Will + Molly by Volvoreta - Together Journal

Once we saw a photo of the terrace at El Olivo restaurant at La Residencia, our vision of our wedding immediately came to life.

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

Will: I’m an engineer and management consultant. In 2017, I had a stroke, which resulted in my left hand being paralysed and needing to re-learn how to walk and use my upper limb. I was hospitalised for ten weeks, and the Doctors initially didn’t know if I would survive or be able to work ever again. Molly became my biggest cheerleader – visiting me in the hospital every day – cheering me on in rehab, and answering my phone calls at 3 am when I was lonely or in pain and unable to sleep. Other than Molly, my favourite things are reading, Lego, time with friends, science and technology and planning our future trips back to Europe (after our incredible elopement, we had a fantastic 3-week honeymoon in Italy and Paris!)

Molly: I’m a lawyer working in commercial litigation. I first started learning Spanish at university, which led to Will and me taking a three-week road trip around Spain in 2016. My maid of honour, Lauren, is German, and the island of Mallorca is a popular holiday destination for Germans, so her family have a holiday home (called a “finca” in Spanish) on the island. We stayed at Lauren’s Finca for a few nights before we started our road trip, and we absolutely fell in love with Mallorca. Even before we got engaged, Will and I had discussed wanting to elope (tempted by the idea of our special day being distraction-free and just a celebration of our love). When I started researching locations, I found La Residencia on Instagram (thanks to https://www.instagram.com/taramilktea/?hl=en, who posted the most divine photos from a holiday she enjoyed there) and immediately pictured us saying our vows on the terrace at the El Olivo restaurant. As for what I love, my favourite aspect of my life is my relationship with Will. We have been together for 11 years in November 2024, and somehow, our relationship grows stronger, and we fall more in love with each passing year. He is my rock and my home. I would be a very different person without him. We have a 7-year-old cavoodle named Alfie who shares my heart with Will – Alfie was actually born on Will’s birthday, just 26 years later! I love reading, crocheting, knitting, and being in bed by 8.30 pm – I’m a bit of a granny but proud to be one!

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

We met at university on a night out in 2013. Will had been playing in a rugby competition, and Molly was going out with some friends from her university college – we met at the campus bus stop on the way to the same local bar. Later, when we were dancing in a group on the dancefloor, the song ‘Are you Gonna be my Girl’ by Jet started playing, and when it got to the chorus, Will whispered in Molly’s ear, in time to the music, ‘are you gonna be my girl?’ and we shared our first kiss. And the rest, as they say, is history… Ten years later, we eloped to Spain.

Will: My first impression of Molly was that she was the smartest, cutest, and most talented (she said she was attending an elite musical college in Brisbane in 2013) girl in her group that night – so it was easy to decide who to flirt with!

Molly: my first impression of Will was that he and his friends were rowdy and annoying! But it didn’t take long for his quick wit and dance moves to woo me!

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

Will: Early in our relationship, I took Molly to a professional Rugby game in Brisbane (Molly had never seen a rugby union game before—live or on TV). At halftime, local kids clubs took to the field for short matches to let the kids run around in the big arena. As we watched them run around having fun on the field, Molly said to me, ‘That is so cute—I could be a rugby mom’.

Molly: About five months after we met, I was flying out to a leadership camp in New Zealand. Will dropped me off at the airport, but it was pretty clear that I was feeling anxious about a number of things – the flight, that I only knew a handful of other people who were attending the camp, there wasn’t going to be any phone reception, etc. We said our goodbyes, and I walked down the departure escalator feeling nervous and alone. Once I got through security and arrived at the gate, I looked down at my phone and saw that I had an incoming call from Will. I answered the call and Will asked how I was feeling, I replied that I was anxious and he told me to look up. I thought he had long left, but there he was, standing on the airport viewing platform. He stayed to make sure I got onto the flight and was feeling ok. His care and thoughtfulness encouraged me along, as it does to this day.

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

Every year on the anniversary of the day of Will’s stroke (2 October) we take the day off work and do something to celebrate life – we call it Strokeversary. In 2020, we spent the day at a theme park on the Gold Coast in Queensland (SeaWorld). In 2020, we had been dating for 7 years, and Molly had started dropping hints by directly sharing images of the style of engagement rings she liked. After dinner, at the same restaurant, we go to each year for Strokeversary, we were sitting by the river talking, and we started to get ready to leave – Molly leant over for a hug, but it was obvious she was frisking me. She found my headphones case and said, ‘What’s this?’ and pulled it out of my pocket with a disappointed look on her face.

I had planned to surprise Molly with a video I’d edited with some of our favourite songs and photos from highlights throughout our time together, having planned to propose to her on the walk back to the ferry home. Given her ‘discovery’, my hand was forced, and I put the video on by the river near the restaurant and had her watch it then and there, using my headphones for the audio. At the end of the video, the song ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’ by Jet started to play, and the video told her to turn around. I had the engagement ring ready (it had been in a different pocket). She said yes.

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

Once we saw a photo of the terrace at El Olivo restaurant at La Residencia, our vision of our wedding immediately came to life. The venue was beyond picturesque, so we didn’t feel a need to elevate the space with many additional florals or decorations. We were flying to the other side of the World to get married on this terrace, so the natural beauty of the space was going to be our star. The simplicity of the venue guided our decision with respect to the bridesmaids’ dresses. I really couldn’t decide on a style, so I initially went to Brad Webb at Darb Bridal Couture with a completely different idea in mind. Brad listened to my vision for the wedding and asked, “What about something like this?” He sketched the dress, and I knew it was perfect – simple, Mediterranean but with an elevated bow to complete the back of the dress.

When it came to my wedding dress, I didn’t care if I was getting married in front of 3 people or 300 people; I wanted a gown, and I wanted to feel like a bride. I had my eye on a Marianna Hardwick design for about 18 months and was ready to lock it in, but I thought I would kick myself if I didn’t even try on a Vera – after all when you think wedding dresses, you think Vera Wang! I flew to Sydney for the weekend and fell in love with my dress, but I am notoriously terrible at making decisions – Vera Wang or Marianna Hardwick? In the end, I adopted the Spanish adage of “Porque no los dos” and locked in the Vera while working with Marianna Hardwick to create a shorter version of their gown that I loved (I wore the Marianna Hardwick to our Australian reception party).

What was one element you were happy to splurge on?

Everything!! We didn’t actually save any money by eloping and only having three guests accompany us to Spain, but the day was incredible. We were able to spend time with close friends in one of the most beautiful places in the world, and it was completely problem-free—except for the brief rain scare!

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

Molly had been keeping an eye on the weather in the lead-up to the day, and it was looking a bit dicey. The La Residencia team, who assisted in making our vision a reality, had enquired, on a number of occasions, what our wet weather plan was. Molly was firm; there was no wet weather plan; we were flying to the other side of the World to get married on this terrace; we were getting married on that terrace. When we woke up in the morning, the skies were clear, and it looked good! Until about 11 am when it started to rain … The beautiful La Residencia staff kindly enquired with Molly, again on a number of occasions, what we wanted to do in light of the rain. Molly was steadfast, and we were getting married on that terrace. The wedding was scheduled to start at 5:30 pm, plenty of time for the weather to clear up. But the more times the staff (and soon the bridal party) gently enquired, the more anxious Molly became, and all she really wanted to do was talk to Will about it. So she fished out a sleeping mask that had been handed out on one of the flights and organised for him to put it on so that she could speak to him but not “see” each other before the ceremony. With a giggle, Molly ran over to blindfold Will, and the healing powers of Will’s hug helped soothe the anxiety – the rain would clear up, and by some miracle, it did! Half an hour before the ceremony, the sun came out, and we were married on the terrace.

One of the couples who we look up to the most in terms of a lasting relationship is Molly’s pseudo-fairy godparents, Romy and Trent, who have just celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary. Trent became a qualified celebrant a few years ago to marry close family friends, so we called on him to officially and legally marry us in Brisbane after our Spanish ceremony. However, for our Spanish ceremony, we asked Romy to write a blessing that could be shared on the day. Molly and Romy share a love of Taylor Swift but none of us were expecting Romy’s blessing to incorporate lyrics and titles from Taylor Swift’s songs cleverly – it was a special surprise that was made all the more special when we realised that Taylor Swift herself had actually been in Mallorca on our wedding day attending the wedding of her friend, Joey King. Love and Swiftie magic were in the air that night!

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

Molly had two wedding dresses (one for Spain and one for Australia) – of course, she selected a stunning (but incredibly heavy) Vera Wang gown that had to accompany us onboard four flights to get from Australia to Deia and it fell to Will to carry it (arm high in the air – he couldn’t let the garment bag scrape on the floor) through security into lounges and across the terminals (and through the shops) in Sydney, Singapore, Heathrow, Madrid and Palma airports. Vera, as we lovingly nicknamed the dress, even got to sleep in the crew resting beds on our British Airways flight from Sydney to Singapore so that it could be kept as wrinkle-free as possible. On another leg of the flight, she had the best seat in the plane and was hung up behind the pilot in the cockpit!

We also bought two identical pairs of Jimmy Choo shoes for Molly—ivory for our wedding day in Deia. The same pair is in baby blue (something blue) to wear to the legal proceedings and friends and family’s ‘reception’ in Australia.