Kate and Elizabeth: A Modern Brisbane Wedding

Kate and Elizabeth’s story began long before romance entered the picture. Years of friendship, a shared love of music, and coming out together laid the foundation for a relationship they celebrated in April 2026 with a wedding at The Calile in Brisbane, bringing together personal touches, thoughtful details, and a whole lot of love.

Photography Samantha Heather

THEODORE Mag: How and when did you meet?
Elizabeth: We met back in 2017, introduced through mutual friends, at church, actually. That was before either of us were out. I was extremely closeted, and Kate was dating a guy at the time!

THEODORE Mag: Tell us a little about that first time you met…
Kate: It wasn’t necessarily sparks or fireworks on the first meeting, but rather a gradual build over a couple of years of knowing each other. Finding out that we had such similar interests in things like playing and listening to music, a love of jazz and funk, the enjoyment of nice food and wine together, and realising that we shared a similar sense of humour and loved spending time together.

Elizabeth: Then, as time went on, we moved in together during lockdown. We were able to get an amazing apartment in the city to move into, and spend 2 years of lockdown together. We were friends when we moved in, but a lot of close time together, in a very short amount of time, meant that it wasn’t long before the first kissed happened. And the rest is history!

THEODORE Mag: What was the first thing you noticed about each other?
Elizabeth: I definitely noticed that Kate had a great sense of style and seemed so effortlessly cool. She also was very confident.

Kate: I noticed that she was very cool and able to hold her own among male musicians(who can be a very intimidating crowd!)

THEODORE Mag: Tell us about the standout moment or milestone in your relationship…
Kate: We came out together, which was incredibly significant. We did it slowly over a few months, which lessened the anxiety around it. We kept our relationship secret for almost 2.5 years, unsure of how it would be received. However, when we did come out, both of our families were so supportive, and so were our friends. Some took time to understand, and unfortunately we did lose some friends. But the community that we were welcomed into, thanks to friends who were so gentle and understanding with the process, was truly incredible. I look around now and see the amazing life and community we’re building together.

Elizabeth: Outside of that, we bought an apartment, have our little sausage dog Frankie together, and have travelled overseas. Those things really solidify a relationship!

THEODORE Mag: What does marriage mean to you?
Kate: It means choosing each other every day, no matter what season of life we’re in. It also means giving each other a life that, at times, we may have thought we might not get to have. To share a partnership together and build something extraordinary.

THEODORE Mag: Who proposed and how?
Elizabeth: I proposed to Kate. It was a couple of days before our four year anniversary, so I was able to disguise it behind a nice dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, Alberto’s Lounge.
I’m a pretty punctual person, so when we were starting to run a few minutes late to our reservation, my “quick sunset walk through Hyde Park because the sky is pretty” didn’t make a whole lot of sense to Kate, who insisted she knew a shortcut to get to the restaurant! But thankfully we made that walk through Hyde Park, and I pulled her off the path, told her how much I loved her and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, and asked if she’d marry me!

THEODORE Mag: When did you get married?
12 April 2026.

THEODORE Mag: What was the main influence behind your wedding day?
Elizabeth: We wanted the day to feel like us, fun but a little bit elevated, full of incredible food and drinks, and lots of music. The Calile was able to tick so many of the boxes when it came to what we thought and what we wanted for our wedding in terms of vibe and aesthetic. Plus, I grew up in Brisbane, so it was in a location that was meaningful to us.

THEODORE Mag: What was the most important thing to you surrounding your wedding?
Kate: That we shared our love and relationship with our family and friends. We spoke about it in our ceremony, but there aren’t many other times in life that the most significant people in your life are all gathered in the same room together, and we really wanted to highlight the significance of that in as many aspects of the day as we could.

THEODORE Mag: Did you incorporate any family sentiments or traditions?
Elizabeth: I wore a brooch that has been passed down for 5 or so generations on my mum's side of the family. That was really special for me.

THEODORE Mag: Where did you find the bulk of your inspiration?
Kate: We took a lot of inspiration from other queer and lesbian couples online.

THEODORE Mag: How did you choose your suppliers?
Elizabeth: We were so lucky that most of our suppliers were friends of ours. Having Sam and Drue as our photographer and videographer was amazing. We both felt so at ease all day and truly understood.
Our celebrant, Paul, is another friend of mine, we studied music together, and he was a pastor at my church back in the day.
Sara is my cousin's partner, and an incredible musician and DJ. She really knew how to bring the vibe!
The ceremony flowers were done by Brisbane Flower Hire, who we found online. I am unfortunately incredibly allergic to a lot of flowers, so hiring silk flowers was so important because I didn’t want my wedding ceremony/day ruined by allergies! We made our own bouquets with our bridesmaids with flowers we knew wouldn’t affect me.
Our makeup artist, Hannah Mills, came from a glowing recommendation from my sister-in-law. Hannah was so fun, fit in with the whole wedding party, and made us all look and feel amazing.
We found our hair stylist, Jody Callan, online through a search for curly hair specialists, because I needed someone who knew how to do curls, and Jody was amazing.

THEODORE Mag: What was the most difficult thing about planning your wedding?
Kate: Staying on top of planning while working full time, and both of us were doing postgraduate study at the same time!

Elizabeth: We settled on our apartment a few days before I proposed…definitely crammed in the major life events all together.

THEODORE Mag: Where did you spend your honeymoon?
Elizabeth: We haven’t done our “official” honeymoon just yet; we are hoping to go to New Zealand or Japan, but we spent a few days on the Sunshine Coast just after the wedding, and had an extra couple of nights at The Calile to really soak up our time there, which was incredible.

THEODORE Mag: Any advice for other couples planning their day and finding it difficult to navigate the journey?
Elizabeth and Kate: Do what you want to do! Don’t worry about whether something is too on trend or not on trend enough, if the colours you pick will date your wedding etc etc. If it makes you happy and is important to you, then choose that! And the wedding is so worth all of the emotions that come with the planning!

Kate and Elizabeth’s Team

Photography @samantha.heather

Videography @drueeleanorfilms

DJ & Saxophone @saramclean.sax

Celebrant @paulredferncelebrant

Ceremony Florals @brisbane_flower_hire

Hair @jodycallanhair

Makeup @hannah_mills_makeup_artist

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