Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love, what is unique about you and your relationship … Joe is an Aviation Fire-Fighter and I have always worked in Customer Service, however we not long ago moved cities for Joe’s job, which in turn has left me as a stay-at-home dog-mum at present! Haha.
We met seven years ago at Joe’s family home – we had mutual friends but I had never met him. Joe was having a quiet get-together at his place and these friends of ours basically invited me along to “set us up”. Although reluctant to go at the time and not really interested in the idea, I tagged along anyway and we actually ended up just having this incredible, totally unexpected connection and really hit it off. We were such different people yet completely on the same page – and that’s basically what sums up our relationship to this day!
I think that’s what I would consider to be “unique” about our relationship, too. Being so different in the sense that we have totally different backgrounds, hobbies, and interests – yet we are forever sharing the same outlook on absolutely everything like morals, values, ideas and opinions on different things. For this reason we just don’t really clash and the relationship is (basically) a breeze! We are so lucky and fortunate to have found the connection that we have with each other.
Tell us about your special day, was there a specific theme or style? Tell us a little about the setting, the styling and some of your favourite details… Well, we consider ourselves the luckiest people on Earth as we WON our special day! We always knew we would elope one day as a “normal” wedding just wasn’t for either of us, so when we saw a competition on Facebook for an all-inclusive elopement package curated by some of our local area’s best vendors – we jumped at the chance and to our complete shock, won!
I honestly couldn’t tell you if I would pin-point it to being a specific theme, but we absolutely loved every part of it and felt every aspect came together perfectly. There were some statement pieces and then there were some super relaxed elements, so I think everything just levelled each-other out in a way! Not too over-done, yet not too-little and we couldn’t have asked for more or less. Every single part of the day was chosen, styled and put-together by these incredible vendors and we were more than happy to sit back, not lift a finger and completely trust the judgement of these beautiful people.
Tell us about your main outfits: My gorgeous dress was from Kara at Mason Bridal. Again, this dress came part of the package and was pre-chosen for me, but I just loved it! I had never even thought about having a coloured dress for my wedding one day – it had never really crossed my mind – but when Kara told me it would be blue I actually thought that would be the coolest thing! I like to do things a little differently and not follow-the-crowd so much, so having a coloured dress was one of those things that I thought “heck yeah an element of difference”. I had always loved the idea of a long-sleeved dress and the look of tulle too, so I think I got incredibly lucky to have had this particular style selected for the day as those two boxes were ticked!
Joe’s outfit was put-together by Jaf at Stewart’s Menswear, and I’ve never seen him look so handsome! It tied in perfectly with the dress and the vibe of the day – we couldn’t have imagined anything better for him, either.
What were some of the most memorable/unique moments from the day?
Um, can we say the whole thing?! Haha! How many people can say they didn’t even know how their wedding day would look until they turned up ON the day – it was the coolest experience ever. So many people have the stress and worry of hoping their vision will be everything they ever imagined, hoping everything goes to plan, praying everyone will love it – but all we had to do was relax, trust the vendors and see it all unfold on the big day! There was not a stress or worry in the world. I suppose for this kind of situation you do have to go in with an open mind and to us, our wedding day was of course always going to be a special day, but we are not the type of people that ever had big dreams or visions for it in the first place. So, to leave it in someone else’s hands completely was super easy for us to do, but of course, that’s not going to be for everyone!
All of the vendors went above and beyond for us and really made it something special though. As the day played out we had all of these little extras and surprises thrown in that we didn’t know about prior-to, so it was truly so fun and memorable. We even had a surprise helicopter ride for goodness sake – how unbelievable is that!!
Aside from all of the excitement and beauty of the day, one thing that I kept thinking over and over was just how good it was to make the day about us and only us. We didn’t have anyone else to worry about, no expectations from anyone, and we could just focus on it being OUR day. We could not recommend it enough – eloping is the way to go! We do plan to have a get-together with family and friends in the future to celebrate getting married, but it will be a no-stress occasion where we can still celebrate but without the pressure or expense of it being a full-blown wedding. Win-win for everyone!
Any advice for other couples planning to spend the rest of their lives together? I find it so hard to give advice because I really believe everyone is on their own journey and everyone’s is going to be so incredibly different. I always think “whatever works for you!” basically sums up my perspective on relationships because what works for one couple won’t always work for the next, and who am I to say what will be right for you or not! I know from a personal point of view that what works in my relationship definitely wouldn’t work in a friends and vice versa.
But, I do think a good one is just to always keep it real. Too many people get caught up with “perfect” but that is never going to get you anywhere. You can’t put all of this pressure on yourselves to create an image of the perfect couple based off of something you’ve seen elsewhere. We’ve all heard it before, but you truly have to continually bring yourself back down to Earth and understand that.
You just have to openly communicate, listen, work through things, be patient and be kind. Don’t sweat the small stuff if it’s really not worth it, but also don’t let small things build up into big things! Again – that all comes back to communicating.
So, in a nutshell just be yourselves, and focus on yourselves – don’t get caught up in anything or anyone else’s ideas or expectations. Don’t compare your relationship to other peoples because we are all so different. Be open minded, but also be smart and trust your gut!
When it comes to planning or deciding on a wedding – do what YOU guys want to do. Continually ask yourself – are we doing this for US, or are we doing this to impress everyone else / make certain people happy / just doing it because we feel like we are “supposed to”. If you are doing it for yourself – go ahead, if you are doing something for any other reason – think twice about it, be truthful with yourselves and be strong in keeping to your decisions!
Location: Five rocks National Park | Videographer: Chapters By Jordie | Photographer: The Amber Light | Celebrant: Susie Cervai | Styling & Planner: Into The Wild Elopements | Flora: Shannon Hawkes Artisan Florals | Catering + Beverages: The Picnickery | Helicopter: Rockhamton Helicopters | Accommodation: Pitch’n Tents | Stationery: Fielding Milligan | Bride’s Dress: Mason Bridal Boutique | Groom’s Outfit: Stewarts Rockhampton | Alterations: Funny Girl Alterations | Ring/s: Passed down from family | Crystal Crown: Gypsy Lane | Makeup: Pro Make Up Studio | Hair: NG Hair
