Story
Our story has been one of laughs, tears, hurts, helps, comfort, care, fun, occasional panic and existential dread, but most importantly one of love. The downs were caused to us but we have stuck together and we have been each other's home, rock and light. We can't wait for this wedding to mark, with a new celebratory memory, the next stage in our lives! We have been through a lot and we have endured a lot, but we have always had each other and, of course, have had Scout and Boo. Our girls.
Tidbits
How did you first meet?
After a month of chatting on and off, the romantic Josh took Elysse to....
... Soda Factory in Surry Hills haha!
Whoever said love couldn't blossom from dive bars, cheap Gin & Tonics (that Josh spilt all over himself) and live music was clearly wrong!
Who made the first move? How?
We both swiped right on each other (on Bumble AND Tinder no less)!
Elysse remembers Josh's profile talking about "starting a revolution - Les Mis style", wanting to camp under the stars at Uluru, and the fact he is pescetarian - which she all liked as she thought he was a bit nerdy/silly and must be like-minded if he was pescetarian.
Josh remembers Elysse's profile having a lovely picture of her smile.
Elysse started chatting to Josh, but wasn't sure whether she wanted to be on the dating apps so ghosted him for 2 weeks... when she got back on the apps she tried to slide back into his DMs with a lame message about how she had been busy "fighting the revolution" and apologised for going silent. Clearly we are both as lame as each other!
What was your most memorable date?
Before Josh asked Elysse to be boyfriend/girlfriend, he invited her to his first concert at the Sydney Opera House. It was to see Jónsi & Alex (Jónsi is the lead singer/guitarist from the band Sigur Rós and Alex is his partner) perform their album Riceboy Sleeps (one of Josh's favourite albums) as part of Vivid Sydney. He bought Elysse chocolates from Guylian (good move) and it was the first time he was in a suit. Josh was super excited as this was and remains the only time this album has ever been performed live!
For whatever random reason, Buffy the Vampire Slayer came up in conversation later that night and Josh started singing Spike's solo from the musical episode with no prompt from Elysse. For those who did not know 13-year-old Elysse, she was OBSESSED with Buffy. And even though Elysse wanted to appear quite emo, her pirated CD of the Buffy Musical Episode was perhaps her most played CD in her collection on her little Discman during 2003-2004. So hearing Josh sing this, however off-key, was like a serenade to Elysse's inner teen!
What's your favorite activity together?
Watching movies on the couch with our cats or reading/chilling at the beach (the latter we haven't been able to do as much due to our injuries from the crash, but we are trying to recover and get back on the sand and in the surf!).
What's the best meal you have eaten together?
Josh's infamous Byron friend-mas roast dinner! 18 people, 22 hours of cooking, every diet catered for and a classic Christmas dinner that nailed it!
We’re on the same page about
Pescetarian-ism. Cats. Politics. Needing art/creativity/culture in our lives. Helping each of us to fulfil our passion and goals in life (even if that goal is just making it to 5,000 steps that day!)
A life goal of ours
We would love to get healthier, even if we never get back to what we were pre-crash, but we'd love to travel again to places in Southeast East Asia and, our absolute dream holiday, to visit Japan: Tokyo, Kyoto, and we would then just get lost in a Shinto inspired Studio Ghibli drawn, pokemon capturing, magical world!
Also to get a house, that we can fill with joy and little ones (two little furry ones and then who knows...)
Our wishing well is set-up so we can kindly ask our cherished guests to put a donation towards these goals!
The dorkiest thing about us is
How obsessive we both get over TV shows/movies/pop culture Barbenheimer anyone! (We both love many of the same things Pokemon, Simpsons, New Girl, Schitt's Creek, Taylor Swift, Bob Marley, Studio Ghibli, LOTR, beaches, rock pools, & cocktails at the Ritz cinema!)
A social cause we care about
Social Justice, LGBT+ rights, Disability rights, Indigenous rights and Blak Lives Matter, Road Safety, PTSD survivors and Mental health awareness.
We are regulars at
- Dolce Fiori by Deli de Luca, with Mario (the owner) and a Martini!
- Ritz Cinema, a drink on the sunny balcony before seeing a film!
- live music/theatre/plays
We take pride in
- the silly little made-up songs we sing to the cats and the 300 billion photos we have of them doing absolutely nothing at all (but looking like goddesses)
- the ability to make each other laugh
- each other's creative pursuits
- smashing the patriarchy
- swifties
-inclusivity, being allies of LGBT+ rights
- being geeks in general, for we are keepers of the Secret Fire
- standing up for what we think is right
- our values
How did Josh propose?
The story is best told through the NT News... although it is usually a paper focussed on crocs, it still amazes us that our proposal was front-page news!
The articles are here: bit.ly/NT-News-engagement-story