Hannah + Sam by Samantha Elizabeth Photography - Together Journal

We wanted a big party and didn’t want to bore our guests with a slow first dance so we actually snuck away for a private first dance as the sun was setting. It was just Hannah, myself, our photographer and a little handheld speaker, tucked away in a quiet corner of the property.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…
H: Our 9-month-old daughter is our pride and joy. She looks like me but has Sam’s determination and wonky toes. We love spending quiet weekends together as a family. Every week, we make pancakes while we do the Good Weekend Saturday Super quiz. We’re quite liberal in awarding ourselves points for the ‘right’ answers. Our best score is 21/25. Our best honest score is probably closer to 15/25. We also love our dog, Yze. He’s named after the great Aussie Rules footballer, Adem Yze. The Melbourne Demons football club is Sam’s, first great love. I very quickly became a Dees supporter when we started dating.

S: 2022 was a big year for us, cramming in having a baby, designing a house and planning a wedding. We’re hoping 2023 will be a quieter year but so far our 9-month-old has kept the boredom at bay! We love doing everything and nothing as a family. Every day is a fun adventure.

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?
H: We met at work and still love to refer to ourselves as colleagues. Our journey from co-workers to husband & wife has been so easy, probably because we were friends for a long time before we started dating. Some of our work mates we’re more invested in us dating than we were to begin with. Quite a few of them have taken credit for our relationship over the years, but I think that honour belongs to our hiring manager. Thanks to her I have a career and a husband that I love – cheers Megsy!

S: We started our jobs just a couple of weeks apart. Not long into our tenures, we had work drinks at a pub. We were waiting in line at the bar at the same time and there was some cricket playing on the TVs above us. Hannah struck up a conversation about Mitchell Starc before running me through her ideas for Australia’s best bowling line-up in the upcoming Test series. She then ordered a schooner of my favourite beer for herself and took her leave back to the tables. That was a pretty strong first impression.

Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…
S: The proposal is an epic on its own, but I’ll cut a long story short. We spent the first covid lockdown in a small beach town called Port Fairy in south west Victoria, which is where I grew up. Without being too insensitive, that first wave of 2020 was a really happy time for us. We loved the pace of life during lockdown and often went on long winter beach walks to have “life chats”, where we planned what we were going to do with our lives. A year later we were settled back in Sydney for work, but I thought a Port Fairy “life chat” was the perfect time to ask the question. We flew down for the weekend (picking the coldest time of the year for the perfect winter beach walk) and I took Hannah to a beach which never has any people on it – known to the locals as The Tip (I’m pretty sure it used to be a tip).

When we got there, though, we could barely get a park. I’d never seen the tip so full. There must have been something on the bite, because when we got down and had a look at the beach, there were dozens of people surf fishing in the south east squall. Hannah was very happy to abort the life chat due to conditions, but I was really insisting on a yarn. And so – with a pretty desperate effort on my part to lighten the mood – we trudged almost a km down the beach in the heavy sand and the freezing wind, under fishing lines and over bait buckets, to find a location sufficiently romantic. After a glass and a half of our favourite wine we’d brought along, I thought I’d better get into it or the nerves would get the better of me (it really is astonishing how nerve wracking it is). I extremely clumsily spun around on the sand dune and produced the ring and I think Han was pretty shocked. It was then that I realised I’d put all of my efforts into logistics and didn’t have a clue about what I was going to say. I think I asked if she’d marry me and I think she said yes. Anyway, by the end of it all she was wearing the ring and we’d finished the bottle of wine and enjoyed the rest of the sunset. We walked the km back to the carpark past the fishing troop and under their rods like a guard of honour. Planning our future. I even forgot to ask if they’d had any bites.

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding…
H: We wanted the day to be as relaxed and as fun as possible so we finally landed on the idea of getting married at a pub. And pubs don’t get much better than the Portsea Hotel. It was the perfect venue that allowed the formalities (and drinks) to flow seamlessly from one to the next. The ceremony was held on the front lawn which didn’t need much dressing up as it overlooked beautiful Port Phillip Bay. We leaned into the landscape with relaxed, organic florals that had touches of mediterranean and native elements.

After the ceremony, guests moved to a private bar for woodfired pizza and drinks before the reception began in the Bertrand Bar. We wanted our wedding to be a big party so we made an effort to provide plenty of food, drinks, and entertainment. We entered the reception dancing and I don’t think we stopped all night.

S: We wanted a big party and didn’t want to bore our guests with a slow first dance so we actually snuck away for a private first dance as the sun was setting. It was just Hannah, myself, our photographer and a little handheld speaker, tucked away in a quiet corner of the property. It was really nice to spend a quiet moment together listening to one of our favourite songs amongst the chaos of the day. And when we returned to the reception, we had a big, fun, all-in first dance with our guests and the band.

Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?
H: Our day was full of laughter for all the right reasons, it was just so much fun. There were a couple of mishaps though, including spilling red wine on my dress within 5 minutes of the reception. When the usual soda water trick didn’t work, we let the dress work some magic. It has this incredible draping at the back that we were able to bring around and tie as a belt at the front, completely covering the mark. I don’t think anyone knew I was covered in wine, and I’ve since had an incredible drycleaner remove the evidence.

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?
H: I purchased my wedding dress sight unseen. Our daughter was a couple of weeks old when I was due to go dress shopping (new parents will understand how optimistic that is) so when I found the Luna Bea La Lune gown online and it was ready to ship, it made the decision easy. And it paid off. The dress was the most beautiful, comfortable (and breastfeeding-friendly!) gown I could have hoped for. But perhaps the favourite element of my look was the vintage Oroton bag I used on the day, it was loaned to me by Sam’s grandmother. That was very special.

S: I won my suit in a Facebook competition. I never win anything and I didn’t even know I had entered the competition. Hannah signed me up for it. The boys at Woolcott St did an amazing job on the custom suit. When I first saw it, I thought “Wow, it is green.” But it looks great and I’ve received plenty of compliments since.