Polly & Waz

The surrounds of Sydney Harbour have to be one of the most iconic and spectacular locations for engagement photographs, and these shots captured by Inlighten Photography  of Polly & Waz capture not only the beautiful backdrops, but also the beauty and humor in their relationship.

Polly tells the story of she and Waz came to be. “We met at a mutual friend’s birthday at Clovelly bowls.  It was in November 2008 so Waz was sporting his best Movember attempt!  We both have differing stories as to how we started dating. “

Polly’s version goes like this. ” I believe as soon as Waz met me he feel madly in love with me but I was dating someone at the time so wasn’t interested.  Waz then dated a friend to make me jealous but I wasn’t fussed!  6 months later our group of friends went on a surf weekend away and after a few vino’s I decided he wasn’t all that bad! ”

Whereas Waz? He tells the story like this. “Meeting at the friend’s birthday party is correct, but Polly seems to blur some of the finer details. After our first chance meeting I sent her a message on Facebook and she replied. I thought this might be a good sign so I sent a response and then there was radio silence. The nerve of the girl. Yes it is true I thought she was easy on the eye, though after the blatant cold shoulder I let it go!

Then meeting on the south coast a few months later I thought to myself…’I wonder what this girl is going to say for herself?’. Turns out all she needed was a few vinos, a rolled out swag under the stars and some good old fashioned country boy romance!”

Of her favourite part of their relationship together, Polly says, “The best part is we laugh every day.  Even when I try and be angry at him (usually for no good reason!) he makes me giggle and reminds me to not sweat the small stuff.  He is a complete romantic.  A few years ago he called me on his way to work and asked me what we were doing for New Years Eve, it was only October so we had no plans.  His response “that’s lucky because I just bought us two tickets to the Cook Islands… I heard a fun ad on the radio!”

What does Polly love about Waz? She says,  “I love how honest, handsome and generous Waz is.  The knight in shining armour was moulded from him.  He walks old ladies across the road, loves his mum and takes care of me.  I love how open Waz and I can be with each other and that he knows more about me than I know about myself.  He is my soul mate and my best friend.”

And Waz? ” She knows everything about me and it had to take someone pretty bloody special to break through the commitment barrier. The best thing for me is that I love her more now than I did when we first met. To me that is everything. I would give my life for her…no hesitation!”

The proposal was unexpected and happened on an impromptu holiday, Polly tells. “From early on in our relationship we knew we were going to spend our lives together and would openly talk about marriage.

We had had an epic year so took a well-deserved holiday to Thailand with our new friends from The Block, Rod and Tania and their two sons.  We were floating in the water in the second week of our holiday and marriage came up. I had said to Waz “we could get engaged this year, it would be ok with me!” but Waz insisted the year had been big enough… mind you this was all in front of Rod who says you could hear my disappointment!  Two days later all 6 of us were sitting together having lunch and Waz said “Polly do you want to have dinner tonight just you and me?” My response “ no thanks, let’s have dinner with everyone”, so Waz said we would have cocktails on the pier before dinner instead.

Waz woke me up from a nap and said let’s go the sun is setting, let’s get a cocktail.  My hair was wet and looked hideous in pig tail plaits (despite my mum telling the boys in my family to make sure their partner’s hair looks nice when you propose as hers wasn’t many moons ago and she has never forgotten it!!) but we walked down to the pier.  We sat next to each other and to be honest I was thinking, you promised me cocktails, where are they?!!

We talked as always about random things including if I liked the sound of the ocean!  Because Waz is regularly romantic I didn’t really think he was planning something, probably because for the last 18 months any time we have been together like that I had thought “this would be a good time to get engaged” but it had never happened!  I said “what’s in your pocket its digging into me” and he got up and moved quickly to the other side.  Again I thought nothing of it.  Then he pulled something out of his pocket and I thought “oh my gosh this is happening…” but no he got out the camera!! So like I have for the last 18 months I went, yup no engagement tonight don’t be silly Polly! Then he said he had a surprise for me (not out of the ordinary because he is good for ‘just because’ pressies) and told me to close my eyes and hold out my hands.  He sat next to me and whispered in my ear “will you marry me” I was so shocked and happy I forgot to say yes!  He cried and I giggled like a school girl.  He told me the reason he didn’t kneel in front of me was because we never wants to be in front he just wants to be by my side.

I screamed and yelled across the water then we took a video to remember the moment.”

One of Waz’s favourite memories of their time together was a funny one, as is most of their relationship, it was based on a lot of laughter! He remembers,” Trying to teach Polly how to surf for me, not so much her, was hilarious! Needless to say I will not be buying her her own board but she did look damn cute all washed up on the shore in a tangle!”

The wedding plans are well underway, with Polly revealing, “We have actually been really organised and have booked almost everything.  We have a fantastic photographer in Dean from Inlighten Photography and have also organised our flowers through Hills Flower Market which is where my sister had her flowers done and they are amazing!  We booked our reception venue back in January but that’s a secret!  We have the bridesmaids dresses, the suits for the boys and have ordered my dress.  Our Save the Date cards are about to go out so all in all we are pretty much ahead of time.  Now it is time for the little intricate decisions.  It has been a very easy process because we have both been involved in making each decision.  No signs of a bridezilla or groomzilla just yet!”