A love ballad whose first melodic notes resounded in their teenage years, Dalby couple Samantha-Jo Ashurst and Thomas Wirth have tied the knot close to home.
Despite having many mutual friends growing up, Samantha-Jo and Thomas did not meet until age 16 — a chance encounter at music lessons sealing the deal for Samantha-Jo. “Thomas wasn’t my teacher, but he taught the lesson before mine so that’s when I first heard him playing the acoustic guitar and I felt something right away,” she remembered. The pair found each other on social media, striking up the odd conversation before “officially dating” a short time later.
Thomas proposed “out of the blue” on the big blue while the couple holidayed on a cruise in 2017. “He hadn’t really planned on asking until the day of, and even forgot to ask for my dad’s permission! He found the ring in one of the shops on board.” An emerald shaped morganite dusted with melee diamonds on a rose gold band begged an immediate “yes” from the bride-to-be.
The ceremony had the perfect setting at Jimbour Station, with the reception hosted at Thomas’s family farm 10 minutes outside Dalby. Wine barrels as makeshift bars, bamboo tee-pees and floods of fairy lights transformed the farm into an avant garde celebration. “I have always loved the vintage/boho style weddings, so decided on that as our theme. My mum makes macramé so she had a gorgeous macramé tee-pee made up with pillows and blankets for the kids, and we made an enormous grazing board with old planks of wood and platters.”
Native flowers with eucalyptus in light pastel tones was the brief given to Helene from Dalby Florist, and she delivered. A Luv Bridal gown worn by Samantha-Jo was flanked by the bridesmaids’ infinity frocks. The men dressed in Politix. The day was captured by Wallflower Weddings.
But hours before the big day, disaster struck the farm. “After we had the reception looking perfect and finished setting up we were completely washed out by a huge storm, that blew all of our furniture away. We were a little concerned about the weather, but we woke up Saturday morning to slight cloud cover that went away the moment we were ready to walk down the aisle.”
The timing could not be more kismet. Getting ready at Jimbour Station, Samantha-Jo recommends nervous brides should “normalise their day” to be present in the moment and enjoy one of the most special days of their lives. “Just remember, you’re not the first person to get married, and if at the end of the day nothing is going right, it doesn’t matter — as long as your celebrant shows up. The only thing that matters is that you get to spend the rest of your life with the one person you love the most.”
Travellers by nature, the pair are spending four months honeymooning across Europe and Africa, banking on a few more countries to capture their wandering hearts.
