The Special Couple: Erin + Will

Wedding Date : 22nd September 2018 

THE MEETING & PROPOSAL

Will and I are high school sweethearts. We have been together for over 11 years. Will was in the year above me at school and he was the cool kid. One day Will added me on MSN and the rest is history!

In 2017 Will and I set off for a 6 months adventure around the world. A month into a trip Will surprised me with a 5 star resort in Mexico for my birthday. We found ourselves swimming alone in a natural cenote the next thing I knew Will was down on one knee with a stick ring. I wasn't really listening at the time and I never thought I'd get proposed to in a rashy! But it was perfect. A month later we were in New York and it was snowing and absolutely horrible but Will was so certain he wanted to go on a carriage ride through Central Park. After almost pushing me into the carriage Will produced a token ring that told me that this engagement had been planned all along. He had organised drinks at the plaza and dinner at the top of the Rockefeller centre. When we arrived back to Melbourne, Will proposed again for the third and final time with my real engagement ring. He tied the ring to our bulldog Paul. I am very lucky to get three amazing proposals!

THE INSPIRATION & VENUE

Being Country kids we wanted our wedding to be reflective of our childhood. Our venue St Leonards Winery in Wahgunyah is such a beautiful venue and we didn't want anything to take away from that. My Mum has an amazing garden full of succulents and Australian plants so that became our theme for the flowers. My brother and I planted 170 succulents from my Mums garden for bonbonniere's and table decorations. We tried to make everything as simple as possible with a slight mix of family owned rustic items such as horse shoes from my first horse, hay bales and my families 80 year old egg crates.

THE DRESS & THE LOOK

I took my brother dress shopping with me and it was actually him who found the dress on the rack first!

I have to be honest and say I am not a big fan of wedding dresses! I was never looking for a white dress and Will even said to me the day before our wedding that he could guarantee that my dress would not be white! As soon as I saw my dress on the rack at Eternal Bridal I knew it was the one. When I slipped it on I didn't even look in the mirror and I said yes to the dress! The one thing I was certain about is I knew I wanted a statement headpiece. I have always been a fan of Stephanie Browne in Armadale and after returning to the store several times (I found this so much harder then buying the dress) I picked a bespoke jade stone headpiece. It was my way of adding colour to my bridal look.

THE HIGHLIGHT

One of our favourite things about our wedding is that we had our wonderful family DIY most of the aspects of our day, which made everything even more special. Will's sister Courtney made our cake. My Brother Nic made all our flowers and floral arrangements. We are both extremely close to our families and to share the day with them was the most important thing for us.

ERIN’S ADVISE

I think just to remember how fortunate we are to have our family and friends in our lives. At the end of the day it didn't matter what colour the napkins were or if my spray tan was a disaster (yes this happened!) All that mattered that we got to share the best day of our lives with our nearest and dearest! We were so fortunate that we were never alone in the wedding planning process and to be honest Will and I felt like we just had to rock up because my brother Nic had helped us out in almost every aspect of our day.

ERIN’S ETERNAL BRIDAL EXPERIENCE

Kaitlyn from Eternal Bridal Armadale made everything so easy! Her bubbly personality made me feel so relaxed and she was completely honest. I could not recommend Kaitlyn more.

Erin wore ‘Louie’ from Blush by Hayley Paige, See more gowns from Blush by Hayley Paige here

VENDORS

Welcome sign and Table numbers: Yano Designs