Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love, what is unique about you and your relationship…
Kane and I met in New Zealand in November 2013. I lived in Wellington, and he was just visiting for a few days for work.
It was one of those mutual “swipe right” situations, and it turned out that Kane was a friend of my cousin, so it was far too good of an opportunity to miss and we went on a date. We got along really well straight away, but timing and distance wasn’t on our side, so we went our separate ways but stayed in contact as friends.
2 years after our first date we decided it was time to go on another date, so I flew to the Gold Coast. This time, we knew we wanted to make a proper go of it – but the only problem was that I had just gone back to university, and I had 2 years left of my degree. Doing long distance for 2 years was actually, surprisingly easy. I would go to Australia or Kane would visit me in NZ for any uni holidays. We established the rule really early on that we would always have the next visit booked in before the one before it ended so we always knew when we would be seeing each other next.
So those 2 years flew by with lots of Jetstar flights, skype dates and adventures, then I moved to Australia. I was lucky enough to get a job straight away (that uses my new degree, thankfully!), and everything fell into place perfectly.
I’m a nutritionist working for Nutra Organics (we’re on instagram @nutraorganics ) and Kane is a logistics manager (civil engineering background, and knows his way around spreadsheets like a boss). We both love travel and adventure, we snowboard and Kane surfs (a lot) and loves his motorbike. I paint and experiment with all kinds or arty, crafty stuff. We both love having our Dirty Martinis or Negronis in the evening. – Life is good!
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 just wanted the day to be really relaxed and fun so that we could enjoy it fully and not loose sight of the whole point. “Eloping” took the pressure off and made the planning process really enjoyable. We got engaged mid December, and by the end of December we had most of the big stuff sorted (including the wedding dress, rings, photographer, location and celebrant).
We had a super relaxed beach party in front of our house so that we still got the party and got to share the celebration with lots of awesome people. We chose Tasmania because it’s somewhere we wanted to go and visit anyway, it looked beautiful and the chance of rain near Hobart during May was quite low.
We were in Tasmania for 8 days, our parents came and joined us for the first bit, but the day after the actual wedding we went our separate ways so that Kane and I could enjoy a bit of a “honeymoon” before heading back home.
The actual Day was exactly what we had hoped for. A really relaxed start, the celebrant Maria turned up at 2 for the 2:30 ceremony.
Kane and I had done our own vows and we signed the register to the musical/lyrical genius of Flight of the Conchords: A Kiss is Not a Contract. After the ceremony it was photo time, so Kane and I went off with the amazing Joshua Mikhaiel for a couple of hours of photomagic- fun. We had the absolute best time and the results captured the energy of the day so well. We couldn’t be happier. After that we re-joined our parents and relaxed with bubbles, beers and food in front of the fireplace.
Tell us about your main outfits:
I had been eyeing up grace loves lace for a while (before even getting engaged – haven’t we all). We live on the Gold Coast so their shop is really close to us. As soon as we were officially planning the wedding I set up an appointment. Kane came with me to help me choose. The dress I ended up going with wasn’t even one of the 5 I had initially asked to try on, but the lady helping us was amazing and listened to the feedback we had on the other gowns and suggested I try this one. It was perfect, so I locked it in straight away. GLL was the first place I went to try on dresses, and I didn’t feel the need to keep looking after that. Too easy! I wore a necklace for the ceremony that I had picked out for myself when I was 10 years old. It belonged to my Gramps’ mother and she wore it on her wedding day. I remember asking Gramps if I could wear it on my wedding day too and he said yes (and looked pretty chuffed about the request). He passed away not long after, so it was very special to make that intention a reality and wear that necklace!
Kane had used Suit Shop once before for a friend’s wedding, so he knew they could deliver what he was after. He went to the Melbourne store and got measured up, discussed the style he was after and chose the material. They had it ready about 2 months later and it was perfection. (It’s got a bit of a Newt Scamander-esk feel to it. So classy!)
For the photos (which involved a bit of off-roading) Kane and I both wore boots from Bed Stu. Kane had had boots from them before and loved them, and when he went to order these ones I couldn’t help but do a bit of online shopping and choose some for myself. The intension wasn’t for me to even wear them on the day but they were just so gosh darn cool it had to happen. Kane had happy socks, and I had Harry Potter socks, because its all about the detail!
What were some of the most memorable/unique moments from the day?
The whole day was just awesome! It felt like a pretty normal day up until the we started getting ready and the photographer arrived – then it really felt real! A few of the extra special moments where being walked down the isle with my mum and dad. Kane and I used a chatterbox to pick who went first with the vows. We signed the register with the song “A Kiss is Not a Contract” by flight of the Conchords followed by Queen’s “I Want to Break Free”. The whole photo session was just crazy fun with heaps of laughter, Josh was definitely the best man for the job, we are so pleased with ourselves for choosing him! Just being able to be in such a gorgeous, private spot, marrying the s#&$ out of each other and sharing the day with our parents was so awesome.
Any advice for other couples planning to spend the rest of their lives together?
Our advice for other couples would definitely be to just pick the kind of day that you both want, so that planning it is fun, and you get to be totally present, happy and relaxed on the day. If having a huge wedding is your thing then that’s really cool, and if you want it to just be the two of you, that’s great to! It’s a great way to start married life, by having this amazing and genuine day that you can both remember fondly forever.
Photography: Joshua Mikhaiel | Ceremony and Reception location: Thalia Haven, Tasmania | Celebrant: Maria Bond |Wedding dress: Grace Loves Lace | Groom’s suit: Suit Shop | Groom’s Wedding Ring: Utopian Creations | Lisa’s Engagement & Wedding Ring: The Village Goldsmith | Shoes: His & Hers by Bed Stu | Styling and Planner: Kane and Lisa | Flora: Gather Store Currumbin | Catering and Beverages: Us (and Gloria –Kane’s mum)
