Russell and I met at a Single's Dance Party at a local club. I went there with my flatmate and Russell attended with a friend of his. When I arrived at the club, there were about five people (all over 50 years of age) at the dance, much to my disgust. Later on more people arrived, and Russell and I started talking and exchanged phone numbers. We saw each other the next day and from then on have been inseparable.

We were engaged on New Year's Eve on the 01/01/01 and we had until the 12th April 2003, therefore we had about 2 1/2 years to plan our wedding (which we needed).

I found that being organised was the key to successful planning. I kept a folder with everything that I had to arrange in it as well as any brochures, etc that I had received.

Russell and I agreed on nearly every detail. The only disagreement was about whether the boys would wear handkerchiefs in their top pockets or a flower. Russell got his way in the end and they wore the handkerchief.

I loved selecting my dress - I felt like an absolute princess. I loathed preparing the order of service - making 120 booklets was a nightmare. At times I became tired of planning and waiting for the big day. When I felt like this I took a few weeks off planning altogether to relax.

I woke up at about 8am on the morning of my wedding, although I had not slept at all the night before. I didn't feel nervous, just anxious. The weather was beautiful, although my bridesmaids later told me that at about 11.00am while getting ready it was raining, but being the good friends that they are, they closed all the blinds in the hotel room so that I had no idea.

We wanted to have a traditional ceremony at the All Saint's Anglican Church in Parramatta. But it turned out to be difficult to organise a Minister, because the Minister at that Church could not marry us as we did not live in the Parramatta area. We had to ring around many Churches before we found a Minister willing to travel to marry us. Thankfully Russell offered to arrange this for me.

My favourite part of the day was walking down the aisle, holding my father's hand - progressing toward the man I was to marry, the most wonderful man in the world.

We had the fairytale reception at Curzon Hall. It was just beautiful. The staff were very professional and the food was lovely. We had a traditional reception in a true castle. What I had always dreamt of. In fact, the reception was the easiest thing to arrange, because I had the help of Christine at Curzon Hall who guided me through the process and gave great advice. It was a true joy to plan the reception.

All in all, our day was very special and I would not change a thing. My only sadness was that the day had to end. I am thankful that we went with each of the suppliers that I chose and I do not regret spending what money we spent- it was well worth it.

For our honeymoon, we had an amazing week in the Maldives. The weather was gorgeous-30 degrees all the time. We paid for our meals prior to going so it worked out quite affordable. We did a lot of snorkelling and Russell enjoyed the catamaran and other activities they had planned. We also visited the capital of the Maldives - Male and visited a few of the local villages.