Since I was a little girl, I had never grown up dreaming about my dream wedding. I had never expected to be a certain way and I certainly had never ever given a thought, not one, to what the day would look like – whether it would be in a church, or outside, whether I would be in a princess dress or figure hugging, so when Morgan got down on one knee and asked me the sacred question, we literally had a blank canvas of ideas and possibilities to work with because I truly had no vision for the day.

It very fast became apparent to us though that the main focus was to be about love and that our ceremony had to mirror us completely. We needed a celebrant who we connected with, who got ‘us’ and who brought our vision to life; a ceremony of deep love, one that would be incredibly intimate but have our personalities show through. We found our perfect match in Tracey from ‘Bali Bliss Celebrant’ and from day 1 knew she would make the ceremony what we wanted it to be.

I remember sitting with Morgan going over our ceremony questions from Tracy laughing as we recalled the first time we met, getting emotional as we wrote out our own definitions of the meaning of marriage and then combining them both, and going our separate ways to quietly reflect and write our own vows.

Admittedly, we wrote our vows the week before we got married and we both said they were the easiest and most natural words we had ever written. I think true love, a strong foundational love, you know each other as well as you know yourself and we both knew exactly what it would take to grow old together falling more in love as each year passed and what promises we would have to make for it to work.

If I had to sum up our ceremony in words it was; pure love, fun, emotional and divine. It was fate.

We got to write our extraordinary love story that day and I won’t ever forget every tear, every laugh and every word spoken.

From start to finish this is how our love story went.

Walking down the aisle

I was calm. So calm. There wasn’t one moment from the lead up to the day of to the song starting that I wasn’t blissfully calm. I remember just being so excited that in a few short minutes I would get to see my Morgan again after not having seen him for a night and day and that in an hour, I would be his wife. The girls and I were lined up and the music started, my bridesmaids and I had different songs, each song equally as important as the other. Every single part of our wedding was personal, right down to the decisions around the song choices.

Kissing you by Des’ree started and one by one off my girls went before me. Kissing you held so much significance to me for a multitude of reasons, it was the song of Romeo and Juliet, one of my favourite movies of all time and the two shared a love so strong they would die rather than live without the other, so I always knew I needed the song a part of my day. Lyrically, I was also madly in love with the song –

But when it was my time to take the aisle there was no other option to me than A thousand years by Christina Perri. Hearing the first note of that song was overwhelming for me. This was it. Even now, 6 months on, hearing that song still makes me overcome with emotion and makes me tear up and I think it always will. I knew the song was for me when I heard the lyrics “I have died every day waiting for you, darling don’t be afraid I adore you, I’ve loved you for a thousand years, I’ve loved you for a thousand more”. As you will see when later amongst these words when I share some of our speeches, I truly deeply madly believe that Morgan & I are twin flames, and fate was never going to keep us apart.

I’ll never forget locking eyes with Morgan. Ever. And have never wanted to get to him more. I remember not even remembering the crowd, our beautiful guests, and from the top of the aisle right to arriving at my groom, we never once took our eyes off each other. This was our day and honouring each other in every second was our goal.

The Readings

I think this was simultaneously the hardest part about in the co-creation of the ceremony with Tracy whilst being the easiest part as well. The hardest because we needed readings that spoke to us which meant going through hundreds and thousands of words to find the ones that spoke to us most– we aren’t religious people, our ‘religion’ is love and kindess, so we knew the readings would be centered around poems, quotes or passages from books we loved.

We landed upon 3 – and each time I found them right beside Morgan we knew they were the one when Morgan tenderly would kiss me and say ‘this is it’ and I would be sitting there sobbing (not just some dainty tears, literally sobbing).

We chose 2 of my brothers to do a reading, one of our longest and oldest friends Belinda, and a friend who is a brother to us both, Ben. We are both so deeply grateful for all they do in our life and we knew we wanted them a part of our day in this special way.

The Readings we chose were:

That my two older brothers Zac & Tim read:

Marriage Joins Two People in the Circle of Its Love – Edmund O’Neill

Marriage is a commitment to life, the best that two people can find and bring out in each other. It offers opportunities for sharing and growth that no other relationship can equal. It is a physical and an emotional joining that is promised for a lifetime.

Within the circle of its love, marriage encompasses all of life’s most important relationships. A wife and husband are each other’s best friend, confidant, lover, teacher, listener and critic. And there may come times when one partner is heartbroken or ailing, and the love of the other may resemble the tender caring of a parent for a child. Marriage deepens and enriches every facet of life.

Happiness is fuller, memories are fresher, commitment is stronger, even anger is felt more strongly and passes away more quickly. Marriage understands and forgives the mistakes life is unable to avoid. It encourages and nurtures new life, new experiences and new ways of expressing a love that is deeper than life. When two people pledge their love and care for each other in marriage, they create a spirit unique unto themselves, which binds them closer than any spoken or written words. Marriage is a promise, a potential made in the hearts of two people who love each other and takes a lifetime to fulfill

That one of our best friends Ben Kelly read:

Psst – there is still something about these words that when I read them I cry. Not a well of tears in my eyes, a tears streaming down my face kind of cry. I think that is the kind of emotion you want your readings to evoke months and years after your wedding.

I will be here – Steven Chapman

In the morning when you wake, If the sun does not appear – I will be here. If in the dark we lose sight of love, Hold my hand and have no fear, I will be here. I will be here, when you feel like being quiet. When you need to speak your mind, I will listen. Through the winning, losing and trying, we’ll be together, And I will be here. In the morning when you wake, if the future is unclear, I will be here, As sure as the seasons were made for change, Our lifetimes were made for years. I will be here. You can cry on my shoulder. And I will be here. When the mirror tells us we’re older, I will hold you to watch you grow in beauty and tell you all the things you are to me. We’ll be together and I will be here. I will be true to the promises I’ve made to you. I will be here. That one of our longest and most treasured friends Belinda Rae read:

That one of our longest, most amazing friends Belinda Rae read: 

The Promise – Heather Berry

Within this blessed union of souls, where two hearts intertwine to become one, there lies a promise. Perfectly born, divinely created, and intimately shared, it is a place where the hope and majesty of beginnings reside. Where all things are made possible by the astounding love shared by two spirits. As you hold each other’s hands in this promise, and eagerly look into the future in each other’s eyes, may your unconditional love and devotion take you to places where you’ve both only dreamed. Where you’ll dwell for a lifetime of happiness, sheltered in the warmth of each other’s arms”

The Vows

By far the easiest part of the whole wedding. Morgan & I didn’t write out our vows until we were IN Bali (a week before the wedding) and went of separately to do them. Being someone who’s deepest passion is words and writing I came up with, along with Morgans kisses and blessing the first part of our vows, as we didn’t want anything in our wedding to be ‘tokenism’ – we wanted it personal and us and the best way to be personal and us was to write every aspect of the vows ourselves.

So off we went in Bali at the same time quietly at sunset to write out what we wanted to promise one another. This was the easiest part because we knew what we wanted to promise each other. I always say Morgan & I didn’t fall in to a dream relationship nor has it all been easy. We have, quiet literally, fought for our love. It’s never been ‘hard’ (core difference) but we have spent 8 years together working out who we are individually so we can grow together as a pair and we knew the promises the other needed and we needed ourselves to continue to grow this love.

The vows to us as well weren’t something we would say to say – which is why we opted to write every aspect of them. To us, they were the most important part of the whole day and are 6 months later something we are already reminding each other of weekly.

And here is what we promised each other;

My vows to Morgan …

I call upon our family and friends  

To witness that I, Anna Ogilvie 

Take you, Morgan Richards  

as my husband for eternity.  

You Morgan, are my every reason, every hope and every dream. 

Every day that I am gifted with you is the greatest day of my life 

I love you more than any word can ever truly express  

or feeling that can be explained.  

Here today I vow to join my life eternally with yours.  

I give you my life to keep, my heart to own, and my laughter to share.  

This is what I promise you.  

I will protect you, our values and our love above all else.  

I will always stand beside you – not behind or in front of you. I stand beside you to always raise you up as an equal. 

I will practice instant forgiveness with you everyday so anger or arguments never last more than a moment.  

I promise whatever you need, strength, understanding, or laughter, I will give to you in an instant.  

I promise to make your coffee perfectly and always deliver it with a kiss.  

I promise I will always be the woman to make your head turn first when I walk in to the room and make you feel like the only man that exists to demand my love, attention and respect.  

I promise to always be your crazy dreamer and love and respect you as my realist.  

I promise to always honour and respect you as an individual whilst we grow as a pair.  

I promise to be the most extraordinary wife – I may not always cook or clean, but I will laugh with you, cry with you,make mistakes with you, fall with you and get back up with you, travel with you and I will always always be your biggest fan and cheerleader forever.  

I promise to put us first always – even when our children join us in this life. I promise that I WILL remember this and honour that the greatest gift we can give our children are two parents who are madly in love with each other and put each other first.  

I promise that I will communicate with you how I am always feeling and keep those lines of communication open until our last day.  

I promise to live an extraordinary life with you – every moment of every day and give my everything to you and this marriage.  

I will love you Morgan until our final breathe and every life we live together after.  

Morgan’s vows to Me …

I call upon our family and friends  

To witness that I, Morgan Richards  

Take you, Anna Ogilvie  

as my Wife for eternity.  

You Anna, are my every reason, every hope and every dream. 

Every day that I am gifted with you is the greatest day of my life 

I love you more than any word can ever truly express  

or feeling that can be explained.  

Here today I vow to join my life eternally with yours.  

I give you my life to keep, my heart to own, and my laughter to share.  

This is what I promise you.  

I promise i will put my heart and soul into this marriage every single day

I promise that i will be a better listener than a talker  

I promise that i will make you laugh every single day. Even if its at my own expense  

I promise to love everything about us as a couple but to also respect you and love you as an individual. 

I promise to be your biggest cheerleader, not just in the good times but also when times are tough. 

I promise to always offer you my last hot chip. Even though i know you will feel guilty for eating it and then blame me.   

I promise to always be open and honest with you and to never go to sleep angry. 

I promise that i will always be your shoulder to cry on and your fiercest protector.  

The promise to always communicate openly and honestly with you 

I promise to love you unconditionally until the day i die.   

‘I Now prounce you Mr & Mrs Richards’

I have kissed Morgan for 10 years now. Yes… 10.Years. But I can say this from the bottom of my soul, that the kiss when we were pronounced as husband and wife and he was “now allowed to kiss his bride” was a kiss quite like no other. Not for the physicality of it – but the emotional intention behind it. This was it. Just us two. We were binded to each other officially forever and I walked back up the aisle with a new last name and with a husband, and he, with a wife.

The song we chose to walk back up the aisle to as new husband and wife was Duke Dumont, I got you. We wanted something fun and upbeat and couldn’t go past not just the tune of that song – and it so so so suited where we got married in beautiful Bali too – but lyrically it still covers me in goosebumps when I hear the song.

“Ask me what I did with my life

I spent it with you

If I lose my fame and fortune

(Really don’t matter)

As long as I got you, baby

As the years they pass us by

(Years they, years they, years they)

We stay young through each other’s eyes

(Each other’s eyes)

And no matter how old we get

It’s okay, as long as I got you, baby”

A hugely critical and key part of our day was the moment Morgs & I privately took immediately after the ceremony was over. We had told our wedding planners we wanted 10 minutes by ourselves. To just sit and soak in all that we were feeling and quietly have our first few moments as husband and wife together.

If I could ever give brides & grooms a piece of advice it is to have those precious quiet moments together straight after a ceremony. We were ushered in to an air con room and they bought Morgan a cold beer and me a glass of Verve and we had 10 minutes of private time.

Morgan & I didn’t want our guests to have to stand in a line and hug us one by one to say Congratulations either (we are not the traditional type), we knew they loved us and we wanted them to have as good a time as we were having so we did a quick group shot and then they were ushered down next to the infinity pool where cold cocktails, hot canapés and smooth tunes awaited them. The guests watched the sun set and ate and drank as we snuck off for our 1 hour of photos.

At that stage Morgan & I and our amazing bridal party crew jumped in to 2 cars to race to the beach to get some shots to eternalize our day. Although I adore photos, one thing I didn’t want was hours of photos. I know that sounds almost like an oxymoron but I trusted so implicitly the photographer would get the shots that showed off our personalities and our amazing bridal party within the hour – and I was right. We wanted to party, we wanted to be with our guests and we wanted to have the day just flow with ease so having that 1 hour limit on photos to us, made that all happen.

We were taken back to the estate for the party to start at 6pm …. But those memories will be brought to you in the next love note that brings all our memories from the party of the year to you.

Before we kick start the version of our events for the par-tay. I just wanted to leave you with this, which is our meaning of marriage that we sat and came up with heading in to not just our wedding but our marriage.

Love is everything, and our love, means this to us;

A marriage to us, is the highest form of commitment to each other, a binding of forever and infinite love in which two people hold space for one another, to grow, heal, learn, laugh, love unconditionally  

Marriage is when two come together and invite the highest good to be revealed through them and in them, so that together they can powerfully serve the world more love and light.