The Ceremony (Farrah)

My heart started pounding when we arrived at Stones of the Yarra Valley chapel. I always feared the idea of walking down the aisle and everyone’s eyes would be on me. Thankfully I wasn’t going to walk down on my own, dad was right by my side and I didn’t have to worry about tripping over.
I’m not a fan of tradition but there are a few things that I absolutely adore, I like the symbolism of dad giving me away. My parents both looked after me so well and were extremely generous and supportive throughout my whole life. It was so special to have dad stand next to me.


The music of Phil Wickham started to play, we chose the song Beautiful. It’s an amazing song which represents the beauty of God and his awesome creation. It always gives me goose bumps when I listen to it so you can imagine what it would have been like when I heard it play at the chapel…I was holding back my tears.

The girls walked into the chapel gracefully and dad and I followed along. Wayne’s face expression was precious, he was happy and I could see his eyes shimmering as he was also developing tears in his eyes. I had to look away because he would have made me cry, so I managed to look to my left and right to see all the guests and their big grins which I’ll never forget.
A lot of my married friends told me to take it all in, best advice ever given. To be able to remember everyone’s faces is quite priceless.

Dad and I stopped when we reached the first pew up the front and Wayne walked towards Dad to shake his hand and Dad said ‘Take care of her’ and I can’t remember what Wayne said exactly but he agreed of course and we had a bit of a giggle. He grabbed my hand and we walked to the front and he whispered ‘You are so beautiful’…He continuously repeated this throughout the whole ceremony, what a sweet heart. He looked so handsome!

When we started singing the hymns I got a bit overwhelmed. The lyrics to the songs meant a lot to me and at that moment I just felt that both Wayne and I were extremely blessed. I’ve done pretty well holding back my tears up to this stage but when I was singing I couldn’t help but sob and I pretty much balled my eyes out. I could see Wayne’s Mum and sister starting to cry too. One thing I didn’t even think about is tissues!!! I stood there sniffing for a bit after the song was over and lucky my aunty noticed and handed me over a tissue. It was a bit embarrassing! Thankfully my makeup was still intact though ;)

During the message we were distracted a little bit by my cheeky cousin, Mariam. She kept pulling faces at us and at one stage ran up and gave us a big cuddle. She kept asking us why we were getting married. I don’t know if many brides would have been upset if something like that happened to them. But for me it was special, she put a smile on our faces and it was so her, it’s definitely a story I’ll share on her 21st.


Ok I need to learn to stop writing essays so I’m going to go through the rest quickly.

Our vows were quite traditional, John originally didn’t want to compromise with the vows. We changed them a little bit, added a few lines and showed it to him and he was quite impressed.

I, Wayne, take you Farrah as my best friend to be my wedded wife,
To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish you as Christ loved the Church sacrificing Himself for it, to lead and share all of life's experiences with you with God’s guidance. That through His grace, Farrah, we may grow together into the likeness of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, 'till death do us part. And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.



I, Farrah, take you Wayne as my best friend to be my wedded husband,
To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish you, to submit myself unto you in all things, and to follow you through all of life's experiences with God’s guidance. That through His grace, Wayne, we may grow together into the likeness of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, 'till death do us part. And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.


We exchanged rings and we were announced husband and wife and I giggled and bounced up and down and all the guests laughed, I couldn’t believe we were husband and wife!!!!

We walked out to Walking on Sunshine – Katrina & the Waves because it’s one of the first songs that Wayne and I remember dancing to. Everyone threw petals at us; they were music sheets wrapped as cones filled with rose petals from my parent’s backyard.

The one annoying thing about the Stones is the FLIES!


We took a few photos but not as much as we wanted to because there was a wedding straight after and they kicked us out pretty quickly. I had to do the running bride shot through the vines and it was so much fun.

Next instalment will be about the reception :)