F R O M T H E F U T U R E M R S . ( S T A C E Y )

How and when did you meet...

Natalie and I met in 2010 when I returned from a European trip. I arrived back in my home town of Melbourne in October and in November I met a girl called Natalie at a Melbourne café and we started chatting while waiting for our coffees to be made. She told me that she was visiting from Perth and the 2nd thing she ever told me was that she was "planning on moving to Melbourne". We swapped numbers and said we should catch up when she makes the move. To my surprise, she rang me that night and we chatted for hours. The next day, I wanted to talk to her again so I rang her that next night. We have spoken everyday ever since. We were in a relationship by March 6th 2011, doing long distance, until Natalie moved in August of 2011. We now live together in Melbourne.

I had my heart set on getting Natalie a black diamond but had been having trouble finding the perfect stone with the right clarity. I'd emailed Rosemary back in August for help and after months of searching, finally found a jeweller from the Mornington Peninsula who had the perfect antique with halo setting and was very close to finding the perfect black diamond on the diamond exchange.

a few weeks later...

After all that, a week before I was planning to propose, Natalie casually mentioned that she'd prefer a white diamond! Luckily my jeweller was able to source a beautiful white diamond quickly"

I originally had a grand plan of proposing on to Natalie from outside her office window on a cherry picker, but that didn't work out.

Instead, I decorated the entire house with red drapes hanging from every wall, fairy lights, candles, rose petals and painted a 'Marry Me' on one of the drapes too. I wish I had a pic of what my house looked like, but I was that stressed and nervous that I completely forgot to take happy snaps of that! I did catch the proposal on my video recorder, which luckily I remembered to do! I picked Natalie up from the salon and planned to ask her to check the letterbox when we got home. This was the only way I was going to beat her into the house!

I was so fearful that it was going to rain and she would refuse to collect the mail (as it would ruin her hair)! It was absolutely bucketing down on the drive home and I was so stressed. But our stars aligned and by the time I pulled into my driveway, we had clear skies so she was happy to check the letterbox.

She walked through the door, I asked, and she said yes 🙂

My gorgeous partner Natalie proposed back to me! Completely unexpectedly!!! She planned to surprise me at work and had my business parter in on it. I was expecting a client to turn up for a meeting at 4pm. There was a knock at my office door at and when I opened the door there were 12 long stemmed roses laying on the ground in-front of me. Completely confused, I looked to my right to see Natalie on one-knee with a gorgeous cake by Adriano Zumbo with a STUNNING ring sitting in one of the macaroons for me.

It turns out she picked up on my love of black diamonds over the last couple of months and had me a ring made. The central stone is currently a crystal as the jeweller was waiting for the perfect black diamond to turn up on the diamond exchange before swapping the crystal out, however, I have fallen so in love with my 9mm crystal that I wouldn't swap it for anything.

What part of the wedding are you both most excited about?

Definitely the ceremony, as long as we are married at the end of it - the day is a success. We are planning on mixing up the traditional alter and instead, getting married in the centre of a circle, with all our family and friends making a circle around us. Natalie will enter from the West and I will from the East to acknowledge her coming from Western Australia.

Apart from that, I'm really excited about incorporating elements of our personalities/lifestyles into the reception and meshing these ideas with traditional wedding day routines. Think mixed gender bridal party and a fresh modern take on guest entertainment Hint: flashmob!