Two of Michael's friends had decided to tour around Europe, get their UK work visas, and stay on a working holiday after Contiki. Michael's temp work contract wasn't renewed so he jumped on their bandwagon...and booked his flights a mere two weeks before the trip began!!

Needless to say, the first day or so of the trip was overwhelming - I certainly wondered what I had gotten myself into. I was a small town girl in a big group of foreigners, on a different continent! I was despairing slightly, but definitely looking forward to spending time in Paris on the third day of the trip.

It was on that day, wandering around the tiny streets of Paris, that I met Michael. I immediately knew he was the one for me, ignoring all of the logistics involved. He was adorable, hilarious, and the life of the party. Usually women are described as lighting up a room - but he was definitely the one who did that! I started talking to him while getting lunch and wandered around Notre Dame with him alone. I felt like I was 13 again...I couldn't believe how nervous I was! All I remember is thinking, "Find something to talk about, anything to talk about!" I can't believe anything that came out of my mouth made any kind of sense at all - but apparently I said something right, because we were inseparable from that point forward.

The rest of our holiday flew by - we cheered on Lance Armstrong in his final stretch of the Tour de France, stargazed outside of a chateau, had a romantic gondola ride, went parapenting in the Alps, watched fireworks in Germany, and a million other things that made it a trip of a lifetime.

As the trip ended, everyone assumed that it was a summer fling that would come to an end, as many other Contiki relationships did. But we were determined - distance wasn't a factor in our feelings. We had many tearful goodbyes and enthusiastic hellos at airports during our long-distance relationship, but walking off the airplane in Perth to stay (December 2005) was the best feeling in the world. I knew it had been a struggle, but we had won.

We started talking about marriage in October - only 3 months after we had met! We knew we wanted to be together, but needed to decide whose home we would live in...the United States or Australia. We decided to hold off making any serious decisions until I had visited Perth and decided if I liked it. I visited in December-January 2005 and had a fantastic time. The weather, people, animals, wildlife - it was all wonderful. My love of the area sealed the deal and we went engagement ring shopping. There was initially no proposal involved - we made the decision to marry, picked out the ring, and that was that. More rational than romantic.

However, when Michael came to visit me in the US during March-May 2005, I had a better proposal. We drove down to New Orleans over my spring break to enjoy the sights and sounds that only it could offer. Michael offered a much more romantic and heartfelt proposal one night while we were in the courtyard of Pat O'Brien's. He was sincere and said everything perfectly - and that completely made up for the fact that my engagement ring wasn't a surprise! I wouldn't have changed it for the world.

While we discussed marriage in October, no serious decision were reached until January 2005. On top of that, a date wasn't set until March 2005 - so I only had about 9 months to plan the wedding (I was moving to Perth in December, although the wedding was in January 2006). It was a challenge, to put it lightly. I did all of the planning myself (except for Michael's taste-testing of wedding cake!) from the United States. Most of the time he couldn't even help, as he was living and working in Glasgow, without an internet connection. While planning an international wedding, I was also taking a full load of college classes, doing the paperwork to import my dog to Australia, putting together my own visa application, and working two jobs during the summer. It was absolutely chaotic and I'm still wondering how I kept my sanity. I am very pleased to say that it was all worth it in the end though.

January 7, 2006 was a gorgeous day. Gorgeous. The sun was shining, the sky was bright blue, and there wasn't a cloud in sight. It did get a bit on the warm side, but that was certainly nothing for us to complain about.

Michael and I spent the traditional night before the wedding apart and didn't see each other until the 3 pm ceremony. Both of us were very calm during the day - for a while it seemed like any other day (even though I was the girl everyone sees wandering around town in a button up shirt with her hair done and veil on!). Even after the photography began, my bridesmaids and I discussed being strangely calm - none of us felt nervous at all.

That changed as soon as we started to get in the car to drive to the ceremony site. My bridesmaid from the US was completely calm (maybe a little energetic), but my other bridesmaid and I were starting to feel a bit queasy with nervousness. I never thought I would get nervous, but I certainly did. It wasn't the "I want to run away" nervous - more of the "I can't believe it's already here" nervous. The nervousness faded out as soon as I caught of a glimpse of Michael waiting on the sand though. He looked so handsome and I couldn't wait for him to see me in my dress. The nerves dissolved into joy and I spent the rest of the day smiling!

The ceremony went beautifully, as did the family photos afterwards (although the flies down south were certainly something to be reckoned with!). Because the only people I had attending the wedding from my side were my parents and my college roommate, Crystal, we decided to keep the wedding very small and intimate. The ceremony was held right on the sand of Castle Rock Beach, outside of Dunsborough, WA. The water was gorgeous, the sand was shimmering - it was gorgeous. Our site consisted of a dried grapevine archway (decorated in fuschia/light pink roses), 10 chairs covered in white linen and tied with fuschia sashes, aisle liners with white organza and fuschia/light pink roses, and fuschia/light pink rose petals on the sand. Our celebrant, Lyn Mueller, put together the most gorgeous service for us - all aspects of the ceremony reflected our personalities and history perfectly. There was nothing we did purely because it was expected...it was all us! We decided against having music, as the sounds of the ocean were too beautiful to drown out.

The atmosphere and entire ceremony were very warm and loving. We only had 10 guests - all direct relatives or significant others of the bridal party. With that small of a group, it was easy to see how truly happy everyone was. No one was left out and we all had a fantastic time. While it was definitely a bit warm (36), we all hung in there and made it the most fantastic day ever.

Because we decided not to have our reception until the following night (Sunday the 8th) back in Perth, we had the entire afternoon to spend with our photographer. He was absolutely brilliant and we had the best time taking photos. What is even better than the fact that we had a great time is that our photos turned out fantastic. We couldn't have found anyone more perfect for us.

We had our reception the day after our wedding, back in Perth. We didn't want to inconvenience people by having them drive 3.5 hours south and worry about accommodation, etc. Plus we wanted plenty of time to be devoted to our photography, so it worked out great for everyone. The reception was our opportunity to enjoy our new marraige with everyone - our guest list was at 90, so it was significantly bigger than our intimate wedding.

The reception was held at the Floreat Surf Lifesaving Club, which was right on the beach and had an enormous balcony overlooking the Indian Ocean. The sea breeze was in, the weather was perfect, and we had a gorgeous sunset. The caterers were fantastic and received many compliments on the meal. We had a 4 tier white chocolate mud cake that everyone had been eagerly anticipating for some time (none moreso than myself though!).

The entire night was just very casual and fun. Many of our friends that we met on our Contiki trip managed to make it to the wedding...we had friends from the US, Canada, the UK, and a couple of the eastern states. The reception, not surprisingly, had a travel theme, which was incorporated in everything from our handmade invitiations with pictures from Europe to our city-assigned centerpieces. Michael's family is very large and traditionally Italian, so my parents had a great time mingling with them and seeing how they do things. Our send-off for the night was perfect - a traditional Italian archway with cheering and hooting that still makes us laugh remembering it.

The most memorable part of the day could definitely be considered a distaster. However, I choose not to remember it as being bad - it's more of a unique story! While taking photos at Redgate Beach, our photographer asked us to go stand out on a rock that was jutting out into the ocean. As we walked up it, I noticed it was all wet and suggested that it might not be the best place to take photos. It was only common sense that wet = wave. He insisted it would only take a second and we were facing out to sea anyway...if we saw one coming, we could turn and run. Well - there were enormous waves. BUT, no matter how big they looked, they didn't even come close to splashing up on us. So we let our guard down. After finishing the looking out to sea photos, we turned around to take some straight on. After two photos, we heard an enormous wave coming. Unfortunately, it was too close for us to run. We just stood there and got drenched - and me more so than Michael, as I actually dove in front of him to take most of the wave. Needless to say, we were soaked and the temperature had drastically dropped to around 18-20. I was freezing, but we managed to finish our photos (we were running out of daylight anyway). I knew at the time it would be one of those stories that was funny in a few years - but decided to go ahead and see it as funny right away. I made an active decision to not let a little water ruin my previously perfect wedding day.

Planning our wedding had been challenging. International weddings are very difficult - especially when it's not really a destination wedding, so you don't have anyone at the resort to help you out. I had a lot of problems with wedding suppliers choosing not to check or respond to emails. I automatically had to cut them off my list because it was too time consuming and expensive to make international calls for casual enquiries - not to mention that the time difference made things less than easy as well. However it was great when I actually managed to find individuals who were polite and interested in my business. That was fantastic, knowing there were still people in the Perth area that would go the extra distance to make my wedding perfect.

The planing was all worth it in the end and very rewarding when almost everyone complimented me on something. My father-in-law made sure to point out in his speech that I had made all of the arrangements from the US and he was so proud of my hard work. It was nice having people recognize how much time and effort I had put into the night - and it was even better knowing that they were enjoying themselves just as much as I was.

Michael and I joke around and say that we would have eloped - the actual time I had to put into planning the long distance wedding was immense. It was a huge challenge and there were certainly times that I wanted to give up and call it all off. However, it turned out better than I ever imagined. While we would have loved to use all of the money we spent on traveling to exotic lands, I don't think either of us really would have changed a thing, except for the fact that none of my friends/family could attend. That's just another sacrifice that had to be made in the name of long-distance love.

The wedding accommodation was the most difficult thing for me to arrange. The entire wedding party drove down south a few days before the wedding to enjoy the sites and relax a bit...but getting a final head count on all of the various days we stayed down there was nearly impossible. People had to ask off work, see if they'd have a car, etc, etc, etc. By the time we figured out who would be staying which nights, almost all of the accommodation was already booked out (it was peak season in a tourist area). My mother-in-law finally had to make the arrangements and we ended up staying in chalets that didn't have a website - I was a bit worried, but they turned out to be wonderful. However, our final head counts were still incorrect and we ended up with too much space for how many people were there (which I suppose is still better than not enough room).

My dress was the simplest thing to arrange. I only visited a couple of bridal stores before I found it and I knew it was the one as soon as I tried it on. It was fitted, had a gorgeous intricate beading pattern, and was made of the most beautiful sheer, whispy material. It just screamed beach wedding. I loved it immediately (although the one I tried on was more than a few sizes too big!) and couldn't believe that I only paid $220 for it!! I think it was literally the bargain of my lifetime.

Michael's parents were more into having a traditional wedding than we were - we wanted to keep our costs down, as we had to pay for my visa application fee, airfare, and the importation of my dog. Those thousands of dollars added up very quickly and we both knew that it might be a while before we got jobs (with the wedding and entertaining my parents while they were visiting). We preferred a cocktail reception, while they were after a multi-course sit-down dinner with everyone imaginable invited. We finally relented, as they offered to cover the costs. However, we did continue to butt heads over who was invited for some time - they actually invited people behind our backs more than once. That caused some tension as it quickly felt like it was no longer our wedding, but their's, as they were determining the final guest lists. We decided to keep quiet and let it pass - they weren't inviting ex-partners or anything outrageous like that, so as long as they paid the bill, we lived and let live!

We did not go on a honeymoon for multiple reasons. The first being our financial situation - we had too many bills associated with my move to pay for. Additionally, my parents and my bridesmaid from the US (among other international guests) were still in Perth for some time after the wedding and the last thing we wanted to do was leave them on their own. We did relax down south for a few days after the wedding, but spent the time afterwards at our own home, back in Perth. We got to do all of the tourist things with the international guests and enjoyed ourselves. We are, however, saving for a month long trip to the US during the northern hemisphere summer of 2007. That will count as our long-awaited honeymoon!