It’s not often a whole bunch of the industry’s finest come together to create an epic wedding, free of charge, just as it’s also not often a couple argue over who’s going to propose, as Mahatia and Teegan joked! But this wedding is unique in other ways, too. “Dee from The Altar Electric and photographer, Christian Marc (of Be Here Be Now) planted a seed together at our first ‘wedding’ (a commitment ceremony in 2016), that they would marry us and capture it as soon as it became legal. Dee basically became our wedding planner extraordinaire. She found every single vendor for us and then some of the vendors approached Dee to offer their services and contribute out of the kindness of their hearts, to what we all referred to as our “Wedding Extravaganza”. It was a midnight party with an open invitation to the public. “This was a huge victory for our community and something that was long fought for, so to include the entire community in our celebration felt like the absolute right thing to do.”
THE PROPOSAL We agreed originally that Mahatia would propose because she had lots of rules about when the proposal could take place, but eventually Mahatia agreed that I should propose, because I am more sensible! We were due to go overseas together for the first time and I laid out photos on our bed with rose petals. On the dresser I had five glass bottles with a memory from the past three years. I also had wine labels made up and put two bottles of red wine, with the labels that had our engagement date on them. I wrote out my proposal to Mahatia and had it made into a print, which I had framed and hung above our bed. As soon as she walked into the bedroom, I burst into tears and hugged her, before I showed her all of the things in the room and I proposed. Under strict instruction, I did NOT get onto one knee! Then I had booked an obnoxiously large limo, which drove us to the airport, where we drank a whole bottle of champagne and called our families and told them the great news.
THE OUTFITS Dee had spent some time approaching boutique stores before she stumbled upon Ginger and Gold Bridal on a recommendation from Kate from Good Day Rentals. The wonderful girls at Ginger and Gold told us that we could select any piece from their entire collection. Mahatia knew straight away that she wanted the ‘Margot’ dress and I was tossing up between the gold jumpsuit and another two-piece set. We received the dresses via post on the Friday before the wedding, we tried them on and the jumpsuit and the Margot dress looked great together, with the gold in each piece complimenting the other.
MEMORABLE MOMENT Dee made a very powerful speech about the LGBTQ community’s fight for equality and how deserving this moment in history was. Everyone was cheering during particularly powerful statements and so many of our friends and family were crying during that moment. Then we all counted down from 10 to the stroke of midnight and the confetti canons went off and Dee read the legals of the ceremony and said “marriage in Australia is between two people” and again, everyone was cheering and crying – the overwhelming feeling of pure joy was incredible. This was a celebration for not just us, but for our entire community. It was an acknowledgement of the years and years of tireless work from LGBTQ people and our allies. And it was all topped off when we all sung along to Fidel and Sarah playing ‘I Fought the Law’, but we changed the lyrics to ‘I fought the law and I won’.
MARRIAGE MEANS… The fact that I am now legally married to Mahatia is incredible, but the part that blows us away the most is really the bigger picture. Not only are we now married, but every single person in our community now has the same rights as any other heterosexual couple. Young LGBTQ people won’t have to have the same conversations that we did while planning our first ‘wedding’; Will we be able to find vendors for a same sex wedding? How do we have a ceremony without the actual legally binding parts? Will our family and friends still take our wedding seriously and consider us as married?’ How amazing is that?! There won’t be such a thing as “same sex marriage” there will just be “marriage” and to me, that is beyond anything I could have ever imagined.
STANDOUT VENDORS Dee (The Altar Electric) and Christian Marc (of Be Here Be Now). When we first met with Christian, I instantly became aware that he was a very emotionally intelligent person. He is great at reading people in situations, which means that he can make you feel at ease and comfortable in situations that would usually be a bit awkward. But on top of that, he is probably the most genuine and caring person I’ve ever met.
This wedding was originally published in Issue 20. If you’d like to check out more from this issue, limited copies are available via our online store and postage is on us.
CONTRIBUTING VENDORS Photographer Be Here Be Now Cinematographer Lunar Red Stylist & Hire Items Good Day Rentals Florist & Flower Crowns Good Grace and Humour Ceremony & Reception Ferdydurke Bar Catering Fat and Skinny Catering Cake Kitty Pimms’ Entertainment Fidel and Sarah Celebrant The Altar Electric Accomodation Notel Melbourne BRIDES Bridal Gowns Ginger and Gold Bridal Robes Cotton On Body Shoes Shoes Rubi Shoes Hair & Makeup Kate McCleary Hair & Makeup Artist