They met when Terri-Leigh was just in high school, but it was a click on social media that brought these young love birds together.
“Joel and I first met at my high-school art exhibition,” remembers Terri-Leigh, 21. “We hit it off straight away…even my mum said she could tell I was smitten.” Just a fortnight later, the pair added one another on Facebook and struck an online conversation. “After our third date we were inseparable! We saw each other every single day up until our wedding,” says Terri-Leigh.
Five months after they were officially a couple, Joel, 23, proposed. “Of course I said yes and together we picked out my engagement ring. A vintage-style ring with my birthstone – an amethyst, and diamonds – Joel’s birthstone,” smiles Terri-Leigh. They threw a garden wedding at the Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens in the Dandenong Ranges with 100 guests on November 24, 2013.
Terri-Leigh’s creative skills came in handy, with much of the styling a DIY effort. “We incorporated as many meaningful things as we could; our birthstones in the amethyst bridesmaid dresses and diamond table scatters,” says the bride. They honoured Joel’s nanna, Audrey, with a Tiffany blue maid-of-honour dress, and in memory of Terri-Leigh’s ‘Granny Bubbles’, bubbles were blown as the ceremony.
The wrong song played when Terri-Leigh walked down the aisle but it was quite fitting all the same! “The lyrics when the rain is blowing in your face from Adele’s song “Make You Feel My Love” began to play just as it began to drizzle,” says the bride.
“We carried silk hydrangea bouquets and boutonnieres,” says Terri-Leigh.
Photos courtesy of Tamara Kellett Photography