Tell us a little about yourselves:
Danae: We love food so trying new restaurants together is probably our favourite thing to do as a couple.
We love the ocean, and for me – stand up paddleboards – and for Dean it’s kayaks. We have two beautiful fur babies that we take for walks on the beach and in parks and exploring new spots. And just love chilling on the couch making dinner and watching our latest show that we’re into.
We love travelling which has been a bit of a no go this year, we were meant to go on our honeymoon to Canada, USA and Mexico but we will get to that when we’re able to. So, for now, we’ve been enjoying going away on weekends to hang out with friends more locally where and when we are able to.
Danae: I guess you could say that we were meant to end up together. We’ve known each other from the age of 14. We grew up 6 streets away from one another, and have always been friends with a lot of the same groups of people weirdly through different connections a lot of the time. We always got along and became good friends.
There may have been 6 months here a year there where we didn’t see each other but we would always come back into each other’s lives. We never really saw each other as future potential partners until we were almost 30. I think we messaged each other every single day for a year and the relationship just grew from there.
Danae: I left Sydney to live in Toronto Canada for 3 1/2 years ‘abandoning’ Dean so he says haha. We weren’t really together at that stage. We lost contact for a year or so until one day I came back to visit Sydney for one of my best friends weddings. Dean also attended and we spent the night catching up and then spent the next few days together and that was it! Both realising that we were both what we’d been waiting for. It just kind of clicked!
I returned to Canada to finish up the rest of the year there before returning home – Dean came over to visit in Canada for 3 weeks and travelled to Montreal and NYC – which made it even harder to wait out the remaining 4 months. We lived together from the moment I touched down in Sydney. A couple of years later we were engaged! And married the following year.
Tell us about your special day, was there a specific theme or style? Tell us a little about the setting, the styling and some of your favourite details:
We wanted it to just be a big party! And to just do things our way. It’s so rare that you get to have all of your loved ones in the one place altogether. We had drinks on arrival, the ceremony we wanted to keep light, fun and fairly quick and to just get onto hanging out with our guests.
We chose Byron Bay as our location as it’s a special place for us. We got engaged on Tallows beach and there is just a feeling about it which I’m sure many can relate to. To have the hinterland as our backdrop and a beautiful sunset was just a dream. Open-air, long tables in front of a paddock with a few cows and a pony with festoon lighting and a decked out Pool House, set up as the dance floor including Disco ball and smoke machine and a caravan bar. We chose to have a buffet type set up for the beautiful food so that people were able to pick what they wanted to eat and how much they wanted. Trying to keep things relaxed and to suit our guests. We had a giant Jenga because most of our friends are like big kids so that was a hit. Alex our stylist did an outstanding job with all of it.
Tell us about your main outfits:
Danae: Because we were getting married on a farm we wanted to keep things more relaxed to match the setting. I wore a dress by “Chosen by One Day” – the Lennox gown, and Peter Lang jewellery with Kitty earrings and Tony Bianco heels.
Dean wore a linen shirt from Uniqlo along with pants from Uniqlo, boots from Aquila, a hat from Will and Bear and a jacket from Sportscraft.
Our rings were made by Crooked Howlett designs with bespoke Swallows engraved on each side, and the engagement ring was from Armans.
What were some of the most memorable/unique moments from the day:
Dean: It was seeing Danae walk down the aisle for the first time
Danae: For me, it was the time we were able to spend together during photos after dinner and the sun setting along with our quick drive over to the neighbouring property which our photographer Ben had sussed out earlier. I laughed so much, it was a lot of fun.
Some other things were our celebrant who brought humour to our ceremony along with our MC who was hilarious and speeches which we kept short and sweet! We also loved that we were able to have our dogs through the ceremony.
Any advice for other couples planning to spend the rest of their lives together:
Danae: Respect one another and remember to be kind to each other and mostly HAVE FUN! You’ve only got the one life so make the most of it. Do what you enjoy together.
Dean: It’s not as bad as you might think haha.
Photographer: Benedict Sutton | Ceremony + Reception: Tooraloo Farmstay | Celebrant: Shane Vincent | Entertainment: Iain Hayes | Flora: Nikau Flora | Styling, Planning, Catering + Beverages: Three Blue Ducks | Bride’s Gown: Chosen by One day | Groom’s Jacket: Sportscraft | Groom’s Hat: Will & Bear Groom’s Linen Shirt + Pants: Uniqlo| Ring/s: Crooked Howlet Designs | Shoes: Tony Bianco (hers) Aquila (his) | Bride’s Earrings: Peter Lang (Kitty Earrings) | Makeup: Michelle Wicklandt | Hair: Edwards and Co.
