Paul and I were together for two and a half years and had discussed getting married. We had organised the engagement ring through Paul's uncle and he sent it by mail. It arrived on my birthday and that day I did not try it on until Paul put it on my finger (he was sure that I had tried it on during the day). Paul proposed to me while we were sitting on the couch saying "Katherine Exell will you marry me". I, of course, said yes! We went out to dinner at a restaurant in Lygon Street, to the place where we had met. We then played a game of pool and whilst we were playing my Dad rang and I excitedly told him we were engaged. He was thrilled. That night, we also saw Ernie Dingo in the place where we played pool.

We decided on the wedding date 28th August 2004, in January 2004, so we only had 8 months to organise the day, but it was all done really well. The only problem areas were organising who we were to invite and how we were going to do the bomboniere. Even though things seemed easy enough to plan, there was a lot of stress organising things and this caused me to break out in acne, the worst I have ever had.

We were married on a Saturday with the temperature at 24 degrees, which was quite warm for August, we felt very lucky and the sun was shining brightly. We had a traditional wedding ceremony at St Joseph's Catholic Church in Brunswick West. The service began at 2.00pm. We had bow sashes on both sides of the aisle. Paul and I had three groomsmen and bridesmaids. Paul?s best man was his brother, Matthew Conti, groomsman Ronnie Singh(his friend), and Daniel Conti (his brother). As maid of honour, I had my friend, Mary-Ann Law, bridesmaid Claire Rasmussen (my sister) and Amanda Conti (Paul's sister).

I walked down the aisle at around 2.15 pm to 'I knew I always Loved you' by Savage Garden. We signed the register to 'Canon in D', by Mantovani Orchestra and exited the church with 'My Destiny' by Lionel Richie.

During the exchanging of rings, I dropped Paul?s ring on the stairs saying "shivers", this was embarrassing but everyone in the church had a laugh. We had photo's outside the church in the garden and followed by photo's at Williamstown's Gem Pier, gardens and beach. While we were having photo's down at Williamstown there was a small sun shower and the girls worried that their hair would go curly. When the photographer suggested we go take photo's on the beach I was not so sure about taking of my shoes, but we had some of the best photo's on the beach. Paul and I were driven around in his Dad's White Dodge Phoenix.

We had a reception for 110 guests at Moonee Ponds Lawn Bowls in Queens Park. Pre-dinner drinks and hors d'oeuvres were served when guests arrived. The meals were a buffet of roast meats, ham, roast vegetables, salads, condiments and bread rolls. Dessert was a buffet and the wedding cake was included. We had a five piece band 'Nite Life' at the reception, who played our wedding songs and entertained our guests. We had a family friend 'Anthony Demasi' who is a professional magician entertain our guests with a floor show as well as table magic. Paul and I found the day went really fast but we both had a wonderful time. Our MC was Costa Pappas who had never been an MC for a wedding, but he did a wonderful job.

When Paul had said his speech at the reception, he asked me to join him on the dance floor where he had organised a surprise present for me. The music. started and I was unfamiliar with the song at first and Paul told me to listen to the words, and I soon learnt the song was called Katherine, it was about me and how we met and how much I meant to Paul. Another surprise was he had it made on to a DVD with photo's of Paul and I, and he had the song words framed with pictures of us.

Another surprise was when Paul's cousin Natalie got up and sang a song for us that we had no idea she had organised, it was so lovely that we both got up and danced.

My Mum and Dad had been divorced and had not seen each other for approximately 21 years and my wedding brought them back to each other. The shock was when Paul and I were dancing and my Mum dragged my Dad onto the dance floor, it was very memorable, we also had family photo's together with my brother.

As my family did not do a speech I was asked to do one after Paul's speech and my Katherine song. I did not have anything prepared, so I said what was in my heart. While saying my speech everyone in the room was quite emotional and began to cry when I started crying, the emotion was so deep that even the men were crying.

The highlights in arranging our day was having all the family travel from interstate. My Dad and his partner, Paul's Aunties and Uncles and cousins came to stay in Melbourne and helped us organise the day.

My low's was my breakout of acne, an extra thing I had to stress about. Another low is that I have coeliac disease and for the type of cake I wanted, I had to have gluten free ingredients. The restaurant I normally would buy gluten free cakes from were not very helpful when I asked them to help (Silly Yaks), so a friend from work put me on to his niece who is a pastry chef by trade and she made my cake exactly how I wanted it, and it was much cheaper than any cake shop! To cut costs and because my cake was chocolate mud and gluten free, I had only one layer of cake and the top two tiers were made with foam. The problem was the reception did not realise how rich it was and did not cut it small enough for everyone to have a piece, so some people missed out! If I could do it all again I would have stressed less and enjoyed the organising more. I would have a three tier cake with all layers having cake, so that we would not run out of cake for our guests.

We had decided we wanted to go to New Zealand for our honeymoon and looked around for honeymoons on a budget which was more rewarding than jumping in and buying the first thing we saw. After talking to friends and travel agents we decided the South Island was more scenic and romantic to visit. We had 12 days from August 30th to September 10th. We flew in to Christchurch from Melbourne airport and hired a car. We travelled north around the island and back up to Christchurch. Town's we visited were Kaikoura, Picton, Nelson, Hokitika, Franz Joseph, Wannaka, Queenstown, Dunedin, and Oamaru. We walked on the Glaciers at Franz Joseph, Paul's went bungy jumping on the Kawarau Bridge, we went jet boating in Wannaka, we saw a colony or two of seals and we went on a 3 hr scenic tour of the islands around Picton. The time went so fast we did not get to see Midford Sound and Hamner Springs, but we will return one day.