Our Forever Story

The Romance

We met over 12 years ago, myself being only 14 years old, Lachie being only 15 years old. We were from different high schools so we were introduced through a mutual friend. Well, actually if you want the proper story, it was kind of funny in a way. I met his friend and asked him if he knew any “hot guys” and he answered with “well I don’t look at guys that way, but lots of girls think my mate Lachie is hot!” So I said right away “can I have his number please?” Basically just got straight to the point being my confident self and I’m glad I did as under 2 months after we first spoke, he asked me to go out with him. That moment will forever be stuck in my memory. It’s now been over 12 years together, from little teenagers to adults it’s really like a fairytale story. Being so young meeting each other and to stay in a relationship for such a long time for the ages that we were, it meant we both saw a lot of potential in each other. I’m not going to lie here so I basically knew straight away he was the one even though I was so young, he was just so so different to others out there and that made him very special to me. I'm a bit of a hopeless romantic and he ticked all the boxes. Basically the feelings and thoughts were mutual which was great!

The Proposal

Every year for our anniversary we plan surprises for each other. That year we had also planned to stay in Melbourne for the long weekend (as our anniversary always falls near the long weekend). Lachie suggested he would do his surprise when I arrived in the city, as he had already stayed there the night prior. Not thinking anything of it as we always do surprises, he picked me up, he asked me to borrow the bag I gave him his present in at the hotel to try and get me thinking about what my surprise might be, he then blindfolded me throughout the car trip. It felt like forever getting stuck in traffic.

We arrived at the destination and I’m still blindfolded whilst sitting in the car, he went down to pay for our activity and also bought me a surprise that I later found out had been replaced with my ring in that bag he borrowed. But I didn’t know this as I was still blindfolded. Finally I’m let off, I can see again and we are walking down a hill, I’m trying to work out where we are but I’ve never seen this place before. Lachie said he would of liked me to be blindfolded the whole way down however it may of been a bit dangerous!! As we are walking I said “I’m a little bit cold” he then replied with “You can have my jacket later!” Now anyone who knows Lach would know that he would of offered his jacket straight away as he is quite a gentlemen and thinks of others. So from hearing that, I then thought hmm something’s a little bit suss. We get down to the boathouse and jump on our own row paddle boat. Might I add the first movie we watched together was The Notebook! This is where he got his inspiration from and then asked me “Do you feel like you’re on The Notebook right now?” I’ve always wanted to be in a movie.

Rowing away, Lach’s struggling a little bit and I’m enjoying being able to feed the ducks as that’s allowed. There was this cute bridge up ahead that we both wanted to get to, once we got there he said “I have your surprise for you” he gets the bag out and in it are one of my favourite things MACARONS! He now thinks I’ve tricked her!! She doesn’t know! People stand up on the bridge and take photos and then all of a sudden no one was up there and he saw that as he had been eyeing it off for ages like he was on edge or something. I then said “It’s nearly been half an hour, the time it took to row to this bridge means we should probably start heading back down the river!” He didn’t seem concerned which also was suss as for anyone who knows us as individuals we’re not really the rebellious type, if we are told 30 minutes we would feel horrible if it wasn’t 30 minutes. We can’t do the wrong thing.

So then all of a sudden I hear him say “So this is very nerve wracking for me…” he kneels down (but as I’m already sitting so I don’t tip this boat over) I didn’t quite notice to start with, he was wearing that big jacket remember! He then starts singing MARRY ME – JASON DERULO whilst having tears in his eyes he got the ring out and I didn’t really believe to start with as we have been together such a long time. We talked about marriage throughout our relationship but had other goals first, so one part of the song I thought he was just saying that one day it’ll happen. Until he assured me it was legit! Let’s just get back to this singing thing right! I love singing and have been asking Lachie to sing with me our whole relationship, “lets sing a duet” I ask all the time, he always said one day one day one day. He’d been involved with the school choir at a young age but hadn’t sung properly since. So this was a massive thing for him! So please praise him! We then hopped off the boat, we went to the beach and he then took me on the Melbourne Star. Followed by what we had originally already planned which was out for a meal at Crown and to hit the entertainment to celebrate! :)

The Planning

Planning our day was very exciting as I LOVEEE to plan events!! I was so excited to make it how we wanted it to be especially after being together for so long and no marriage yet!! Some people may be a bit freaked out by a destination wedding however we were super excited about it. Inviting all of our close loved ones up for a holiday as well was a great choice for us as a couple as we love to travel so it suited us perfectly! It was such an easy set up for planning a destination wedding through Villa Botanica as they have an online planner and arrange regular phone call appointments to make sure you’re up to date with everything. Of course I was eager to plan so had a fair amount done before it needed to be completed however there were certain parts that were left until later as we are the kind of people who like to keep everyone else happy so some of our decisions were confirmed later on once we knew everyone would be happy. Don’t worry though as we had clear minds of what we wanted and knew this day would only happen once and be gone in the blink of an eye so we still kept our desires out in the open. Of course I had wishes for years and years on what I wanted for the day! ;)

We had approximately 2 years from the proposal to the wedding day however we had already contacted the venue prior for some information to plan ahead! Originally I was hoping once we got engaged we would marry straight after as we had been together for so long, but a few factors made us decide to wait a bit longer as time passes quickly, what’s a little more time so you can make it extra special, enjoy it and not be rushed or stressed as it shouldn’t be a stressful thing its all about LOVE!!

Basically we got advice and suggestions from others when we needed it, especially when a decision would involve or affect others but besides that we were happy doing a lot of it ourselves, we didn’t want to stress others for an event of our own. Being control freaks probably plays a big role in that too though haha!!

The Wedding Day

It was the first day of winter in Queensland so normally the chance of rain is low however there was prediction for rain during the ceremony time. We were a little worried as we love the sunny weather but we also knew we couldn't control this. The day was so lovely in the end. The girls waking up early to start on hair and make-up, (as we had a fair few girls to get ready!!) Luckily for us we had many hairdressers amongst our bridal party to help with hair, however I decided to not do any as it would worry me so my sister was happy to take charge! Then what do you know… the sun starts to pop out and it's getting VERY real. It still felt like a dream though. You plan a day for so long so for it to be actually here was crazy! It became an amazing blur haha! The boys also got ready at the same accommodation making for some great backdrop shots of the hills of Airlie Beach behind us for both the girls and boys. We then got picked up in the limo to head to the venue (separately of course!!!)

Oh but to get down from our high apartment at our accommodation the girls needed to ride a golf buggy down!! And that wasn’t the only time we rode a buggy for the day… stay tuned for that!

We didn’t see each other before the ceremony but we were very close to each other getting ready! Was kind of a exciting feeling knowing Lachie was just right there but I couldn’t see him. Suspenseeee... haha! We both felt excited on the day!! Obviously there’s always going to be a little bit of worry that something may go wrong (as you’ve perfectly planned it up until here, but at the same time we knew that if anything wrong happened on the day then we couldn’t do anything about it so we would just go with it. As most of the time no one else knows when something goes wrong.)

The Ceremony

We had our close family and friends make the trip up to witness us get married, it was so lovely!! Our ceremony was held at Villa Botanica overlooking the ocean!! We had always pictured getting married at the beach so if we weren’t getting married on the sand then it was at least going to be overlooking the water!!! The sun kept popping out which was ideal for us. We are pretty traditional with certain things but we are also very different so we tried to incorporate things that were important, professional and romantic yet funny, unique and memorable. We included “The last kiss before the first kiss” in our ceremony which included our Mum’s!! If you’re unaware of what this special addition is then look it up on the internet! It’s a great way to involve your Mum’s in your wedding. (As the father of the bride is already heavily involved).

We definitely had music!! I love sooo many love songs I found it very hard to incorporate all of my favourites throughout the day but I got there haha!! We had our nephews carry down photos of our grandparents who had passed away to make it feel like our grandparents were walking down the aisle before us. While this was happening we had “Heaven (Candlelight Mix)” – DJ Sammy playing which also played for the remaining bridal party. We then had “How long will I love you?” – Ellie Goulding play for my walk down the aisle. Both Lachie and myself have always loved the sound of Ellie’s voice and what better song choice for us then a song that states that no matter what I will love you. We also added some bling bling to our arch way! A pretty crystal chandelier was hanging behind us.

We included some humour into our ceremony/vows which is always exciting! It keeps the guests on their toes. An inside joke amongst a few of us was also thrown in!! It created a relaxed but serious vibe! I couldn’t believe the day we had spent so much time planning for had arrived and I guess that contributed to the atmosphere and mood for the ceremony. So many of us there had known us two since we were teenagers when we met in high school and so that created some very emotional guests who were so excited to witness this occasion and of course it was such a surreal moment for us.

The Reception

We also had our reception at Villa Botanica making it easy on everyone to be in the one place. This started shortly after Lachie and I had headed down on the golf buggy to the private beach for photos with just the two of us! This was a great opportunity to just hang out by ourselves, well with some cameras around though!! I desperately wanted beach photos rain hail or shine so I'm so very happy we got them! That was another special unique moment for us! I could just go on and on about this day!! Anyway back to the reception… So our reception entrance included a choregraphed (to some degree) bridal party dance/performance with majority of our bridal party. It was also a highlight of the day as it started the reception on a fun relaxed note because the dancing could bring out your own personality!

Of course we kept it very formal also (remember we are traditional also haha.) It was cool to see everyone’s flares throughout the speeches also. AND THEN WE HAD A SURPRISE FOR EVERYONE!! We had fireworks and it had just started to rain, it was actually kind of cool timing! Followed by our 10 minute first dance haha!!! Basically the night went so quick but we loved it! Oh I forgot to mention that I had two dresses (they were VERY cheap) so we took the time prior to the reception starting for me to get changed. It was such a nice moment for Lachie to help dress me (something that definitely wouldn’t of been done earlier because we didn’t want to do a “first look” before the wedding) so it was nice then. We didn’t want the party to end. ☹ We waved goodbye to everyone leaving whilst the rain got heavier but we wanted to spend as much time with everyone as we could before we headed into our Villa to enjoy some wedding cake!!

The Honeymoon

Hawaii was our honeymoon destination and we went for 6 nights as we had already had some time in QLD. For the wedding we were in Airlie Beach so we also spent one night on Hamilton Island prior to Hawaii which was a great start to the honeymoon as we love the islands and have been a few times before but stayed somewhere different this time. Hawaii was lovely but we didn’t have enough time there! We only had a short trip as we weren’t even sure if we could go at all, so that was better than nothing! For our whole relationship we had always said our honeymoon was going to be in Hawaii so we just had to make it work out!

We stayed at a beachfront hotel which had many pools. It was lovely to head into summer weather and we had planned to just chill out by the pools and the beach most of the time, however we still felt like we didn’t relax enough!! Lets just say when you get to go to another country you get tempted to explore more than you thought you would incase you never go back plus time goes fly by too!! But we still do need to go back as we didn’t fit in everything! Some surf lessons, swimming with the turtles and some other tourist attractions are still on our list! It was also our first time in an American area so that was interesting in itself. We will love to head back one time!

Wedding Advice ...

To be honest we are the kind of people who like to help others with our experiences so giving advice to other couples is something I personally enjoy as it can help others feel stronger and more confident within themselves. Especially if they’re going through what we may have. Our advice may not help everyone but some of our advice to other couples would be:-

• You cannot control everything no matter how much you organize everything so just enjoy it and go with it on the day, you won't get this day back so there is no point dwelling on something that’s not important so just have fun! If it is a major issue then try to pick someone who you believe is best suited to sort the issue out for you so you can be present in the moments still. It can be hard to pass on your jobs to others but most of the time these are last minute pop ups and you'll find there's actually lots of people who will be happy to take the stress load off you.
• Focus on the people who are there for you. This is an event where you will learn who is there for you and who is not. No matter what the situation is you should be able to work out who is genuine. But at the same time don’t let the people who don’t make an effort affect you, it will only cause pain to yourself which is not needed right now. Keep your expectations low, (this is a really hard one for me!!!)
• Start to get ready as early as possible on the day to create a stress free day. Nothing worse than rushing around and not being able to take in all the moments as even when you're not rushing around it's hard to see everything going on.
• If you value photos and videos extremely high then definitely spend extra on it. You will not regret the extra time or money once you get all of your footage to keep FOREVER!!
• Have everything set up the week before to create less stress on the day if that suits your personality.

I could go on and on but hope these few tips can help any others! Because we met as teenagers we have shared so many experiences and events together. We have grown up together and even though we have grown we have still stayed on the same path. Or if we have changed we have adapted together.

Our story is just so long to tell that I could sit here all day explaining everything but I guess we have to draw the line somewhere but one things for sure.. we have definitely both grown as people throughout this wedding experience and we are so very proud of each other and how we handled certain situations as certain things can be very daunting when you're out of your comfort zone. The key points of the day that were most memorable with Lachie saying he loved the part when I walked down the aisle, that moment and many others like our time together on the beach and our first dance were very special moments for him and I!

One little thing that I personally thought was super cool was when it was spitting rain whilst the fireworks were on… one of the songs we had in our first dance medley was a song that had lyrics that said “fireworks with a wet fuse” and I thought that was such a cool little omen considering straight after the fireworks we performed our first dance! That was one of many little touching moments and coincidences that were meant to be because the rain had only just started when the fireworks were starting so “fireworks with a wet fuse” haha get it??!

We will leave all that with you for now and will head back to our busy lives filled with lots going on and to spend some quality time with our two gorgeous doggies who unfortunately couldn’t make it to the wedding! :) Thanks for your time and we appreciate you reading some of our forever story, leaving you with a pic of us when we first met.