Gardens right pick for big day
Designer Susan Connell looked no further than Cairns Botanic Gardens when she and fiance Mark Kent (above) wanted somewhere special to hold a commitment ceremony.
DESIGNER Susan Connell looked no further than Cairns Botanic Gardens when she and fiance Mark Kent wanted somewhere special to hold a commitment ceremony.
The Melbourne-based couple were surrounded by family and friends for their vows.
“We returned to Cairns so my mum, Avis Stallan, and my son, Jesse Connell, could be part of our commitment ceremony,” says Susan, who spent 20 years in the fashion industry in Cairns before moving to Melbourne to further her studies.
“The Botanic Gardens are iconic and beautiful. That whole Edge Hill precinct is one the nicest areas of Cairns.”
Susan ran The Design StuMelbourne dio at Cairns Central, was in charge of teaching fashion design studies at Cairns TAFE and was head of senior school at Cairns School of Distance Education before she left for four years ago.
“I wanted to study digital textile printing at RMIT University, which I use extensively with students.”
Within eight weeks of arriving in Melbourne, she was offered a full-time job at Box Hill Senior Secondary College, where she is now head of the arts faculty.
“I was extremely lucky. It was too hard to say no to,” she says.
“I’ve continued on with the digital studies and multiple fashion students (from Box Hill) transition to RMIT. My goal is for them to be interviewed by RMIT, which is my favourite design school. It’s world renowned.”
Susan says her Box Hill students are also using fashion to “make a difference in the world”.
They have formed a partnership with Australian-based charity Yes Inc and this year raised enough to tutor 60 disadvantaged students in literacy and numeracy through a fashion parade and White Paper Couture Exhibition.
Susan says Mark, the principal of Ivanhoe Primary School in Melbourne, asked her on a Valentine’s Day date four years ago.
“After our first date, we were inseparable. Mum tells Mark he is one in a million.”
Mark sealed the deal by proposing at Melbourne’s Grossi Florentino restaurant on April 22, 2017.