Roisin and Rebecca: A Perfect Romance
It was a chance meeting in 2011 that lead to Roisin and Rebecca to start dating. Since then, their relationship has taken them around the globe, and now, back home to Perth, AUS, where these two beautiful souls celebrated their love surrounded by their family and friends.
Photographer Peggy Saas | Location Perth, AUS
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How and when did you meet?
Roisin: It was early 2011, we were both invited to a mutual friend’s birthday party.
Tell us a little about the first time you met?
Rebecca: I had a really bad cold and was pretty dull company; Roisin sat next to me outside and made me laugh for hours.
What was the first thing you noticed about each other?
Roisin: The first time we met, it was very platonic, but I knew after that party, somehow, this person would play a huge role in my life.
Rebecca: Definitely her sense of humour and her confidence, she was wise beyond her years (she was only 18 at that point).
“Marriage means a celebration of our love despite the challenges being in a same-sex relationship can pose to many people.”
Tell us about the standout moments in your relationship?
Rebecca: Moving to London together in 2015 was an incredible adventure. We love to travel; one of the best holidays was to the French alps. There was one day where there was brilliant blue sunshine, we found a restaurant miles down this snowy walk. We ordered fondue and a beautiful chardonnay and ate overlooking an incredible snowy mountain range, totally silent all around us. It was pretty magical.
Have you ever faced any issues of non-acceptance?
Roisin: We’ve always been fortunate to be surrounded by accepting family, and our friends are just sublime and a very mixed, inclusive group.
What does marriage mean to you?
Rebecca: Marriage means a celebration of our love despite the challenges being in a same-sex relationship can pose to many people – we have always had fun together, and been each other’s best friends, and to have that celebrated as totally joyous feels like a right to us.
Who proposed and how?
Rebecca: We’ve had quite an orthodox process – we were technically legally married in 2015, in London, to help me stay alongside Roisin on her Irish visa so we could remain in the UK together. It was a very small and fun-filled day, but we always knew we wanted to have our “proper” wedding day in front of all of our Australian family when we could.
When did you get married?
Roisin: November 20th 2019.
Roisin and Rebecca’s story continues below ↓
What was the main influence behind your wedding day?
Roisin: Luckily we’ve always very much been on the same page in terms of styles and the like – the main influence in some ways was the glorious setting of our venue, and the immense Australian sunshine – and the rest of the look fell into place. The venue has this incredible tree right where we said our vows, and it was a real centrepiece that spoke for itself.
What was the most important thing to you surrounding your wedding?
Rebecca: Having our closest friends and family there, many flying over from London, and throwing them a wonderful party with great food, booze and music.
Where did you find the bulk of your inspiration?
Roisin: Trawling through Instagram really helped us consolidate what we liked, we had a huge “Saved” folder with lots of inspiration from other peoples’ real weddings and from wedding companies - like Mr Theodore.
How did you choose your suppliers?
Rebecca: We didn’t have an abundance of suppliers, as we quite liked getting our hands on some of the décor ourselves and the venue was beautiful already and did exceptional food. The suppliers we did choose we mainly picked through social media, looking at the consistency of their quality and if they had the same sort of “vibes” we were after.
Any standout suppliers?
Roisin: We’re not even biased but our friend Petal Posse (Kristy Ann Rung) was our florist and we think she absolutely smashed it. She loves working with LGBTQI couples, and we basically told her to do whatever she thought would work best at the venue – we were stunned at what she managed to pull together.
Our photographer Peggy Saas was a genius. We fell super in love with her, and her work makes us cry even now. We had the pleasure of hanging out with Peggy after the wedding a few times – she’s fantastically warm and makes you feel right at ease.
Did you find it difficult to translate more common traditions into a ‘same-sex’ wedding?
Rebecca: We have quite a few same-sex couple friends, and had already attended weddings as part of the wedding parties that were really mixed in genders, so that part was never an issue. We had our closest friends beside us, and it was that simple. Walking down the aisle, I told Roisin she had to go first because she’s an actress so I knew she’d get less nervous standing in front of everyone alone!
Did you incorporate any family sentiment or into your ceremony?
Rebecca: We nodded to Roisin’s Irish heritage by having a Celtic hand tying ceremony rather than exchanging rings (we already had rings from our legal marriage in 2015) .
Any surprises on your wedding day? Or anything that didn’t go to plan?
Rebecca: The only thing that caused us to pause was when the DJ finished their set – we’d gotten so into the dancefloor we weren’t ready for the party to end – but our friend Alex hotwired the cash register behind the bar and somehow made it play Spotify through the speakers, so we all continued to dance until the venue staff were politely looking at their watches.
What was the most difficult thing about planning your wedding?
Roisin: Probably just the fact that we planned most of it from London, and then had the month beforehand in Perth to actually get everything into place. There were some late nights steaming linen tablecloths and laying gold leaf on candle holders, but it was also really enjoyable to have that hands on approach.
Where did you spend your honeymoon?
Rebecca: We didn’t! We’d just moved back to Perth and so we treated that time back in our hometown as our honeymoon after five years in London, spending plenty of time at Swanbourne beach and enjoying all of the sunshine and chilled out lifestyle we’d missed while we were gone.
Any advice for other couples planning their day and finding it difficult to navigate the journey?
Rebecca: Always come back to the basics of it – you’re there to celebrate your love and the people who have witnessed it. Everything else is just a bonus.
Suppliers
Photographer Peggy Saas
Videographer Canopy Films
Venue Upper Reach Winery
Dresses LUV Bridal and Grace Loves Lace
Flowers Petal Posse
Cake Made by our friend Heshan Fernando
Celebrant Kristy Wright
Catering Riverbrook Restaurant at Upper Reach Winery
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