Kariah & Lissa – Finding Love as a Single Parent of Two

Colcheedas Photography geelong victoria australian lesbian two brides two mums gay wedding Dancing With Her magazine

There are 13 years between Kariah and Lissa but their love something unique. When they met, Lissa was a single mum of two and Kariah had just traveled the world searching for a better version of herself.

Tell us how the love story began.

We’ve been together almost three years but have known each other since 2010. An eternity later, in 2018, we crossed paths. Lissa was a single Mum with two little girls, and Kariah had just been traveling the world searching for a better version of herself. It was like we were two completely different people from when we had initially met in 2010. There was growth, maturity, confidence, and a sense of profoundness.

We had spent many nights talking deeply about how our lives had been up until this point. Then before we knew it, there was an elephant in the room. Every time we looked at each other, the nerves took over, and there was so much tension in the room. I think we fell in love before either of us even realised.

Neither of us was searching for love. We just wanted to give it a try, and so we did. “It was never you, but now you’re all I see” is our little motto to each other and has been since we started dating. It’s how we both ended our vows, as it accurately represents our love story.

Tell us about how you incorporated kids into the proposal.

K: We were in my hometown of Echuca for the first time with the kids, and Lissa completely surprised me. The sun was shining, and we had set up a little picnic rug on the grass.

Lissa had a t-shirt on that said “Will you marry me?” and the two girls had t-shirts on that said ‘Will you marry our Mummy?” It went as perfectly as a proposal can be with kids. Both the girls fought over who wanted to put the ring on Kariah’s finger, but they made up for it on the wedding day, don’t you worry.

What lead you to the venue?

Kariah had visited Mt Duneed Estate previously for a wine tasting over five years ago and knew from then that it was the spot she wanted to get married. At the time, gay marriage wasn’t even legal.

Before we were even engaged, we travelled down the freeway for lunch as we were living in Melbourne at the time, and instantly, Lissa knew it too! The food was amazing, as well as the space and the staff. We pictured an outdoor ceremony amongst the vineyards somewhere followed by drinks and dancing amongst the wine barrels, and that’s exactly what our magical day was. Before we were even engaged, we booked the venue because we knew we wanted to get married, and the love was so deep and raw.

Talk to us about your experience finding the perfect outfits.

We met our incredible dressmaker at a bridal expo in Melbourne and fell in love with Elly and her dresses instantly. As we were just about on our way home, and a flower girl dress stood out to us. We never really had intentions of doing custom dresses, but before we knew it, we met Elly in a fabric shop to start the journey to make our dresses. Both completely custom and Elly absolutely nailed our vision and brought them to life. Aaliyah and Millah, our little ones, had matching dresses to Lissa. Lissa wanted a Cinderalla looking dress, whereas I wanted vintage lace style with a modern twist.

Talk to us about the big day!

Magical! The weather was absolutely perfect, the kids perfectly behaved and our love shone bright!

As everyone warned us, the day did go by in a flash, so we tried to soak up any small moments together. A small wedding with our nearest and dearest, but we did miss a handful of best friends stuck overseas.

Our suppliers were terrific, and we honestly couldn’t have asked for a better bunch of humans to put together our wedding.

Do you have a stand-out vendor?

This was a tough pick between our amazing celebrant Jermaine and Elly, our dressmaker! We’ve made friends for life out of both of them.

Elly – our incredible dressmaker from Elly Louise Bridal, was the first supplier we chose apart from the wedding venue!

We have no idea how, but we both had a vision of the dresses we wanted, and Elly completely brought them to life. And the detail was incredible and something that all our guests commented on. It makes it super unique that both dresses were completely custom – one of a kind.

With all of our suppliers, we wanted to make sure we had a really good emotional connection and a good gut feeling about it, which made our magical day and the lead up as stress-free as it could be as they all really understood our vision. And, of course, we wanted them all to be gay-friendly!