Riverstone Estate Wedding of Emma and Brenden

Tell me about your The Beginning!
Emma had heard about Brenden for about a year, through her friends, before they finally met. Em’s two best friends were both in love with Bren and fought over him constantly. Em and Bren briefly met at a ‘battle of the bands’ where Bren was playing 2006 when they were only 15. Em watched as her friend fawned over him and noticed his shoe was untied. She thought she’d hate to see him trip on stage so tied it without saying a word and then walked off (thats step one of how you get yourself a husband, apparently, who knew?)

When they were 16 years old, one of Em’s friends/Bren’s fan club, invited Bren and Em to be her guests at her year 11 Deb, hoping to win him over for herself. Unfortunately for Em’s two besties though, it was love at first sight for Em and Bren who spent the evening giggling as they started pouring salt in everyone else’s drinks when they weren’t looking and making snowmen out of the table chocolate moose while everyone else was on the dance floor. They even had a Cinderella moment at the ball as Bren stole one of Em’s shoes hoping to make her chase him around for it. Em figured he would feel pretty stupid holding a shoe on his own if she just sat and waited he’d surely bring it back. Eventually Prince Charming came back and slid her black slipper back onto her foot.

In their early days Bren and Em’s first date was to Eastland shopping centres cinema to see the Simpsons movie where they threw popcorn at each other for the entire movie until Em decided to win the battle and pour the remaining popcorn and the tub on top of Bren’s head dramatically which lead the rest of the cinema to yell out “OOOOHHHH”.

Em and Bren’s relationship has definitely been a competition of who is the more cheeky one in the relationship ever since.

When and where did you get engaged?
Bren surprised Em on New Years Eve in 2018. They were staying with Em’s family in Phillip island when Bren suggested that there was going to be an amazing sunset that night and they just HAD to get a photo of it on the beach.

He took Em to one of the first beached they drove to together when they were younger and set up his camera gear. Em thought it was odd he had such a huge bag just for taking a few photos but assumed it was all just camera stuff.

Bren asked Em to get in some of the photo’s, she reluctantly agreed as Bren set the camera up to record a video. As he started walking toward Em he looked so nervous Em thought he was about to deliver her some bad news. He got down on one knee right as the sun was setting and proposed recording the whole thing on his camera.

Inside the bag he had brought were blankets, pillow and Champagne for a sunset picnic to celebrate.

He said they couldn’t stay too long though as they needed to go home and pack for the surprise Bali trip he had planned to celebrate their engagement together with the flight leaving at 5am. It was incredible.

What style/theme have you chosen for your Wedding Day?
We just wanted a simple wedding. We are both in our final year of university, Em studying to become a doctor and Bren to become a paramedic (so the budget was tight). We were excited to celebrate our wedding and graduating with all of our favourite people. We DIY’d all of our own flowers and decorations. Going for a more rustic look. After a few stressful years of studying in healthcare during a pandemic, we just wanted an easy, stress free wedding where we can all celebrate coming out of lockdown and being able to spend time with the ones we.

What are you most looking forward to on the day?
After two years in and out of lockdowns and not being able to see many of our loved ones, we are over the moon and incredibly grateful that our wedding is going ahead at all. It feels like such an incredibly special time, after all we have all been through in this pandemic, celebrating with those we care about most is everything. We could not be more appreciative. We can not wait to see so many happy faces in person again and to give our favourite people some big hugs after all this time. It’s going to be amazing.

Top Tips!
#1. Don’t get married during a pandemic, its very stressful.
#2. Don’t get caught up in what you think you HAVE to buy or have at a wedding, there are no ‘rules’, its your day, do what YOU want!
#3 Stick to your budget. Chose the things you cant go without without (whether it be your amazing photographer Rick, your dress or something important to you) and DIY or negotiate the rest. You don’t have to spend bigger to have a better day. With weddings, like most things, less is often more. Your day will be as amazing as you make it from moments that are priceless.