Bride: Janelle Wakeling
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Groom: Adam Brown
Date: October 2
The meeting: Every couple has a story they cannot wait to share with their future grandchildren. A story of beauty, magic and the beginnings of a fairytale life. Ours was exactly that.
We met on a gorgeous February Saturday night in Bendigo. I would love to write of a night where fate bought us together at an elite restaurant while eating fine food and drinking vintage wine but ours differs slightly.
We did meet on a lovely Saturday night but not at a restaurant but at the Universal night club in the early hours of the Sunday morning. Conversation lasted for many hours while sitting across from the taxi rank in Rosalind Park and ended when I dropped Adam home to his parents’ house.
The proposal: Adam kept the proposal traditional: 'It is the man’s job to propose!'
We were lucky enough to enjoy a month overseas in America. It was my first time overseas and what would a holiday be without going to Las Vegas? We had already been travelling for two weeks when we spent four nights on the strip. We had visited and seen many beautiful, not to mention romantic places, that someone could propose to their 'one and only'. It was our second last night there and most of our clean clothes had disappeared. It was going to cost $3 US plus tax plus tip just to get a pair of underwear dry cleaned. Instead of wasting this money, we decided to wash our clothes in the bath tub of our hotel room while staying at Planet Hollywood. Money is better spent elsewhere, right?
As it was getting late, I had already changed into my sexy, pink summer snoopy pj's ready to turn in for the night. Adam was acting weird and even though I kept asking if everything was alright, he kept saying he was fine. Eventually he pulled out one of his shoes from his suitcase.
He was shaking like I had never seen before and was so nervous he could not even kneel down. The next minute he pulled a ring box out of his shoe and asked: “Would you do the honour and spend the rest of your life with me?”
How could I say no? Plus we still had two weeks left until we flew home.
The wedding day: Every bride wants the perfect wedding but, realistically, no relationship is perfect. We just wanted a wedding that represented us as a couple - plain, simple and stress free.
We had the pleasure of having both our ceremony and reception at Chateau Dore and Nicole was the perfect hostess.
To share our special day, we had our closest friends, Bree and Nick as our matron-of-honour and best man and Michael as one of the groomsman, then our siblings Jarrod, Emily, Alarna, Ryan and Natalie made up the rest of our bridal party. It wouldn't have been complete without our niece Laylah and nephew Dustan as our flower girl and page boy.
Delia Currie was kind enough to travel down from Echuca to join Adam and I as Mr and Mrs Brown and Sil from Bendigo iDance taught us our own choreographed waltz as our first dance as husband and wife - there is talent just there.
The dress: To me a white dress means 'pure and traditional' but I am just me. From day one, I chose not to wear white despite my mother fighting me on this.
I found my perfect dress at Bendigo Bridal on King St. I was not going to spend endless hours hunting around Melbourne when I could get everything plus more here at home. Natalie and Bronwyn were brilliant in helping me find the dress that suited me and my personality – a beautiful platinum lace-up dress with gorgeous beading that fitted me to a tee.
The cake: Cakes by Kelly
The photographer: Tess Follett Photography
The honeymoon: Hawaii
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