Love in the time of Disaster

Dominique and Callum

Saturday, 10 Nov 2018

The Romance

It was love in the time of disaster. We met during the Jan 2011 Queensland floods. I was working on my neighbour’s dairy farm and ended up being the only employee that could work that week as the others were all flooded out. Being from the property next door I couldn’t exactly escape. The dairy happens to be owned by Cal’s older sister and brother in law. Cal was attempting to travel back from a party the night before back in to town (where he lived and worked as a 2nd year apprentice at the time) but the main highway between was cut due to flooding. So, he decided to turn around and stay at his sister's place. More rain came and eventually our road was flooded so none of us could escape. So he was stuck there and so was I.

One morning after the jobs were done, his sister invited me over to the house for some brekkie and a shower. The power was all out by this point and we didn’t have a generator at home but they did. So after working in the rain, a nice warm shower was too good to refuse! While we were waiting for my boss to set the generator up at the house after milking, I ended up stuck at the kitchen table with his sister's two young sons and her brother, similar in age to me and who I was meeting for the first time. My now sister-in-law was fluffing around trying to get some jobs done so ended up leaving the two of us to chat over our cereal while we waited. I remember thinking, "great, this is going to be awkward", at the thought of having to make conversation with this guy I'd only ever heard of. But we got talking and as the conversation went on, about where we were from, our parent’s farms and everything else from what we like to get up to and where we went for schoolies – we realised how much we had in common. I thought the forced conversation was going to painful, but I ended up wishing I didn’t have to go home!

We hit it off right away, just like you'd see in the movies. I couldn't believe it. I wondered where my boss had kept her 18 year old brother for the past 2 years! As the week went on, we saw each other around the farm and had some more friendly chats and ended up shifting cattle together, which I was secretly glad about but acted cool of course. Then the waters went down, and it came time for him to go back in to town and go to work. A few weeks passed where I didn’t see him again and hoped he’d visit his sister and the boys! I thought about adding him on Facebook (or maybe just having a stalk) but ... I didn’t know his last name. I asked my Mum repeatedly if she could remember his sister's maiden name so I could stalk! But of course she couldn’t quite remember!

Then one night I received a friend request from a Callum Glasgow ... could it be? And yes, it was! His cute profile picture that was a good couple years old, taken in his boarding house at Toowoomba Grammar. I later found out, the whole time he was wanting to do the same thing, but was more proactive about it than me. He found my full name on a time sheet left on the table at the farm and added me. So naturally, we got talking through good old Facey, ended up exchanging numbers ... and I guess as they say, the rest is history. We spent the rest of that Summer hanging out and soon we were in love! I knew he was 'the one' not long after we got together. It's true what they say, when you know, you know. I had to move away to study, but I always knew that when I finished my degree I would marry him. There was never any question for me that he was the one I would end up with.


Dominique and Callum Glasgow   Dominique and Callum Glasgow

The Proposal

He proposed on the 16th of June 2017 after almost 6 and a half years together. We were camping on his parents property that night as that is something we both love to do. He had everything set up before I got there, the tent, fire started, chars and he cooked me dinner on the fire, it was super romantic. He then said, "I got you something in town, it's in the ute but I need you to turn around and close your eyes." I was quite puzzled but of course I did. I could see that there were lights flicking on and off coming from behind me so I asked if everything was okay, he yelled back, "yeah all good, don't turn around!!!".

He was quite serious about me not turning around so I followed his direction! Eventually, he came over to me, told me to keep my eyes shut but walked me over to the ute where he turned me to face it. He then told me to open my eyes and when I did, he dropped to one knee, pulled out a ring and did his little 'will you marry speech'. I was in so much shock, I almost didn't notice the sign on the back of the ute...."Will You Marry Me?" in LED lights on a cork board. And he is a boilermaker, so his electrical work to pull it off was super impressive! Of course, after a minute when the shock wore off, I said yes. It was the most thoughtful and romantic proposal. The ring he gave me he had designed at the jeweller himself and had all the elements that I had ever wanted in an engagement ring. He absolutely nailed it. It was the most perfect night and we were on cloud 9 for weeks afterwards.

 

Dominique and Callum Glasgow   Dominique and Callum Glasgow

The Planning

We had an engagement party the October after we got engaged. That took a bit of planning so we sort of neglected the wedding until January of the next year! We had locked in a date with our dream photographer within a few weeks of getting engaged, so we had a date, but no venue or anything else. Eventually, we booked the beautiful Yabbaloumba Retreat at Kenilworth, Queensland. Once the venue was set everything else rolled in to place. Slowly but surely, we ticked things off our list. We got the bulk of the wedding planned over in about 9 months. Luckily, my husband and I had very similar tastes, so almost everything I suggested he agreed on. It definitely made things easy. We had a quite a big bridal party (6 bridesmaids/groomsmen each) and we both have big families so there was always plenty of support and people to bounce ideas off. I always knew I wanted my wedding to incorporate plenty of greenery, florals, timber, candles and lights and that is exactly what we ended up with. Everything come together so perfectly and the venue suited the vision I always dreamed of.


The Wedding Day

It was a simple wedding in the country but with plenty of glamour. It was a beautiful sunny day when we got married and the temperature was perfect. Actually, I don't think we could have asked for better weather! We both got ready in separate b&b houses around Kenilworth with our respective bridal parties. We spent the night before the wedding apart and didn't see each other until I walked down the aisle to him. I love this tradition because it makes it so special and raw when you see each other at the ceremony amongst all the emotion. I think we were both nervous and anxious but so so excited to finally be getting married. We got married in front of our closest family and friends.

 

Dominique and Callum Glasgow   Dominique and Callum Glasgow

 

The Ceremony

The ceremony was held on site at the venue in a beautiful shady spot down by the creek. Our decorations were minimal, with only our arbour decorated in beautiful florals to match the bouquets, a personalised timber sign welcoming everyone and a few candles & lanterns on stools beside the arbour. Less was definitely more at our ceremony as the surrounds spoke for themselves.

 

The Reception

The reception was held at the same venue following our afternoon ceremony. The celebrations were held in a corrugated iron and timber shed with fairy lights strung up inside. There were 3 wagon wheel chandeliers hung from the ceiling which our florist decorated with beautiful foliage that hung down. We had a long table style setting with tables decorated with foliage and florals down the centre that matched our bouquets, We had candles placed in between the floral settings that added to the beautiful light that we were after.

Two things I was most proud of with our decorations was the seating chart that I made myself with a pallet and photo frames and our table numbers that I made out of old wine bottles. We never hired a professional decorator, everything we had we either made or ordered ourselves and set up the day before the wedding. This was with the exception of our amazing florist of course that arranged and hung up all of our florals which were the centre piece of all our decorating. Outside we had a large patio area that opened up onto a beautiful large dam. There were more lights and candles outside so everything flowed so beautifully. We also had a fire pit area with hay bales for guests to sit on, that was surrounded by festoon lighting. The night was lovely with a formal dinner, speeches, cake cutting and dancing into the night! Our reception went so quick for us but it was wonderful! I think our guests mostly enjoyed the complimentary stubby coolers and cocktail slushies!

 

Dominique and Callum Glasgow   Dominique and Callum Glasgow

 

The Honeymoon

We went to Fiji for 7 nights following the wedding, It was amazing. We were so relaxed and spent the week basically eating and drinking and not looking at the time! We were married on a Saturday night and had to be at the airport by 6am on the Monday morning to catch our flight, so safe to say by the time we arrived at our resort down on the Coral Coast we were exhausted! We spent the first few days just catching up on rest from the massive week before. While in Fiji, we got to experience some culture from the local village and take a day cruise out to the islands. It was an awesome week away with just the two of us.

 

Wedding Advice ...

Remember that your wedding is a celebration of yourselves - it should represent you, so leave traces of yourselves everywhere! There is no right or wrong way to do a wedding, so make sure you do what YOU want to do, not what is necessarily the most 'in trend' or glamorous. Weddings need character and personality!

Remember that it is YOUR wedding and at the end of the day, you need to make decisions to make yourselves happy, especially if the couple are the ones footing the majority of the bill! Try not to let the opinions of others take over and don't stress yourself out trying to please everyone because you never will! Guests have the most fun when the couple are too. A happy couple makes for a happy wedding!

Lastly, remember that the purpose of your amazing day is because you are marrying the love of your life! After the party is over, you are going to be married to your best friend and that it is what truly matters.

One last funny detail - my now brother-law/old boss/neighbour/husband's sister's husband/reason we met - ended up being our MC! He witnessed our love story from the very beginning and knows us both so well so he really was the perfect choice. Funny how things work out. We like to think that he and his wife somewhat encouraged us to meet during the floods, joking that we might get together ... be careful what you wish for!


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