Rachael + Cody by Beck Rocchi - Together Journal

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

Cody is an Engineer, loves the outdoors and his drink of choice is always an icy cold XXXX, and I’m a Social Media Manager with a slight obsession for fashion and always searching for the next epic holiday destination. We are both really close with our families, one of the things we bonded over early in our relationship.

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

When I tell people how we met, I always explain it’s a tad corny – so my childhood bestie is paired up with Cody’s best mate and they’d been dating for 12 months before we got together… and were playing subtle matchmakers. Over time we’d find ourselves at the same events and then when we went to an Oktoberfest festival in Brisbane, we really hit it off. 4 dates later we made it “official”!

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

Cody is extremely thoughtful and just a really beautiful person so I was smitten after getting to know him better after a couple of dates and soon enough, fell head over heels in love. We moved in together after a year, and then purchased a property together 6 months later so we were both confident in the relationship early on.

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

Cody had planned a proposal on our trip to Vietnam in April 2020.. which was inevitably cancelled because of Covid so he kept the ring hidden until we had a chance to do another getaway. He’d asked for my Dad’s (and sister and Mum) blessing back in December 2019 so by June they had a quiet word to him to make sure he was still keen! Fast forward to August 2020 we planned a trip to DayDream island and Cody dropped a knee on the first afternoon (after calming his nerves with a few XXXX cans throughout the day!).

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

We knew we wanted a big party with all of our friends and family and also wanted the ceremony to easily lead into the reception without a lull. We weren’t aligned to a particular location and only visited one venue in the end and were sold! From the gorgeous chapel to the hinterland views to the big dance floor, it had everything we were after. Styling wise, we kept it fairly minimal and let the venue really shine – we complimented the bridesmaid dresses with blue hydrangeas and toffee roses in our detailing.

What was one element you were happy to splurge on?

To be able to reminisce on our day of days for the years ahead, we knew we wanted an epic photographer and videographer who we felt captured our personalities and love… and boy did we select well (If we do say so ourselves)! They had us laughing the whole day and made the experience so fun.. and the end product left us a tad speechless!

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

All of our guests were staying in Queensland but our venue was just across the border in New South Wales and as it was daylight savings, we thought the finish time was too early and needed to book a kick-on. We ended up booking a floor of a nightclub and in the lead up Cody and I had conflicting views on whether we should kick on with the guests… or enjoy our romantic villa at the venue. 2 minutes prior to the guests leaving Cody makes a split decision we should go after we had advice it was easy to get an Uber home. After several hours of turning it up on the dfloor, we find ourselves with 10 cancelled Ubers and no taxis in sight… eventually we make it back to the venue, walking to our villa with a cold kebab in hand at 2am in the morning – not quite what I had in mind for our wedding night but has since made for the best laugh!

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

I couldn’t quite find the ‘one’ when I went dress shopping so decided to get it made. I had a vision initially and then within a month had changed my mind so this was definitely the best option for my indecisive self. I LOVED my dress, we really perfected the cut and shape so I felt really comfortable on the day – the attention to detail my dressmaker had was incredible. My second dress was a fun, party dress that I could dance the night away in. My bridesmaids were my something blue and I loved how the colour popped! Cody and the groomsmen’s suits were a classic sand colour with fun bowties – they looked very sharp.