Bride: Charlene Allen
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Bridegroom: Joel Salau
Wedding date: February 14, 2015
The meeting
I used to work across the road from Joel’s cafe, McIvor 165. He makes amazing chicken schnitzel burgers. He claims I enjoyed visiting to see him, but I’m sure it was just for his schnitzel burgers. This went on for a couple of months before Joel worked up the courage to “stalk me” on Facebook and ask me out for dinner. Of course I said yes!
The proposal
We were out for dinner at Groove Train for our anniversary. Joel was acting very awkward and nervous. I asked him about it and he said there was a reason why he was nervous and pulled a ring out of his pocket. I had no idea. He had even asked Dad for his blessing a week earlier.
The wedding day
We had both our ceremony and reception at Big Hill Winery. It is absolutely gorgeous out there. Jo at Big Hill is great! It was raining in the morning, which made everyone a bit nervous as it was a garden wedding, but by lunchtime it had cleared and the sun was out and it ended up being a beautiful day. Our celebrant was Ron Giles, who did a superb job. I cannot thank him enough.
The dress
The dress was purchased at Micheles Bridal in Shepparton. I had been to a couple of places to try dresses on, but hadn’t found anything I loved. I mentioned to Mum I had seen a dress on Facebook that I liked and she said she had seen one too and it ended up being the same dress. We drove to Shepparton not long after to try it on and fell in love. My dress was a Stella York gown with a fitted bodice, covered in Swarovski crystals with a tulle skirt.
The cake
The cake was made by Julie Anne at Cakewalk. It was a three-tier cake, with each tier a different flavour. It had purple and white sugar roses cascading down the side, which Julie Anne did an amazing job making by hand. Joel designed our cake topper himself to look like little South Park characters, which were made by a very talented girl from London on Etsy.
The photographer
Our photographer was Rachael Ross from Rachael Ross Photography. She did a fantastic job and I would highly recommend looking her up on Facebook.
The honeymoon
We wanted to do something a bit different for our honeymoon. We hired a camper-van and drove from Melbourne to Perth. It took us nine nights to get there and then we spent five nights in Perth before flying home. It was a fantastic experience!
The highlights were catching crabs in Ceduna, the beautiful landscapes in Esperance and swimming with wild dolphins in Perth.
P.S. A special shout-out to Rhonda at Bridal and Deb Creations – she is just brilliant! We got our flowers, invites, place cards and jewellery from there and it was all perfect. She is so helpful and friendly.