The Romance
We met at a Catholic parish youth group. We were both leaders of different parish youth groups at the time, and I happened to be visiting his one. We hit it off straight away and then started dating.
The ProposalWe were together just over two and a half years when David popped the question. He proposed on the 25th July 2013 while we were at World Youth Day in Rio Di Janeiro. He proposed on top of Corcovado in Rio, right in front of the statue of Christ the Redeemer. He had been waiting a few days as the weather up there wasn't really good so we were very lucky to be up there on a day where you could see all of Rio plus right in front of the 38 metre statue of Jesus. What a proposal!
The Planning
We had just over a year to arrange the wedding from when David proposed. We were towards the end of our America/World Youth day trip at the time as we had already been travelling for 5 weeks. Once we got back to Melbourne, the following weekend we were looking at wedding venues and I think within a couple of weeks we had decided on Witchmount Winery at Plumpton. By that time we had just over a year to arrange everything.
Some things were so easy like the flowers, the cake, the cars, the photographer, hairdresser, makeup, dress (once i had found it), bridesmaid dresses, suits, ceremony, all those things were just easy! I didn't have to lift a finger with my kitchen tea or my hens as my bridesmaids took care of every detail! it was just incredible!
My dad did all the flowers for the entire day from the church flowers, to the flowers on each table at witchmount to all the bridal party even my bouquet! We also as a family did our own bomboniere which looked fantastic! My aunty did our gorgeous wedding cake which was easy to organise because we knew what we wanted. Even our photographer was so easy to organise as well as where were were having it and also our cars! The guy was just incredible! Even the bridesmaids dresses were easy too! My hairdresser did our hair and put me onto a great make up artist so everything was just falling into place so quickly and smoothly for us!
The table seating at the reception was challenging at first. Then we decided to break tradition and mix up all the tables at our wedding so there was no bride's side and groom's side. All our families were mixed in with each other and that made it a little difficult for our parents to take at first but in the end they came round and saw how great it was!
The Wedding DayIt was a gorgeous day in Melbourne! 23 degrees and not a cloud in the sky! Blue skies all round and the sun shining brightly! David and I felt amazing the whole day! Every part was so memorable it's hard to put it into words how we felt! But for us it was the best day of our lives!
We had a fantastic support base! My maid of honour was my lifelong friend, we're a year a part and we have grown up together from day dot. Her name is Sinea and she was absolutely fantastic throughout the whole time. She organised my kitchen tea and my hens without letting me lift a finger. My second bridesmaid was Tesh. She is a great friend from high school who I still keep in touch with a lot. My third bridesmaid was Katia. She had become a great friend through my brother.
David's groomsmen, his best man was Fritz. He was a lifelong friend as well. David and Fritz were next door neighbours since they were 6 and have been great mates since then. The second and third groomsmen, Tim and Hoanh were both high school friends of Davids and they've all kept in touch since then.
We also had two witnesses who were outside of our bridal party and they were Tom and James. Tom is one of my best friends but being a guy it was difficult to include him into the bridal party so we gave him the honour of witnessing out marriage. The same went for James, for David. In David's tradition (salvadorian tradition) we also had Godparents for our marriage. These were Daniel and Flor. They are true examples of what it means to be married for so long so they are like role models for our marriage. We also had our niece and nephew Jocelyn and Joshua be our flower girl and paige boy! We had a traditional catholic mass.
The CeremonyOur ceremony was held at St Ignatius Chapel, Loyola College Watsonia. The music was done by some friends of ours from the parish youth group we met at. The church was decorated with the beautiful flower arrangements my dad had done plus he and my aunty created the pew bows. The atmosphere was so warm and welcoming. Our priest Fr Victor Farrugia just said our Mass so beautifully. We also had Fr Andrew Keswick and Fr Vincent Lee concelebrating. All these priests had been a part of our journey. The ceremony also included a couple of David's traditions like the arras which are silver coins that are given to the bride from her husband and the lasso which is a piece of rope that ties the man and his wife together. Our families were both involved in the ceremony a lot as well which was beautiful because it was like a transition from one chapter of life to the next.
The ReceptionWe had an incredible wedding reception at Witchmount Winery in Plumpton! The place was able to cater for our 2 large families and it was just the best night of our lives! Everyone to this day still talks about what a great time they had at our wedding reception. We started with having some photos in the grounds of the winery. Then we headed into the bridal room where we were able to enjoy time with our bridal party and families and EAT. We were starving!!! Then it was time for everyone to line up around the front as each couple was introduced from our bridal party. Finally it was our turn! We walked in and cut the ribbon that our flower girl and paige boy were holding. We then cut our cake and enjoyed some more amazing food that was served up! We then did our first dance together which just went to smoothly and we really enjoyed it!
The rest of the night just went so quickly! We had speeches, and dancing. We organsied the 4 piece band from witchmount to play and they were great! We also had David's cousin DJ the Latin music so we had the best of both worlds! Our band also played some italian music which covered everyones likes! We ate some more (the food was delicious) and had the bouquet throwing and the garter! We also had the father daughter dance and some fun dances like the conga line which the MC had organsied! then it was time to say goodbye. That was the hard part, saying goodbye to everyone after what was the best day of our lives. We had a lot of family down from Queensland, Canada etc which was really lovely too! It was the BEST night of our lives and I wouldn't change a thing!
The HoneymoonFor our honeymoon we went to a resort two and a half hours out of Kuala Lumpur called Avani Resort and Spa. We had a 2 bedroom bungalow right on the ocean for 7 nights! It was just incredible! Then we travelled to Koh Samui where we stayed another 4 nights just lounging around on the beach and visiting the sites and markets! It was beautiful!
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