1) How did you meet and fall in love?
The start of our love story wasn’t ‘storybook perfect’ and was definitely a case of the right person, but not necessarily the right time! We clicked from the moment we met, and soon learnt that the universe just wanted us to be together.
RC: Ali has always felt like a safe space for me. She is someone I can completely be me with, with all my walls down. I love getting to come home to her each day, and I love that a huge part of our relationship is just us laughing. Ali was wonderfully easy to fall in love with.
AB: Bex is absolutely my human. She challenges me and just makes me want to be a better person each and every day. Something I remember when we first started dating was that time always seemed to go so quickly! It never, ever felt long enough. Now we spend all our time together and it still doesn’t feel like enough! I love that after 5 years I’m still overly excited to get home from work and just be together. Cook dinner together, watch crappy TV shows and just talk - that’s my favourite part.
2) Tell us about your proposal?
RC: I proposed to Ali in Australia. I used to always be terrified of the idea of marriage, but getting to ask Ali the question was the most exciting thing I have ever done. With the help of her wonderful sister, we set up a little champagne picnic in her childhood home backyard, and I surprised her after our morning walk. It was on a day where Ali’s brother and sister were both coming over, so the whole family was together, which is such an important thing for Ali, who is a huge family person. She spent a huge part of her life and childhood in that backyard, so I wanted to ask her there.
About a month later, Ali actually proposed back to me. We were on our morning walk (a theme here!), when we were away at my family bach in Whangarei Heads, and we walked down to this tiny little private secluded bay, where I spent time as a child always looking for mermaid treasure. Ali asked me there with the most beautiful ring; my forever ‘mermaid treasure’. Ali was wonderful and included a special spot that reminded me of my late Dad, so the fact that she included him in the proposal in a way meant the world.
2) Tell us about your Nolan and Vada engagement ring and why you chose it?
We did a lot of research when it came to rings, and ultimately set our sights on sapphires. We both decided on white sapphire, as we just wanted something a bit different. For us, it was incredibly important that any stone we wore was completely ethical and conflict-free, and we loved the story of Nolan and Vada and their support for the workers who mine the sapphires. We went in for an initial meeting to look at the stones, and picked ones we loved. We then designed each others rings around the centre stone that we loved, so there was still a surprise element.