Thirteen years ago today, Sean and I tied the knot. It was a Monday. A lovely garden wedding in Florida. I only knew 10 people at my wedding – Sean, my Mum and Dad and Sisters, my best friend, and Sean’s parents and siblings. The other guests were strangers to me.

Sean and I met just 9 months earlier, at the Australian Christian Music Seminar in Cooma (Jan 1996).

It was a whirlwind romance. He stayed in Australia for an extra week so we could ‘date’ and he could meet my parents, who seemed to like the match. My sisters even came to the airport the day he left to make sure I wasn’t interested in an axe murderer. A few weeks later, my friend and I went shopping and found the Perfect Wedding Dress (and bought it!). He hadn’t proposed, yet.

In April, I flew to the USA to spend a few weeks with Sean’s family. On April 12, 1996, he proposed. He had it all planned out. He took me horse back riding in the morning, planning to propose while we were riding in the woods. But we couldn’t get away from our riding buddies. In the end, it was a family affair. They all got together to prepare a romantic meal on the front porch. His proposal was amazing. That’s all you need to know. Five Months later we were married on the spot where he proposed.

We almost eloped once, cause the trans Pacific relationship was agonizing – we were together a total of 5 weeks, between the day we met and the day we got married. The cost of letters, daily phone calls and plane tickets was far more than the total cost of our wedding.

On the morning of the wedding, I woke up perfectly well, and realized two things:
We’d forgotten to buy the flowers, and we hadn’t finished writing our vows.

Rather than being stressful, this simply served to make the day more special and memorable. While everyone was running around making final preparations, Sean and I disappeared to write our vows. It was much easier to write them with him right in front of me, than when we were trying to do it over the phone. Then about 2 hours before the wedding, we drove to the local store, bought the flowers and then I made the bouquets with my Bridesmaids.

We were ready to roll at 2pm sharp. And at 2pm sharp, it started to rain. All the guests had to huddle in the house for 30 mins. Then everyone had to clean up the water so we could start the show.

At 3pm, September 2, 1996, we were married. It was the most natural thing in the world to do. As I walked down the porch to Sean, I couldn’t wait to get on with the rest of my life with this amazing man. The events of the day were simply a rite of passage into the best chapter of my life.

Thirteen years later… he’s still my best friend, my favourite travel companion, an awesome hubby, and now, an amazing Daddy to our little miracles.