Kelly + Callum by Analog Modern - Together Journal

In the gardens, I managed to lead Kelly to a quiet spot for the big moment. I lowered myself onto one knee, got Kelly’s attention, and asked the big question. Kelly, in her surprise, turned around and ran the other way. After a short chase she said yes!

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…
K – I work in Logistics, and enjoy all of the travel opportunities I get with my job. I like dining out, exploring new places and snowboarding. Thankfully Callum shares a few of these passions too so that’s how we spend most of our time together.
C – Much like Kelly I enjoy dining out and snowboarding. I picked up an appreciation for the arts from my sister, and a love of Liverpool FC from my mum. My dad lent me an analytical brain which has been useful in my engineering career thus far. Aside from all that, I enjoy drinking the silliest and most interesting beers I can find and have recently taken up film photography after the hunt for a wedding photographer led us to Nathan.

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?
K – Callum and I both work in Aviation and were friends before we started dating. We worked at the same place for a number of years and both had similar interests and humour so it was a good foundation for the relationship once we realised a few years later that maybe we were a little bit more than friends! First impressions; Callum was a cheeky and fun person to be around. He was always the first to propose a trip to the pub amongst our friendship group and instigated many a fun night out.
C – Kelly and I had been friends for a number of years having met through work. When lockdowns and restrictions hit in early 2020 we started to hang out one on one more as people retreated into their bubbles. Luckily we had many shared interests including food, going to the beach, and overlapping musical tastes. We probably first crossed over to more than friends whilst cooking together in my kitchen. Kelly’s energy and excitement to organise the next event is always one of the first things to jump out at people – myself included.

Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…
K – Callum will try to tell you that I ran away… which is not entirely true! Because we only had a short amount of time to plan the elopement before we moved overseas, we had already booked our date at the registry and agreed that we would get married. But Callum still wanted to do things properly, so he surprised me while we were walking through the Fitzroy Gardens scoping out wedding photography locations. I wasn’t expecting it so I spun around in a circle in surprise… and he’ll tell you this was me running away! It was very sweet even though we already knew we were getting married, I had the biggest smile on my face. In that moment it all felt real.
C – On the day of the proposal we spent the morning wedding band shopping together, and whilst at Pieces of Eight Kelly spotted that the engagement ring she liked was no longer on display. I had wanted to surprise her so hadn’t told her I had already purchased it and was waiting for the right moment to give it to her. We picked out our wedding bands whilst I deflected questions about the missing engagement ring to keep up the surprise. In the gardens, I managed to lead Kelly to a quiet spot for the big moment. I lowered myself onto one knee, got Kelly’s attention, and asked the big question. Kelly, in her surprise, turned around and ran the other way. After a short chase she said yes!

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding…
K – Being an elopement we had the luxury of focusing on authenticity and intimacy. The combination of the Old Treasury Building and having Nathan’s film photography gave a vintage feel to the day, and I think that influenced my hair and makeup decisions as well. My focus was for us both to feel comfortable and happy, and I think Nathan managed to capture that in the photos.
C – Perhaps unsurprisingly for an elopement the focus was on us feeling really connected. We were hoping for a low stress, smooth running day – which was easy when there are only a handful of people to worry about. We had a small staycation as part of it to give us the opportunity to disconnect from work and other stressors and focus on the big day. Plenty of room service and champagne helped us focus on what was most important.

Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?
K – I had the notion that I’d want to eat something after having makeup done before we headed to the registry so Callum ordered a bunch of dishes at the hotel bar. By the time I was ready I was way too nervous to stomach anything, which is rare for me (I’m always eating!). So Callum, the photographer and our witness had to scoff everything while I nervously drank champagne.
C – We were amazed to find a Saturday afternoon free at the Registry for the ceremony a bit over a month out. Not being AFL fans we hadn’t realised it was Grand Final Day, which may have had something to do with it… luckily as we were eloping it didn’t cause us too many dramas although we were sent the Betoota article a couple of times.

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?
K – I didn’t want to spend too much money on a dress that I would only wear for one day, and I wanted to feel comfortable as well. I’ve always wanted a Zimmerman dress so when I saw the dress in the store I knew it was the one for me! I tried it on and it felt right, so thankfully I didn’t have to spend too much time shopping around.
C – I was fairly set on wanting to wear a mid blue suit from the outset although it took a bit of time to find one I was really happy with but Kelly was supportive along the way. I’ve been studying space systems for my masters part time for the last few years so I, somewhat predictably, decided to go with a bow tie featuring cute little rocket ships as a small nod to that.