Wedding Gurneys Cider

Wedding Gurneys Cider – Our favourite place in Victoria is Wilsons Prom. We had scoped out potentially doing the wedding there, but we also knew that it would be a LOT of work! Gurneys Cider was a special place to us, with several visits over the years with friends and/or with our dog, Pippa. The crew there always made us feel so welcome and recognised us on each subsequent visit. It became a staple in our weekend day trips/nights away to Wilsons Prom or South Gippsland, and when we thought about potential wedding venues outside of getting married at the Prom itself, Gurneys was the only place that we both agreed on. We took Emily’s parents there for lunch about 18 months ago to show them the venue, and they saw how special it was too! we met Lorraine and were given a full tour of the wedding space and knew that it was the right fit for us! Gurneys Cider is where the wedding photography took place.

Wedding gown // Still White (second hand wedding dress marketplace)
Hair and Make up // Mel’s Cutting & Beauty Rooms
Conducting the service // Memories with Becky (Becky Lesser)
Flowers // Allambee Flower Farm
Wedding Cake // Ruwi’s Cakes & Trulli Bakehouse
Video // Andrew – Passion8
DJ // DJ Nige (Nigel Beck)

How we met: [Rowan] We met in Emily’s second year of uni. I had well and truly finished my studies, but was still there DJ’ing at the uni parties. Emily came up to introduce herself and say hi on the first day of orientation, where she was helping out as a volunteer. She sent me a friend request a couple of days later on Facebook, and then we struck up a conversation at one of the O Week uni parties. We danced together while another DJ was on duty, and I plucked up the awkward courage to eventually go for a first kiss right before I had to get back on stage to play! Emily was outgoing, funny and confident, and we just clicked straight away! [Emily] Rowan was the uni DJ. My friends and I (bridesmaid Emily included) had spent my entire first year of uni looking at the “DJ line up” for each uni party, and me and my friends would always excitedly announce “whoo DJ Row is on the line up again” (he DJ’ed EVERY uni party…). My friends and I were always on the dance floor when DJ Row was performing! I thought he would be “way too cool to talk to me!”. Then in my second year I was feeling particularly confident… I added Rowan on Facebook. The next week we were both working on Orientation week (O week) and we bumped into eachother on the hall way and had OUR FIRST REAL CONVERSATION!! At the next uni party Rowan sparked up a conversation me, after our first kiss on the dance floor (almost certainly while DJ Nige was behind the decks – our DJ tonight!!)
The Proposal: [Rowan] Emily and I had been together for about eight years when I knew I was ready to pop the question. We had an upcoming trip planned to Queensland, where we’d be swimming with humpback whales, exploring the Sunshine Coast, and visiting K’gari (Fraser Island) and a day trip to Lady Eliot Island. We’ve talked and dreamed about a trip to Lady Elliott Island for years, so the closer we got to the trip, the more I knew that’s where I wanted to ask the question. I started to go ring shopping on my own, keeping it entirely to myself the whole way. I had a ring picked out about a fortnight before our trip, and then picked it up from the jeweller the day before we flew out to Queensland. The trip was going perfectly, with Emily none the wiser about the ring that was stowed deep in a secure spot in my backpack (which I was checking daily out of stress ?) When the day arrived for our trip to Lady Elliot island, the ring was still safely stashed in my backpack, which came with us for the day out and was put into a locker when we arrived. We spent the morning snorkelling the Great Barrier reef, on a glass bottom boat tour, and then enjoying lunch together… But the ring stayed in the locker. After lunch, we had an incredible afternoon on the reef, swimming with manta rays who swarmed us on the reef. A proper bucket list experience! I didn’t want to give anything away, but was running out of time to pop the question. We spent every possible minute in the water, and had to race back to catch our flight off the island We raced through a shower and I finally pocketed the ring (in the most giant awkward ring box ever!). We had a couple of minutes waiting to be escorted across the grass runway to our plane, and had a stranger taking photos of us with the Lady Elliot island sign…but I got shy with an awkward audience watching on. We get the call to walk across toward our plane, and then halfway across I pretend take some candid photos of Emily, and then pulled her back towards me and got down on one knee. In the middle of the grass runway!! I asked the big question, but didn’t realise that I’d opened the ring box upside down! So after a magical day, and an awkward last minute proposal with no visible ring, Emily’s response was…. “…what?!” Shortly followed by “Yes!!” I had a couple of moments on other trips where I felt like it would have been a great fit to propose, but this was absolutely the right time and place, and capped off an already unforgettable day.