NMJ Lovers | Sarah & Dave

For Sarah and Dave, they just knew it was meant to be. After six months of knowing each other, they bought a house together and the rest is history. With their combined love for the mountains, it just made sense to have an intimate elopement amongst the beautiful scenery of Thredbo. Their special day couldn't of gotten any more romantic, with snowflakes falling, their daughter being their only guest and endless breathtaking views of the Mountain Ranges. A moment we are so honoured to be a part of, one that captured all of our hearts here at NMJ.

 

Date: 13 September 2021

Location: Dead Horse Gap, Thredbo NSW

Photographer: With Love Weddings

Florist: Gather

Accommodation: The Eastern Thredbo Village

Celebrant: Ant Myers 

Dress: Wintery White Knit Dress - SIR the Label

Can you tell us a little bit about your love story? Where did it all begin?

We’ve been together for about four years. We had both moved to Byron Bay around the same time; myself originally from Melbourne, and Dave from Sydney. We first met at an art exhibition in town, then we bumped into each other from time to time. We hung out at the beach one evening, and that went well, so well that we moved in with each other about a month later. Once we were living together we released our strong passion and natural affection for each other and we knew we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. It was only Six months later that we bought a house together.  

 

Dave, tell us about the moment you realised Sarah was the one you wanted to spend the rest of your life with...

I realised this pretty early on. I knew that there was something special about her from the moment we met, but the first time we hung out by ourselves, we just clicked. We met up after work one day at the beach, for a quick ‘date’ (if you could call it that!), and ended up laying there just chatting through the evening, into the night. Next thing, it was well past midnight - time had flown! I was heading over to NZ for a little campervan trip a couple of weeks later, and we had been inseparable since the first date, so I invited Sarah. We survived (and actually enjoyed it!) a week with each other in a tiny Toyota Tarago - and that’s when I knew. I actually ended up proposing to Sarah at the Cape at Little Wategos beach, which is also where we had our first date.

I managed to sneak down to NMJ in Sydney the week leading up, and Sarah had no idea! I picked her up from work on a Friday afternoon, and we headed to the beach, longboards on the roof, which wasn’t exactly out of the ordinary. Little did Sarah know that I already knew the wind was howling and the surf was terrible, so I suggested we do a lighthouse walk. We walked up over the first hill and down the path to Little Wategos, and I dropped a knee. We had the area to ourselves, so that was special.

Where and when did you get married - tell us a little about your day?

We eloped along a beautiful trail up near Dead Horse Gap in the Snowy Mountains, with breathtaking views of the Mountain Ranges and Thredbo Valley, in Kosciusko National Park.

Dave and I both love the Mountains and thought it would be nice to elope in a location where we both admire. As we had originally planned the elopement during the middle of Winter, where we imaged it to be a white wedding especially with the crazy amount of snow they had falling in the valley. However, things didn’t go to plan due to lockdowns, so we had to push it back to Spring. On the morning of our elopement we woke up to a dusting of snow overnight. Little snowflakes that slowly continued to fall as we prepared for our big morning - it was beautiful.

As NSW had just come of lockdown it was a bit crazy to organise a hair and markup artist to pamper me on my special day. Which end up leaving me with touching up my own makeup and styling my hair in the morning, while Dave drank coffee and entertained our little daughter in our amazing cabin called the Eastern situated in the Thredbo Village. It wasn't long after that our photographer and assistant photographer arrived and took a few intimate images of us together and getting ready.

By 8 o’clock we were out the Cabin doors and buckled up in the car driving along the main road towards Dead Horse Gap, listening to our road trip playlist. The snowflakes were still falling, and it was cold, to say the least  (-3 degrees!). We meet our Celebrant and was accompanied by our photographer and assistant. It only became real once we were up on the mountain, face to face, holding hands (and our daughter!) while saying our vows. It truly was a very special moment, surrounded by nature.

Everyone was great, especially considering how uncertain everything was regarding rescheduling and so on. Monique at The Eastern (our accommodation) was amazing. Our Celebrant, Ant Myers, was so easy going, and on the day we could not have imagined anyone else doing a better job, it was perfect! Same goes for our photographer, Dom, from With Love Weddings. He was so good to deal with in the lead up, and on the day, it was just like having a good friend along to take photos!

 

What made you choose to have an intimate elopement in the mountains?

Dave and I both ideally never wanted to have a large big traditional wedding. We both talked about something smaller in our costal town where we live. We had been engaged for nearly a year and during the uncertain times of when would we ever have our families together. Dave and I both love the Mountains and thought it would be nice to elope down there.

Tell us about your NMJ rings, what did that process look like? What drew you to Natalie Marie for your wedding pieces? 

I had always loved and had my eye on NMJ  beautifully crafted pieces. Yet did I ever think Dave would surprise me with an engagement ring by NMJ that he secretly organised during a trip to Sydney for a conference.

Dave’s intentions were to propose to me in January and planned beautiful accommodation, however he could not wait any longer and decided to put his knee down on a beach walk. Not long after we made a trip to see Dave’s family in Sydney and dropped into the store to resize my ring. I adored seeing all the pieces in person and knew straight away that we were both going to choose our wedding bands. We even tried on the rings on and had the styles written down for the future.

To the lead up of our elopement as it was all a last minute, so we hadn't yet organised our wedding bands. We had amazing customer service over the phone and via email by the team at NMJ. We were so grateful and lucky that NMJ could get them to us on time!

What do your rings mean to you?

We believe our rings mean and hold more than just love, but hold a lifetime of friendship, sharing every day and every moment with another.

 

Sarah wears our beautiful Petite Precious Diamond Solitaire and Six Stone Queenie, whilst Dave wears our 4mm Classic Half Round Ring.