- Sep 13, 2022

Deb + Charli

"We both have a mutual friend that is a jewellery designer, and we both contacted her two weeks apart to order a ring for each other to pop the question!"

We are both paramedics and met at work. We knew of each other for about two years before we actually started dating. Like with all meet-cute stories, the flirting and dating stemmed outside of work on a night out at Connections nightclub.

We spent the entire night laughing and dancing with each other, and when Charli’s heels got too much for her, Deb generously offered to swap shoes for her more comfortable cons, half unaware that this was a “move”. We partied until 5am and at the end of the night, Deb thought it was a perfect time to watch Jurassic Park, to which Charli replied, “I love that movie”.

Shortly after this, an official first date was organised, a breakfast picnic in Hyde park. Everything was so natural, we found we were very similar and had so much fun that the date turned into lunch, which then turned into dinner.

We had a mutual love for travel and camping, which took us on multiple trips, with our first “make or break” trip being to Laos. This holiday really cemented our relationship and more travel followed, including snowboarding holidays to Japan and purchasing a camper trailer and travelling through NT and northern WA. Despite COVID, we were very lucky with timing our travel plans. We moved in together after a year of dating, and Deb adopted Charli’s dog, Alfie, as her own.

We both have a mutual friend that is a jewellery designer, and we both contacted her two weeks apart to order a ring for each other to pop the question! Charli was super organised and got in first! Charli had been working away and had organised a surprise and elaborate two year anniversary celebration to make up for it. It started with a trip down south to Margaret River. Charli organised a 1965 ford mustang to pick us up in the morning and drove us to our secluded breakfast picnic at the beach, with a photographer disguised as a sunbather to capture the moment she asked Deb to marry her. This was followed by a wine tasting and a degustation lunch.

We both work as a team with everything so it made planning a wedding fairly easy and stress free. We knew we didn’t need all the bells and whistles, just us, our family and friends, a killer dance floor and plenty of fireball! Charli worked away again in the lead up to the wedding but we were still able to tick things off the list. Despite being geographically apart, we could still work together and get everything done. The biggest challenge of our wedding was that Deb’s hens ended up being a COVID super spreader event and took out 8 ppl (Deb included) two weeks before the wedding! Deb was in isolation the week before the wedding, with Charli having to organise a fair share of the last minute wedding planning as well as bringing Deb food, wine and snacks, while isolating and avoiding contact with Charli at all costs in order to keep her COVID free so the wedding could go ahead! And we were successful!

We were both quite nervous about being the centre of attention and everyone looking at us so we had already decided we were going to do a first look before the ceremony, where the time would just be for us. Charli had surprised Deb by bringing Alfie to the first look, and he was very handsome with his bow tie.

Our make up artist actually suggested to us that we should get ready together on the day as she thought we would have so much fun together, settle the nerves while also being able to spend most of the day together. We were told the day goes fast and those people were not wrong! We got ready together in the morning with our bridal party, sipping champagne and just having a laugh. We still felt a little nervous, but mainly excited and happy. Our photographer, videographers, hair and make-up artists made us feel so relaxed and comfortable that we forgot there were people watching us!

Our wedding could not have been any better! We had the most amazing day and our faces hurt from laughing and smiling so much! The venue and staff at Chapel Farm Estate were faultless, everything ran so smoothly. Katie, our coordinator, was incredible. She organised everything and always made sure we had a drink in hand! We didn’t have to worry about anything on the day. We were able to relax and enjoy our wedding with family and friends.

Thank you so much Chapel Farm Estate for helping give us the best day of our lives!

Vendors:

Ceremony + Reception: Chapel Farm Estate

Celebrant: M ark Kenny Celebrations

Photographer: Zach Taylor

Videographer: Infinite Productions

DJ: David Lazarus

Florist: Products – Dried Flower Bar Bunbury

Photobooth: Memory Photobooth