Laura + Gus by Damien Milan

We met the modern way – on a dating app. Gus hates when I tell the full story but he actually stood me up on our first date. He had a very good reason – his phone broke and he didn’t have any way to get in touch.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…
LH: I am a lawyer originally from New Zealand and moved to Sydney after some time in London. Gus is an engineer from Brazil. We love the life that we have here in Sydney – we generally start the day going for a walk by the water with our little dog Bruce. On weekends we finish at a favourite local café. It’s simple stuff but we never get tired of it. We try to explore new places in Sydney and Australia whenever we can but, especially after COVID, we also just love time at home together.

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?
LH: We met the modern way – on a dating app. Gus hates when I tell the full story but he actually stood me up on our first date. He had a very good reason – his phone broke and he didn’t have any way to get in touch. When he contacted me a few days later to apologise and explain, I forgave him and we rescheduled. My first impressions of him were that he was just so kind and emotionally available – he wasn’t afraid to show his interest so I never had to wonder if he wanted to see me again. I also just enjoyed his company right from the start.

Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…
LH: There were actually two. There was a moment right before the NSW 2021 lockdown where Gus just spontaneously asked me. We spoke about it and decided that we would keep that decision to ourselves a little longer while Gus chose a ring. We then ended up planning most of the wedding before the second, ‘official’ proposal and so we did tell our closest friends and family. Eventually, a few months later, Gus proposed again at a romantic picnic on my birthday and we told everyone our news. When people asked when we were getting married it was fun to answer with a specific date and location because the whole thing was already sorted!

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding…
LH: We both live away from our families and we were planning our wedding in the middle of a lockdown while the borders were closed. We decided that a big wedding wasn’t important to us and that we wanted something simple and intimate which would be able to go ahead regardless of the situation with COVID. For me in particular, it was important that a small and intimate day still felt special and beautiful. It was really important to us to have our families join us on video calls and live stream throughout the day. In the end, we felt like we did get to share a lot of the day with them in a way which wouldn’t have been possible with a larger guest list. Damien and Nastia captured the most beautiful pictures of us on the phone to our families and their faces on the screen – I never would have thought that I would treasure pictures of me on the phone at my wedding but I am so grateful we have them!

Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?
LH: Our day really wasn’t stressful! Once I got to Sangoma Retreat, I just felt so relaxed as there really weren’t any logistics to worry about and I could just enjoy the day. In terms of moments I will look back and laugh at, the main one was during our vows. We said traditional vows in both English and Portuguese. Unfortunately, when I wrote mine out I accidentally wrote the word for wife instead of husband (in Portuguese the words are the same but one ends in ‘o’ and the other in ‘a’). I tried to correct it but didn’t do a very good job so in the heat of the moment I told Gus that I took him as my wife. Thankfully it was the English vows that counted from a legal perspective but Gus’s family watching the live stream had a giggle!

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?
LH: I think the most interesting part of my dress was that I never went dress shopping and hadn’t tried a wedding dress on until my dress was delivered shortly before the day. We planned the wedding during lockdown so I decided to have something made that I felt relatively certain would suit me. I chose something where the style itself was quite simple but the detail was in the fabric which Cristina of CLM had made especially for me. For Gus’s outfit, we caused me a lot of stress by only buying his shirt and shoes the day before the wedding!