Valentine’s Day: 11 South Australia couples share how they met and their epic love stories
This South Australian couple trained for six months to say ‘I do’ 130m below the surface. Love is in the air this Valentine’s Day, read 11 epic love stories.
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Love is in the air.
And South Australia is no exception.
In celebration of Valentine’s Day, the Advertiser has collated some of the most memorable love stories from around the state that are bound to get you itching to say ‘I do’.
From record-breaking ceremonies, high flying set ups and doughnut shop weddings, here are some of the best.
Hiro Yoshida and Sandra Smith
When Hiro Yoshida and Sandra Smith met in Vietnam in 2008 they were both diving instructors, six years later they broke a Guinness World Record for the deepest underwater wedding.
The couple tied the knot at 130m below the surface in a cave at Song Hong Lake, Trang, Thailand.
Mr Yoshida originally from Japan and Ms Smith originally from the US, now live in Adelaide with their four children.
While most weddings take planning and preparation, few require six hard months of the intensive training required for the couple to reach the record.
Throughout their vows the couple couldn’t control their laughter as the helium in their gas mixture made their voices comically high pitched.
“As adventurous dive instructors, we crisscrossed the world, culminating in a breathtaking underwater wedding in a cave at the incredible depth of 130 metres,” Mr Yoshida said.
“One of the quotes we had from our underwater wedding was, ‘until the depths do us part’.”
Mr Yoshida now teaches scientific diving at Flinders University while Ms Smith “dives into a sustainable future” with her master’s in environmental management.
“Together we raise not just awareness but also beautiful children, surfacing joy and adventure with every breath, above and below the waves,” Mr Yoshida said.
Anita and Evan Lymn
Evan Lymn had just finished a 15-day Contiki tour of New Zealand visiting Christchurch to Auckland when he made a last minute decision to extend his tour to continue to the Bay of Islands.
It was on that tour he met Anita.
“Eventually, we were introduced by some friends that Evan had met while on the trip, who wanted us to connect, given we were the only travellers from Adelaide,” Anita said.
“Evan sat next to me and promptly asked me to use my shoulder to have a nap, charmed by his move I said yes.
“It just goes to show how meaningful relationships can form from the most random encounters. If not for that New Zealand Contiki tour in 1994, well we wouldn’t be here today.”
The Contiki romance led to marriage and the couple now have two daughters.
The Lymn’s weren’t the only couple to get together from that 1994 New Zealand Contiki.
Janet and Michael from Canada both met on the same tour and continue to connect with Anita and Evan to this day.
“I am so lucky that I found Michael. We are planning our retirement,” Janet said.
“We met one another halfway around the world and are so grateful for the experience.”
Sarah and G
While working as a flight attendant Sarah noticed a passenger had the same last name as a man she once knew.
“As I turned around to hand out the special meal much to my surprise it was someone that resembled the man I knew except she was a lady,” Sarah, 34, said.
“I then placed her special meal down on her tray table and I just had to ask if they are related as she resembled him so much.”
It turned out the woman was the man’s – whose name was G – sister.
“We got chatting and she straight up asked if I was single, with basically a third of the plane listening in to our conversation, I leaned in and said yes,” Sarah said.
“She asked me to write my number down and she could pass it on.”
Sarah wrote her number and her email down on a piece of paper and gave it to the passenger.
“Two weeks later I received an email, back and forth we got talking … then decided to meet up.”
Sarah and G, 44, drunk coffee and ate nachos and three hours later they decided to meet up again.
“After many dates of riding free bikes down the Torrens, dinners, lunches, movies, ice skating and playing pool he finally asked me out and I said yes of course,” she said.
Almost 11 years later, Sarah and G have been together ever since, married for three years with three beautiful children.
“The sister that’s last name I saw on the special meal was in the process of changing her name that week so we may have never crossed paths let alone me noticing his sister that I’d never met before,” Sarah said.
“If that isn’t fate, I don’t know what is.”
John and Joan Hughes
For Dr John Hughes and Mrs Joan Hughes, it was a cup of tea and a school pencil box in the middle of the Indian Ocean that set them on their path of marriage.
In 1957, John was the assistant ship’s doctor on the P&O ship Arcadia, and Joan was a passenger, making her way to England with a friend to work as a physiotherapist.
“The steward was giving us a tour of the ship and stopped at John’s cabin to introduce us,” Joan recalls.
“Turns out John was having his after-lunch siesta. He woke up and came to the door in his dressing gown and slippers! My first thought was that he was a bit scruffy – but my opinion improved quickly after he invited us in for a cup of tea.”
A fun activity on the voyage was for passengers to participate in a fancy hat parade. Joan decided to craft a hat and asked John if he had any supplies she could use.
“He pulled out his old school pencil box,” Joan said. “I couldn’t help but be impressed.”
With Joan’s career waiting for her in London, and John deployed on the Arcadia, it wasn’t smooth sailing for the couple, who settled into a long-distance relationship before they were engaged in 1958.
John agreed to move to Joan’s hometown of Adelaide, and they were married at the Gartrell Memorial Church at Rose Park in 1959.
John had a successful career as an anaesthetist, opening his private practice in 1967.
Joan worked as a physiotherapist at Somerton Home, where she assisted children with polio and cerebral palsy, before going on to work for SCOSA.
Then, in 1998 they both retired and moved to a 10-acre farm at Inman Valley, where they bred alpacas.
The couple travelled extensively and even hopped on board a P&O Arcadia ship (not the original) in 2014 to celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary, and now enjoy life at Resthaven Malvern.
Professor Justine Smith and Dr Binoy Appukuttan
Justine Smith and Binoy Appukuttan got married in a doughnut shop after they fell in love writing a grant application together 20 years ago.
The pair met as young researchers at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Oregon in the US.
Ms Smith, 58, travelled there from Australia and Mr Appukuttan, 54, from the UK.
They decided to write a grant together combining their expertise, Ms Smith as a ophthalmologist-scientist and Mr Appukuttan as a molecular biologist, which ended up getting funded.
Since, they’ve continued to work together, now at Flinders University in Adelaide, having published four papers together last year alone.
Ms Smith said the reason she fell for Mr Appukuttan was “his natural happiness and his inquisitiveness”.
She later learnt he was an exceptional barista which didn’t hurt.
For Mr Appukuttan, Ms Smith’s “smile, big heart and intelligence” was what got him down on one knee.
They said the key to a successful relationship is enjoying time together and also on your own and of course, splitting the household jobs.
Ms Smith and Mr Appukuttan live together in Glengowrie with their 15-year-old son.
Darren and Jennifer Grosser
In the very late 1960s Jennifer Grosser’s grandparents were left without a home or jobs after they had to leave their pub
A publican named Douglas, who owned The British Hotel at Port Adelaide, heard what happened and asked them to manage his hotel and live in the upstairs accommodation.
Ten years later Darren Grosser was working as a casual barman at The Lockleys Hotel where Ms Grosser was socialising with old school friends.
After making subtle eye contact across the bar at each other Mr Grosser asked out Ms Grosser.
“On our first date we realised he was the son of the publican that threw my grandparents a life line,” Ms Grosser said.
In another twist of fate, Ms Grosser’s mother worked with Mr Grosser’s aunty and would often hang out together at family’s houses.
“As our family paths had crossed many times we kind of feel that we were always meant to be,” Mr Grosser said.
The couple began dating on March 30 in 1982, were engaged on December 24 in 1983, married on February 2 in 1985 and had children in 1990 and 1992.
“We love each other because we are best friends and enjoy each other’s company,” Ms Grosser said.
“We both believe a marriage evolves throughout the years and you need to be prepared to work as a team for the long game.”
Nikki and Luke Swalling
Nikki locked eyes with Luke Swalling across the dance floor at a blue-light disco in 1996 but the pair wouldn’t get together until 18 years later.
After a brief relationship two years after meeting the pair inevitability lost contact and Nikki travelled to the UK.
Luke, now 42, private messaged Nikki, now 40, after he saw she had commented on a mutual friend’s Facebook post in 2013.
“It was pretty apparent there were some feelings,” Nikki said.
In January 2014 the pair decided to try and make long distance work and in May Nikki came back and spent a month with Luke.
“It was like we’d never been apart and so we decided to bring our lives together,” she said.
The following year Luke took Nikki on a hot-air balloon ride, lunch at the Stirling Hotel, the Big Rocking Horse and finally capped off the day with a stay at the Intercontinental overlooking the River Torrens.
“We went for a walk down to the Torrens and there was a gondola waiting for us,” Nikki said.
“We hopped in and went for a ride up and down the Torrens. Towards the end Luke got down on one knee in the gondola and asked me to marry him.
“Of course I said yes.”
Nikki and Luke got married in 2016, honeymooned in Thailand in 2017 and completed their family after welcoming their little girl in 2018.
“I love him (Luke) because although life is not always perfect, although life is not always the fairytale love story it started out as — he is my person, my best friend in the whole world and that one person I can truly be myself with,” Nikki said.
Ian and Meredith Ottway
A change in plans lead to love for Ian and Meredith Ottway.
In 2008, when Ian received the news he would have to alter plans for his upcoming holiday to Western Australia, little did he realise that Cupid’s arrow was about to strike.
“I was living in Albury, Victoria, and I had a phone call to say the particular coach holiday I had booked was cancelled due to a lack of numbers,” he said.
“The organiser offered me a spot at a different time, mentioning that the group would include some people from Adelaide. The change of date didn’t bother me – I was retired from my career as tailor in the army – so I said yes.”
Also on that tour was Meredith, a retired schoolteacher from Prospect.
“We hit it off straight away,” Meredith said.
‘We always had things to talk about, and over the two-week holiday we found that our paths kept intertwining.’
When the holiday finished, the couple shared a warm goodbye kiss, but they both knew they wanted to keep in touch.
Regular phone calls and visits took place, and it wasn’t long before Ian made the move across the country.
He moved in with Meredith and, with the blessing of their children (they each have four), they decided to get married.
The couple tied the knot at Carrick Hill on May 13, 2012, surrounded by family and friends. Meredith was 73 and Ian was 77.
‘When Meredith walked through the garden archway towards me, the foliage came up on either side and then dipped in the middle, forming the shape of a heart – it was just beautiful,’ Ian said.
In 2022, Ian and Meredith moved into Resthaven Westbourne Park where they continue to enjoy life together.
Scarlett O’Hara and David James Chadwick
They did not even exchange numbers when Scarlett O’Hara (“yes that is my real name, a lot of people don’t believe me,” she said), 27 and David James Chadwick, 29 met – but they found their way back to each other.
Ms O’Hara served Mr Chadwick when he came into the cafe she was working at with his sister.
“I thought (she) was his girlfriend because they look completely opposite,” Ms O’Hara said.
When Ms O’Hara brought Mr Chadwick his coffee he asked for an extra sugar packet.
“I could tell he was nervous,” Ms O’Hara said.
Later that night she discovered she had a Facebook friend request from the man she had served.
“We had a handful of mutual friends, I in fact messaged him first … within two weeks of constant communication we had our first date,” she said.
Two years later the pair moved into a unit together which happened to be attached to the cafe where they met. A year later they rescued a greyhound and started to build a home together.
While on a family holiday to Los Angeles in 2019, Mr Chadwick proposed to Ms O’Hara on Christmas Day at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
“It was just magic,” Ms O’Hara said.
“Not to mention, five minutes later Mark Wahlberg walked right past our table.”
While Covid lockdowns paused their wedding plans, Ms O’Hara and Mr Chadwick have been growing their family.
First with Harvey Michael born on September 29, 2020 and then with twin girls Penelope Evelyn and Harper Louise in 2023.
“We’ve gone through so much together, we’ve shared so many beautiful memories and laughs together,” Ms O’Hara said.
“We have three gorgeous children who are our everything and we consider ourselves so lucky.
“David is my best friend, he is the one I want to tell about my day … there’s not enough words to explain the magnitude of my love for him.”
Carol Pieterse and Chris Morton
Carol Pieterse placed an advertisement in The Advertiser the Friday before Valentine’s Day in 2007 looking for love.
Chris Morton answered her calls and the pair have been inseparable ever since.
“We love each other as we have a lot of things in common from gaming Xbox, Star Wars, Star Trek, fishing, art and love rabbits,” Ms Pieterse, 58, said.
The pair are parents to bunny Arbuke affectionately known as Arby.
Together for 18 years, Mr Morton, 47, became Ms Pieterse’s full-time career nine years ago after she was diagnosed with degenerative scoliosis.
Gordon and June Dunnicliff
With their seven children in tow, Gordon, now 95, and June Dunnicliff, now 91, occupied a whole row of the plane when they moved from Leicester, England to Australia in 1962.
Gordon had a job lined up at ETSA, and June found a job doing office work for a real estate company in the city, keeping track of the daily tasks, and ensuring everything ran smoothly.
“It was a most interesting job,” June said. “I had to be very organised, but with seven children, I always tried to be one step ahead. I think that was what made me successful at my job as well.”
Travel has been a highlight for June and Gordon, visiting family and friends in England, Canada, and the US, as well as travelling to Japan and Europe.
They are both lifelong fans of the Leicester City Football Club, and June has enjoyed being part of a local musical society.
The couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in 2023, not long after they moved into Resthaven Craigmore.
“We have been very lucky,” June said. “We have had many good times and are looking forward to enjoying lots of activities in the future.”
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