“Three weeks after we met, Matt presented me with two sealed envelopes. He said that he was going to hold onto one and I would hold onto the other, but I wasn’t allowed to open them yet and it was important that I opened them together at the right time.
A few months later, I was leaving for a four week holiday around Europe with a girlfriend and before I left Matt gave me a little rose and white gold key that he had made. (Have I mentioned that Matt is a jeweller by trade?) The key was on a gold chain that had belonged to his grandfather and Matt told me that I had to keep the key safe because it opened up something special.
About 12 months later, we were at home on our birthdays (we have the same birthday), and Matt gave me the sealed envelope that he’d kept safe for the last 18 months. He then asked me to get the envelope that I’d held onto (and not opened I swear!). Matt told me to open up my envelope first and inside was the sweetest love letter. Inside the second sealed envelope was a blank sheet of paper with some little holes cut into it. I put the blank page over the love letter and the words that came through were “Will you marry me?”
After I had cried and said yes, Matt then pulled out a wooden box that had a little silver padlock on it (also made by Matt). I took the little key that I’d been wearing for the last 12 months and opened the padlock. Inside was a jewellery box and inside the jewellery box was the most beautiful sapphire and diamond engagement ring that Matthew had made.
After the butterflies had settled in my stomach and the tears had stopped, Matt and I talked about why he’d chosen to propose with the sealed letters. Matt said that he wanted me to know without a doubt that he’d wanted to marry me from the very start – a lot of people say that they “knew”, but with the letters I’d have proof that Matt had known all along.”
“Instead of choosing just one flower girl, we made up ten little posies of baby’s breath and about 5 minutes before the ceremony started, the priest invited all of the little girls to be flower girls. It didn’t matter that they weren’t in matching dresses and I also wasn’t fussed if some of the little girls were too shy to join in! We ended up with seven little flower girls and they stole the show. And just as a side note, they were all really well behaved for the rest of the day because they had a special “role”.”
“On the day, we just loved our “first look” photo shoot before the ceremony – if you’re tossing up whether or not to have a “first look”, we’d highly recommend it! It’s such a busy day (and week!) that there aren’t too many opportunities for the two of you to just be together. The half an hour we spent together before the ceremony felt almost sacred – it was so special and really grounded us in amongst the craziness of the day.”
“Our wedding was a joint effort in every way. We made decisions together, played to our strengths, showcased our talents, communicated really well and used the experience of planning our wedding to really enhance our relationship. We took the time in the lead up to the wedding to have relationship counselling sessions which we both really enjoyed.”
“Matt is a jeweller by trade and he handmade my engagement ring and the wedding bands.“ 
“We met online! I had never tried online dating before, but one night I decided to have a look at what it was all about and stumbled across Matt’s profile while I was trawling through essentially having a window shop. His profile was charming and hilarious, and I decided I just had to meet this guy, so I made my own profile the very next day and got in touch. After a few days of fairly excited emailing and messaging, we met up for coffee and he was just as wonderful in real life. We’ve been together ever since.” 
