What started as a frantic day turned into a beautiful proposal and a fairytale ending for Essense of Australia bride, Lauren, and her husband, Dan. Mixing their two backgrounds perfectly, they were able to have the worldly-themed wedding of their dreams, and Lauren stunned in her wedding dress. Congratulations to the newlyweds!
From the bride:
THE PROPOSAL
Her Version:
Dan and I were leaving for our annual trip to England to visit his family and it turned into a crazy 24 hours! When I went to check us into our flight that morning, I was surprised to see it was cancelled! After frantically navigating the airline’s website, we were able to book the last two seats on a flight that would actually get us to Heathrow a couple of hours early. We rushed to the airport to make the earlier flight, boarded and had an easy trip over.
Once we landed, Dan picked up our rental car and we headed into London. About five minutes after we got into the city – BAM! A London cab rear ended our rental car, which ended up putting us way behind schedule. We then got lost trying to find the hotel. (Dan figured he could just ‘wing it’ without directions… typical guy!)
We were meant to do a little bit of sightseeing at the Tower of London that afternoon but with being so behind schedule we only got there 45 minutes before closing. We rushed through to see what we could and then decided it was time for dinner. After a stressful and rushed day we unwound over a glass of wine and some delicious curry in the cutest restaurant that Dan had booked. Once finished we headed to catch the Tube back to our hotel, but Dan passed the entrance. I pointed it out to him when he told me he had a surprise and pulled out a lock and key. I immediately realized where we were and what we were going to do.
The year before I had surprised him with a ‘love lock’ that we locked to the Millennium Bridge and threw the keys into the water. This time he surprised me so we could go back to look for our old lock and put a new one on. (They apparently cut them off frequently because our old one was not there, nor were many at all!) We scouted out where to put the lock – I was okay with pretty much anywhere, but Dan kept looking for the “perfect spot.” He also kept getting on his phone. At this point I figured the proposal was going to happen but I didn’t know if he was nervous and stalling or what! Finally he was happy with a spot so together we secured the lock and tossed the keys in the Thames. Next thing I knew he grabbed my hands, went into some perfectly romantic speech that is now just a blur, and got down on one knee to ask me to spend the rest of my life with him. It was the absolutely perfect moment and I was balling my eyes out! I soon found out the reason he was stalling was he had asked his friend Nick to be there to take pictures, however Nick had accidentally gone to the wrong bridge! Thankfully he sprinted over and was able to capture everything for us! It may have started out as a bit of a stressful trip, but I wouldn’t change a thing!
His Version:
The two weeks leading up to our trip to England were two of the most stressful weeks of my life. I had the day planned of when I would propose, yet I was unsure if the ring would be ready in time. Thankfully I received the ring a couple days prior to departure and we were all set to have the best vacation of our lives. I was a nervous wreck at the airport as I had to get the ring through security. I feared the worst that my bag would get searched and my proposal would be ruined (I was gearing up to just propose there and then). I hid the ring at the bottom of my backpack but placed it in a spot where I could feel it from the outside. I figured Lauren must have known something was up as I was constantly groping my bag and never let go of it for the entire journey. Anyway, the ring and I (and Lauren :P) made it to London with no troubles. So far, so good.. Our morning in London was great. We were quick through customs, picked up the rental with ease and before I knew it, I was driving on the right side (the left) of the road again –
I was glad to be home. Our day was only going to get better… or so I thought.
Our entire afternoon was spent on the hectic roads of inner city London as I might have forgotten to get directions to the hotel. And then… a London Cabbie drove straight into the back of us. Not only were we lost but we had been in a car accident too. This day was turning out to be terrible. At this point, I wasn’t sure I was going to propose – It might have been easier at the airport. We finally made it to the hotel (a tad later than we had planned). I had teased Lauren by saying we were staying at a Premier Inn (equivalent to like a Motel 6) but it turned out to be The Blakemore Hyde Hotel – This was surprise number one of the day, if only Lauren knew what other surprises were in store. The hotel was amazing and the room was great.
Because we wasted most of our afternoon finding the hotel, we had little time to spend at the Tower of
London which was something I really wanted to check out. We took the train back to the hotel and then it started to rain. I couldn’t believe it.. not ideal for my outdoor proposal. When we got in we started to get ready for our romantic meal at an Indian restaurant I had booked – Surprise number two! Lauren started to question me as I wore some of my better clothes. It was supposed to be a casual evening! I started to think I was giving too much away but I continued on and we had a great dinner. Luckily the rain had stopped! It was time to head home and take the underground back to our hotel. Not quite.. I pulled Lauren’s hand past the entrance to the tube station and drug her to the Millennium Bridge. Since this was where we did our first lovelock, I thought it would be nice to recreate the moment and add our latest one onto the bridge – Surprise number three. We locked the lock and threw away the keys into the river below. Unbeknownst to Lauren, my friend Nick had arrived just in time to capture the moment on camera (he was due to arrive earlier but decided to wait on the wrong bridge). This was my cue. Everything was in place and out of nowhere, I started talking, got down on one knee and asked my best friend to marry me – Lauren said YES!!! The setting was perfect and I couldn’t have wished for a better proposal. The whole day’s worth of events made for a great story.
I was born and raised in Fort Worth however my husband is from England, so we did a hint of what I like to call a “worldly affair” theme. I wanted my wedding to be timeless and classic though, so I tried to only pull in small touches of the theme here and there – just enough to make our day unique and personal to us our and our guests. With guests invited from six different countries, making sure all of our friends and family from across the globe felt at home in Texas was important to us. With that, we made sure to stay true to our roots and give a big Texas welcome to all of our guests as well as incorporate plenty of English details into the entire weekend. From Texas and England shaped cookies in the hotel welcome bags, to cocktail hour hor d’oeuvres local to both regions, to a globe that served as our guestbook, to Texan and England mini flags to wave with the sparklers at our reception send off, we included details from both of our cultures while making sure we kept a very classy and traditional feel on the wedding day.
When I think back to the wedding day it truly is such a blur. The moment that I think sums up the day for me is when Dan and I had our private sweetheart dance before our sparkler exit. I just remember being wrapped in Dan’s arms and I started crying because I was just so happy. It was love and joy in their purest form. That is a moment that I will never forget.
Photography by Jessica Gold