It is impossible to forget the height of the Covid-19 pandemic as a time when circumstances beyond our control tested the resilience of couples. While planning their weddings, many couples faced ever-changing travel restrictions, limited guest numbers, and the threat of last-minute vendor changes due to low staffing numbers as a result of the pandemic. For a wedding to be successful during a global crisis, the bride, groom, guests, and vendors must be patient, flexible, and open to compromise.

It has been a long journey to write this story, again testing the resilience of this ‘real wedding couple’. Even with delays beyond our control and the couple’s, Megan remained friendly, prompt, enthusiastic, and flexible throughout the process. Megan and Daniel are an outstanding newlywed couple who provide us with a wonderful insight into what it takes to plan and execute a wedding during a pandemic successfully. It gives us great pleasure to introduce their wedding day story to our readers.

As Megan begins her story, she describes the first time she met her future husband. “Daniel and I met overseas in Uganda, Africa. We just clicked, and over three weeks, we got to know each other as much as you can in such a short time! He headed back to Melbourne while I stayed for another three months in Uganda. On my way back home to Tasmania, I stopped in Melbourne for a few days and then three months later, he moved down to Tassie, and the rest is history, really. We have been together for six years, and we have a dog, Lenny; he’s our baby. And in a few months, we will be moving to New York, which is scary but super exciting!

I like to be super organised, and the one thing I didn’t want was to have a stressful lead-up to the day; I wanted to enjoy every moment. So I organised as much as I could months before the day. We decided on online invitations, which in my opinion, is the way to go. With the constant changes we had to make, it was easy to change invites and keep our guests updated. We were supposed to get married in November 2021, but Covid-19 forced us to postpone, which ended up being a blessing in disguise. Tassie borders did not open up til December, so we were able to have family and friends who couldn’t make the first date travel down, which was amazing!

Covid also caused a few issues with vendors not being available when we had to postpone, but we were fortunate we could find vendors who were able to step in and help! Vendors that were no longer available helped us find replacements which I was so grateful for, and the stress was enough already having to change the date! Blossie who created my signs, was absolutely amazing to work with. Replacement signs were made when our date changed so close to the date without hassle! Our wedding venue planner, Kate from Bangor Vineyard, was a dream to work with during the uncertain times with date changes, limitations on guest numbers, mask mandates etc. which took away the stress I had during the planning stage!

I decided on a neutral colour theme for the wedding, white and dried flowers, cream bridesmaid’s dresses and beige suits for the guys. Daniel’s background is Indian, and I wanted to incorporate an element of Indian culture, so I arranged for henna to be drawn on my hands. I asked my bridesmaids if they wanted the same, and they totally embraced it, and all got matching hennas on their hands!

The day before the wedding, I had a leg-shaving mishap! Sorry for those who are squeamish, but I sliced about 4cm of skin off my leg! We had no bandaids, but luckily we are all nurses so we had a makeshift bandage and luckily it stopped bleeding by the next day! I am very accident-prone, so it was a classic Megan move.

The day itself was the most perfect day. As our wedding was later in the afternoon, we were able to wake up at a reasonable hour, go for a walk on the beach, and grab a coffee down at Eaglehawk Neck, followed by a champagne breakfast where my bridesmaids and I got ready! It was forecasted to thunderstorm, but the weather could not have been more perfect for the day. Everyone tells you that the day goes so quickly and you barely get a moment to take everything in, and it’s very true, so I’m glad our photographer grabbed us for some sunset photos which meant we could have some quiet time just the two of us.

It was an absolutely magical day, and despite mandatory restrictions on guest numbers, we were able to livestream for those who couldn’t be there. Bangor Vineyard is such a beautiful place, with the food, the wine, and the view; everything is phenomenal! I’m so grateful we were able to celebrate our day with friends and family here.”