TIME was always going to be of the essence for Shannon Thomson’s big day.
The recent bride and her groom Brandon had always planned to get married a month ahead of the impending birth of their first child but border closures and COVID restrictions put their plans at risk.
After getting officially engaged in April, the couple quickly locked in the date of September 25.
“We started planning the wedding last year pre-emptively, as we knew that there would many things booked out already,” she said.
“We then found out we were expecting and after that restrictions saw things changing, opening and closing.”
The original wedding plan was to tie the knot at Trentham Estate in front of 60 of their nearest and dearest.
“Then earlier in the past school term they started closing the borders, which meant none of our guests could go over the border and we couldn’t go over to get married there as Victorians,” Mrs Thomson said.
“We were holding out and hoping we could get lucky.
“We held off waiting for the restrictions to lift and then they did lift for Victoria – with 10 guests – but it meant Brandon’s parents couldn’t come as they live in Gol Gol.
“We had locked in Tranquil Gardens in Red Cliffs but then six days out they had to cancel as it was at a residence.
“We began looking at other venues within Mildura but within an hour of that Dan Andrews made the announcement of the changes to the border bubble.”
It was then that the happy couple locked in Gol Gol Hotel for the ceremony and retained their reception booking at Andy’s Kitchen in Mildura.
“We are thankful to the Gol Gol Hotel to put it all together in just six days,” Mrs Thomson said.
“Andy (Andy’s Kitchen owner) was amazing, he was so organised, kept in contact every time there was a lockdown and different changes, he was really great.”
With some restrictions still in place, only friends and family from within the border bubble were able to attend.
“My sister, who was my maid of honour went above and beyond to help keep everything organised,” Mrs Thomson said.
“All of the rest of my bridal party was outside Mildura none of them could come and that was the same for Brandon with all his groomsmen in different states so his sister stepped in as best man.
“For those who couldn’t come, we streamed the wedding through Webex.”
With Mr and Mrs Thomson due to welcome their first born in late October, Mrs Thomson said they are incredibly glad to have been able to go ahead with their wedding.
“It was a relief that it all worked out, we had to pull it all together within the six days – it all worked out just in time,” she said.
“We didn’t have long to keep pushing it back and we figured it will be even harder with restrictions and a baby.”
Now that the wedding is out of the way, the couple are counting down the days until they become parents.
Current restrictions for weddings within Victoria see wedding ceremonies to take place with up to 10 people and marrying couple plus those necessary to conduct the wedding.
As for regional and rural NSW a maximum number of people who can attend is the lesser of 1 person per 4 square metres or 50 people.
At weddings, dancing is allowed for the bridal party only, which can be no more than 20 people.
