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How did you and your partner meet?
We met at a wedding in Melbourne. An old school friend of mine was marrying Michael’s cousin. Michael’s sister had planned to set him up with another old school friend at the wedding but when she introduced them the match was not meant to be and Michael & I ended up chatting for the most of the night. At the very end of the wedding, I saw Michael striding over to me out of the corner of my eye and I was overcome with butterflies. He asked for my number and a date once we were both back in Sydney and the rest, as they say, is history.
How did he propose?
Michael surprised me with a helicopter ride from Hamilton Island to Hayman Island where we spent the day relaxing by the pool at the One & Only resort. That night he organized a private dinner on the beach and he got down on one knee under a super moon with the waves lapping beside us and proposed. Funny side note: the super moon meant the tide came in a lot quicker than expected and by the end of dinner we were basically sitting in the ocean! We then spent the rest of the week sailing around the Whitsundays and basking in engaged bliss!
How did you choose your wedding gown?
I had been looking for a wedding dress for a while and just didn’t feel like anything I tried on was ‘The One’. I kept expecting to have some kind of holy moment when I would try a dress on that would give me the sign that it was ‘The dress’. I happened to visit Savvy Brides in Sydney on a weekend when Erin Clare was having a trunk show of her collection there and I immediately fell in love with ‘The’ dress. It was made even more special to have Erin herself there so talk everything through. Erin made the dress to fit my measurements and I ended up going up to her studio in Noosa for a dress fitting which was a surprise getaway with my mom that I organized for her birthday. While I was having my dress fitting Erin showed me a veil that she had made to match my dress design and not already having found a veil, I knew I had to have it. It was a wonderful and very special experience to deal directly with my dress designer and really made the whole experience quite unique.
What sort of style did you envision for your Jewish wedding day?
‘Winter Elegance’ – a roaring fire, a beautiful timber book barn, cozy and oozing with love.
What was your favorite moment from the day?
Running through our AFL banner (with the song Holy Grail by Hunters and Collectors playing) into the horas (Jewish dancing that the function begins with).
The banner read “TWO TEAMS, ONE LOVE. STACE & HOBBSY”.
Michael and I bonded over our mutual love of footy and he is a bombers supporter while I am a swan’s supporter. We were both raised on football and I had always joked that I would run through an AFL banner on my wedding day. I had it made by a banner maker in Victoria and shipped to Sydney for the big day.
Also – The groom secretly organized a flash mob for me with his groomsmen (to ‘I want it that way’ by the Backstreet Boys). A few months before the wedding the best man was in a scooter accident and broke his ankle. He was adamant that he would still be able to perform the dance on the night…. And that he did – walking stick, limp and all like a total superstar!
I had no idea what Michael had planned (and choreographed!) and was totally shocked and amazed and laughed hysterically with joy and surprise throughout the whole performance.
Any DIY décor elements?
Our individual, personalized origami paper ‘fortune tellers’ designed, printed and folded by Michael & I were used as an all-in-one place setting, menu and message to guests. We painstakingly printed, cut out and folded 150 individual origami pieces but it was worth it to see the curiosity and delight on our guest’s faces when they opened and read them and realized we had made them all especially for each one of them.
We sourced vases of various shapes, sizes and colors (blue, crystal and gold) from various variety stores and op shops for the table flowers and I made the table numbers from old classic looking children’s books tied together in a bundle to create a holder for the table number.
We also set up a photo booth table with Polaroid cameras, an album, and pens for guests to take photos and leave a note as a memory of the night.
If you could do it all over again, what would you change?
Nothing!…… except I would do it earlier so my grandmother could have been there. She was too unwell on the day to come to the wedding and passed away shortly afterward and I will always think that I shouldn’t have waited a year. Time really is so very precious.
Any tips that you can give to future brides?
Be true to yourselves and chip away at it every week ahead of the wedding. Do your research! There are plenty of DIY projects and fun things you can do together or with friends for the wedding that really give it a personal touch and will definitely save you a lot of money! If there is something you really want, be as inventive and creative as you can to achieve it.
As stressful as the wedding planning was sometimes, we were really happy in the end that we had planned the whole wedding ourselves. It meant that our wedding was a true representation of who we are as a couple. The whole day was everything we could have ever imagined and more!
Anything else you’d like to add?
I (Stacey) am Jewish so it was very important to both myself and Michael to incorporate as many of the Jewish traditions into the ceremony as we could. We were married under a chuppah (Jewish wedding canopy) borrowed from a friend who was also married under it, we were both walked down the aisle by both parents, I circled Michael seven times as I entered the chuppah, family members said the seven Jewish wedding blessings, we drank wine from my grandparent’s kiddush wine cup (from my grandparent’s own wedding in 1948), Michael smashed the glass to conclude the ceremony, we signed a traditional Ketubah (Jewish marriage contract); and we danced the horas at the beginning of the wedding function (which were sung by a close friend of ours.
To top it off our close friend Leor became a celebrant, especially so he would marry us. It was an incredibly generous and heartfelt gift that we will be forever humbled and grateful for.
Having family and friends involved in the whole day was something that was very important to both of us.
