One of my favourite things about weddings is that they not only provide the opportunity for family and friends to get together and celebrate the wonderful occasion itself, but that it’s also one of the rare opportunities in life where loved ones can be truly open with each other. More about that later…

A&D prepared, exchanged promises and then celebrated at the beautiful Stamford Plaza Hotel in Brisbane in a flawless wedding, officiated by the lovely Geoff Mazlin. Apart from some gorgeous tears and moments during the ceremony, a highlight of the day for me were some great speeches.

They have a wonderful story about how they met & connected immediately during overseas travels and then found themselves still chatting into the early hours of daybreak in a hotel ‘lobby’ (as Alison likes to call it).

Getting back to the original thoughts, during his speech Darian’s Dad seized the moment to welcome Alison into the family with words that would rarely be said any other moment in time (and consequently had the entire room in tears). Enjoy this teaser from their beautiful celebration…and this clip is a real ‘tease’ - you’ll see why at the end…

If you’d like to leave a message for Alison & Darian or have any comments at all please feel free

P.S. There was a v.cool Cuban tradition on the night that I haven’t come across before - it goes like this: Small pieces of ribbon are inserted into the wedding cake - the same # as there are single ladies (insert Beyoncé here) and tied onto the end of one of them is a ring.

Before the cake is cut, the bride gathers all of the unmarried girls at the wedding, and allows each to pull one of the ribbons from the cake. The tradition has it that the girl who pulls the ribbon with the ring on the end is the next one to get married. There were 24 pieces of ribbon in the cake and as fate would have it, the one with the ring on it was the last one to be pulled. Magic happens.