Hitched & hatched

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TELISHA ALBURY, 25 LUKE ALBURY, 26

LUKE and Telisha met in 2013 at church. “I’d noticed Luke, being a new face, and he was sitting next to a friend of mine, so after the service I went up and she introduced us,” Telisha said. “We got on so well it felt like we had known each other for years. There was an instant spark.” They soon discovered a joint love of fishing. “It’s definitely ‘our thing’,” Telisha said. “We both have different hobbies — I love my horses and Luke does a lot of pigging — but when it comes to fishing we’re both hooked.” Luke outdid himself with the proposal. It was a balmy September evening and Telisha was upstairs cooking dinner. Luke was downstairs creating a lovely setting in the couple’s tropical garden, complete with candles. “He came and told me there was an animal downstairs I needed to see, but insisted I needed to be blindfolded,” Telisha said. “I was so excited about this ‘animal’ I didn’t really think much was happening until he stopped me and I could feel his hands shaking with nerves. Then it hit me, he was going to propose!” Their wedding was a dream come true, with Telisha riding her horse Bugsy to the aisle — he’d been shipped to NSW a year earlier as he wasn’t coping with the heat in Darwin. During the speeches Telisha shared a story with guests to highlight how they will survive life’s storms. “Four months before the wedding we were out chasing barra and this fierce storm came upon us,” Telisha said. “We had the bimini up sheltering from the rain, but then lightning started to hit the water around us. I was starting to panic and pack things away when, in my peripheral vision, I saw a flash of light and Luke crouched down in pain screaming. His head had been touching the bimini and as the lightning hit it travelled through the boat and got him on the noggin. We tried to get out of there, but galeforce winds nearly capsized us. Then the boat crashed into a rockbar.” They eventually managed to push the boat off and make their way out of the storm, but had to wait an hour at the boat ramp for the tide to rise. The adventure wasn’t over, with the Landcruiser refusing to move out of low range, resulting in a slow drive home at 60km/h all the way. A quick trip to the hospital and two ECGs later showed Luke was OK, and they got home at 1am. “It was a crazy day. If we can survive that we can survive anything,” Telisha said. They had a sunrise wedding and swapped a first dance for group games, including giant Jenga. “We also did a ‘trash the dress’ on our departure, where everyone squirted us with water pistols and smashed us with coloured powder before we rode away on a quad bike with a ‘Just Married’ sign,” Telisha said. The newlyweds enjoyed an action-packed honeymoon in New Zealand. THE ESSENTIALS MET Hope City Church, Palmerston THE DRESS Champagne-coloured lace gown CEREMONY & RECEPTION The groom’s grandparents’ organic farm in Moorland, NSW PHOTOGRAPHER Spirel Photographic