LAUREN MADE HISTORY WHEN SHE SAID ‘I DO’
AWELSH woman and her wife who became the first same-sex couple to get married in Australia said it “hasn’t hit them” how far their wedding has been seen across the world.
Lauren Price, 31, said “I do” to her partner of three years, Amy Laker, 29, in Sydney on Saturday, December 16, in front of their friends and family.
The couple had initially planned to marry under British law at the British Consulate in Canberra and hold a celebration party on another day.
But after the nation voted in favour of allowing same-sex couples to marry and the law coming into effect on December 9 Lauren and Amy decided to bring their wedding forward in what was a truly historic day.
Speaking about the reaction from the media and strangers from across the world Lauren, from Briton Ferry in Neath Port Talbot, said: “I don’t think it’s hit us how far this news has got.
“We are aware it has been broadcast in Australia and the UK and we have had a couple of people come up to us in shops saying ‘Are you Lauren and Amy?’ and saying congratulations, which was very strange.
“On Facebook people are sharing it as well as our friends so I don’t know whether we have realised the magnitude of the thousands of responses and news feeds – I’m assuming it’s gone quite far.
“We have noticed some bad comments occasionally but overall around 80% of it has been really positive and amazing.”
Lauren met her future wife after visiting Australia while she was travelling around the world three years ago.
She said: “I hadn’t been anywhere other than Spain and France before so I decided to go on what was meant to be a world travelling thing.
“The first place I went was Australia and after two weeks there I met Amy in a bar. Basically since our first conversation we have been inseparable and a year after that I proposed.
“When I took her to meet my family in Wales we went for a trip to Paris s and we got engaged by the Eiffel l Tower.”
Describing their wedding day, Lauren said it was a “traditional and d simple” day.
She added: “We arranged to have e everyone there that we loved more e than anything and we tried to do it on n a budget because we’re trying to save e for a deposit on a house and to start a family.
“We had thought about including some Welsh themes and we were going to have Welsh cakes as favours but we went for Ferrero Rochers instead because they’re they re my favourite chocolates.”
Lauren and Amy are both planning to head to Wales next year on their honeymoon where they will be visiting family and holding another celebration for aunties and cousins who were unable to make the ceremony in Australia.
Lauren said: “We have thought about going at the end of next July and maybe spend a week somewhere in Europe like Amsterdam before spending two or three weeks in
Wales. Wales.”