Hayley & Aaron

NUMBER OF GUESTS: 70

Our love story began…

Aaron and I first met playing a game of Touch Football on a Monday night in Townsville in 2016. I was playing with my normal team and Aaron was a last minute fill in and from that night on, he played every Monday night after that. It happened to be that we both walked into each other’s lives at the perfect time and the rest is history.

The proposal was…

Overseas. In Greece. In SANTORINI. On sunset. In private. It was INCREDIBLE! Aaron proposed on the most magical sunset in Santorini on top of a little white cave house nestled into the caldera! The whole afternoon was magical and Aaron even managed to capture the entire proposal on film! The next day we booked a sailing cruise around the island and my parents surprised us with an engagement shoot in Santorini.

We wanted our wedding to be…

A reflection of us as a couple: fun, easy going and filled with lots of laughter, dancing and food! The day was exactly this and more! We wanted it to be a beautiful sunny day to show of the incredible views at Summergrove Estate but we ended up with a very cloudy and rainy day! Rest assured though that this weather didn’t dampen our moods and actually made our professional photos so much more magical than we would have ever imagined! We had to move our ceremony location the morning of from outside on the lawn and into the chapel and it was an absolute blessing in disguise! It was so beautiful inside and we didn’t even notice the rain falling outside.

My dress was…

PERFECT! The whole experience was incredible. From looking through the incredibly diverse styles of dresses and trying over 20 styles on and finding my dream dress was an experience I will never forget. My mum and sister travelled from Airlie Beach to visit the newly opened Townsville LUV Bridal Store with me to kick start the exciting process of looking for THE DRESS!

When we arrived, Robyn was so lovely and helpful. She listened to all of my hopes and dreams of what to find in a wedding dress and she seemed to know exactly what I was after and went straight to the Madi Lane collections for me. Normally, brides will choose the dresses they like off the racks and one of them will be the one…. But, this wasn’t entirely the case for me… Robyn just received a delivery the morning that I arrived and she went to the back and pulled a dress out of a postage box. As soon as I saw the bolded white lace of the INDIA gown I was utterly and instantly in love. I hadn’t even tried it on and I knew it was the one! Once I put the INDIA gown on it fitted my body perfectly and I felt so comfortable in it. It even had detachable sleeves and such a stretchy underlay which allowed me to move so freely in it! On our wedding day I hiked up and down hills, through long grass and danced the night away! The lace on this dress was the most exquisite lace I have ever seen. My husband always said that I would look amazing even if I wore a paper bag….so pretty sure he was more than impressed when he saw me in the INDIA gown!!

The best moment of the day…

For me, the “Holly Crap! This is really happening!” moment hit me when I was having my makeup done and when I was in the Kombi travelling to Summergrove Estate with both of my parents and bridesmaids! It was such a surreal feeling… I don’t think I’ve experienced that many different emotions all at the same time haha. Aaron and I had so many moments throughout the night and day where we had to pinch ourselves to say “This is REAL!” Spending time together, just the two of us, when we were having our portraits taken was my favourite part of the day because we could completely soak in the fact that we were married!

The soundtrack to our big day was…

Our soundtrack for the day was a perfect mix of songs from the 60s through to the 90s RnB favourites! We had the most talented musician (Benny Hanna) play acoustic songs before, during and after the ceremony for our canapés! I think people were that captivated by his music and talent that they forgot to keep drinking during canapés! The best part about Benny was that he turned into an epic DJ for the reception! He even took song requests from our guests and used the list I provided him with of guest’s favourite songs to play throughout the night! Safe to say that everyone, even my 89 year old Nan, was up on the dance floor having a dance.

We’d like to give a special mention to…

Our beautiful celebrant, Vanessa from Butterfly Ceremonies! She was such an incredible vendor to deal with. She tailored our whole ceremony to suit and reflect Aaron and I as a couple. Our whole ceremony was a dream with Vanessa making Aaron and I feel very relaxed throughout the whole thing. She has a smile and a laugh that lights up a room!

One unusual thing about our big day was…

I don’t think there is anything ‘unusual’ about weddings these days actually! I love how differently beautiful every couples weddings are now! It provides couples with opportunities to really express themselves as a couple and dare to adventure outside of the usual norm! Actually, we had our groomsmen wearing PINK suit jackets (riskiest but best decision we made)! I don’t think I’ve ever seen full grown men wear pink so well!! These boys were the real MVPs of the day! 

As a married couple we most look forward to…

Planning for everything that our future holds for us! We have bought land that we will be building on in the very near future. Once we build our dream house we can’t wait to have little feet running around someday soon. We love travelling the world as well so hopefully we can sneak in another trip to Europe and head back to the Greek Islands where it all began!

The best advice we can give to other couples about to get married is…

Don’t sweat the small stuff. Be organised sooner than later because vendors book out sometimes 2 years in advance and if you want a certain photographer be quick to lock them in! On the day, enjoy every single second because the day does go by very quickly! Also, make sure you have moments by yourselves throughout the afternoon and night. We snuck off together to enjoy our wedding cake on our own and it was such a special moment together, just us two.

If you can, definitely have an acoustic guitarist and a photo booth! Our guests loved both and they still talk about our Musician and the photo strips are such a good little keepsake for your guests! Oh and ALWAYS get a videographer!!