The Romance
Kasey and I had know each other for many years before we got together. I always knew he was a great dad and a great guy but it wasn't until we did an obstacle fitness course together with a group that our friendship blossomed. He worked away but we still spoke as friends constantly after that. Before long I knew I couldn't throw the chance away with a genuine, kind caring man as I knew there weren't many out there, in my opinion.
The Proposal
We were meant to bump into each that day again because its been perfect ever since. We want on a trip to Europe for 18 days, first stop was London to see my sister, then we went to Venice in Italy. I thought Kasey was going to propose in Venice because our anniversary was when we were staying there, but he didnt. I was disappointed because I thought it was never going to happen if didn't happen there. Last stop Germany, we went on a tour of the castle. The last castle was Nueschwanstein Castle the inspiration behind the fairytale Sleeping Beauty castle. We walked up 500 stairs to the top presented with a magnificent view. As we reached the top of the Sleeping Beauty castle and started taking photos of the view from the verandah Kasey pulled me towards him and asked me to marry him in front of the whole tour group, he even spoke in German! Of course I said YES!
The Planning
Planning the big day was moments of joy and moments of frustration. Countless hours and hours looking at places and times to make this big day faultless. My Pinterest wedding and my reality wedding seemed to be hard match. I didn't have much help but that wasn't from people not offering, it was due to me knowing what I wanted but the vision was in my head and I didn't want to keep saying no to people's ideas until we found the perfect item, decoration, dress or place. So I did it all myself with the help of my husband-to-be for opinions from time to time.
The Wedding DayThe Big Day! WOW! We had organised a rental for ourselves, the children and my and Kaseys immediate family to stay together for 3 nights together. The night before, the night of and the night after. This was so we could all really connect and to blend each other's families. The wedding didn't start till 5pm so we had a relaxing cruisy morning waking up and enjoying breakfast with all the family.
Due to the house being so beautiful we decided we would get dressed at the same place. We left each other alone while we were getting ready so the photographer could get single shots of each of us. My hair and make up stylist came, they styled my daughters and I. We had champagne and cheese and biscuits with my mum and sister and felt super relaxed and calm the whole time. I had nothing to worry or stress about.
We were having out wedding photos taken before the wedding so we didn't lose any daylight and we were fresh. We had family photos with our children, but the first photo was of Kasey and I finally seeing each other for the first time in our wedding outfits. The big reveal, it was magical, I became very teary as he looked so handsome.
The CeremonyWe were married at Jonahs at Palm Beach. It is high on a cliff overlooking the beach. Stunning! We made our arch way ourselves, it was a 2 window panelled door covered in flowers, you could see the backdrop through the glass windows. We organised a guitarist to sing our wedding aisle song. Etta James- At last.
Even though my dad was there I wanted my two children to walk me down the aisle and give me away as we were about to join families with Kasey and his daughter. So the only people up the front with us were our children. Kasey and his daughter were waiting for us to walk down the aisle to meet them. No bridesmaids or groomsmen, we had all we needed up there with us. As our closest friends and immediate family watched our magical moment we were in awe of our love for each other. We wrote our own vows which certainly brought a tear to my eye. We did a sand ceremony with the kids and us. After the 'I do', we went over to the two big peacock chairs with a wooden divider and white candles and flowers which was organised to sign the papers. While this was taking place our guitarist was playing gentle music in the back ground.
The ReceptionGiven we had photos before the ceremony, we were able to go up with our guests from the ceremony up to the function room which had a large stone verandah over looking the ocean. We shared gourmet cocktail food with drinks with love from our family and friends and we mingled for a while before we went inside and sat down. Inside was a hanging light centrepiece from the roof which I made an hanging ceiling drapes. At our table we had our florist make multiple flowers Moulded on a piece of driftwood 1m long as centrepiece on our one u-shaped table. Each of our guests got hand made little gifts which I made myself. They were glass tube filled with a special colour blend of tea leaves attached with a heart shaped tea brewer with their name tag an the back of it saying "love is brewing".
We had a three course meal which was so delicious, multiple waiters on hand ready to pour drinks when we were low. The service was 5 star.
Our guitarist was our background music for the night. As we didn't like to do things traditionally we didn't have a first dance. After some close friends and our parents and sister said a speech we said a short grateful thank you speech and we decided we would sing. This was different as we got a mixer of song some love songs some funny songs and did a mash up, it was success everyone laughed and we had a great time.
After this we enjoyed our dessert, our wedding cake, then enjoyed more drinks. Our grandparents had taken the kids home by 9pm and the function room was closed by 11pm. They let us linger behind in their bar until we were ready To leave. My husband and I were dropped off at another rental house for the night where we had organised to spend a night alone.
The HoneymoonWe went to Fiji 5 days later for 7 days. It was off the main land, on an island, Korosun resort. It had alot of damage after the Hurricanes so it wasn't the same. We had paid for a beach vila but it was swept away by the hurricane so we were put in another room in the rain forest. It was nice but not honeymoon material. We enjoyed our stay but it was little boring due to so many things being shut down due to the hurricane damage.
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