Crisha, Carston and post-pandemic wedding plans
Chrisha and Carston had wonderful wedding day plans. Set to marry in front of their loved ones in May, like many – the pair was suddenly faced with the reality of COVID-19 forcing their hand and changing the direction of their dream day.
This divine duo realised that being married is what was of most importance to them, and they have since formalised their union and made it official, with a special party to celebrate their marriage – wedding day v2 – now waiting in the wings.
Thankfully, Chrisha and Carston had some time to get in front of the camera with their wonderful photographer Ali Bailey, right before the chaos of 2020 hit, and the results – they’re positively breathtaking.
We wanted to hear from them how the past few months have unfolded, what it was like to change their wedding dream in light of COVID-19 and why their pre-wedding couple’s shoot with Ali was such an enjoyable experience.
Congratulations on your engagement Chrisha and Carsten, tell us, how did the two of you meet?
We met while leading together on a Christian Youth Camp in 2015. Chrisha was instantly attracted to Carsten’s caring nature and the way all the kids adored him, however definitely thought he was too cool for her! But a few deep conversations later, Carsten asked Chrisha out on their first date, picked her up on her doorstep, vulnerably shared his testimony and the rest was history!
And your proposal story, how did it all unfold?
From Carsten’s point of view: Chrisha and I had spoken numerous times about getting married and knew that we wanted her to finish her university studies before I proposed! Her double degree seemed to go on forever, however we waited and it just so happened that right after her last semester we had a trip planned to NZ to go skiing with some close friends. This seemed to be the perfect opportunity to get down on one knee in such a beautiful country! Chrisha had not so subtly mentioned that her dream was to get engaged in NZ, so it all seemed too good to be true! Chrisha knew that we were visiting the Onsen Hot Pools on our anniversary but little did she know that the day was going to become a whole lot more special! Before we were taken to our hot pool I snuck away, and as Chrisha opened the door to our hot pool I was down on one knee and asked her to marry me.
We know that you had wonderful wedding day plans – tell us when and where your celebration was to take place.
Our wedding was originally going to be held on the 2nd of May with the ceremony at a church in Geelong followed by a reception at the beautiful Provenance Wines in Fyansford.
At what point did you make the difficult decision to reschedule your plans?
Early in March the restrictions around large gatherings started to tighten and that was the first time we got nerves that maybe our dream day wasn’t going to be able to happen as we had planned. We first thought that we would postpone the reception and still get married in an intimate ceremony on the beach, however within a few days of making that new plan the government tightened wedding gathering sizes once again to only allow five people. At this point we had to make the decision whether to still go ahead with getting married or postpone the entire thing.
How did you go about changing your date?/What does wedding v2 look like now?
To us, the most important part of our original wedding celebration was the getting married part, not just the celebration, and we did not want to delay that. Without knowing how much worse the COVID-19 lockdown situations were going to get, we brought forward our wedding to the 28th of March and got married with two witnesses and our pastor in a beautiful park on Mount Dandenong! In the midst of so much change and uncertainty about our wedding, we were blessed with such beautiful weather when we said ‘I do!’.
After our two night honeymoon (thanks Covid-19), we set about rescheduling our reception celebration, accompanied by many tears. It was really hard to have to undo and redo so much of our planning within a few days, and we know there is still a lot more re-planning we have to do, but we are very fortunate to have been able to find a date next year which worked for majority of our vendors. Our current v2 plan is a renewal of vows and wedding reception on the 1st of May 2021, but we are still figuring out some of the finer details and waiting to see exactly how Covid-19 restrictions unfold! We are still yet to wear our wedding dress and wedding suit so we’re excited for whatever v2 looks like!
Any advice for other couples who are facing changes to their wedding day plans?
At the end of the day, the most important thing about a wedding is two people making a commitment to each other, so even if all the pretty florals and stunning details of the wedding have to change, it’s so important to remember the reason you are doing all of this. No matter how much time and effort you have put into planning something, we just don’t have control over everything, so hold onto each other and make that your priority.
Thankfully you had some special time with your amazing photographer, Ali before all of this took place – tell us about your pre-wedding shoot.
Isn’t Ali amazing!? We fell in love with her style when we saw her on Ivory Tribe and instantly felt comfortable after meeting her over a drink one evening after work. We love any opportunity to dress up together, and find photos a really special way to capture unforgettable moments. Ali had a special spot in Flinders (Cairn Beach) that she had wanted to shoot at for awhile and we were up for an adventure. If you know Chrisha, she loves to talk, and the pre-wedding shoot was no different, with Chrisha happily yapping away to Ali while Ali captured some beautiful shots!
Did spending some time in front of the camera ease your minds about wedding day photography, and did you walk away filled with excitement?
We have never really felt camera shy, but having a pre-wedding shoot definitely made us feel more excited about our wedding day and the incredible shots we know Ali will capture! We’ve even already talked about Ali doing our pregnancy shoot .. not any time soon though!!
If you’re in the throes of wedding planning and not quite sure how to go about securing your dream team – let us give you a hand. Lock in The Love is all about finding your favourite vendors and locking them in before the post-pandemic flurry of wedding bookings take place. Click here for more.
