The Romance
Matt and I met each other over social media (typical these days) and we organised to catch up down at the Noriel River in Albury. We spent hours talking and getting to know each other, it was almost like we had know each other for ever.... it was definitely love at first sight!
Matt had moved to Albury for University so this is where we had met, but of course we met just as he had accepted a job back in his home town Wagga Wagga. We travelled to see each other for about 6 months, but the more and more we saw each other, the more we couldn't get enough of each other. The day I knew Matt was the one for me, was the day I packed my bags and moved to Wagga to start our new life together.
The ProposalMatt proposed to me 12 months to the date of our wedding. He had organised a holiday to Phuket in Thailand for a birthday gift, little did I know he had this whole thing planned to propose to me. We had hired a long tailed boat across to a private island to spend some hours together, and on the way back to the shore Matt got on one and knee and asked me to be his wife.
The PlanningI absolutely loved planning our wedding! I was so very blessed I had such a helpful fiance, family and friends who helped and supported along the way. Both Matt and I had the same ideas and knew what we wanted. We had exactly 12 months from when we got engaged until the day of our wedding which I found a perfect time frame. Within the first couple of months we had booked all we needed (venue, celebrant, wedding dress, flowers etc)
Then, through out the year we organised bits and pieces, found other ideas and started to set out exactly what we needed to do for the couple of months leading up the the wedding. Of course the couple of weeks prior the wedding can be quite stressful but we both had more help than we could have asked for. When the big day arrived it all just fell into place and honestly, it could not have been more perfect!
We had a beautiful sunny glorious day for our wedding which was a great relief as the week leading up we had lots and lots of heavy rain (It did make everything green for our day which was a bonus!). I got ready out at my dads house which was only 15 minutes from our ceremony and reception. Dad's home has beautiful views of the table top mountain (which is where our reception was held) which created amazing photos. Matthew got ready out at the reception in a cute cabin where we then stayed the night of the wedding. (We did stay with each other the night before the wedding, we are hopeless at being apart.)
The Wedding DayWe were both very calm the morning of the wedding as we said our goodbyes to each other and "see you at the alter!".
Throughout the preparation in the morning the men had a fairly relaxed morning going out for breakfast and to the barbers for styling. Us women enjoyed plenty of champagnes and enjoyed being pampered. In all honesty I was calm through out the whole day, it must have been a sign I was marrying the right man!
My father walked me down the aisle, along side my twin sister as my maid of honour, my older sister, sister in law, two other best friends as bridesmaids and my younger sisters as flower girls. Matthew stood beside his five best Mates. We had all of our amazing family and friends share the day with us, which made our day even more perfect.
The CeremonyOur ceremony was held at the 'Chapel' at Peregrines reception, Table Top NSW. It was an amazing open facility with tree stumps as seats surrounding an old rustic chapel wall. We had a good friend Jack Thompson sing and play acoustic guitar and harmonica at our ceremony and late on for the canapes. We decorated our ceremony with vines and flowers and used an arch that was also decorated with flowers at the top of our walk way. We had a fun and relaxed atmosphere with lots of laughs and tears throughout our ceremony.
The ReceptionOur Reception was also held out at Peregrines, Table Top. The reception was held in a big amazing old rustic barn which suited us perfect. There was an amazing open fire that set the mood and a large open dance floor that was put into use later on in the evening. The barn was already decorated with beautiful antiques and ornaments so all we had to worry about was decorating our tables which we used jars, hessian, lace, babies breathe and natural toned flowers to flow with our rustic theme.The Honeymoon
We went on a 5 week honeymoon to South East Asia which included Thailand ( Koh Samui & KoLipe), Bali (Seminyak & Ubud), Malaysia (Langkawi), Philippines (Manila & Cebu) and Vietnam (Halongbay). We lived in luxury from private villas and beach bungalows! Was an amazing once in a life time experience and very well needed after the 12 months leading up to our wedding!
Wedding Advice ...
Advice I would give to other couples starting this chapter in life would be to have fun while doing it! Before you know it the day is over and you're wishing you could do it all over again. Brides to be, don't do all the work yourself! Set jobs or tasks to everyone around you. Put your fiance to work with some crafty stuff or if he is like my partner and loves to plan the financial sides of things- let them go for it! Say yes to people offering a hand, that way everyone's been a part of your fun journey and you can all celebrate the day together! Another thing that I am just so glad we decided to use was use a videographer! We had the most amazing videographer who captured all the little things we had missed. We now constantly go over all our wedding speeches, ceremony and our first dance and we are instantly taken back to our favourite day. Our videographer also created a 3 minute clip of the day to capture our day over all and it is absolutely breath taking!
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