Proposal: Two years after we met I organised a two-week holiday in Bali. During a date on a sunset cruise I proposed to Helaine as the sun set.
Rings: I picked Helaine’s engagement ring. It had to be a Solitaire diamond ring, meaning she’s the “only one” for me.
Theme: When I was 14 I went to Italy to visit my aunty who took me to Rome and Venice. Then and there I knew had to come back. When we started talking seriously about a wedding date and started the planning process we realised that it would be an expensive occasion and that through our efforts we would not be able to please everyone, and more importantly, last a single day. I then decided, since we had spent most of our time travelling the world together, to spend the money on a whole month as opposed to a single day. We invited family members but they could not come and we understood – in hindsight we missed our mums on the day. Our close friends, Angela and Joelle, were both in London at the time and we invited them as witnesses/bridesmaids. Ange was my Best (wo)Man. We spent eight days sightseeing and caught up with the Wedding Planner and bridesmaids. After the wedding we farewelled our bridesmaids and departed from Rome to Milan and spent a day with my cousin and her family.
Honey Moon: This was spent in Venice. Four days sightseeing a wonderful night cruising the city in a gondola. Next stop Paris and four days sightseeing then finally a two-day shopping stop-over in Bangkok on the way home.
Dress: We bought the wedding dress from New Zealand, we wanted a classic sleeveless dress as they are timeless. We were lucky to find one and were pleased when the price tag was within budget. We chose the bridesmaid’s dresses from Max in NZ, too. We wanted them to feel sexy and at the same time have a dress they could use after the wedding as part of their wardrobe. The dresses were a gift with a bracelet from Helaine and I, to our bridesmaids. We contacted the girls earlier to get sizes and luckily for us they fit perfectly.
Cake: Angela and Joelle went to the supermarket the night before and purchased a $10 chocolate ice cream cake which was wonderful just because it came from the girls and I ate it all.
I do: We went with traditional vows although delivered in Italian and having a translator with a heavy accent was funny – we just said yes and knew we were in the moment.
Something special: What was particularly special about our day was the reception – we booked a restaurant and arrived at lunch before anyone else had arrived so it felt like we booked the whole place to ourselves. The hostess played our music and we ate, danced and laughed all afternoon. It was the summertime so by 2pm I went back to the hotel for a snooze and the girls went shopping. We caught up later that night and had dinner at an outdoor restaurant in an ancient sporting arena being serenaded by musicians.Rome is special – Italy is the heart of Europe and Rome is the heart of Italy – seemed like a cool place to give my heart away.
Advice for others: My advice to others would be to remember that the day belongs to you and your partner. Plan that way and visualise not only the way you want to feel during the day but after also. It’s been 6 years since we got married and after the dust settled we started our family – a little older and wiser now the advice I can give to people planning to get married is it’s not just the wedding that makes the marriage it’s two people becoming one, as you grow you need to do so together and you will get stronger... easy to say little harder to do... gonna try anyway.
