Alexander Ross and Nicholas Ross from Same-sex wedding directory Mr Theodore legally get married at Entrecote in South Yarra. Photos by Olivia and Thyme.

"We gathered on a Sunday afternoon with four of our closest family members on the balcony of Entrecote in South Yarra to legally say 'I Do'."

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It was a whirlwind of a year last year for the LGBTQI community in Australia with the marriage equality postal survey. Both sides of the debate argued their points, and it became an excruciatingly painful time. However, this all came to an end with a massive victory for the LGBTQI community, and Australia finally changing their laws to allow same-sex couples to MARRY.

We already celebrated our wedding back in November of 2016. After years of waiting, we decided to proceed with planning, somewhat hoping that by the time our wedding day arrived the law would have changed. This, however, wasn't the case, but we decided to celebrate our relationship anyway, resulting in a wedding that we hope inspired many within the community, and brought more recognition and understanding to same-sex marriage.

Looking back now, I think we were the lucky ones... why? Because we got to have two weddings, and for someone that loves a wedding, this was great for me.

Not long after the law changed, we sat down with our original celebrant Rita Cohann and started planning wedding no. 2. We had initially decided to throw another large party, but not long into the planning we thought 'why?', why not use our second wedding as one where we could focus on the moment without all the worry of wedding planning.

After spending the night at The Westin hotel in Melbourne's CBD, we gathered on a Sunday afternoon on the 18th of February with four of our closest family on the balcony of Entrecote in South Yarra to legally say our 'I Do's'.

Capturing every precious moment was admired photographer Liv from Oliva and Thyme, and we decided to incorporate blooms and a bouquet from Bloom Boy.

Once the ceremony had concluded, we moved downstairs to enjoy a family dinner in the restaurant, before heading home as a legally married Husband and Husband.

From the bottom of our hearts, we a so thankful to those Australian people that voted 'YES', that took the time to think about the needs of our community and supported us.

Words: Alexander Ross - aka Mr Theodore

Photography Olivia&Thyme | Flowers Bloom Boy