Couple rearrange wedding in four hours before lockdown

It may not have been their intended wedding date, but in a four-hour whirlwind of rearrangements, Steph and Eddie Morris were able to say “I do” on Friday.

The couple was supposed to wed on Saturday but when a statewide five-day lockdown was announced at 1pm on Friday, they went into overdrive to bring the wedding forward.

However, it wasn’t a happy ending for Ben Collins and Renee Smith who cancelled their wedding and are now hoping to tie the knot this weekend.

Both couples were at their venues setting up on Friday when the news came through that after midnight, they would be in lockdown.

Steph was at the Drouin Football Clubrooms setting up when she heard the premier announce the lockdown.

She was stunned.  But, catering staff, also at the venue to set-up, quickly gave her an option.  “We can do it tonight if you can.”

“We had just spent the whole day decorating the room, my father had put up hundreds of fairy lights.

“The caterers cooked up a storm in a matter of hours and we had a great night,” Steph said.

Everything went in their favour – the band was able to play, the photographer was available, the hairdresser rescheduled clients and the priest returned from the beach.

At 5.30pm, Steph and Eddie were standing at the altar at Corpus Christi Church in Tynong.

There were a few absences – guests who had to travel and Steph’s brother who was at the South Australian border waiting to see what unfolded at the premier’s press conference.

For Steph and Eddie, the planning since August paid off.  “Everything was booked locally and that helped because everyone dropped everything and helped us to make it happen.”

For Ben and Renee, instead of being on Daydream Island yesterday for their honeymoon, they were back at work.

They were at Parnassus on Friday afternoon when Ben was about to send photographs of the venue to his mum.

As he pulled out his phone, he found messages from the DJ and photographer wanting to re-schedule.

Bringing forward the wedding was not an option – Ben’s two groomsmen were at another wedding on Friday and the DJ, photographer and celebrant were not available.

“We were in shock and we didn’t want to rush it.  We had been planning it for more than 12 months.

“We hope we can do it this Saturday.  Everyone has been really good and made us their priority for this weekend,” he said.

Ben said they had already kept numbers as low as they could to meet COVID restrictions but if they were limited to 50 people this weekend, they would make sure it could still go ahead.