REAL WEDDING- Nat & Rob

12/8/2020

Nat & Rob CONGRATS on getting married. First could you tell us a bit about how you met?
The age old romance story - through friends, at a pub.
Neither of us were planning to head out the night we met. I had caught up with a girlfriend for dinner and a couple of drinks. She’d mentioned about heading into the city to catch up with some of her friends… Now, I’m not really a “head to the city” type of girl, but I was assured, we’ll stay for 1 drink and if we wanted to head home we would.
Rob was the same, he’d caught up with a friend, after not having intended going out at all that night. His friend Juan, was the friend my friend had wanted to catch up with - meanwhile I’m thinking its a big group of people. Nope 2 boys, 2 girls… Rob and I being one of each. (Almost seems set up right?)
We hit it off instantly, sharing our love for beer, a good laugh and meeting new people & socializing. We were at Beer DeLuxe on Flinders Street (instantly a new favourite).
From there, we all went off...to a Latin club for a dance! Was not ready for the night to be over.
In the night I had an awkward encounter with a very keen (unwanted) gentleman, in response I asked Rob if he’d pretend to be my boyfriend and ever so lovingly he begrudgingly responded with “sure, I’ll take one for the team”. And boy, has he?!
We exchanged numbers that night, he drove me home to my parents and soon after that, we were inseparable and have been since.

How long have you been together?
We met 4 years ago back in July, officially together 4 years on the 2nd of October. Feels like it’s flown by but that we’ve known each other a lifetime.

When did you know you had found your soulmate?
As ironic as that sounds, I think both of us knew that night. Rob mentioned in his ceremony love letter that on the night we met he knew he couldn’t do life without me & that night I instantly felt the same. We met doing something we hadn’t done in such a long time, with friends we normally wouldn’t have done so with. It was the perfect chain of events to meet the perfect partner.

What is something quirky about your partner? Something that drives you a little crazy but you love them regardless.
Rob said: “Everything”
Nat said: Literally the fact that he says stuff like that it annoys the living daylights out of me, but makes me love him more and more each day. His silliness and sense of humour is one of the things I love most. I assume it also means that he loves “everything” about me too? *shrugs*. I love that he doesn’t take too much, too seriously, quite unlike me. As carefree and positive as I am, I’m definitely the one more on the serious side in the marriage, that’s for sure!

Tell us about your proposal story?
January 6th 2019.
We’d just been away with my family to the Grampians; my family had just flown out from the UK and we’d just had a beautiful few days away. Little did I know, during the time away Rob had caught my Dad for an early morning walk, telling him that he was planning on proposing whilst we were on the next part of our trip together, just the 2 of us.
We said our “see you soon” to the family who we were meeting back in Sydney a few days after & went off to Echuca for the day and straight on to Thredbo/Kosciuszko. We’d planned to do the summit walk, the day after we’d arrived, but when we woke up the weather had other plans. Instead we spent the day down Jindabyne. Rob was adamant that regardless of the weather, we were doing the summit walk the following day, as the day after we headed off for Sydney.
We woke and the sun was beaming, still as ever and a perfect day for the 12km walk to the summit and back. We got the chairlift up to the starting point and when we got off we were above the clouds, sat still and flooded the sky and just blue above us. Even the chairlift conductor mentioned in all the years he’d worked there, he’d never seen the clouds do that - a momentous day in its own right, regardless of what was happening when we reached the top.
We walked, struggled, talked, took breaks and lots of pictures and then we reached the top. We jumped up on the pillar and took the tourist photo as the highest people, for that moment, in Australia.
We jumped on down off the pillar and went and had a little sit down by ourselves to take in the view. As we discussed our year ahead and all the plans and dreams we had, Rob said he had 1 more surprise and to close my eyes. Me, being the beer loving, chubbster that I am - thought he’d snuck up 2 Kosciuszko Pale Ales (don’t ask me where he’d have hidden it?!). Instead he popped his hand out in front of me and told me to open my eyes, there sitting on his pinky was an engagement ring as he spoke the words “I want to make us a real family, will you marry me?” I cried and hugged him and undeniably cried out “yes, yes, did I say yes?!” The most magical, memorable and incredible moment of my life ahead of the wedding day itself. We were literally on top of the world, on top of Australia.

How did you hear about us? What made you choose the shearing shed, what is the story behind choosing a venue?
We knew almost instantly we wanted a barn-type wedding, when we started the discussions of “where to be wed” we always and both came back to the idea of a barn… rustic, kind of moody, blank canvas for the rest of our vision to POP.
We love Phillip Island, its a place we’d visited a bit together as a couple and wanted our guests to travel, but not too far - so the research commenced. The Shearing Shed popped up, amazing reviews and mostly, a STUNNING venue.
We booked in to see it ASAP.
We’d booked (in all honesty) to see I believe it was another 2 venues that day, the first being Shearing Shed. We jumped in the car and headed out to the venue where we met Abbie, explored the grounds and fell in LOVE. Rob, as soon as we got in the car goes “cancel the other appointments, we’ve found our venue”. Music to my ears, that was, I was just as in love and couldn't imagine our big day to be celebrated anywhere else.

How was the lead up to your day? Explain the planning process.
Seamless. Genuinely seamless. However, the process as a whole and even its finer details, went to a T. From finding the dress, to suiting up the gentlemen, the bridesmaid dresses, the juniors and the flower girls - effortless and dreamy on the day!
We planned things together well ahead of even starting to research or speak with suppliers. We made sure we were on the same page with everything we wanted in the day from the location, to the guests, the style and the date. Literally everything.
With all of this already discussed, we managed to get all of our other ducks in a row. When we met with Abbie at the Shearing Shed, she had a list of suppliers (a list of lifesavers) that she’d previously worked with and we started to call, message and email and before we knew it, our day was coming together. Our suppliers made the day everything we’d dreamt; live music from The Times Duo, amazing flowers from Flowers of Phillip Island, our dreamy styling by Over The Top Events and everything Abbie and the Shearing Shed did for us, the catering, drinks and general support - was everything we could have hoped for and more.
Our photographer and videographer travelled for us (Kayla Maree Photography and Bluebird Media) and captured the day amazingly, my makeup as well as our bridesmaids was done by Cristal Carlson who’d travelled to be there & hair all by Yvonne Round.
My parents were a massive contributor to our day too. Not only financially but their general support throughout the whole process (of not only our wedding but love, life and family too).
Without everyone included, we couldn’t imagine the day would have gone off like it did & so pleased we discussed it all to start with - a true time and relationship saver, before we included anyone else's words of wisdom, thoughts and guidance!

Any funny stories or disasters leading up to your big day?
Literally zero disasters, it was almost scary. We both kept thinking, “what have we forgotten?” “why is this so easy?” - it was beyond a dream organizing the day and a lot of that was thanks to our suppliers.
However, completely unrelated to the wedding, but my just general being - we have a funny story about picking up our Bridesmaid Lauren. She was flying in from the UK to be a part of our big day, a childhood bestie who I couldn’t imagine the day without. We went out to the airport the morning she was due to arrive, we got up early both Rob and I to make the journey out to Melbourne Airport. Her flight number was on the screen and just about to land, I was so excited, telling Rob more and more about her as we waited. The anticipation grew as it showed as “Landed” and we waited, waited some more and more flights began to land, come through customs and no sign of Lauren. Was she OK? I messaged her partner Brad to see if everything was OK, messaged her and retraced all of her messages to make sure I wasn’t late, or even early. We were early though. A whole day early. Whoops! Needless to say, it was a very quiet car ride home. Luckily, and I am sure Rob agrees in full - Lauren was and is worth it! We went back out the next day, the same time, same gate and guess what - she arrived!!

Did you include any of the typical wedding traditions?
Of course! Who would we have been to have not included all of those beautiful moments to remember.
I don’t really know what we didn’t do. We spent the night before apart, with our groom & bridal parties and made sure to keep contact to a minimum. We called to say goodnight & knew the next time we’d see each other, was there as the doors opened and we’d soon be wed!
My Dad, Mark and I were the last two in the house as all the parties were taken off to the venue and I asked the typical “any last minute advice?” to which his response was “No, not really - you both seem to do things together quite well - just remember that and keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll both be OK.” He walked me down the aisle and gave me away.
The father daughter dance and the first dance didn’t go amiss, Rob even danced with my Mum when I danced with my Dad. My siblings danced with our kids and it was a really special family moment.
The bouquet was tossed and the garter was retrieved & thrown. We had an exit circle to say goodbye & thank you to out guests. A Lot of the traditions are what make the day so special; the things you'd never normally do, that are reserved for that special day, each tradition as special as the one before.

What was your most memorable part of the wedding?
When the doors opened and we saw each other for the first time. We hadn’t seen each other in what felt like a year (it was the day before and in the afternoon haha) but it seemed like a lifetime. The doors opened and there it was, our future husband, our future wife - steps away and moments away from tying the knot. We smiled, laughed, cried and just knew this was that feeling you’re mean to feel in that moment.

Pinterest was probably your best friend throughout the planning process. What was the inspiration behind all of the styling?
Pinterest was my best friend from when I was about 15 haha. When I look back at the board I created at that age, it's mad how much of it was still relevant to planning our day.
White bridesmaids, white flowers, crisp, clean and fresh - minimal.
We are both very much the outdoors people, the minimalists, so it was really easy for us to envision our day together. We wanted to bring the outdoors, indoors & Over The Top Events who did all of our styling, nailed it. Absolute perfection. Green on white, minimal flowers (just the bouquets and buttonholes, plus a cheeky petal through at the end - all supplied by Flowers of Phillip Island).
We wanted to keep everything about the day as local to the venue as possible, support the local community that was housing us for our special day and everyone absolutely nailed it.

Words of wisdom for others planning a wedding?
Enjoy it. Every minute of it. Sit down together before the planning even properly begins and dream board together. Find out what each other likes and needs in the day and incorporate both ideas as MUCH as possible. Stay calm, laugh, enjoy it and have fun, the whole thing goes quick. The biggest thing to remember is to plan a marriage, not a wedding - no compromise is too big to have it stress you out as a couple. The day will happen regardless of the colour of the napkins or the arrangements of the flowers - you’ll live happily ever after, no matter what.