U N H O LY M AT R I M O N Y
NOT FORSAKEN A RITUAL UNION
P H O T O G R A P H Y W O R D S
Steph and Army have a way of communicating love that converges in a kind of esoteric dance. You only need to spend a few minutes looking through their wedding photos to recognise that when they are together, the rest of the world falls away. Steph describes the first moment she saw Army, almost a decade ago at Newtown Festival, as being a moment of recognition. After some wild times together and a misspent youth, these days they spend most of their time living quietly in the country with their dogs. They knew very early in their relationship that they had found in each other their long-haul partner. Talk of marriage was bandied about
A A RON SHU M
A N NIE MOLENA A R
in a casual manner and always discussed in terms of ‘when’ not ‘if’. Of course, they had to wait for the government to catch up to the equality movement before any of their dreams could come to fruition. But that didn’t stop Army from proposing. One day, while Steph was at work, a delivery arrived for her. It was a present from Army - a jar filled with origami stars. With it, she found instructions to open the jar and unfurl each star one-by-one. Inside one of the stars was written - ‘Will you marry me?’ Of course, the answer was ‘yes’ and they celebrated quite simply with a few drinks together. When it came time to put wedding plans in place, they knew exactly what they wanted to create - an intimate,
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relaxed, sit-down dinner with their nearest and dearest that felt much like any old time, only fancy. Locking in their dream team of suppliers proved to be fairly simple as they were already in agreement on a couple of big decisions. Both self-professed closet fans of ‘Housewives of Melbourne’, Steph and Army recall the episode when Gina Liano revealed she was becoming a Marriage Celebrant. They loved Gina in the show and both commented on how great it would be to have her marry them. The stars aligned and they were able to secure Gina for their big day. This was a huge highlight for them. They had previously discovered their venue, The Church House, while on a