Chris and Fergus: A Mona Farm Wedding

Chris and Fergus’ story began as colleagues in different cities, slowly growing into something more over time. What started as friendship became a relationship shaped by honesty, curiosity and a strong connection between them. Thirteen years on, their wedding at Mona Farm was a celebration of not just their love, but the journey that led them there.

Photographer Viola and Vow | Location Mona Farm, NSW, Australia

How and when did you meet?

Chris: We first met almost 13 years ago, in 2013, when we both started working at the same company, me in Sydney and Fergus in Melbourne. At the time, Fergus was in a relationship, so for the next 4 years, we only knew each other as interstate colleagues, and we would occasionally catch up for after-work dinner and drinks when Fergus would travel up to the Sydney office.

Tell us a little about that first time you met…

Chris: I was down in Melbourne for a work trip, and I decided to stay over the weekend. We went for Friday work drinks with our colleagues, and when that wrapped, Ferg invited me out to Garden State to meet up with some of his mates. It was here that the night escalated, and after many, many drinks, I made a move on Fergus in the bathroom. Ferg was straight and had never been with a guy before, but I always found him attractive. I'm not sure how, but I worked up the courage to make a move. It didn't happen again that night, but it affected both of us.

Ferg: After that, we started dating, keeping it secret from my family and friends (and our colleagues!) as this was my first gay relationship, which was actually a lot of fun, staying in hotels and going on “risky” dates in public.

What was the first thing you noticed about each other?

Chris: I noticed his cute moustache and how he always wore nice, tight-fitting suits. He is a fit guy, and I like how he styled himself in an effortless kind of way. He had such a charming, genuine personality and was often drawn to him on nights out when we were just colleagues.

Ferg: Way back when we first met, I remember instantly really liking Chris. He was obviously very handsome and fit, but personality-wise was quite different to most of my other male friends at the time - in that he was more interested in pop music and Hollywood culture - compared to my friends who loved sports. I also noticed that he was someone who knew what he wanted and wasn’t shy about it - which is still true today, you always know where you stand with Chris, as he doesn’t mind telling you what he thinks, whether good or bad!

Tell us about the standout moments in your relationship…

Chris: We both love to travel and have been fortunate to go on some amazing trips to Europe, Asia and around Australia. I think the absolute highlights would probably be our two road-trips around Tasmania, going to India for a wedding and then Italy last year, which was Chris’s first time in Europe.

Also, buying our home 4 years ago after living at Ferg's dad's house during Covid and a shared house with friends before that. There was something about finally being able to live in our own place - we could be completely ourselves and be silly with no care for anyone else (though we love them!).

Have you ever faced any issues of non-acceptance?

Ferg: I am really fortunate that I haven’t really faced any issues of non-acceptance. I mentioned earlier that we kept our relationship secret for the first few months as I tried to navigate my new world of being gay, but once we started telling friends and family, I experienced nothing but full support, and everyone embraced Chris and our relationship completely - it probably helped that everyone loves Chris!

Chris: I grew up in a small country town and was often bullied for being "different". I wanted to hang out with the girls instead of with the boys, and joined the drama club instead of playing footy or doing woodwork and agriculture studies like the other boys did. I was called names and teased, but I tried not to pay attention to them. I navigated my own way through school, and eventually, when I moved to Sydney, it was like a whole new world; you could dress however you liked, be whoever you wanted to be, and I knew I was exactly where I was meant to be.

What does marriage mean to you?

Chris: Over the years, we did wonder if we would actually one day decide to get married - would it actually change our relationship, and was it actually necessary? But after going to so many weddings for other friends and family, it became clear to us that it is important to have all our closest people in the same place at the same time and to say this is who I love!

Marriage certifies that commitment you have to each other - through all the highs and lows, you will always be there for each other, no matter what.

Who proposed and how?

Ferg: On our second road trip around Tasmania, we were staying in Freycinet and decided we would go on a hike up to the top of Mount Amos, which has the most amazing views over the peninsula and Wineglass Bay. If you have ever done this hike before, you would know it’s really, really steep, but I did notice Chris seemed to be flying up the mountain. When we got there, we were so lucky, the sun came out, and no one else was around - I was taking photos and turned around to find Chris down on his knee holding a box. In the moment, I genuinely thought he was just joking around and that it was just a box of chocolates (I did not see this coming at all!) - it wasn’t until he started tearing up and opened the box with a Cartier love bracelet that it really hit me that this was all real. It’s hard to describe the feeling, the elation, it's just surreal, really.

When did you get married?

Ferg: After 8 years together, we got married at Mona Farm, in Braidwood, NSW. Chris went to high school in Braidwood, and it's just over an hour from Canberra. When we started looking at wedding venues, we immediately looked at Tasmania or country Victoria as our top choices, but when we stumbled on Mona Farm on Instagram, it looked like the perfect Venue. When we were up for Chris' family Christmas in 2024, we reached out to the team and asked for a tour of the property. They were closed for the Christmas break, but allowed us to come by and gave us a full tour of the farm and grounds. We were blown away by the property and knew it was the perfect location and fitting story for our wedding day. It was the first and only venue tour we did, as we knew it was the one.

What was the main influence behind your wedding day?

Chris and Ferg: We always knew we wanted to have a “wedding weekend” where all our closest people could travel to and stay for a weekend of celebrations. We love all weddings, but sometimes the wedding day can go by so fast that we wanted to make sure we could really immerse ourselves throughout the entire weekend.

Choosing Mona Farm meant we had accommodation on the farm for about 50 guests, and then we had another 50 guests in Braidwood town, which was only two minutes away.

We allocated all the Mona Farm accommodation to guests, trying to put families and friendship groups together. This was probably the wedding task we spent the most time on - and it ended up working out perfectly.

What was the most important thing to you surrounding your wedding?

Ferg: To be present and fully embrace the “weekend away” nature of the wedding. Mona Farm has a beautiful house reserved usually for the wedding couple, which was very private and away from the other houses, but we chose to put Chris’ parents in there, and instead we took a house right in the middle of the farm so that we were always part of the weekend, whether the formal festivities or the more relaxed moments. We didn't want to miss anything!

Did you incorporate any family sentiments or traditions?

Ferg:  Being a gay wedding, we were free to break a lot of traditional wedding rules.

The first decision we made was to ask my younger brother, Arie, to be our celebrant - we still had an authorised celebrant present at the ceremony who handled all the legal stuff - but the ceremony was officiated by Arie, it was really important to us to have someone who knew us intimately be the one to marry us.

During the ceremony, we had Chris’s sister, Courtney, and my Mum tell “our story”, which was a really emotional moment. Chris's brother handed us our rings, and we had our other two sisters part of our wedding party. Other close family members were either our witnesses or made speeches at the reception - we tried to include all our nearest and dearest throughout the course of the day.

We also decided to walk into the ceremony together, following our niece and nephew and our wedding party who walked in same-sex pairs - because why not have a bit of fun with it!

Where did you find the bulk of your inspiration?

Chris and Ferg: We read so many “Real Wedding” stories on Theodore and Mona Farm to pick up bits and pieces that we resonated with. Whilst we have been to a lot of weddings, this was our first gay wedding, so Theodore was a big inspiration, especially for knowing it is okay to not follow all wedding traditions and to make the day our own.

How did you choose your suppliers?

Chris and Ferg: Mona Farm came with an amazing wedding coordinator who provided us with a list of recommended creatives and suppliers. We reached out for quotes and chose our wedding team within a few short weeks. It was an easy process as Mona Farm runs such an easy, planning process. We didn't find it difficult being in another state, and used Zoom, calls and emails to liaise with the suppliers - it was incredibly fun and exciting planning our weekend.

What was the most difficult thing about planning your wedding?

Chris and Ferg: Overall, the entire planning process was so much fun, and our suppliers, along with Mona Farm,  made everything feel seamless and stress-free.

One of the bigger tasks we took on was allocating accommodation for all our family and friends. We wanted to make it easy for our guests, so instead of having everyone source their own accommodation, we organised group houses. There were about 6 houses on-site at the farm, and Mona Farm owns 4 guest houses in town, so there were lots of options for us to organise.

Fitting close to 100 people into the available houses while keeping everyone happy was definitely a challenge, but we eventually got the hang of it. In the end, it honestly felt like a school camp for the weekend. With most guests staying onsite, everyone was bunked down in their own houses or popping over to another for after-parties - it made the whole experience even more special and so much fun.

Where did you spend your honeymoon?

Chris and Ferg: Firstly, after all our guests left, we stayed one more night at Mona Farm. It was the best decision as we weren’t ready to move on from the high of the weekend, and it was a bit surreal walking around the farm, which was now empty apart from the animals. The wedding chef cooked us dinner and delivered it to our farmhouse, we read our wedding cards and had some more bubbles in the hot tub.

We then flew straight to Hayman Island (via a ferry from Hamilton Island) and had 6 days of resort, beach bliss. We booked a private pool, beach suite, where we drank more champagne, had cocktails by the resort pools and enjoyed the love bubble we were in. Each night we ate at a different restaurant or ordered room service - we needed to unwind and relax, and this was the perfect place to do that. The Island was full of honeymooners, old retired couples or mums on a girls' trip doing exactly the same thing. Everyone was relaxed, and we honestly didn't want to leave.

Any advice for other couples planning their day and finding it difficult to navigate the journey?

Chris and Ferg: Just to enjoy the experience of planning what will probably be the biggest party of your life together! We had so much fun working through all the details of the weekend and whilst planning took over our lives a little bit for a few months, it was so worth it in the end.

Set up a wedding spreadsheet early on - this quickly became our wedding bible. We used it for everything: to-do lists, budgets, supplier details, and more. Even though we ended up with far too many tabs, it was invaluable for keeping everything in one place and allowed us both to update and tweak details easily throughout our wedding weekend.

Chris and Ferg’s Team

Venue @monafarm_

Photographer @viola.and.vow

Videographer @motionreelfilms

Celebrant Fergus’ brother Arie (legals through My Celebrant Buddy)

Florals and Styling @piaandjade

Live Music and DJ @stellaire.ent

Trumpet @lachie.day

Catering @simonekascatering

Suits @belanceworld

Rings @hamish.munro

Engagement Bracelets @cartier

Makeup @zoemartinmakeup

Hair Beck’s Hair Braidwood

Transport Braidwood Buses

Cake @monafarm_

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