Story WENDY CREIGHTON
Photos INC.MILL PHOTOGRAPHY — Cas Miller

SHE is pragmatic and organised.

He is down to earth, very true to himself and polite.

Her wait was over. His too.

Tali recalls their first meeting at the Regatta Hotel. It was arranged after they met online.

She is the author of our opening description of Scott, and of herself.

Readers may think that by these descriptions their relationship failed to meet the benchmarks of romance.

That would be wrong.

Tali sums up her thoughts about their first meeting by saying “Scott made me laugh”.

Their second date was set for two days later.

It was followed by times together becoming a constancy in the lives of two people who both had busy professional careers.

They met on May 9, 2022 and six months later, he moved from his home in the north of Brisbane, to her home in one of the newer Ipswich suburbs.

She had a cat. He brought a dog. The cat tolerated the invader, barely, and remains the queen.

But for the humans in the household, the romance deepened.

Tali again sums it up succinctly: “You know, when you know.”

There is no doubt that Scott agreed.

On the first Spring evening in 2023, he proposed.

“I was having a really bad week at work,” she recounts.

“He brought home a big bunch of brightly coloured flowers and presented them to me.

“I turned to put them on the bench and as I turned back to him, I found him on bended knee with a diamond engagement ring in his hand.

“He proposed. I said ‘yes’.”

There was laughter that day too.

“He had a sore back, so getting up from kneeling was a bit of a struggle. We laughed and laughed.”

And Tali recalls that to set the scene for the proposal, Scott had turned on a song by the Goo Goo Dolls.

“It was playing the first day we met.”

Tali may be practical, but she is not a fan of tradition.

She decided her wedding day was going to have distinct points of difference.

As someone who is totally organised, she wanted time to plan all the details of their wedding.

“It would also give us time to save up for the wedding.”

They looked at venues but once they visited the White Chapel, the decision was made.

On October 10, 2024, Natalya Kurtschenko, accompanied by her mother and father, walked down the aisle towards her husband-to-be Scott McManus.

Ahead of her were her nieces and nephews.

“I remember being so proud of them,” says Tali.

And as she and her parents paused inside the chapel doors, she looked up … there was Scott waiting for her with his four children as attendants.

“It was quite a moment.

“My wait was over ….”

Tali was carrying a big bunch of bright flowers and wearing an equally bright red wedding dress.

“My mum used to do ballroom dancing and I used to sometimes as well.

“The dancing teacher made ball gowns, so when I couldn’t find what I wanted in the shops, I went to her and asked her to make my wedding dress.

“It was just as I wanted it to be.”

Her uppermost impression of her wedding day is of Scott and of laughter.

“So much laughter.”

Tali sums up the time from their first meeting: “We know we are lucky to have found each other.”