Honeymoon: Five weeks in July on the Amalfi Coast and Greek islands

AN “old-fashioned” face-to-face meeting in a Surry Hills bar took a distinctly modern turn when Chris Katralis finished the evening not with Daniella Tavalla’s phone number, but her online Words With Friends username.

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Daniella admits she had initially been “counting down the minutes to leave” the crowded bar when Chris started a conversation.

After securing her Words With Friends username, Chris challenged Daniella to a game, declaring the loser would take the winner to dinner.

“He lost, probably on purpose,” Daniella says, “although I do think I’m smarter than him.”

One week after their first meeting in January 2012, they went on the “first of many dates”.

After finding they had grown up in neighbouring suburbs, Chris at Bardwell Park and Daniella at Earlwood, the couple discovered a shared sense of humour and mutual respect.

“We have a relationship of equals,” Daniella explains.

“One that allows us to be our own person, where our honesty is never compromised, where we fight fair and where there are no limits to our wicked sense of humour.

“We’re that couple who watch Jeremy Wade’s River Monsters with a cup of tea and rate that as an awesome Saturday night.”

They also enjoyed regular visits to a country property owned by Chris’s uncle, where Daniella had a delightful surprise in November 2014.

“We were at his uncle’s estate in Bowral, my favourite place in the world,” Daniella says. “Because we went there often I didn’t see it coming when Chris asked me to ‘pop outside for a sec’.

When Chris dropped “down on one knee in the beautiful garden that encircles the house”, Daniella immediately started crying.

“And not the pretty, dainty kind of tears, it was outright, ugly crying,” she admits. “Chris tugged on my arm and said, ‘Is that a yes?’

“I could barely speak so just nodded aggressively. The ring was exactly what I had hoped it would be, a cushion cut diamond with a halo.”

They then sat for a few moments, enjoying a view across green, grassy hills and the sound of a babbling creek.

“We didn’t need words then,” Daniella says.

Daniella’s wedding gown had a layered tulle skirt with a hand beaded bodice and spaghetti straps, designed by Hayley Paige and purchased at Eternal Bridal in The Strand Arcade. Hidden beneath the flowing skirt she wore a pair of high-top silver Converse kicks.

To make their bridal entrance a little special, Chris crafted a wooded, freestanding doorway to stand at the start of the aisle at Miramare Gardens at Terry Hills.

“There were flowers everywhere,” Daniella says. “We wanted to carry the theme of our garden ceremony into the reception, where a sky full of clouds floated above the dance floor. Our bridal table was hedged with soft pastels and flowing greens.”

As their outdoor ceremony began, real clouds gathered overhead, forcing outdoor antipasto, pasta and zucchini flower stations to be moved indoors “when the sky decided to have a tantrum”.

After Chris and Daniella danced their bridal waltz to You and Me by Lifehouse, their DJ cranked up “old-school party tracks” so all 250 of their guests could sing along.

“Safe to say, not a single person was sitting when Nutbush came on,” Daniella recalls.

Although Daniella describes picking their favourite moment as like “picking your favourite part of Disneyland”, she says seeing their family and friends all in the one place, at the same time, on the same day was “absolute magic”.

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