An unusual love story

As a young girl I remember watching Disney movies like Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and Cinderella. Although they all have different messages and story lines they all end up with the main character overcoming obstacles and ending up with her 'prince charming'. For a couple of years I thought that's the way it worked, I would turn into some type of princess and meet my prince charming and live happily ever after. However, after watching mum and dad split up and then mum being a single parent for years after dad died the fantasy kind of disappeared. Dam you Disney for giving me false hope and dam you life for ruining it.

After my first marriage didn't go so well I didn't have high hopes of any fairytale love coming from nowhere and sweeping me off my feet. In fact I had completely come to terms with being alone for the rest of my life {a bit dramatic I know, but I had just gone through a divorce from a man who kept telling me this would be my reality if I ever left him}. I was totally happy on my own, in fact I was relishing my freedom to do what I wanted. I was going out because I wanted to. I was getting dressed up to look good for me, not for a man. I was definitely not looking for love. That old saying that you'll find love when you stop looking for it happens to be true in my case. I met my soul mate by accident.

I went out for new years eve with my best friend and some of her friends. We weren't looking for men or love or anything other than a fun girls night out. Towards the end of the night I was kind of over it. I'd had my fill of watching extremely drunk people doing ridiculous things because they were inebriated. It was entertaining at the beginning of the night, but after a couple of hours the novelty wore off. Clearly my alcohol had worn off by then too and I just wanted to leave. Lucky I didn't because I never would have met him.

This is the totally random moment we met.

My friends were arguing with this guy because they wanted his hat {one of those cardboard top hats that had NYE on it} and he wouldn't give it to them. He had his back to me so I just took it off his head {because I was over the stupid argument}. I didn't really care how he was going to react. Then he turned around and my first thought was oh shit hes good looking. It turns out he must have thought I was alright too because he spent the rest of the night with us. I went from wanting to leave at 1am to staying out until 5am, when they literally kicked us all out.

I was so out of touch with the dating game that he had to ask me for my number and my first thought was oh that's right, that's how this works. I guess I'd already come to the conclusion he would never want to see me again. That's pretty much how it worked back when I was 19 and I met guys in clubs. To my surprise he did call and we did see each other again. After a few weeks we succumbed to the fact that we were in fact "dating" and that we'd accidentally found ourselves in a relationship when we both weren't looking for one.

I can't really recall the exact moment I realised that I loved him, but the point I realised he loved me was one night when I was really drunk and vomited everywhere. He went inside and I assumed he was leaving and I wouldn't see him again. Instead he came out and cleaned everything up and looked after me. We'd only been "dating" for about a month. That's true love right there people. From that point on I knew he'd always be there to look after me.

Almost two years after we met we got engaged while on holidays in Sydney. About two weeks after that we found out I was pregnant, which was the most awesome surprise. She was very much a planned baby, but it was a surprise because we were literally just told we would need to do IVF to conceive. I went to Sydney with one love and came back with another already secretly growing inside of me.

Maternity photos taken by Jane Gilbey Photography

Now we're a perfect little family of three. I couldn't imagine life any other way. I often think what if I didn't go out that night? What if I never took that stupid hat off his head? Where would I be now? I had no idea when I met him that he would become my future.

Photo taken by Katharine Maree Photography

So, my prince didn't come riding up on an impressive horse, fly into my life on a magic carpet or rescue me from the ocean. There was no grand entrance or love at first sight moment for us and I was certainly not dressed like a princess when we met. It was just a simple fleeting moment between two strangers that coincidentally became the greatest love story of my life.

Toni x