25/09/2025
About a week after her final HSC exam, Melissa scored a job as a receptionist at St Mary’s RSL where Tony had been working behind the bar.
One evening she had asked the duty manager to show her how to poor a beer, when Tony approached commencing his shift. Melissa was flushed with crazy nervousness and butterflies. Looking up as he walked past is a core memory for her, their first eye gaze followed by the scent of Pink Joop in the air. The bar manager introduced them to one another but Tony already knew exactly who Melissa was, he had been canvassing her ever since she arrived at St Marys.
A prank call to the office leaving Melissa announcing a telephone call for Burns Zarsoff, a shared straw, and a late night swim in the River with work friends led to Melissa sheepishly asking Tony to never let her go….
It was terribly timing, Tony’s family were relocating to Brisbane, so they spent as much time together as they could, two teenagers falling in love. Was it real, or was it a brief summer crush??
Tony moved back to Sydney, they missed each other terribly. For the next 5 years they were inseparable. In a sliding doors moment, Melissa still so young felt restless seeking life experience and felt the need to go in search of her identity. Tony returned to Brisbane and they moved on with their lives.
22 years later, they randomly connected. He still had the same signature smell of Pink Joop, and she a sweet air of vanilla. There was nostalgia, comfort, and a sense of wonder at the personal growth each of them had undergone, it felt as if two decades hadn’t even passed.
Today they wed at The Beachcomber Hotel and Resort for a luxury Hamptons style waterfront wedding, celebrating a long-awaited destiny and a new beginning.
