Izzie + Jake by Mike Hemus - Together Journal

There’s something so special about finding a best friend in someone, someone you can be vulnerable, ridiculous, frank and raw with.

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

Izzie: I work for our local animal shelter in the Animal Behaviour department. I just recently graduated with my Bachelor’s degree in Animal Behaviour but have been in my current job for a year now. I’m an avid lover of all things animals, always have been, and although they say you should have hobbies outside of work, all of my hobbies are animal-related. I’m constantly bringing animals home from work for foster, including our Australian Bulldog Alfie, who was our first ‘foster fail’.

Jake: While the whole “education” thing wasn’t my bag, I managed to finish high school and get a job working for my older brother who was a tiler. Fast forward 5 years or so, and I am now fully qualified and about to start working on my own. I have had various hobbies, one of the main ones being guitar, but nothing has quite stuck with me like spending time in the gym. Izzie would argue that there’s nothing more important to me than getting my workout in, even if it means I’m out the door early or home super late.

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

We actually met at a mutual friend’s birthday party. It was quite surprising that we hadn’t come across each other before, seeing as Adelaide is so small, and a lot of our friends knew one another.

Jake: To be completely honest, I thought she was so much fun, and she made me laugh all night. We had such an instant connection that I think we both felt in the moment. I couldn’t believe she was even talking to me as I had such a no-care attitude about things, and I was yet to find out that Izzie was a straight-A student – proving we were complete opposites.

Izzie: As Jake said, there truly was an instant connection. I was fun yet sensible and cautious in life, and Jake was free-willed and worryless. I was on the straight and narrow, whereas Jake was what you might consider to be a ‘bad boy’. It still doesn’t make sense as to why we were so drawn to one another, but looking back, it really felt meant to be. Of course, I loved his humour and ability to have intelligent, meaningful conversations.

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

Jake: I think for me, it was just once we got to know each other, and we realized that although we led different lives at the time we met, we were actually quite the same. We shared a lot of the same thoughts and feelings, a lot of the same goals, values etc. Once we really started to fall in love with each other it was honestly it from there. I just knew that nothing else in the world could ever make me as happy as I am with my person who is also my best friend, And who doesn’t want to spend the rest of their life with their best friend? Every day is a ball!

Izzie: It’s true, we were extremely different but also very much the same. There’s something so special about finding a best friend in someone, someone you can be vulnerable, ridiculous, frank and raw with. For me, there was no one defining moment, just an amalgamation of many small, beautiful moments together. The kind of moments that make you stop and sigh and hope this never ends. Moments like dancing in the kitchen to ridiculous throwback music or those insightful, bonding conversations that always happen once you’ve both said you ‘really need to go to sleep now’.

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

Jake: There was a proposal, I had all these plans once I received the ring in the mail, that I was going to wait a few months and do it whilst we were on holiday but as soon as I saw the ring I knew I had to do it that night. I called Izzie and told her we were going on a date tonight and we’d be leaving at 5 pm. I took her to all the spots we used to hang out in the car and talk for hours when we were still young, one place where we had our first kiss. We then went to the burger place we went to on our first date and then up to the Windy Point lookout, which we also visited on the first date. The mood was perfect, and despite my heart beating a thousand times a minute, I managed to get the courage together to ask her, and the rest is history.

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding.

Izzie: Our main focus was everyone having fun. A traditional church wedding wasn’t for us, and we knew we wanted it to be very personal, with aspects of our own interests intertwined throughout. Basically, we wanted a day/night to remember! We knew we wanted bright, fun colours to represent this idea, and almost every aspect besides our outfits and the bridal party outfits had this. The vision was a garden party vibe combined with some retro aspects, as Jake is an avid lover of older music, such as artists Johnny Cash and Elvis.

What was one element you were happy to splurge on?

Izzie: Flowers!!!! As above, a ‘garden party’ vibe was high on the list of priorities. I knew I really wanted to invest in a florist who was excited by our vision, and we found just that with East End Flower Market. The venue already has amazing gardens and many different flowering plants at that time of the year, so I wanted to accentuate that beauty. Additionally, it also has beautiful stone brickwork and beautiful old castle buildings – it was the perfect blank canvas for our colourful flowers to take it all to the next level.

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

Jake: The only thing that almost went wrong on our special day was actually the weather. Believe it or not, it was very gloomy all morning, and we were very worried as we started to shower. They decided not to move the wedding inside with hopes it would clear up before 4 pm. We were both very nervous all day about having to make the big change from our beautiful garden wedding vision to moving indoors. As Jake stood at the altar waiting and Izzie prepared to walk down the aisle, the sun appeared for the first time that day. It shined on Izzie, and everything was perfect. It was such a meant-to-be moment, and we will have that story to tell for the rest of our lives.

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?

Izzie: My dress was the very first one I tried on. There’s no real story for mine, just that I wear a lot of puffy sleeves in my everyday life, and so my dress made me feel most like myself! On the day, I wore my nan’s blue sapphire rings that my poppa had gifted her. It was something blue, something old and something borrowed. It was very special as she wasn’t able to make it on the day due to progressive illness.

Jake: Despite Izzie not having much of a story, being the drama king that I am, I certainly do. Throughout my whole childhood and growing up, I had always said, “How come the bride only gets to wear white?” And so, when our day was finally coming up, I made the decision (with Izzie’s approval, of course) that I should wear white too. Another key aspect of my suit was the jacket, vest and tie having a paisley pattern. As mentioned earlier, I have been a massive Elvis Presley fan since I was a child. Now for the fans that know, Elvis actually wore a black paisley-patterned suit on his wedding day with Priscilla, and so I wanted to wear paisley too. So, in the end, I had a custom-made and tailored white paisley suit. And it definitely lived up to my vision!