Lisa and Rylie waited an extra year to have the wedding of their dreams and, it was everything they'd hoped for and more. With a stellar group of suppliers and an incredible vision, this wedding was a total showstopper.

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How did you meet?

Our love story began on Anzac day in 2016. Our first date was in the moonlit streets of Fitzroy on Anzac eve. It was on this night that we discovered how much we had in common in terms of what we wanted out of life, our values, the activities we enjoyed as well as their mutual love of pooches. Our first date was a raging success, so a second date was planned and I decided to make the plans of this date a surprise. I took Lisa to her first every ice hockey game. The only thing I told Lisa about the date, was to dress warm. We took an Uber to the Docklands and Lisa was introduced to my main passion as well as some of my closest friends.  Lisa loved every single moment. After the game we went to a friend’s apartment in the city to hang out and play beer pong. That night Lisa didn’t just get to go on a date with me but she also met some of my closest friends.

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Rylie says: “Lisa is the funniest person I know and she makes me laugh every single day.  I love that we can meet up with anyone and I know that she’ll be able to hold her own with them, even if she’s never met them before. Lisa is practically a human Tasmanian devil; even when I’ve just spent hours cleaning the house, within seconds of Lisa being home, it looks like a bomb has exploded with clothes, shoes and Tupperware containers absolutely everywhere. Lisa’s drive and her passion for the things she loves in life is infectious. She never does anything by halves, with her it’s all or nothing and she loves to bite off more than she can chew just to prove to everyone, and herself, that we’re only limited by our imagination.  She’s also the smartest person I know, I think everyone can attest to that. She’s not only book smart but she’s also wise beyond her years. She’s a deep thinker and I believe that’s one of her biggest strengths. Everything she does has been planned and thought out meticulously so that nothing is left to chance.  That’s the way she takes care of our little family, she’s always planning for our future and I really appreciate that about her. I fell in love with Lisa on the first night I met her, she was so excitedly talking about herself and her life and I realised I’d never met anyone like her before and I just knew she was going to be important to me. We fell into mutual love as the weeks wore on but it wasn’t long until we were properly in love.  I don’t know what I’d be doing if I hadn’t met Lisa, but I guarantee I wouldn’t have shot so high in my life. Her enthusiasm for growth in this life is contagious and I find myself eager to achieve things when I’m around her.  She makes me believe that anything is possible and I cannot wait to see where our married life will take us.”

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Lisa says: “Rylie was born with an excessive amount of empathy, probably enough for 12 humans which although sometimes I struggle to comprehend, is probably the part of her I love the most. She’s very thoughtful of everyone’s feelings, at all times except when she is driving when she will hurl abuse at strangers and use the horn with unnecessary aggression. She loves to do things for other people, she always prioritizes family and friends above all else and is always up for a drink or karaoke. Rylie is fiercely loyal and has a love for dogs that runs deeper than the ocean - she is also secretly a dog whisperer and can make any dog worship her. She loves to talk to strangers and even though I find this painful as an awkward bystander, it is a trait I adore about her. She holds herself and others to a high standard and calls people out on laziness or cowardice, particularly when ‘doing the right thing’ is involved. She not only has the strongest morals but she also has the courage to act on them regardless of perceived repercussion, even when it might mean she’ll be standing alone. She’s physically unable to do ‘the wrong thing’ and she inspires me to be a better person every day. She’s a total whiz in the kitchen – and makes the most delicious meals you could imagine, unless they involve mushrooms and then she’ll refuse. She has the biggest pecs of any girl I’ve ever seen and also the best dance moves, but she won’t dance in the morning – mornings are to be respected in silence according to Rylie. She’s the queen of getting errands done and she’s my favourite ice hockey player in the world. Rylie is also a problem solver and a wiz at writing and editing; my whole family get her to edit their resumes.  She treats me like an absolute princess and makes me feel like I’m some kind of superhuman Rockstar who can do anything - I love the way she makes me feel. Every single day that we have been together she does something to let me know she’s thinking of me. Meeting Rylie was like finding a miracle person that I’d dreamed into existence and getting to marry her and make that commitment for life means the world to me.”

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How long have you been together for?

5 glorious years.

How would you best describe your wedding in a few words?

The most incredible and magical day of our lives.

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How and why did you choose your reception and ceremony location?

We wanted to make an event out of our day, so we felt a destination style wedding would achieve this.  For this reason, we chose a venue just outside Melbourne so it would be easy for our interstate as well as our Victorian based guests to get to.  Warburton was actually suggested to us by Lisa’s mum and dad who had been out there for a mini-break and thought the town was charming.  We went out there to check out Projekt 3488 and pretty much decided on the spot that it was the place we wanted to get married.

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Was your wedding in your local area or did you have a destination wedding?

Although it was only an hour outside Melbourne, because it was in rural Vic we treated it as a destination wedding and all our guests stayed out near the venue.

What kind of jobs do you have?

Lisa is a surgeon-in-training and I’m a dietitian.

What was the most important element for you to have in your wedding?

We wanted to balance the sincerity of the occasion with a party element.  So it was important to us that the ceremony have a more serious note, while the reception be a lot more laid back so we could all let loose and have fun.  

Did you have a large or a small wedding?

What were the deciding factors in this? We feel like our wedding was medium size, it was about 95 people in the end.  We wanted to ensure we had enough people to fill the venue, but not so many that we couldn’t get around to seeing everyone on the night.

How did you choose what to wear?

Lisa chose her dress according to “wow factor”, she wanted to look like a princess but also wanted her dress to be timeless.  I chose a jumpsuit because I wasn’t comfortable wearing a dress or a suit, and felt a jumpsuit suited my personality the best.  

Tell me all about the proposal?

I proposed to Lisa at the incredible Lindenderry winery in Red Hill, I pre-arranged a one-night stay the day before the 3rd anniversary of when we met.  Lisa thinks I’m totally unromantic so I organised with her boss to get her out of work on time and then I picked her up and took her there as a surprise.  Lisa stressed about her outfit the whole way to the hotel, but when we got there I had a bottle of champagne and 2 brand new outfits waiting for her to choose between for our romantic dinner.  Once she showered and got ready I told her how beautiful she looked, but that her outfit was just missing one thing, some jewellery. I then went to the cupboard to ‘see if I had anything’ and came back with a ring box and got down on one knee.  She said "yes", and we celebrated with champagne and FaceTime’d our families before we headed down to celebrate with a lovely dinner and more champagne. It was a perfect evening!

What style helped to shape your reception and where did you get your inspiration?

We relied heavily on the already phenomenally decorated venue – Projekt 3488 which really has such a unique vibe and so much detail already. But we wanted to make it even more feminine and dream-like and had so many incredible conversations with our florist Candy Mountain who helped us to transform the venue into the most whimsical dream land. Somehow, the industrial style with the feminine arrangements came together to create the wedding venue of our dreams!

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Did you write your own vows?

Yes we both wrote our own vows from scratch. Lisa’s was twice as long as mine in classic Lisa style!

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Did you include any special elements into your ceremony?

We included a gift to our mothers, since the majority of traditional weddings are very male-focused with the father giving the daughter away and the father-daughter dance, we wanted to include something that recognised our mother’s roles in our lives up to that point.  Since our mothers were our biggest inspirations growing up, and since our wedding was obviously never going to be “traditional” we thought it would be nice to recognise the influence of our female role-models.

How did you choose your suppliers? Who were the stand out suppliers on the day?

We chose our suppliers based on searching Instagram and also recommendations from other suppliers.  To be honest, we loved every single one of our suppliers on the day, they were all perfect and we wouldn’t know how to pick just one.

Why did you decide to marry?

We decided to marry because we love each other and want to spend the rest of our lives together so we wanted to mark that commitment in front of our closest family and friends.

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What was an absolute stand out on your wedding day?

The standout was all the personal touches that made our wedding day ours.  We had two of Lisa’s dance students perform a self-choreographed dance for us, which was absolutely incredible and such a beautiful touch.  We also loved having our nephew and cousins involved in our ceremony as flower girls and page boys, they were adorable and absolutely stole the show.  And we loved the speeches, where everyone got to have their say, and we got to tell everyone how much we love and appreciate them.  Everything that made the day personal was what stood out the most to us.

What advice would you offer to future couples?

Everyone always says don’t sweat the small stuff because nothing will go right on the day.  That is the god’s honest truth.  There will be a thousand little things that go wrong, but in the end you won’t even notice or care, because in the moment the only thing that matters is you’re there surrounded by the people you love most.  We didn’t believe it until we actually went through it ourselves, but you will love your day despite all the things that go wrong because it’s your day and nothing is more important than that.  

What supplier did you book first and why?

We booked our venue first, but we booked our whole wedding around Dan Brannan (photographer) because he is absolutely incredible and we didn’t want anyone but him shooting our day, a decision we will never regret.  

Is there anything you would change about your wedding day?

If we had our time again we’d take more of a moment to stop and take it all in, it really is gone in a flash and if you aren’t careful you’ll forget to just be in the moment together.  

How much did you budget for your wedding and did you stick to the budget?

We didn’t really have a set budget, we picked what we wanted within reason, and generally we were pretty happy overall with the amount we spent.

What was the most stressful part of the wedding planning process?

The most stressful part was planning around COVID-19. We had to postpone our date a full calendar year, and by the time our date came around again it still wasn’t certain that it would go ahead.  It’s hard enough planning one wedding, but planning two weddings in uncertain times was definitely a stress we wouldn’t wish on anyone!

Were there any funny moments in the day?

There were a thousand funny moments, but the funniest moments were Lisa’s vows, which weren’t actually supposed to be funny but she just couldn’t help herself, and the dance floor was hilarious.  Watching Lisa’s dad cutting some breakdance moves during the father daughter dance was all we needed to see.

Did you both equally plan the wedding together or did one person have more input?

We planned it together but Lisa had the most input, as she had a vision of what she wanted on the day, whereas I was in charge of making sure the party was lit.

Did you have to plan your wedding multiple times?

Yes twice.

Did anything go wrong on the day of your wedding?

Nothing major, Lisa’s maid of honour’s dress broke right before they were due to leave for the ceremony and they had to fix it in a haste.  The venue had an issues raising the tables so the guests had to stand around after the speeches for way longer than was intended.  But overall, it wasn’t anything too terrible.

What are your hopes for your married life?

We just hope to be happy and in love, and to have time to spend together. We are very busy people, so what we hope is that we’ll always be able to prioritise each other and our family, and live happily ever after.

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VENDORS:

Photographer: Dan Brannan @danbrannanphoto

Videographer: Moon & Back Co. @moonandbackco

Venue: Projekt 3488 @projekt3488

Celebrant: Charis White @melbournecelebrant_chariswhite

Wedding dress (Lisa): Suzanne Harward @suzanneharward

Wedding Jumpsuit (Rylie): Samantha Lentini @bysamanthalentini

Flowers: Candy Mountain @candy_mt_

Cake: Alisha Henderson – Sweet Bakes @sweetbakes_

DJ/Band: Haybax @hay_bax

Hair: (Lisa) Cat Hughes @cathughesxo ; (Rylie) Kate Walker @gypsy_and_the_wolf

Make-up: (Lisa) Maddy Devitt – Tonic Agency @tonic.makeup.hair (Rylie) Kelsey

Connolly (sister) @k_k_connolly

Food or alcohol Caravan’s: Locavore Studio @locavore_studio

Emcee: Tom Ellis

Rings: Louise Jean @louisejeanjewellery

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