The Romance
My husband Danny and I met on July 12th 2014 at a birthday dinner at The Groove Train in Frankston. I knew the birthday girl and Danny knew the birthday girl’s boyfriend. I noticed Danny straight away as he was my type, but we barely spoke that night. The next day all of the people I had met that night added me on Facebook, Except Danny. I thought he didn’t want to be friends. Danny was actually contemplating all week whether to add me, as it turns out he was interested in me. So, he asked his personal trainer, whether he should add me and he said yes! We started our first conversation after Danny made a Facebook post about the football, which I’m a massive football fan too so I messaged Danny. This is where our friendship started. As our friendship continued to grow in strength, I started to realise that Danny was everything I had ever looked for in a partner. And Danny had also been secretly thinking the same thing. We had our first catch up and ended up spending every night that week together.
Danny took me on our first date after that week to mini golf in Dingley and dinner at Switch at Fountain Gate. A week after that on the 26th of October 2014, I celebrated my 24th birthday. Danny gave me a pink Pandora ring and a card. Inside my birthday card Danny wrote ‘Will you be my girlfriend, partner, and best friend?’, I knew Danny was the one before we were even official. He was everything I had ever wanted in a partner and we both wanted the same things out of life. We were on the same page and at the same stage in life. I really admired that he didn't care what anyone thought, he had his own morals and values. He also treated me like a princess, would do anything for me, from the smallest to the biggest gestures. He was just my perfect man and we both mutually felt exactly the same. There was no doubts or insecurities, we knew exactly where we both stood and that we both wanted something serious with each other immediately.
The Proposal
Danny proposed at our housewarming! It was the moment I had been waiting my whole entire life for! And I’m the hardest person to surprise and keep a secret from so I was definitely not expecting it. Also, Danny had my ring for 18 MONTHS!! He was waiting for the right time as he wanted to propose at some point of building our house. But he knew I wanted to be done up, hair, makeup, nails and wearing a nice dress and heels haha!
We were about to get a photo with friends then next minute i turned around and he was on one knee! I thought it was a joke because he knew how much i wanted to get engaged and he had opened the ring box up the wrong way, so it was facing me empty haha!
The Planning
Two days after getting engaged I went straight into wedding mode as I had dreamed of my wedding since I was a little girl so I knew exactly what I wanted and I’m the most organised person you'll ever meet. One week later I went to my first wedding dress store and I SAID YES TO THE DRESS! We booked our wedding venue two weeks after getting engaged and everything else was booked shortly after!
I planned the whole entire wedding by myself. With opinions from others if I asked :) And obviously I ran everything by my husband, but he likes everything i do and is very easy going so he was always happy with everything I chose.
Our wedding was scheduled to be 1 year after we got engaged, April 26th, 2020. Then 6 weeks before our wedding, right after our bachelor and bachelorette parties the unimaginable happened... a worldwide pandemic. We chose to postpone it exactly a year later and keep our original wedding date as we had been saying this date for a year and had all our personalised items. The vendors were all amazing about it all, so helpful and compassionate. And because we scheduled it a year away all of our vendors were available on that date again.
Our parents were always very helpful and supportive, we are both very close with both of our parents so no issues there at all. Very lucky! The weather was truly perfect. It wasn't the warm, sunny, blue-sky weather I'd always dreamed of. It was 17 and cloudy but no rain and no wind! Over the past 2 years that we've been to our venue we have never ever seen it so still and peaceful as it was on our wedding day. I was so warm all day and the clouds were a beautiful white and blue. So honestly, we wouldn't have asked for any other weather!
The Wedding Day
We both got ready at Crown Towers with our bridal party, as we all stayed there the night before. Both of our parents came to Crown in the morning also.
We did not see other before the ceremony. I feel that is the most monumental part of the day, walking down the aisle by my dad to my husband to be for the first time and that's the first time we should see each other I believe.
I was nervous about the weather as I really didn't want rain as that would mean indoors and that our dogs couldn't walk down the aisle. And I just wanted everything to go perfectly! The second I was ready and getting into the limo I was like a different person! I felt a wave of relief that this is FINALLY happening, no lockdown, no rain. I am on my way to my wedding! It was the best feeling; I was so excited and happy but still felt so surreal!
Danny is always calm haha so he was excited, calm and relieved that it was finally happening., Sandringham Yacht Club was our dream venue, all in one overlooking the beach.
The Ceremony
We had white chairs, white aisle runner, two white plinths with roses. Roses as the aisle flowers also. Very simple but elegant and romantic. I walked down the aisle to 'Unbelievable' by Craig David.
We wrote our own vows and because we are both very family orientated, we wanted to incorporate our family as much as possible. We had our brothers in our bridal party, my dad walk me down the aisle, our mums both read poems during our ceremony. We had my cousin and close family friend walk our dogs down the aisle, our brothers took our rings off the dogs and our dads were our witnesses.
Our wedding ceremony was nothing short of perfect, everything and more than we could have ever imagined. I wanted it to be emotional, personalised but also extremely happy and playful. It was all those things; I couldn't stop smiling the whole time and just couldn't wait to get out there! I wasn't as emotional as I thought I would be, the excitement and happiness just took over!
The Reception
We had our reception at the same venue Sandringham Yacht Club. Everything included was perfect, barely had to decorate or add much to the venue at all. We used their chairs, tablecloths, menus, tea light candles, mirror bases. I just made my own name cards and we had tall white plinths on each table with roses on top. We did add the ceiling fairy lights on which were just stunning! Our co-ordinator and the wait staff that night were all amazing.
So helpful and friendly throughout our whole wedding experience. The food was out of this world and all our guests agreed, they couldn’t stop raving about the food. And of course, the beach views from our ceremony space and reception space, it doesn’t get any better!
We had traditional cutting of the cake, speeches, first dance (joined by all couples) father/daughter dance (joined by mother/son and all parents and children). We had a special memorial table for our loved ones who couldn't physically be there.
I collected photos of all our loved ones on their wedding days and had them printed in black and white and framed them all. It was a lovely reminder that they were all there with us and to represent them on our special day. This also had our wishing well/presents, guest book on it and black and white photos of our parents on their wedding days!
Unfortunately, my husband’s brother passed away August last year, so we had his spot still made up on our bridal table as he was meant to be the best man. We had my uncle as our MC and my dad, mother-in-law, myself, and husband did a speech.
We had a DJ and a photobooth as I wanted that fun factor and so that I could get as many photos with guests as possible. When we left everyone did an archway and we left through that. The DJ even joined in dancing with us at the end. I love dancing so wanted to spend as much time on the dancefloor as possible! Our reception was simple, stunning, elegant, romantic, personalised, emotional but fun! Exactly how we wanted it!
The Honeymoon
We were very lucky to get our honeymoon in! We stayed in Hamilton Island for 2 weeks! We did SO much but because everything is so close by, and we were there for so long we still relaxed, and nothing was planned. We just made it up as went along.
We went to Daydream Island, Airlie beach, did an off-road buggy tour, jet ski tour, sunset cocktails, beach days, pool days, free buffet breakfast every day, day trip to white haven beach snorkelling, a sunset sail. We stayed in a bungalow the first week then a hotel overlooking the beach the last week. Was 25 degrees every single day and was honestly the best, most amazing holidays ever. Perfect honeymoon to finish off our perfect wedding!
Wedding Advice
My advice to future married to be couples is just remember your wedding day is YOUR wedding day. People will shock you when it comes to planning your own wedding but do what YOU want, it’s YOUR day and you only get to do this once. If you feel yourself getting stressed whilst planning, just remind yourself of why you are doing this, to marry your soulmate. And do some wedding planning activities that you enjoy and aren't stressful. And as cliche as it is, just enjoy EVERY single moment.
Also don't be afraid to do things out of the norm, like I said the day is yours, you can celebrate it however you want. There was a lot of traditional and untraditional things we had in our wedding but I LOVED every single part because it was OUR wedding specifically designed by us for us and it was a fairy-tale, absolutely everything we could have ever imagined and more!, Mum had my nanna's necklace made into 2 bracelets for us both to wear, my dress was named after my dad’s mum who i never got to meet and roses were my nanna and grandpas favourite flowers so we found lots of ways to represent our loved ones who couldn’t be there.
| 
