Farmer wants a date

Wedding bells have rung for a couple who met by chance at the Bedgerabong Picnic Races.

Cassie Smith met Alexander 'Sandy' Scammell at Bedgerabong in February 2007, and the couple tied the knot last month. Cassie was at the races to celebrate a friend's hen's party - and check out the finalists in The Land's Hunks and Spunks competition that year - when Sandy first crossed her path.

While walking with her friend, Jules Maslin, Cassie was stopped by Sandy's mate, Robert Muir, who asked if they had boyfriends. "We just told him we were there to have a good day," Cassie said. They went their separate ways, but later that day Sandy and Cassie met properly, got talking and, as she says, haven't stopped since.

Despite Cassie living in Wagga Wagga and Sandy being in Cowra, the pair kept in touch. In March last year, Cassie, who now works for the Cowra Guardian, moved to the Central West town to be closer to Sandy, who runs a seed grading, lamb marking and mulesing business.

"I wasn't going to move straight away," she said. "I had to check him out."

Cassie said it was Sandy's easygoing, caring and fun nature, as well as passion for life, that attracted her to him. On a cold, windy and wet day in August last year, Sandy proposed to Cassie on her family's property, 'Bijengum', Tarcutta. She recalls being dressed in pink tracksuit pants and gumboots when they drove to the hill on the property where Sandy, something of a traditionalist, got down on one knee and proposed. "It was a muddy, wet knee," Cassie laughed.

The wet and muddy theme continued. The couple decided to marry at 'Eat Your Greens', Eugowra, on March 13. "It was planned to be in the garden, but it poured with rain; I'd never seen so much water," Cassie said. Instead, the daughter of David and Jane Smith, Tarcutta, married Sandy, son of Richard and Annie Scammell in the function centre itself. Celebrant, Joy Bonnor, Cowra, conducted the ceremony before 116 guests, who had travelled from as far as Fiji, Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria, Wagga Wagga and Tarcutta. "It was the best day of my life," Cassie said.

The theme of the wedding was vintage and the bride wore an ivory Mancini gown with crystal bodice and organza overlay, champagne sash, veil and train. Cassie also wore a brooch belonging to Sandy's mum, Annie, who died in 2004, and her grandmother's earrings.

She and her attendants carried a bouquet of pink and yellow roses. Bridesmaids, Karryn Murray, West Wyalong; Natalie Eisenhouer, Wagga Wagga, and Kim Wilson, Colingullie, wore Alfred Angelo dresses in celadon green with lace overlay. The flowergirls were Sandy's nieces, Isabella Scammell, 5, and her sisters Lucy, 3, and Jemima, 17 months. They wore cream dresses with tulle overlay and pink sashes, and carried baskets of pink and yellow petals. The groom was attended by his brother, Hugh Scammell, Cowra; Robert Muir, Wyangala, and Nick Hodge, Junee.

The couple spent a week in Batemans Bay following the wedding, and will honeymoon to Queensland and Fiji in July.


Article by Katana Smith for The Land.