A WEDDING FEATURE WITH
68 KEEPING IT REAL Mary Schlegel and Dallas Sanchez’s love grew at a distance. 74 FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE Helen and Harry Christian married 69 years ago and are still madly in love. 76 TO HAVE AND TO HOLD Fashionable, musthave products for the loved up. 78 MAGIC MAKER Sandi Shankster creates beautiful floral arrangements through her business Willow Bud.
IMAGE COURTESY OF KATJA ANTON, AKAWEDDINGS.COM.AU
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WINTER ’15
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KEEPING IT REAL
LONG-DISTANCE WORDS ALEX FYNES-CLINTON
Mary-Rose Schlegel & Dallas Sanchez 24 November 2014
IMAGES COURTESY MELANIE MCNIVEN MELANIEMCNIVEN.COM
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Love
DESPITE LIVING IN A TIME where the world has never been better connected – with online dating, Skype and cheap long-distance phone calls – long-distance relationships are still achingly difficult. In some ways, this makes the love story of Mary Schlegel and Dallas Sanchez all the more special. The newlyweds, 21 and 22 years old respectively, have defied the odds to make their romance work from afar. Dallas is away for months at a time in his role with the Royal Australian Navy, but the two say they spend more time communicating than some couples who live together. “I think in the one-year timeframe from when we got engaged to when we got married we saw each other around five times in person,” Mary says. “He’s an electronic warfare operator, so his role is to communicate with other boats and decipher whether they are friendly or hostile. “But we’re on the phone practically 24/7 – just ask my mum. If we’re not on the phone we’re talking on Facebook. Pretty much the only time we’re not in touch is if we’re sleeping or working. When he doesn’t get leave, he’s back for a weekend every month or so, but it has been up to five months before.” Though the distance would be unbearable for most, these two share a rare connection. Take their first date for instance: For most, Marvel’s Avengers are the crime-fighting foursome that smite evil and break box office records. For Mary and Dallas, the brawny heroes are more cupids than caped crusaders. A screening of the billion-dollar blockbuster was Mary and Dallas’s first date – and they found a common passion for video games, anime and pop culture. “I was at uni talking to one of my friends and he randomly approached us and inserted himself in the conversation,” Mary says. “At first I was like ‘who the heck is this!’, but we soon began chatting about our common interests. Unfortunately my friend >
WEDDING DAY ROLL CALL RECEPTION & CATERING Sunshine Coast Function Centre, 19 West Terrace, Caloundra. 5438 5800 or sunshinecoastfunctioncentre.com.au DRESS Elizabeth’s Bridal Palace, Maroochydore elizabethsbridalpalace.com FLORIST Buderim Florist buderimflorist.com.au CAKE Ideas in Icing ideasinicing.com.au HAIR Rolling Scissors, Maroochydore rollingscissors.com.au MAKEUP Ruby Jade Make-up Artistry rubyjade.com.au TABLE DECORATION Mask Events maskevents.com.au
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Family owned and operated by Anthony and Aletta Lauriston 11 H A R RY ’ S L A NE BUD E R I M ( O F F L I N D SAY ROAD)
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www.harrysonbuderim.com
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ended up getting cut out of the conversation completely and Dallas and I talked for two hours straight. “I think I explained it to my mum best on the first night I met Dallas. I came home yelling ‘Mum! Mum! I’ve met my soul mate’. Dallas went home and called his dad and told him he’d met his dream girl.” After a period of courtship – Mary made Dallas wait three dates until they shared their first kiss – and a year of whirlwind romance, the pair became engaged. Dallas proposed on Coffs Harbour Bridge, with Mary excitedly accepting. Through the next year, with face-to-face time limited, Mary organised the wedding of their dreams. But unlike their somewhat quirky shared interests, their ceremony was decidedly more traditional. “We were married at Our Lady of the Rosary church in Caloundra and our reception was at the Sunshine Coast Function Centre,” she says. “I planned it all in the year leading up. I had the scrapbook. The venue was amazing, the food was >
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ABOUT THE VENUE The Sunshine Coast Function Centre in Caloundra is elegant and versatile. The venue features high ceilings, gorgeous lighting, an array of screens to display photos or video and can accommodate small or large weddings. There’s space to accommodate a live band or DJ, a bridal room and a range of gourmet food packages available. The centre is located close to beaches and other popular local ceremony venues. Perhaps best of all, Mary says the staff before and during her big day made a huge difference to her state of mind. “All of the services recommended were amazing. For almost all of them we’d meet the first supplier recommended, book it and move onto the next one,” she says.
PLAYLISTS Welcoming Song Pachelbel – Canon in D Bridal Procession Bryan Adams – (Everything I Do) I Do It For You Signing of Register Schubert – Ave Maria Recessional Mendelssohn – The Wedding March Reception Rockin U Wild rockinuwild.com.au
Secrets on the Lake
Weddings - Receptions - Honeymoons - Accommodation Ph 5478 5888 www.secretsonthelake.com.au Montville 74
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great, we’d organised a photo booth which people loved, the speeches went well and people got plenty of dance time in. It was a great mix. The function centre staff were fantastic.” With the wedding behind them, Mary and Dallas’s long-distance relationship continues. As long as smart phones continue to exist, there is no doubt their love will continue to flourish. “He lives in Sydney on a base, so I can’t live with him at the moment,” Mary says. “We have to get approved by the navy to be able to live as a married couple, which will take time due to our age and how recently we got married. Eventually he’ll try to move up to the Brisbane base or I will continue flying down. We’ll make it work.” For more information on the Sunshine Coast Function Centre, visit sunshinecoastfunctioncentre.com.au
FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE
Love and War WORDS AND PHOTOS CLAIRE PLUSH
IT WAS 1946, and the bloodshed that marked World War II had come to a close. Troops from all over the world were waiting to be demobbed after six years of intense battle. But like any good story, the end is actually where the tale really begins, for two people at least. Helen Macgill was 21 years old when she joined the Royal Air Force. Born in Northern Ireland, when the bombing began over Belfast her father packed up the family and relocated them to their holiday house by the sea to get away from the action. “It was a little one-horse town, lovely for a holiday but to think I might get stuck right there, I thought ‘no, not for me’,” she says. She signed up to the RAF as a member of WAAF and became attached to a Spitfire squadron as a driver.
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“It was a great experience, although at times it was frightening,” she says. Staying until the end of the war, Helen was then posted to the Kenley RAF base in the United Kingdom to be demobbed. It wouldn’t be too long afterwards that she would cross paths with a handsome Bomber Command navigator from Liverpool, Harry Christian. “One day I got asked to go and pick up an airman from the station,” she says. “But instead this somebody wasn’t there and had decided he was going to walk. It was a steep hill back up to the airfield and on my way this person was walking up it and I just waved. I thought, ‘well I won’t stop because I’m on a hill and this old car is hard to start again’.” And so she kept driving.
Harry, who had just completed his tour over Germany, was not impressed. “Fortunately, I didn’t have much to carry but I was still pretty annoyed that this little girl went floating past when she saw me,” he says. “When I finally got to where I needed to be, I said to the guy in the guardroom, ‘what’s the name of the driver of the truck? She saw me walking and just drove past’.” By then, Helen had gone off duty for the night but would return the following day where Harry planned to confront her. “But when I saw her, I thought I can’t be cross at this poor lovely girl,” he says. “So instead of yelling at her, I fell in love with her.” This was 69 years ago. Today, 94-year-old Harry and 96-year-old Helen are the epitome of a long-lasting love. He still laughs at all her jokes and looks at her with a special sparkle in his eye, and she is still as cheeky as ever, calling Harry her “toyboy” and playfully slapping his knee while recounting old stories. Looking at them, it’s not hard to imagine these two as young lovers. Within a year of their first meeting, Harry proposed and the pair was married at a registry office. With the war over, they resided in London for the next four years before deciding it was time to move on. “It was a question of do we want to stay in England where there was rationing and things were pretty depressing, or do we want to go somewhere else and start again,” Harry says. Their ticket to the next decade came in the newspaper one day, in the shape of a job advertisement for a structural designer in South Africa. Living just outside of Johannesburg for five years and then moving to Durban, Helen raised their two young children while Harry worked. “It was a good life out there,” Helen says. But after 10 years they made the decision to relocate once again, first to Melbourne, and then to the Sunshine Coast in 1974 once the children had finished school. Creative, driven and community-minded, in the years that would follow the couple would build and run a small collection of holiday units, start the Peregian Beach Carols by Candlelight, create a theatre group in the basement of the Peregian Beach Bowls Club, and build and open the Clayden Pottery Studio in Coolum. Now, living across from the Mt Coolum Golf Club – a move that Harry jokingly says was to save the petrol money driving to and from Helen’s rounds of golf – the pair finds enjoyment in the little things and reminiscing about their lives well-lived. What started as a fast burning leap into love has eased into a steady flowing river of companionship that only strengthens with the twists and bends of time. “He’s always so considerate,” Helen says. “It’s always me first, no matter what it is.” With a love that spans decades, there must be a secret to their marriage? “Patience,” Harry says. “I think it’s the ability to recognise that you’re just human. Some things will go wrong but don’t take too long getting over them.” “We’ve been through a lot together, but I love him still,” Helen says. So, what’s kept Harry in love all these years? “Well, just look at her.”
TO HAVE AND TO HOLD
LOVE ON THE LAKE Do we even have winter living on the Sunshine Coast? Pristine blue seas reflecting crystal clear skies. And what better way to reflect your love than overlooking the stunning water at Secrets on the Lake. Tucked behind Montville’s lush hinterland, capture your big day in a garden blossoming with utter romance. With love swings, beautiful carvings, plush lawns, rock pools, timber jetty and antique-style boathouse, your wedding album will be full of love! secretsonthelake.com.au
E TO HAV AND TO HOLD
Photo Glass Slipper Photography
What’s a future bride to do when she can’t find her dream dress? Warning: expect tears and tantrums. Not for Carla Jenkins. When the love of her life proposed two years ago, finding that perfect gown (for a reasonable price) didn’t quite have that fairy-tale ending. So she created her own ending and turned her desire into, well, a designer. That’s right, she’s now the owner and head designer of Made With Love: an online bridal boutique selling beautiful and affordable dresses. Like this absolute stunner Carla herself wore on her one-year wedding anniversary photo shoot. The champagne underlay gives it that warm, wintery glow. And those long sleeves running off the shoulder create such a romantic neckline. Nothing this beautiful could be made without love. Pure love. madewithlovebridal.com
Here’s our pick of fashionable, must-haves for that loved up occasion. WORDS LAYNE WHITBURN
IN WITH BOTH FEET
PERFECT TRANQUILITY
Photo Anastasia Kariofyllidis
Who said having a shoe fetish was solely a lady trait? If your man hasn’t discovered the obsession yet, get his toes into a pair from Feit Direct. And let the Feit fetish begin. The luxury footwear is handmade for maximum quality and oozes that gentleman charm. And what’s better than one pair? Two. With a super classic-cool women’s range, why not go for a cute Mr and Mrs matching look? Take the reception downstairs from heels to comfy flats. Your toes will thank you. feitdirect.com
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Look like a princess in your wedding dress? Feel it too. Surround yourself in utter romance at Spicers Tamarind’s day spa, Spa Anise. The exclusive on site spa is a breathtaking venue in tranquil surroundings giving you the ultimate pamper treatment, fit for a princess. Or prince. Spicers individually tailored packages are designed to suit the groom’s needs too. Just as well as the future Mr and Mrs suit each other. So whether it’s a romantic retreat for the newlyweds, or a pre-wedding pamper and polish with Issada Bridal Makeup, don’t just look amazing, feel it too. spicersretreats.com/spicerstamarind-retreat
This custom made piece from Maleny Jewellers owner Jim Goulton is a true gem. Featuring a Peridot stone framed by 18ct yellow gold and 9ct white gold pieces, it’s one of a kind. Not your kind of style? Check out Maleny Jewellers’ unique range of diamond engagement rings and wedding bands for the bride and groom. No two diamonds are identical, so you’re bound to find that unique band to fit your finger. malenyjewellers.com.au
Photo Le One Photography
Photo Maz Photo
ALL HAIL THE PHARAOH
The reception is for letting your hair down and popping the champagne. But first, get those locks photo-ready by the team at Strut Hair. (And yes, you can sneak in a champagne breakfast to kick-start the celebrations.) Bring the stylist team to you, or meet the bridal party at the salon. A beautician is also available for makeup and pre-wedding skin care treatments. So wake up blemish and stress free. struthair.com.au
Save the date and save the planet in style. Pencil and Pine’s wedding invitations are just the way Mother Nature intended: beautiful. Printed on recyclable card, real wood or plantable seed paper. Yes, plantable invitations! Guests growing their own flowers from your invite? Stunning! pencilandpine.com.au
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MAGIC MAKER
BEAUTY BY THE BUNCH WORDS ALEX FYNES-CLINTON PHOTOS ANASTASIA KARIOFYLLIDIS
TUCKED QUAINTLY AMONG the lush, rolling hills of Woombye, Sandi Shankster’s Willow Bud home studio is a boundless hive of activity.
“I think flowers should look natural. I try to make my bouquets portray that – like they were picked out of Granny’s garden.”
The small, square room is lashed with seasonal splashes of colour at every glance – from the fresh, green flower stems that litter the concrete floor, to the walls lined with vibrant vintage vases. But it’s a look into the workshop’s double-door fridge that reveals the 29-year-old’s tour de force: warm, wonderful bridal bouquets featuring all manner of unique flowers and additions.
“I just do what I like and don’t follow the rules,” she says. “I’ll be picking things off the side of the road if I see something interesting; I’ll be picking from my garden and from my friends’ parents’ gardens.
Sandi says she strives to create a unique arrangement for every bride she works with. “I’m just messy at heart, a bit untidy,” she says. “In every bouquet, there’s something from my garden. It’s always my personal touch and I never do the same design twice. 80
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Sandi’s arrangements are an eclectic mix of traditional, seasonal flowers and everything from berries and herbs to leaves, fruit and lace. She says anything and everything is fair game when trying to capture the essence of one of her brides.
“I also have local growers who have special bits and pieces they don’t sell to other commercial florists. I just like to add lots of texture and a lot of flowers.” Despite her love for flower arrangement, Sandi says it’s the relationship she forges with her brides that delights her most. A close working relationship helps her to achieve results many commercial florists can’t muster.
After initially pursuing fashion design, floristry seemed like the most logical step forward. “My mum liked gardening and my grandmother on my father’s side was a florist as well.” A move to the Sunshine Coast with her husband followed, born out of a desire to de-stress and simplify their busy city lives. With Willow Bud booming and an active six-year-old on the go, things haven’t slowed down as much as they’d have liked, though Woombye now feels very much like home. “We decided to move to Queensland where we’d have casual jobs and life would be really easy – just living by the beach without stress,” she says. “Now we’ve got the house, mortgage, kid and I’ve never been busier, but our community is just awesome. “We have some beautiful friends and I’m just myself. I don’t have to try to be anything else.” The move to the coast also reignited Sandi’s personal passion for gardening. She’s since turned her backyard into a splendid flowerfilled space which complements her business. “I just hit and hope with my flowers really,” she says. “I just plant them and if it doesn’t work I’ll try them somewhere else or add some more manure, straw and water. I ask my local growers what works and get creative.” Sandi says to her mind flowers are the focal point of a bride’s ensemble on their big day, etching themselves into the memory of the happy couple and their guests.
“I’ve always put a lot of energy into making that connection,” she says. “When I make that bond with clients, the flowers always turn out a lot better. “At 29, I’m the average age of a bride and I think that helps me to understand what they want and the direction they’d like to take. I work their concept up start to finish. There’s a lot of phone calls, emails and discussion.” Sandi’s passion for flower arrangement can be traced back to her childhood on Victoria’s Phillip Island, where she would spend many productive hours dawdling around her yard.
“I think they add the icing to the cake. It’s what a bride is holding when she meets her man at the end of the aisle,” she says. “It’s the one day where you can be lavish, treat yourself and celebrate love. Flowers finish the styling.” In addition to the three staff she now employs, Sandi’s right-hand helper is her young daughter Willow who shares her mother’s fascination with flowers. “She always wants flower jobs, knows a lot of flower names, strips roses with me, gets cups of water for clients when they come to visit and sweeps up,” she says. “It’s non-stop, but I absolutely love what I do.” willowbud.com.au FOR EXTRA SALT visit saltmagazine.com.au to see more photos of Willow Bud.
“My earliest memory is helping around in my grandma’s garden, digging up her daffodils, thinking they were onions,” she laughs.
15 Freshwater Street, Mountain Creek | thelakehousesunshinecoast.com.au | 0400 642 339
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