While the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact every aspect of life as we know it, one loved up pair from Vasse in South West WA refused to let the strict public gathering restrictions get in the way of their special day.
Suzanne Lewin met her beau Steve in Margaret River in 2017, while she was grape picking through the region to obtain her extended working holiday visa and Steve was supervising the picking group.
Love soon blossomed for the pair, and Scotland-born Suzanne decided her heart belonged in Australia.
"Steve proposed to me in May of 2018 on the pad of the house we were building, and the rest is history," Mrs Lewin told the Mail this week.
The pair originally planned to hold a rainbow-hued wedding in their colourful backyard, with around 20 guests including family flying in from Scotland.
They also intended to make good use of the huge range of wedding services available in the South West, a region popular for destination weddings prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.
"My dress, hair and makeup and photography were all being provided by local businesses, and we had a local meat smoking business providing food," Mrs Lewin said.
"We had painted up all of our chairs in rainbow colours and bought rainbow decorations and streamers.
"We were then going to fly to Japan for our long-awaited honeymoon."
Despite their best laid plans, disaster soon struck and the pair were forced to reassess their wedding day dreams.
"When the travel restrictions came into place it became clear my family wouldn't be able to make it from Scotland.
"That was devastating since I haven't seen them for four years and most of them have never had the chance to meet Steve in person.
"The discussion was had to postpone completely but the date we booked in was special as it's the anniversary of our first date and our family all agreed we should go ahead."
Social distancing rules further restricted the couple's plans.
"We were only allowed our celebrant and two witnesses so we organised two of our colleagues to be here, so as not to alienate anyone in the family. Our celebrant Jennifer Burrows is also a beloved colleague of ours."
While the Lewins kept the nuptials in the backyard, they chose to keep some elements of the big day aside for a later celebration.
"We chose completely different outfits to keep it separate from our future 'wedding'," said Mrs Lewin.
"I did my own make up and we had our witnesses take photos and videos which we shared on a facebook group message with all of our guests that couldn't be there.
"At this stage we have moved the 'wedding' to October although this may change to our one year wedding anniversary depending on travel restrictions," she said.
"All of our vendors locally have been fantastic and allowed us to move our dates no problem so our hope is to go ahead with the previous plans, just on a different date.
"We can't wait to finally celebrate with all of our loved ones in person and finally get to see Japan.
"It was definitely not the day we had imagined but we still had a lovely day and we consider ourselves lucky to be happy and healthy."
Nicky Lefebvre
I am a journalist, photographer and content creator based in the beautiful Margaret River wine region, covering all aspects of our community including local news, sport, entertainment and events, as well as providing a platform for our readers to share their voices direct from regional Australia.
I am a journalist, photographer and content creator based in the beautiful Margaret River wine region, covering all aspects of our community including local news, sport, entertainment and events, as well as providing a platform for our readers to share their voices direct from regional Australia.
