Sandstone Point Hotel
Wedding & Functions | 2025–2026
The Role
Having never worked in hospitality before, I was looking for a change and started as casual Front of House staff at Sandstone Point Hotel; a high-volume waterfront venue on the Sunshine Coast. Within a few weeks, the team had noticed what I brought to the table and I was encouraged to apply for a Wedding & Functions Coordinator position. I got the role.
The coordination work was end-to-end; client communication, event orders, scheduling, and on-the-day execution. But before I touched anything on the design side, I observed. I sat in meetings, read the material that was going out to couples, and paid attention to where communication was falling short.
What I Noticed
The biggest gap was tone. Most of the customer-facing material was very venue-focused; listing awards, feature lists, capacity details, operational language. None of it spoke to the emotional side of getting married. That shaped everything I went on to do.
Brochure & Email Rewrites
I identified that the main brochure presented to couples was heavily focused on venue features rather than the experience of getting married there. I drafted revised copy and worked through the changes with the Head of Functions, shifting the messaging toward the emotional side of the day. The brochure design itself was handled by the corporate graphic design team; my contribution was the content and tone. I also rewrote the email templates used by the events team so that every client interaction felt warmer and more considered from the very first reply.
Menu & Name Card System
The in-house menus and name cards were outdated, and the team was manually typing guest lists into a Canva file to produce name cards for every event. I designed four new menu and name card layouts, then built them as Word documents using mail merge connected to an Excel spreadsheet. The result looked far more polished and cut the production time dramatically; no more hand-typing 120 guest names into a design tool.
Styling & Selections Guide
There was an existing styling guide in-house but it was severely outdated; old photography, poor layout, no branding continuity. I redesigned it from the ground up using the brand guidelines from the marketing team. I set up table styling displays at the venue and photographed them myself, sourced additional images from photographers, wrote all the descriptions, and designed the full guide to be shared with couples, corporate function clients, and used internally during meetings. The whole document was built in Word so the team could continue editing it after I left.
Menu Options Guide
I applied the same approach to the menu guide. I brought in my own lighting, backdrops, and photography equipment and shot all the food imagery on-site. The finished guide matched the visual language of the styling guide; consistent branding across every document a couple would receive.
Venue Floor Plans
Sandstone Point has a number of different ceremony and reception spaces. I exported the base floor plans from the venue's online layout tool as SVG files, imported them into Illustrator, and designed a range of layout options for each space. I then built beautiful reference documents in the same visual style as the other guides; pairing each layout with relevant event photography and short descriptions to help couples picture themselves in the space.
Open Day Collateral
For the Wedding Open Days, I gathered every supplier's details; often having to dig through websites and social media when responses to my emails didn't come through. I created comprehensive supplier directories with contact details, social links, and partnership tags, plus colour-coded floor maps so visitors could navigate the event and find vendors easily. Everything was designed as reusable templates for future open days.
Signature Suppliers Guide
I was supplied a partial Word template from the head office graphic design team and followed the brief to build the full booklet. When the head of functions flagged that the template didn't quite meet the venue's needs, I reworked the structure and sourced photography and additional content to elevate the whole piece beyond what the original brief had called for.
Beyond the Brief
Alongside the collateral work, I identified an opportunity to improve the venue's entire sales approach. The enquiry process was reactive; leads came in and were responded to manually, with no automation or structured follow-up. I developed a proposal for automated enquiry flows, SMS responses, and a more proactive sales cycle. The proposal wasn't taken forward, but the thinking behind it reflects how I approach every role; I don't just deliver what's in front of me, I look for the systems that could make the whole operation work better.
The Full Picture
Every piece of design I produced at Sandstone Point was delivered alongside a full coordination workload. Nothing was briefed to me as a design project; I identified the need, proposed the solution, and executed it. The through-line across all of it was consistency; making sure that every document a couple received felt like it came from the same brand, told the same story, and treated their wedding like it mattered.
Zoe McGrath Photography
Brand, Business & Creative Practice | 2021–2024
The Business
I built Zoe McGrath Photography from scratch during COVID; not exactly the easiest time to launch a business that relies on getting up close and personal with families and their pets. Despite the landscape, I developed the full brand identity in-house, designed all marketing collateral (brochures, pricing guides, product guides), and built the website. On the backend, Sprout Studio managed the entire client workflow; contracts, contact management, gallery delivery, and automated email sequences. Every touchpoint was designed to feel professional and personal, even as a one-person operation.
The Photography
I'm an outdoor photographer. Sessions happened in parks, walking trails, beaches on the Sunshine Coast, or tucked into Brisbane city locations; wherever the dog already felt at home, or somewhere I knew would give us beautiful light and a relaxed atmosphere. A lot of my work was with senior dogs and dogs who were unwell, which required patience, calm energy, and an understanding that these sessions meant more than just photos.
In-Person Sales
After a session, families were invited to my home for the viewing. I always baked cookies, offered a hot or cold drink, and then shared a cinematic video of the images captured. From there we'd work through the gallery together; narrowing down, choosing favourites, and deciding how they wanted to keep those memories. I partnered with two local professional labs for framed canvas prints, albums, and a range of other products. That process built real trust; some of my clients became long-term friends.
Recognition
I was awarded in many photography competitions, most notably the Brisbane Ekka Show where I won first place in the overall digital colour category; not a pet photography category, but open competition across all genres. That recognition led to my work being featured in the Ekka's official programme the following year.
Queensland Camera Group & Prism Magazine
Through my photography club membership, I took on the volunteer role of redesigning their club publication, Prism Magazine. What had been a Word document became a full editorial layout in InDesign; new sections, fresh structure, and a completely different reading experience. I created a member questionnaire, gathered responses, and wrote feature articles about club members. I covered monthly events and guest speakers, organised external writers to contribute articles on specialist topics, and handled the full production cycle. It was hours of work each edition, and I loved every bit of it.
I also gave talks at the club, teaching skills and sharing what I'd learned. When I moved into full-time work in hospitality, I had to step back from both the magazine and the club; one of the harder trade-offs, but the time I spent there was some of the most rewarding creative work I've done.
Exhibition Video Production
For the club's gallery exhibition, I produced a 30-minute documentary-style video. This wasn't a phone job; I shot on my professional Sony camera with a gimbal and Rode microphones. I interviewed judges and club members, captured B-roll of the exhibition and opening night, then produced and edited the entire piece. I organised a voice-over with one of the club members and recorded that separately. Hours of production work, all volunteered, to give the club something they could genuinely be proud of.
Community
I organised and volunteered across two weekends of Christmas photo sessions as a fundraiser for the Staffy and Amstaff Rescue. Photography, event coordination, and a lot of early mornings with very excited dogs. We raised over $4,000 for them.
The Full Picture
Illustration, photography, branding, web, print design, video production, editorial, in-person sales, client management, community work, and competition success; all built and run by one person, during a pandemic.
Make it Crafty
Global E-commerce Creative Brand | 2010–2020
The Business
Make it Crafty was a creative e-commerce brand I built and ran for ten years. It started as a passion project and grew into an international business selling physical and digital products to a loyal community of artists and crafters. I was everything; designer, product developer, manufacturer, photographer, copywriter, web manager, community builder, and educator. Every part of it was mine to figure out.
Product Design & Manufacturing
I designed and manufactured a range of physical products including rubber stamps, chipboard embellishments, and 3D chipboard projects cut from beer board. Digital products included exclusive illustration collections and Copic colouring e-books with step-by-step tutorials. For the stamp sets and digital image collections, I commissioned and art-directed illustrators across multiple countries; planning releases months in advance, coordinating themes, and colouring many of the images myself. Those coloured pieces fed directly into the e-books, video tutorials, and marketing content; every product supported the next.
Design Team & Community
I recruited and managed a worldwide volunteer design team through a formal application process. Getting accepted onto the Make it Crafty DT was genuinely sought after in the crafting community. The team helped produce content, showcase products, and build excitement around new releases. I also ran a monthly colouring competition blog that served two purposes; it pushed my own design team to develop new skills (and we had a lot of fun doing it), and it gave the wider community a reason to try new techniques and engage with the brand.
I was also personally active on other design teams; most notably Magnolia Stamps, where I wrote colouring articles and tutorials for their printed magazine.
Collaborations & Promotion
I pioneered cross-brand collaborations before they were standard practice in the industry. I would organise themed releases with other artists; we'd each design to a shared concept, release together, and cross-promote across our audiences. I also created a collection of blog badges that crafters could embed on their own blogs. Each badge linked back to my website, and the campaign generated thousands of backlinks organically; a smart SEO strategy built entirely on community enthusiasm.
Content & Education
Content was central to everything. I wrote blogs, produced video tutorials, designed colouring e-books, and sent monthly newsletters. The communication style was always personal, story-driven, and educational; I wanted people to learn something, not just buy something.
That approach extended beyond the screen. I was invited as a guest instructor to colouring retreats in the United States on multiple occasions, teaching alongside other artists in the community. It was a chance to connect face-to-face with the audience I'd been building online, and it reinforced what I already knew; this community was something special.
The online presence grew to over 5,000 members in the Facebook group and more than 7,000 followers on the Facebook page, with Instagram growing steadily before I closed the business.
E-commerce & Operations
The online store ran on a self-hosted CS-Cart platform; this was years before Shopify was an option. Over time I hired developers to modify and extend the system to fit my needs; adding custom features that no off-the-shelf solution offered.
One was a loyalty points system. Customers earned points with every purchase that they could put toward future orders at any time, with no minimum. Many regulars liked to save up their points and use them to grab a free digi stamp; it kept people coming back and rewarded loyalty without discounting.
The other was an inspiration gallery. Customers could upload photos of cards and projects they'd made using products from my store. Each upload went into a holding bin where I could tag the products used, and those images would then automatically appear on the relevant product pages. It was user-generated content that built community, acted as social proof, and made every product page richer over time. Customers loved seeing their work featured, and new buyers could see exactly what was possible with each product.
I worked with developers to bring my ideas to life; I knew what I wanted the site to do, I just needed someone who could build it. The store carried thousands of products over its lifetime, all managed by me; product listings, inventory, photography, customer service, shipping, and fulfilment.
The Full Picture
Make it Crafty was a brand, a community, and an education platform that grew over ten years. I built the foundations; the products, the website, the branding, the systems. But the truth is, it was the community and the design team who helped make it what it became. People applied to be on the team because they believed in it. They created content, shared their skills, promoted releases, and showed up month after month because they wanted to be part of something. My role was to build a space worth showing up to, and then keep showing up myself.
Product design, illustration direction, manufacturing, photography, web, content, marketing, community leadership, international collaboration, and e-commerce operations; ten years of building something I'm genuinely proud of.
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