On top of my already busy schedule — full time pencil pusher, part time writer for the RiotACT and new business owner — I am also currently organising my wedding for June this year.
I know what you are thinking, and yes, quite often I also find myself thinking how insane I am for trying to squeeze so many things into my life. Let me just tell you, it’s not on purpose; life just kind of worked out this way.
I met Mike in 2007 … and, you know how the story goes: you meet a beautiful stranger for a minute and then life takes you in different directions and you never see each other again. Well 7 years later, Mike and I were lucky enough to run into each other again.
I had just come back from the most amazing overseas adventure with some girlfriends after coming out of a horrible six-year relationship and was attending an awards night that I had been invited to. As we were waiting to be seated, a man turned around and smiled at me, it was Mike! He asked me how I had been, as it was years since we had seen each other and complimented me by saying that I looked beautiful. I didn’t really think anything of it, I was in a really good place in my life and was just enjoying being single.
The next day I received a message from Mike asking me if I wanted to have dinner with him. I was in that really awkward stage where you have forgotten how to even speak to a boy, and so I was really nervous and reluctant to go for dinner, but I also knew it was time to get back into dating.
Three months later, after making Mike the most amazing home-made meal, he asked me to be his girlfriend. It’s true what they say; the way to a man’s heart is through their stomach.
Another three months later Mike and I bought an apartment together. Yes! It was a really big step, and some may say three months is too soon, but it really did just work out that way and we already knew that we were going to spend the rest of our lives together.
A few months later, in August 2015 we decided to open a business together; you can follow the Creating a café series I am writing for background.
In September 2015 we holidayed in India; it was one of the greatest experiences of our lives and we travelled so well as a couple, which was the best.
October 2015 marked our one year anniversary: in a year we had bought a house, travelled together and were in the process of building a business together, all whilst getting to know each other. There is no better way of getting to know someone, then being thrown in the deep end with them; it really is make or break.
We celebrated our one year with a five day weekend in Melbourne. As I said, Mike and I already knew we were going to be spending our lives together and had been looking at engagement rings for a few months. We happened to stumble across the perfect ring whilst shopping in Melbourne and that night after our anniversary dinner, Mike asked me to marry him.
In 2015 fashion, we announced our engagement on Facebook.
We didn’t have an actual plan to get married; we had so many things going on that we even umm’ed and ahh’ed about having an engagement party and in then end decided against it. To be honest, it was mostly about money. It’s not that we didn’t want to celebrate the good news; we literally had invested everything we had into a house and a business. We instead asked a friend, the amazing Victor Tawagi, to capture some photos in celebration of our engagement.
Mile and I started thinking about the cost of getting married; according to Google the average cost of an Australian wedding is $36,200. Who honestly has that kind of money to spend on one day? Even if we had the money, I think both of us agree that there are just so many other things to be spending it on.
And that’s when we decided to elope.
Over the next weeks and months, Sophia will take us on her journey of planning an elopement.
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