On the morning of March 7, in Bali, I had my suspicions that he might propose but kept it to myself … how stupid would I have felt if he didn’t? Late in the afternoon, he took me and the box down to the beach and asked me to marry him. Although I had suspected it, his proposal was so overwhelming I can’t remember a word he said, which annoys me…. but it did make me cry!
A simple civil ceremony was held amongst the sand dunes at the Main Beach Lakes Entrance in near perfect weather with a backdrop of the front lake and the blue sea. The aisle was lined with eight white bali flags streaming in the light breeze and rose petals scattered on the sand. I was so excited walking down the aisle with my Dad by my side to the song ‘At Last’ by Etta James. As soon as I saw Stephen I couldn’t keep my eyes off him for the entire ceremony, everything else was a blur.
The ceremony was so romantic and gorgeous. We married at the Albert Street Uniting Church in Brisbane City. It was short and simple ceremony which is what we wanted. My bridal party and I walked down the aisle to the organ playing Cannon in D for the Bridesmaids, and the Bridal March for myself. My dad was so emotional as we were walking down the aisle, it was very unexpected as I had never seen my dad cry before so it was a truly beautiful moment. I will treasure it always.
So when we decided on a 70’s theme I knew straight away I had to try to get this dress. The website I saw it on was an American one so I called New York with the hope that they could send me the dress and I could get it altered to fit here. New York put me onto a place in Berkshire, England who put me in touch with their representative in Brisbane, Australia, called ‘Sugar & Spice’.
Phil and I met online through an internet chat program. We were friends for many years and then met on my 21st birthday. When we met we knew that there was something more than “just friends” between us, so we decided to visit each other on a regular basis both in Townsville and Sydney for approximately another year. We then moved half way to Brisbane to be with one another. Six years later Phil proposed to me while dining at Pier Nine restaurant in the Brisbane CBD. It was funny, because even though we had known each other for more than seven years, we were both as nervous and excited as anything that night!
One of the more challenging things to organise was family - because they have a mind and will of their own! Everyone had different expectations and as they all live 80km from where we live, there were initial issues about us not having the wedding where they live, but we overcame this by gentle persuasion (and the fact that the international airport -where our overseas friends were landing- was 10km from where we had the reception!)
These stories can be read at by visiting truebride.com.au. And, if there’s a wedding coming up for you, Wendy Stoller would like to take this time to invite you to visit her site for Examples of Wedding Speeches.

