Housemate to Husband | Meet Tim & Bridget
Bridget moved into a share house with Tim and two others.
They barely spent any time together for the first 6 months or so, until their housemates went away on holiday. The rest is history!
How did he propose?
On the last night of a holiday in France – we were on an evening river cruise along the river Seine and he completely surprised me!
What’s your most important piece of advice for creating and maintaining a strong relationship?
Marry your best friend… or housemate – no surprises!
Tell us about your wedding gown and how you chose it
I had always thought I’d be very relaxed about choosing a wedding dress. I’m not the type to want the ‘fairytale’ look or even necessarily wear white. I thought I’d just take the opportunity to buy a gorgeous designer dress, not something bridal! After a couple of months of searching, I realised I wasn’t going to find anything that felt special enough and had developed an idea of what I wanted but couldn’t find it anywhere! I went into Belluccio on a whim when I was walking past (it was nearby our house at the time) because they had intricately beaded dresses in the window and I hoped they may know where to locate the type of fabric I wanted… In the end, they helped create my vision, even having the fabric custom beaded (well, sequined) for me!
What sort of style did you envision for your wedding day?
I had never really thought much about my wedding day and in fact would have been happy to go to the Registry and out for a nice meal (or skip marriage altogether!) – it was actually Tim that wanted a ‘proper’ wedding! I’d visited the Childrens’ Farm since childhood and knew it would make a lovely relaxed venue with an outdoorsy/ rustic feel without making our friends and family travel out of town!
What was your favourite moment of the day?
I hate to say it but walking down the ‘aisle’ to Tim’s smiling, crying face. It’s funny how it doesn’t seem to matter how sure you are about the marriage, you still get nervous waiting for the ceremony to start. Seeing Tim put that to rest completely and I was so excited to just get on with the ceremony and marry him.
If you could do it all over again, what would you change?
I’d nominate someone to be in charge of the decision making/question answering on the day. Without a wedding planner or event manager, I was frequently interrupted. While getting ready, questions from vendors kept coming as things inevitably went wrong (rain!), or needed to be clarified. Also, wet weather back up plans are great. Especially in late Autumn. What were we thinking!
Any tips that you can give to future brides?
I loved that nobody had phones or cameras out during our ceremony. If you don’t hire a videographer, nominate one guest you trust to video the ceremony for you. It doesn’t matter if it’s shaky or poor quality! The ceremony is such an overwhelming, emotional blur that it’s hard to remember and I wish I had just one video to watch back and see exactly how it played out.
Any DIY décor elements?
I made our cake, including sugar flowers to decorate it; one of my bridesmaids sat on the floor of our apartment with me for hours on the eve of the wedding, stripping flower stems and arranging them in vases for the tables. Tim and I made the scented soy wax candles together for the bonbonniere. Tim and one of his groomsmen climbed the massive old Oak tree we were married under to string festoon lights through its branches. Daylight savings would end the week before the wedding and we’d possibly be getting married in the dark!
Photographer: Darin Collison
Dress: Custom Belluccio
Makeup: Zoe O’Meara
Hair: Justine O
Shoes: Novo
Accessories: Love On Jewellery
Bridesmaids Dresses: Bridesmaids’ own
Grooms Suit: Saba
Menus & Place Cards: Adorn Invitations
Cake: Made by bride
Food: Ed Dixon Food Design
Flowers: Azalea Flowers
Ceremony Venue: Collingwood Childrens’ Farm
Reception Venue: Collingwood Childrens’ Farm
