The Australian Women\'s Weekly - June 2018

JUNE 2018 | The Australian Women’s Weekly 65

Wedding exclusive

M

usic drifts across an

emerald green valley on a

sun-splashed early winter

afternoon, as blowsy

roses and peonies tumble

from antique vases and pink champagne

lows. The relaxed, chattering guests

would never guess that, just days ago,

this perfect pink fairytale bride was

dressed in overalls and muddy gumboots,

shovelling straw and manure in a

colossal effort to prepare the property

for her wedding day.

“If you saw it four months ago, it

was a mud pile,” says Lisa Curry, in her

no-nonsense way, of the 25-hectare

property in the Sunshine Coast hinterland

that she and the groom, Mark Tabone,

bought last August with their wedding

day very much in mind. “We wanted to

get married on our own property. We

looked at this place three times before

we decided we could make it work.”

Most critically, the sheds and horse

stables needed to be transformed into a

venue for the perfect country wedding.

“I was shovelling manure out of the

barn and sawdust. There was a

snakeskin in there,” says the much loved

triple Olympian, laughing. Plainly she’s

no stranger to hard work or discipline.

“And he’s very handy with a drill,” she

says of Mark, the singer who stole her

heart three years ago.

Lisa and Mark have been working

seven days a week on the property for

months. “At times we were out there

with loodlights until 11 o’clock at

night,” says Lisa. “I’ve been up to my

knees in mud. My hands were sore, my

nails were dirty and broken. Several

times I yelled out, ‘I bet Meghan Markle

isn’t doing this!’”

She wrote, “list after list after list and

you cross it off and then you start a new

list. When you do it yourself, it is never

ending, but we have such a great group

of friends who have come and helped.”

Mark was also her rock. “When work

was stalled by weeks of rain,” she says,

“I would cry and say, ‘It’s not going to

be ready’ and Mark would insist that,

no, it would be ready, and it was.”

Today, their idea of a “rustic, barn

wedding” has come together perfectly.

“We had this vision that was so strong

and it is exactly how we imagined it,” →

Clockwise: Lisa and Mark exchange vows; Natalie

Bassingthwaighte with the happy couple; Lisa

with daughters Morgan (left) and Jaimi, and

grandson Flynn; celebrating with guests.

Olympic swimmer Lisa Curry has married Elvis

entertainer (her “burning love”) Mark Tabone.

And they invited Susan Chenery along to their

romantic country hideaway on their wedding day.