Leo proposed on the 1st September 2001, I will always remember the date being the first day of Spring. We were at a hotel in Canberra - it was perfect!

Initially we planned to get married in December the following year, so we had about 15 months to plan the wedding. However, we had to change the date in August as Leo had to go away with work. We then reset the date for the 15th of February 2003. Some things were a little difficult to rebook particularly flowers and cars but it all worked out in the end. Some of the planning was hard, as Leo was away for a lot of the time, before the wedding however my family were a great help with rearranging and booking things.

Most of the planning for our wedding was really exciting, particularly writing our ceremony. I really enjoyed looking for my wedding dress. The week before the wedding got pretty stressful as Leo got in town only seven days before so we had a lot of finalising to do. But it all worked out on the day.

The hardest thing to arrange were the flowers, as we got married the day after Valentines Day, so many florists were only doing a few weddings that weekend. Because we were re-booking things 6 months before the wedding, it was difficult to find a good florist that wasn't already fully booked.

Our wedding day was perfect and more amazing than I had ever imagined and we will treasure the memories forever. My day started early and the morning was filled with hairdresser appointments and later in the afternoon getting our makeup done, by the time we knew it, it was 3pm! Leo’s day was a lot more leisurely than mine and involved lunch and hanging out with the boys.

The ceremony started at 4.30pm. When I left my house for the Chapel there were a few spots of rain and lots of cloud, but when we arrived at the Chapel the sky was clear, we had perfect weather for the rest of the day.

We had a Catholic ceremony at Duntroon Chapel at the Royal Military College in Canberra. We chose readings and prayers to include in our ceremony that we liked and were special to us. We had a string trio and a singer, who did an amazing job. The ceremony was beautiful, we both couldn’t stop smiling.

It is difficult to choose one moment that was most memorable as the whole day sticks in my mind so clearly, and makes me smile. However, a particularly special moment for me was when my gorgeous husband to be turned and smiled at me as I walked down the red carpet toward the alter, it was a wonderful feeling and took away all my nerves.

We had our family photos taken outside the chapel and then went to Yarralumla, with the bridal party for our ‘photo shoot’, we had so much fun. We then went off to our reception which was held at the Hellenic Club in Canberra.

The room was set up with fairy lights, and candle centrepieces, it was very romantic and magical. We had a colour theme of silver and pink, this was reflected in our ceremony booklets and the flowers and carried through at the reception with silver menus, silver hearts sprinkled on the tables and silver sashes around the chair covers.

We did our wedding waltz to 'I only want to be with you' by Vonda Shepherd. We had a really fantastic band and everyone was dancing and having lots of fun. The reception was great as it was so wonderful to have all of our family and friends in the same room and to catch up with people that we hadn’t seen in a while. The night went so fast though and we were having so much fun we didn’t want to leave!

The whole day was a high for both of us and definitely the best day of our lives.

For our honeymoon we went to the North Island of New Zealand for 2 weeks. We had a fantastic time and drove from Wellington up to the Bay of Islands, stopping along the way. We did some sight seeing, relaxed, and enjoyed spending time with each other. A few things that we did was parasailing, swimming with dolphins and black water rafting.

We got amazing feedback from everyone who attended our wedding, they all said it was the best and most romantic wedding they had ever been to. We had guests travel from all over Australia and Overseas. I thank them all for travelling so far to help us celebrate our wedding day.

I would like to thank our bridal party for all there help in making our wedding day so special and so much fun. I would like to make a special mention of our page boy and flower girl, Matthew and Sarah who did a fantastic job.

I would especially like to thank our parents for all their help and support with planning the wedding and for giving us a day we will never forget. It is amazing how fast the day goes so make sure you take a minute on the day to savour every moment of it!