Lucia and Richard were recommended to me through a dear friend. We met at an Adelaide bar and discussed what they envisaged their wedding day to be. Lucia has three daughters and Richard has three sons. That’s right, Brady Bunch was what came to my mind too. They wanted their children to be the bridesmaids and groomsmen and were very keen to have their children involved in the organisation of their special day.

When we discussed the ceremony format they insisted on having a statement that I added at the end of the legal vows if couples were in support of same sex marriages. They shared with me that their siblings were in same sex relationships and they would be present. By the time the wedding date arrived 61% of Australians had voted in favour of marriage equality. I acknowledged that Richard and Lucia no longer needed to add the words they had chosen because for the first time I could say “is the union of two people to the exclusion of all others”. I didn’t realise how emotional I would be saying those words for the first time but when everyone stood up and started clapping I had to restrain the tears.

The wedding ceremony and reception was at The Lane winery and the 22nd of December 2017 was a beautiful day for a wedding. The ceremony was up on the hill and the views from there are breathtaking. What was more breathtaking was the bride and her gorgeous daughters when they arrived. I love the transformation of the bride and the bridesmaids from the rehearsal a week earlier to the goddesses on the day. Let’s not forget to mention Richard and his handsome boys.

It was an absolute pleasure and honour being your wedding celebrant.

My first impression of Kelly (nee Miller) was as my beauty therapy student at TAFESA over 10 years ago. Kelly was a model student and was promptly snapped up by Adelaide’s most prominent spa at the time. Years later Kelly and her partner, Chris, attended a wedding I was also invited to as we know Adelaide only has two degrees of separation. Kelly left early as she was attending her TAFE classmates engagement that same evening. I ended speaking to Chris for some time and quickly realised he was a keeper. I hadn’t even considered being a wedding celebrant at this stage.

When Kelly applied for a lecturing position at TAFESA I couldn’t recommend her highly enough. She soon became a work colleague and was an absolute natural in the classroom. Her wonderful news of her pregnancy was a delight to us all and having the build of a whippet allowed Kelly to work well into her pregnancy. Not only was Kelly sporting a baby bump but soon came in blinding us with her magnificent engagement ring. On 26/2/2017 Lucas James Gein was born and what a gorgeous little boy he was.

I was so honoured to be asked by Kelly and Chris to be their wedding celebrant. Our first meeting was for us to discuss the format of the ceremony but more so to have a squeeze of that delectable baby. They were getting married at my favourite wedding venue, Sunnybrae Estate, and my mind was already racing about how we could include that cherub in the ceremony. I had never worked with toddlers and I was both excited and a little nervous as to how it would go.

I had hopes that Lucas would be walking by the big day. He was and then decided to go back to crawling so Chris was going to hold him until Kelly arrived and then he was going to Chris’ Mum. Hmmm, I thought, we’ll see how that plays out. Lucas was a star! He sat quietly in Chris’ arms until his stunning Mummy arrived and then went to his grandmother. Not a peep from him for the entire ceremony and then he stole the show with the photographer.

Kelly, I’ve watched you grow from a beautiful, young girl to an even more beautiful, accomplished woman. Thank you for choosing me to be part of your special day with Chris and Lucas.

Made my heart sing to have a photo taken with the gorgeous girls from my Diploma of Beauty Therapy class of 2008.