guests to take if they wished, and they proved to be popular!
I surprised Ely by learning my vows in Spanish and reciting them to him in his native language.
Surfboard signing in our ceremony - instead of the traditional table for signing the certificate, we used one of my husband's surfboards, held by his groomsmen. We also included a rock blessing in our ceremony, where each guest took a small rock placed on the edge of the aisle, and we asked them to make a wish or a blessing for us, then throw into the ocean.

Having your ceremony on a public beach Meelup were the public respectful of your event?
Being a Sunday afternoon rather than a Saturday, the crowds were smaller than expected. No one interfered with the ceremony at all, and there were a few people who stood from a distance and watched, they were all friendly and offered their congratulations.

The Carnival Party for the Newlyweds:
We held our reception at Wave House, a unique venue in Injidup. The whole bridal party and our families stayed here for 5 nights, before and after the wedding. This venue has the most amazing view of the ocean for sunset, and then we surprised our guests by moving them all outside after dark where there is a stunning limestone cave and amphitheatre surrounded by natural bushland, we simply decorated with some candle bags and Chinese lanterns strung between trees. As my husband is from Venezuela, we had a lot of unusual Venezuelan traditions, and some awesome Latino music. The highlight of the night was "la hora loca" (the crazy hour) at which point we distributed glittery/feathery masks (like carnival), party hats, whistles, party blowers to everyone and turned the music up loud. The music at this point was fast paced, lots of drums and fun. There was a conga line, my groom stripped his shirt off, and then we started limbo under his belt on the dance floor. First wedding where I've seen EVERY single guest on the dance floor (for the first two songs, then some of the older guests had to sit down again). It was the first time my uncle had danced in 30 years, and we heard other similar stories. It really was just so much fun, and we were so pleased to receive fantastic feedback from our guests afterwards about how it really was the most unique wedding they had ever been to. We had roaming finger food all night, including wood fired pizzas, and a traditional Venezuelan canape - tequenos, which we had made prior to the wedding and the caterer cooked and served for us. No seating arrangements, no centre pieces, no name tags.

Post-Wedding Photos:
As we were having a beach wedding, and we both love the ocean and having a bit of fun, we decided we wanted to get completely saturated and sandy in the pics, but it just wasn't a good idea to do this before the reception. So we arranged with our photographer Pete to meet up two days after the wedding for some extra beach shots. I purchased a second dress from a chinese tailor for $70 and had no hesitation in jumping in the water, getting it soaked, pulling out my hair, and having a ball. It was so much fun going back for this shoot when we had no time restrictions, didn't matter how dirty/wet we got, and we just laughed non-stop.

Where did you honeymoon?
We haven't had a chance to go on honeymoon yet. Ely's mother and daughter travelled over from Venezuela and USA to attend the wedding and visit Australia for the first time, so we enjoyed a staycation with them after the wedding.
Over the Christmas break, we will travel to Papua New Guinea for a surf charter on board a catamaran in the New Irelands province. Just the two of us on board with a chef and the skipper, and each day we will surf, snorkel, swim, fish, and visit small villages and islands. We'll then spend some time in Port Douglas and visit Ayers Rocker before returning to Perth. We have the rest of this year to plan and save for it.

Would you recommend Pete from Real Image Photography to others which maybe looking for a wedding photographer?
I would highly recommend Pete, I was very impressed by his energy, ideas and communication. I would also strongly recommend couples consider a fun, relaxed photo shoot a couple days after the wedding. We enjoyed a trash the dress shoot on the beach with Pete, and these photos are the highlight for us! Pete's communication prior to the wedding was excellent, and we have had so many compliments on our photos.

Now you look back was the day better than you imagined?
As I look back on the day, it was as perfect as planned. What I didn't expect was how emotional the ceremony was, I felt the whole time like I couldn't stop smiling and crying. I had not planned to have a videographer and it was a last minute decision, but one I'm thrilled that we took. To sit together and watch your ceremony as our guests and family would have seen it was so special, and we can relive it again and again. The reception worked out even better than I had hoped, with our Venezuelan crazy hour we had every single guest up on the dance floor in either a mask or a hat, and it really got the party going and all the Aussies embraced it. I just had so much fun!
Highly recommend all local suppliers, very happy with their service. I found most of them through the CTCW website, and found the forums, directory and Real Life weddings sections very helpful in my wedding research.