Bupa’s Barrabool aged care home was transformed into a venue for a recent wedding expo!
It all began when carer and lifestyle coordinator Cristina Plevko expressed her wish of wedding her husband Matthew in the home, in front of their friends, family, residents and staff. The wedding would go ahead to take place at a different venue, due to Matthew being called away for work, but the couple was still hoping to share their experience with the home, and so masterminded a unique event.
One month following the wedding, Cristina coordinated a wedding expo, in order to help some of the home’s residents who are living with dementia to relive some of the happiest days of their lives. “We had a big display of wedding dresses ranging from 1931, to my own.” Mrs Plevko said.
The coordination took weeks, and organisers collaborated with all the residents to collate their photos along with family members who dropped off their parents’ wedding dresses.
“Everyone was excited in the lead up to it, they were excited on the day and they are still talking about it now.”
“It was our idea to originally have the wedding at the home – when the residents found out we were getting married they said we should have it here,” she stated.
The heartwarming gesture was very well received because “this is their home and even though I work here, they invited us into their home.”
“The residents are lovely. They created heart shaped decorations with nice messages for my wedding and even gave me a wedding album gift to put our photos in.”
“We actually timed the wedding expo to be on Kevin and Grace Neave’s 65th wedding anniversary.”
Grace reminisced: “I met my husband at his mates 21st birthday. Neither of us ever tried to talk each other out of doing the things we loved and wanted. Kevin played a lot of sport and used to go away a lot for that but it didn’t worry me because trust is important,” Grace said.
“I didn’t expect the wedding expo to be timed in with my anniversary. My daughter Marilyn brought in a big table of wedding albums from our family,” said Grace
“We had a runway set up in the loungeroom so people could parade their dresses, we also converted the pool table into a display area for wedding albums.”
There was a unique visual combination of white and coloured, long and short, traditional and unconventional, veil to no veil that made the expo extremely interesting to spectate, particularly for those that came to peruse and relive more than just their own special day.
“We have a resident who had her mother’s wedding dress on display beside her own wedding dress, her daughter’s wedding dress and her granddaughter’s wedding dress – it was surreal to see the generations come alive through their garments,” she said.
“A lot of the residents have said it brought back memories of their own weddings.”
Grace added: “We all had some champagne and a beer to celebrate, everyone got a slice of our anniversary wedding cake. I am looking forward to the next event,” she said.
This is just the sweetest thing ever! Isn’t it Fairies?
Written by: Zoe Kanlis
Featured Image: Bupa Aged Care/Supplied
