Jessie + Gary by Flossy Photo - Together Journal

We are very trusting of each other and the friendship we had before the love gave us that.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…

We met nearly 2 decades ago, and neither of us recalls our first encounter. Except Jessie recalls not being fond of Garry at first, mistaking his shyness for arrogance. We became friends some years later as all our friends were in the same circle. Jessie later realised Garry was the opposite of what she had thought. Spent many festivals and parties together. It soon became clear that we had very similar interests and would be the last 2 partying together and organising trips and travel together even on our own. Opposite in personalities, we found we complimented each other. Garry is introverted, and Jessie is extroverted. Jessie later needed somewhere to live and moved in with Garry and a few other mates. After living together as friends for some time, we became inseparable. People all started to assume we were together. Jessie moved up to Perth, and Garry soon followed, and we made things official. That was 13 years ago. In the meantime, we have built a life for ourselves. Multiple houses, pets and now our little girl Sadie Moon. We have travelled the world together and made a home in Fremantle for ourselves, where we have lived for a decade. We love the same things: travel, food, music festivals, and scary movies. We both work very hard. Jessie, a Project planner, and Garry, a bricklayer, working hard and living life to its fullest, are both very important to us. As well as family. We are very close to our extended families and friends. Sharing the same group of friends from a young age, our circle isn’t big, but it’s extremely close nit, and being from the same town, we are all very close. We wanted our wedding to be about everyone we love and included our family and close friends in our wedding in different ways. We are both very proud of the company we keep.

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?

As above! We would have been quite young, but then we got to know each other better in our early 20s. Jessie and her best friend Sarah often had movie nights with Garry and his best mate Jake. They would come over to where the girls were living, and we would just hang out all the time as best mates. We really were best friends for years before we got together, so we know each other so well. We never get sick of each other because we are best friends, we have the same interests, and it’s very easy. Both of our parents always comment that we are like a bickering old couple, but we never have serious fights.

When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?

It was something both of us were quite sure of pretty quickly, we got along so perfectly and often. Jessie realised a bit sooner than Garry. Probably nearly a year before him! Garry had never really had a proper girlfriend before so it took him some while to get used to sharing his space and future. He had solo travel on his mind as a priority but then soon realised that solo travel was missing Jessie, and he much preferred their travels and adventures together. Garry is not the type of person who likes to have people around him all the time, so being around Jessie 24/7 made people realise he loved her before he even knew it himself. We are pretty much inseparable but definitely not co-dependent. We are very trusting of each other and the friendship we had before the love gave us that.

Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…

Garry proposed a few days before Valentine’s Day, as doing it on Valentine’s Day is very yucky for both of them and not their style. Jessie had no idea it was coming. After 11 years together, she never thought the day would come and was not really one to put too much pressure on the situation.

It was very casual and in their usual picnic spot with some nice wine and cheese, watching the sunset over the river on the hill. Garry had gone to one of their favourite cake shops and bought a small treat when he brought it out, Jessie got so annoyed because she had gotten him the same heart-shaped cake to give him! So she was muttering swear words at him under her breath. Then there was a second treat box, and when she opened it, it had a big fresh red rose from their garden on top of the ring box (which Jessie thought was a big brownie) (clueless)….. then when she lifted the rose the big emerald on the ring caught her eye, and she didn’t even realise Garry was on his one knee the whole time and she just cried. They were both very excited.

What was one element you were happy to splurge on?

Food and drinks, as well as the venue. It was very important for our guests to feel comfortable and enjoy the day/night. The venue was something that we needed to bring everything in, including a mandatory marquee, which made everything more expensive and time-consuming to plan but also meant we were able to bring our own personal touch and style to everything. Jessie had a very strong vision of all black with a green dreamy garden background. This created the contrast we wanted so we could have our twisted garden wedding style. We also had to bring in food, so we got Supper Road to cater, who were amazing. They brought their big road train kitchen in, and it is so fancy you would think the food was coming out of a 5-star restaurant. We also love our beer so adding our preferred options was important, it cost more but was well worth everyone enjoying their drinks. As well as having a cocktail hour and multiple wine choices for people. We decided to go with both cocktail and sit down (beggars shared banquet), which also added cost, but it ensured people were well fed the whole time without having to wait for food at the table and having multiple areas for people to sit, dance chat and also their own designated seat. We wanted everyone to have a seat for speeches and make it feel like a big family dinner, but also not long enough for people to lose interest and have a pumping dance floor. Oh, and oysters, we had to have Jerry, the oyster Man. He is just the best!

Also, the other big expense that we were happy to splurge on was photos and videos, and Flossy and Steve were so amazing, we are so glad we did! We had a very specific vision for our photos and videos, so they were on board with what we were doing and truly made our day. They are both so cool, and we love them dearly!

Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?

As a planner by trade, I had backup after backup plan. So not a lot went wrong that wasn’t easily rectified. The only thing that got iffy was the wind at the venue. Which meant we had to have our marquee walls down on 2 sides. We had planned that this would happen and ensured we had our cocktail area on the open side of the marquee so there was enough space. We also had to bring our champagne tower in under the marquee so we couldn’t do this straight after our ceremony as planned as the glasses would have smashed as it was a wind tunnel. The positive of the wind at the ceremony was my veil was blown into perfect position by some magical fairy gods and the photos look amazing with it! Also, the candles were super tall, and we were at risk of not being able to light them with the wind as it may have posed a fire risk. Luckily, my on-the-day coordinator (Em) sorted it by getting her husband to make large stands for my candle holders. These were drilled in spray-painted gold to match all on the morning of the wedding! She was worth her weight in gold on the day, and I can’t thank her and her husband enough. The wind also made things cooler, which is actually great as the weeks leading up, we had 40-plus days for 2 weeks in WA, and I was beginning to regret my choice of forcing everyone to wear black!

Another funny thing was that Gary really only had two requests for the day: a videographer and a princess wedding cake with cake toppers. I spent so long trying to find someone who could make us a replica of Miss Maude’s cake, but in the end, we went with the original, and we were so glad we did! Also, every man has dark hair for the cake topper, so I had to get creative and use glitter glue to paint the groom’s hair blonde like Gary’s.

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story? The history of the ceremony dress..

As I had a vision of all black I made sure the getting ready outfits matched the dark moody style. I then wanted to make a soft impact with my wedding dress and lace veil and flower girls to make sure it was a contrast against the black decor and guests. I also knew my bridesmaids needed colour I wanted them to shine and stand out but also feel comfortable in a dress that suited them and they would wear again. I basically just told them a colour so I could have something Blue and also my other bridesmaid to match my pink napkins. Everything was very planned out, haha.

Choosing a wedding dress was probably the hardest choice styling-wise; everything else was easy. I (Jessie) always know exactly what I’m going to wear and how I’m going to style things and there’s no persuading. Having just had a baby when first trying on wedding dresses I really had no luck finding anything I loved in Perth. I never shop except for online, where I can just google exactly what I’m after and find what I need. So I took to the web in search of a dress that was my style, timeless enough while still having a certain uniqueness. I’m all about texture, so as soon as I found Daniell Frankel, I knew I needed to wear one of her dresses. I played it safe with the Camille dress. Loving the fabric, but knowing my post-baby body would not feel too on show with this dress. It was a risk buying a dress of that price without trying it on, but it all worked out, and although I lost a bit too much weight, I refused to get it taken in and just wore it in a comfy style! It had internal clips that we were able to take in, so it really worked out perfectly. We also took it up at the front to show my pink shoes, as these were the first things I bought for the wedding. The dress was really easy to style with my shoes and veil, which I had already bought a year before I got the dress. The second outfit was bought a few months before the wedding. I knew I wanted a statement hat, so I chose an outfit that reflected my everyday style and rocked the most dramatic hat I could find. I’m so glad I went with my own style as I felt so comfortable all day and truly myself, which I think is so important on the most memorable day of your life. You don’t want to regret spending one penny too many, and we certainly don’t by making sure all our touches and details reflect who we are.

Garry also did things backward. He found the perfect vest and then got a suit to match made to measure. But he honestly looks good in anything, so that was done a few months before the big day. I bought him a ladybird pin as a wedding gift, as it’s very meaningful to him. He would see them everywhere on his solo travels around the world and often saw them as signs to come back to me.