Wedding edition: Inside Flick Palmateer and Mitch Gimm’s three-day festival of love

“She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean, she was the best damn woman that I ever seen.” As AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long floated through Margaret River Retreat, Flick Palmateer took the arm of her dad Warrick. In a gold sequinned gown, designed by Kyha Studios and weighing around 5kg, friends, family and around 23 fellow Survivor stars watched on as father and daughter descended down a crunchy grass aisle to the song they’d blasted in the car since Palmateer was 10. The wedding of Palmateer, a professional big-wave surfer and two-time Australian Survivor contestant, and Mitch Gimm wasn’t hugely traditional, but their everyday lives are equally anything but conventional. After learning to surf at six, Palmateer has dedicated her career to chasing big waves around the world, some up to a massive 9m. She’s in Hawaii when she chats to STM about her October 1, 2023 nuptials, currently land-bound due to a broken foot. Gimm, who shares his wife’s affinity for the ocean and surfing, captains ships that transport goods long distances, including Australia-Japan routes. If they’re not traversing the world for work, they can still be found outdoors, camping or hiking — seeking adventure is a shared desire. It was during a mini-adventure together, road-tripping through Walpole and Denmark, that Palmateer had the first inkling Gimm could be her special someone. She’d known him for years — Gimm was close friends with her cousins — but the timing was never right. She’d always been travelling, living on the east coast or in a relationship. Then one Christmas, there he was, and they were both miraculously single. Little did they know that their fast-paced worlds were also about to come to a forced pause. “That year was interesting because the whole world stopped with COVID. I’d been travelling 24/7 basically since I was 16 . . . then everything came to a grinding halt,” Palmateer says. “So Mitch and I got this really condensed period of time together — I’ve never really had that in a relationship. I think that’s why we were able to build such a strong foundation straight away.” Once the world opened back up, more adventures were on the cards. The couple began building their dream home in Margaret River, while Palmateer found herself in Samoa for Australian Survivor: Heroes V Villains (she was a hero, of course). A few days after returning to Perth from the jungle, her best mate joked that Gimm was bound to drop the knee any day now as he was older than her (Gimm is 19 years her senior) and that she might just be a fiancee the next time she saw her. It was her friend’s wry sense of humour, so she mostly laughed it off. “Then the next day we were in Yanchep, at the lagoon beach, there is a surf break just up from there. I had to take some social media content that morning, so I had brought my phone down to the beach,” Palmateer explains. “I remember Mitch was stuffing around at home, taking his time to get ready for the surf, and I was getting s....., like ‘come on, it’s only offshore for so long, let’s go’.” Finally they arrived at the beach, Palmateer hurrying Gimm along as he took more time fumbling with his wetsuit (unbeknownst to her, he was hiding the ring in the pocket of his suit). He managed to nervously shoot the content before popping the question. “I always knew I wanted it (the proposal) to be outdoors and for it to be meaningful for us. Obviously we love the ocean so much, but it did get me by surprise,” she says. They kept the engagement a secret for a week and a half, announcing the exciting news to their closest friends and family at what was initially planned to be Palmateer’s 30th birthday party. She made sure the ring was on full display when she let guests know there was another reason they were celebrating that night. While Palmateer had never fantasised about her wedding growing up, a steady sense of excitement mounted from the moment she began planning. It was going to be big — she had a massive family and they both had friends who would be flying in from around the world. So, instead of just the traditional ceremony and reception, the couple planned a three-day wedding festival. The retreat, around 17km south of Margaret River, was the ideal spot to hold the festivities. On the Thursday they had an intimate celebration with their bridal party, the wedding (there were 148 guests) on Friday and, for those who were still game, a recovery on Saturday. Surrounded by the Forest Grove National Park, the sweeping property had an array of accommodation options — studio apartments repurposed from farm sheds and glamping tents — plus plenty of room for guests who were bringing down caravans or cars. In its centre they set up a Hamptons-style tent, a woodfired pizza truck and mobile cocktail bar for the reception. Somehow, around a busy surfing schedule, Palmateer planned it all herself. For their long weekend she had engaged a coordinator, an “MVP” who was on her hands and knees with a bucket when the tent flooded on the Friday during heavy rain. The wedding day itself was a perfect 26 degrees and downfall free. Walking down the aisle to an unexpected Aussie rock classic wasn’t the only personal touch that Palmateer slipped into the wedding. Attached to the sunset-toned bouquet she held, assembled by her talented bridesmaids, was a picture of her mum Pauline framed in gold with a small pearl droplet. In 2021, Palmateer lost her mum to frontotemporal dementia at just 52. Palmateer was competing in her first season of Survivor when her mum passed away, making the difficult choice to stay on the show to raise awareness of the condition and live the kind of full life her mum didn’t have the chance to. She is now a Dementia Australia ambassador. Gimm’s mum had also passed away, and Palmateer shares that her dad is also unwell. “We always knew we wanted to be together, and that wasn’t the sole reason (we got married), but there was some urgency around that as you’re not sure what the future holds,” she says. The gold dress Palmateer instantly fell in love with also held special meaning. Pauline had studied fashion design and Palmateer knew she would have adored its intricate design. To match the gown’s mermaid feel, Palmateer wore her long hair down, with part behind her ear to reveal a statement earring with a small golden shell. Not one to wear heavy make-up, her complexion was natural and glowy. Palmateer’s second dress, another glittering gold number — a mini gifted to her by designer Nadine Merabi — was the perfect length to dance the night away in. Before she changed, the couple were whisked away for photos at their favourite beach, Contos. “It was really special having that time, to pull away for a while. We made that photo time quite long as we knew we wouldn’t get that time with just us,” Palmateer says. And she was right, recalling walking back into the reception to Survivor villain George Mladenov with his shirt off, immunity idol tattoo on full display. “It was cool, because I’d been on two seasons of Survivor and they don’t do a reunion any more after COVID. I think there were 23 Survivors there, we hadn’t had that moment of all being together, so the party was crazy,” she says. Fellow West Aussie Liz Parnov was in attendance as well as former AFL star Shaun Hampson and his partner, model Megan Gale. Not even the raging hangover the next day could stop the celebrations flowing; a bottle of champagne next to the bed took her into recovery at the retreat, followed by a winery visit with guests. The planned honeymoon up north to Exmouth went out the window when Palmateer learnt that she had been nominated for an award in Hawaii. Instead the couple spent three weeks travelling around what feels like her second home, before a trip to the Maldives later in the year. As their big life continues to take them around the world, having adventures together and apart, it’s a sentiment from author Tim Winton that Palmateer used as her caption for the wedding photos on their favourite beach, describing where they most feel at home. “There is nowhere else I’d rather be, nothing else I would prefer to be doing. I am at the beach looking west with the continent behind me as the sun tracks down to the sea. I have my bearings.”