They met on a dating app, like to tell people they met at Bunnings, and believe they bring out the best in each other.
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It’s these simple facts, summarised in around 100 words, that have won Canberra couple Bella Insch and Mhera Nelson a fancy, $25,000 wedding at the National Gallery of Australia as part of its summer blockbuster exhibition.
The pair won the competition after Ms Insch, an art therapist from Reid, noticed the gallery was running a competition to tie in with Love & Desire: Pre-Raphaelite Masterpieces from the Tate.
On a whim, she jotted down 100 words about her love for Ms Nelson - and their joke about meeting at the "lesbian church" of Bunnings - and pressed send.
She then forgot all about it as she and Ms Nelson, a pharmacy assistant from Belconnen, got on with planning their wedding in earnest.
The pair met on their first date in June, 2017.
“It was the most romantic night,” Ms Insch said in her entry, although she told The Canberra Times yesterday that Ms Nelson had been almost an hour late for their date at an inner-city bar, and she almost left.
But the pair went on to have dinner, see a show and share a late night dessert, all on the first night.
They’ve been together ever since.
Not surprisingly, the couple were strong advocates for gay marriage in the lead-up to the 2017 postal vote - they danced in Braddon and cried when the vote came through as affirmative - but it won’t be the first wedding for either of them.
They were both previously married to “Australian men named Brian”, and have four kids and two cultures between them.
Ms Nelson is from the Philippines, and has three kids aged 12, 10 and 9, while Ms Insch has a 13-year-old.
And just in case there was any doubt as to the pair’s Canberra credentials, Ms Nelson proposed to Ms Insch with a handmade sign at Floriade last year.
“She organised a little crew of people to hold up a sign that said 'Marry me', and it was really gorgeous,” Ms Insch said.
“There were all these other random passers-by that stopped and watched, so it was quite public.”
They revealed that several onlookers even broke into applause.
The pair had given themselves two years to plan and save money for a wedding, and had even gone as far as scoping out a venue in the Bega Valley, where Ms Insch is from, before they discovered last week that they’d won the competition.
They now have just six weeks to send out invitations for the March 2 wedding, although they won’t have to do much else; the prize includes a ceremony in the Sculpture Garden, a three-course reception dinner for 100 people in the gallery’s gold-leafed function room Gandel Hall, a wedding co-ordinator, drinks and a wedding cake.
The gallery’s head of marketing and communications Kanesan Nathan, who helped judge the entries, said while the competition was open to all Australians, the couple’s entry stood out from the other 200.
“It came across as really authentic and genuine,” he said.
“There was something really beautiful about the simplicity of it, but also, sometimes things don't have to be so detailed.
"The fact that they have four children and two cultures between them, that is just such a beautiful statement, you don't actually need to say anymore.”
