Commitment Ceremonies

On April 17, 2013, news broke that the New Zealand parliament had voted to legalise gay marriage and the world watched as the entire congregation broke, emotionally, into Maori song to mark the historical moment.

It’s a moment which many of us in Australia are eagerly awaiting, but we won’t get into politics right now. Because our gorgeous couple, bride and bride, Irene Angelopoulos and Vanessa Conte, certainly didn’t let the current state of affairs get in the way of their joyful nuptials and cocktail wedding at Meadowbank Receptions last October.

The Melbourne girls met through a love of sport – Vanessa played it and Irene was the star spectator. 24-year-old Irene says, “Vanessa seemed to be part of every sporting club going and when I would go to watch different friends play [soccer, basketball and indoor soccer] she would be there.”

She jokes, “I’ve been the cheerleader for over six years now. And the scorer. And the ‘soccer mum’.”

Irene says that after a few years dating, a wedding was the natural next-step to their relationship – the pair had already started building a house together – but they’d said, “When it’s legal, we’ll do it.” So for Irene, with no clue as to when the Australian government might change its mind, 27-year-old Vanessa’s proposal came as a complete shock.

She says, “Vanessa had laid out red rose petals in the shape of a heart on my bed and put the ring box in the middle… I freaked out when I saw what was going on and made her open the box just in case it wasn’t a ring! As we both started crying, no words were exchanged but we both knew what the answer was.”

Irene says their ceremony in front of 140 family and friends was essentially the same as any other (just without signing the papers), adding they wanted to “show everyone this is our decision, this is who we want to spend our life with and if it ever becomes legal in our lifetime we’ll go down to city hall and sign the papers.”