Along with some mad whistling skills, this catchy song declares, “Home is wherever I’m with you” (Home, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, 2009).

The word ‘home’ conjures a sense of warmth and security. It provides a place of familiarity and comfort. It is where we can let our vulnerabilities out in the open and be our authentic selves. The notion of a home may encompass more than bricks and mortar. Many believe it is synonymous with true love, suggesting that one person’s presence can create a sense of home for another. Home not being about a house, but a feeling, a state of being. It would mean that to be in love with someone is to feel at home with them. In this light, the Isle Weddings team is delighted to introduce Julia and Megan, a young couple ‌at‌ ‌home‌ ‌wherever‌ ‌they‌ ‌are‌ ‌together.

“Both living in Tasmania, the first time we met was in grade 9. Our circles of friends overlapped, but we didn’t start getting to know each other until grade 12. After that, we were inseparable”, said the couple.

Julia’s wedding proposal was clearly in line with what they were hoping for. “We are both very homebodies, so Julia proposed at home on Valentine’s Day while beautiful Violet the dog witnessed”, commented Megan.

The couple kept true to themselves, ensuring their wedding nuptials would be what they wanted. “Having a big wedding was never something either of us imagined doing. We decided to elope and do something intimate that reflected our relationship”, said the couple.

“Our planning was very casual and hush-hush. Julia planned it mostly on her laptop. It was nerve-wracking but exciting keeping it all to ourselves. Once we had decided to book at Freycinet Lodge, Tasmania, we let the experts take care of most other wedding tasks. We also had our phenomenal photographer (and friend), Ebony, who booked our make-up artist. So it all fell into place really easily”, said the couple.

Keeping close to their home roots, the couple incorporated many aspects of their home lives into their elopement. Megan explained, “Our inspiration for all the little details was “cottagecore” as we both love embroidery and little touches of nature. I designed a cross-stitch that Julia embroidered with the words “Imagine Me and You”. It was one of our ceremony songs and also the name of one of our favourite movies”.

Julia’s laptop once again proved to be very useful for their wedding dresses. “We ordered our dresses online and our sweaters which were necessary since we eloped in August. We selected them together for coordination yet‌ ‌still‌ ‌reflect‌ ‌our‌ ‌individual‌ ‌styles”.

When describing their favourite moments, the couple said, “The rain was the most memorable thing on the wedding day! We know that this would usually cause any bride to panic. Still, we had so much fun and got many beautiful photos in the rain that we did not even care about getting saturated. One other memorable moment of the day was our photographer’s husband picking us up and carrying us over to a rock in the water to get the perfect shot without the risk of slipping in”.

One near-disaster was that Julia’s boss almost didn’t give her the time off work. “She had to secretly tell them it was for our elopement, and they then shared how they had eloped when they got married”, described Megan.

One of the questions frequently asked by couples when deciding on an elopement is ‘will our families be supportive of our decision to elope?’. The couple described the time they made the big announcement about their elopement. “Our family’s reaction to our eloping was positive. Everyone was thrilled when we told them”.

The day after our big reveal, we sent them a picture of us holding a “We Tied the Knot” sign. My brother showed the image to his partner, commenting that he thought we looked nice. His partner then prompted him to look again as he hadn’t clicked that it was a wedding picture!” said Megan bemusingly.