This MC driver bride arrived at her wedding in style, driving herself to the ceremony in a shined-up Kenworth T909, with her father and maid of honour in tow, as she married her farmer beau.
Callie Sandilands and Aidan Newton tied the knot on a not-so-sunny day at a lush green sheep and cattle property, just out of Candelo in southern NSW.
The 70mm of rain forecast left Sandilands, 37, a little nervous that the convoy of three trucks might not be able to make it through the dampened paddocks, but thankfully there was nothing more than a light drizzle, which did little to dampen the mood during the ceremony, which she says became a “comedy of errors”.
“Everything that could go wrong did. We had about 200mm of rain in a couple of weeks leading up to the day, and were really worried about getting the trucks bogged, which was a huge stress, but thankfully the rain held off. The music also went wrong, the microphone broke, and it was windy, so the guests were standing out in the freezing cold, but in the end it all ended up okay.”
Huge rolls of hay and a polished cattle truck were strategically placed to act as a wind-breaker. “Because the weather was so wet and crappy, we parked the cattle truck next to us and it took pride of place,” Sandilands laughed.
She’s been driving trucks since her early twenties and in the past 15 years, has done all sorts of work, including fuel tankers, tippers, general freight, float and logging work.
These days she drives a 1998 Kenworth T900 truck and dog for Greenland Garden Centre in Moruya, NSW. “I’ve been there a bit over a year now but have known them for many years. I do local work at the moment because I have a little son who is three-years-old and my eldest is 13,” she said.
When it came time to start planning the big day, Sandilands says her husband Newton was all over her idea to include the trucks.
First in the wedding convoy of three trucks was a fully restored 1987 T650 owned by Gary Twyford, a white T950 owned by his son Chris Twyford (both carrying the bridal party), and at the back was a T909 driven by Sandilands and owned by Jimmy Russell from Russell’s Transport.
After the ceremony, the newlyweds hopped into the T909 and Sandilands drove them to the reception.
She says the day was a dream come true with guests partying in a huge marquee until the cows came home.