Bendigo couple Nikki and Mark Dewhurst are spending lockdown as a married couple after tying the knot in an intimate family ceremony in their home.
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The couple made the decision to bring forward their planned Saturday ceremony to Thursday but had to lose the element of surprise they were hoping to give their guests.
"We found out we were pregnant at the start of the year and we were planning to make our vows with just our immediate family around on Saturday and then have a gender reveal party with all our friends in the afternoon and announce we got married," Mrs Dewhurst said.
"It's not what we wanted, but it was great to have most of our family there.
"My stepdaughter Aria who's five was excited about the party and we always wanted to have her involved so it was great to still have a ceremony.
"We lost the element of surprise for our guests but we can always celebrate another day."
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When the Victorian government announced the seven-day circuit breaker lockdown, the now Mrs Dewhurst was in Echuca having her hair done and had to make quick plans with her immediate family.
"We obviously knew restrictions would happen because Melbourne already had some," she said. "All week we were thinking 'what about we do this?' or 'what about that?'.
"We didn't think it would be a full lockdown and as soon as it happened we thought 'that's it'.
"Our celebrant Sue said she could marry us tonight and Mark's sister said we should just do that too so I spoke to Sue and we went from there."
The original plan for the couple was to have their immediate family at their ceremony at noon on Saturday and then have friends around in the afternoon for a gender reveal party and announce their wedding.
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Despite, the lockdown restrictions coming in, the Dewhursts were able to get most of their immediate family together and both being from large families, around 20 people were able to make their Thursday ceremony.
"We managed to throw together something really nice," Mrs Dewhurst said. "It was lovely to have everyone together and we're still optimistic about having something before our bub comes.
"We've done the formal side of things with our immediate family which means most and it hasn't dampened our spirits of having a celebration later on."
As lockdown restrictions have come into force, the Dewhursts are spending their first week getting a nursery ready for their baby girl on the way.
"We live our lives as a family unit already, the ceremony just made things official," Mrs Dewhurst said.
"Yes, we didn't get the big party we thought we'd have but we're still living our same lives everyday."
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