Why we should all look at David Pocock and Emma Palandri's wedding photos.

Wallabies star David Pocock has married his “best mate” Emma Palandri in a delightfully simple wedding ceremony at the weekend.

On Monday the 30-year-old shared photos of a ceremony that was basically the antithesis of everything a modern wedding is.

By that we mean there were no flowers; no white, fluffy or intricately-beaded dress; no acoustic trio playing as the bride walked down a rose petal-scattered white carpet and no bridal party.

Just a man and woman, a celebrant, a gumtree and an esky.

 

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Married my best mate yesterday ???? Say yes to grace! Say no to spite! Say yes to this! Say yes to you! Say yes to me! Say yes to love! Say yes to life! Say, say yes to life! I hope we can live into the words of Rilke: “The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.”

A post shared by David Pocock (@davidpocock) on Dec 2, 2018 at 3:07pm PST

To anyone in the midst of planning a big white wedding, it’s a refreshing and welcome reminder about what really makes a wedding special: you and your partner declaring your love and commitment to each other.

It won’t stop us agonising over the perfect dress or blowing the budget on floral centrepieces – but it may just be the thing to keep in mind and calm us down when we’re on the cusp of having a meltdown over napkins.

David and Emma’s wedding is also a beautiful example of what keeping your promise looks like.

Their wedding on Sunday was the official conclusion to a vow they made in 2010 when they held a (similarly low key) commitment ceremony in front of family and friends, but refused to make their marriage official.

Their reason was that they didn’t want to get married until their same-sex attracted friends could.

Also, David can sure play rugby union…

They didn’t know at the time it would be another seven years until their friends would be told “yes” they can marry the person they love legally, and eight until they themselves would choose to finally do it too.

In December last year, the rugby union star spoke to the Sydney Morning Herald about their decision to wait, describing it as a “personal stand”.

“We’ve chatted about it. At the time in 2010 we had a little ceremony with family and friends, but decided we didn’t want to sign anything our friends couldn’t,” Pocock said.

“Now the [same-sex marriage debate] is done, it’s a good thing. I think everyone should be grateful to the activists and LGBTI folk who made this happen. I really do think it makes our society better going forward.”

At the time, he told the newspaper he was sure their wedding would be “low key” – just another promise he’s made good on.

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