It feels like Laura Byrne and Matthew ‘Matty J’ Johnson have been planning their wedding forever, but the couple are finally ready to tie the knot for real.
After multiple COVID-19 postponements the Bachelor success story have set a date for the end of the year, but Laura still has to get her wedding dress sorted.
She’s found ‘The One’ but hasn’t been able to show the dress to her bridesmaids yet because restrictions at the time meant she had to go wedding dress shopping alone.
The loved-up Bachelor alums can’t wait to say ‘I do’ at the end of the year.
(Image: Instagram)“It’s very different when you try on dresses and you’re wearing a face mask and you’re by yourself,” she tells Now To Love.
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“Unfortunately it hasn’t been this really fun process yet because my sister couldn’t come, my bridesmaid couldn’t come.”
The pandemic robbed her of the iconic “I found the dress” moment we’re used to seeing in romcoms, but Laura’s hoping to get a do-over in a few weeks.
“Now that everything has opened up, July is when I get to go and actually bring my girlfriends and we can make a day of it. I think then it’ll [being a bride] start to feel very real,” she says.
Laura admits she and Matt have been “so bad at organising” their nuptials because it’s been “perpetually delayed” over the last two years, but now the date is approaching they can’t wait to say ‘I do’.
Their daughters Marlie-Mae, two, and Lola, one, will be flower girls on the big day and Marlie is “so excited”, though Lola has only just started walking and may not be as committed to the job – but Laura isn’t worried.
The laid-back bride doesn’t really see the ceremony as “the next chapter” in her life with Matt, mainly because they’ve already checked off almost every post-wedding milestone.
They have two healthy children, love life as parents and even bought a home together, so Laura sees the wedding as “a mark of us being a family, not just of Matt and I loving each other”.
WATCH: The Bachelor’s Matty J proposes to Laura Byrne. Story continues after video.
She explains: “It’s more a time to have a party with the people that we love and to stand in front of our family and our friends and say, ‘yes, we might have two children, but we really, really love each other’.”
That said, there’s guaranteed to be a few tears from the bride and the groom on the big day.
“We both cry at everything. Even when we were trying to pick out wedding songs we were both crying, so I think the both of us will be a bit of the mess,” Laura reveals with a laugh.
“He’s very sensitive. Especially since becoming a dad, he’s way more in touch with his feelings. We both are.”
The pair are huge softies when it comes to their kids.
(Image: Instagram)Reflecting on their lives since meeting on The Bachelor in 2017, Laura is honest about the fact that starting a family so soon forced them to rearrange some milestones.
After falling pregnant in 2018, the couple got engaged in April the following year and welcomed Marlie-Mae that June – but having an “easy” first child meant they underestimated the more challenging parts of parenthood.
“At the time it made me feel really smug, I was like, ‘this motherhood gig is so easy’,” Laura admits, adding that she and Matt “probably jumped the gun” when they decided to try for another just nine months later.
Lola arrived in February 2021, ushering in a new era of colic, sleepless nights and constant crying in the Johnson-Byrne household.
WATCH: Laura Bryne surprises Matty J with pregnancy news. Story continues after video.
“Lola really knocked the wind out of us a little bit, especially for those first six months, because she was a more tricky baby,” says the 37-year-old mum.
“But as soon as you get through one phase that’s so, so hard … all of a sudden things are a bit easier. Then they get harder again! It’s forever changing.”
The early days as mum of two were unbelievably challenging, but Laura’s since found a rhythm with the girls and has learned to let the little things – like a messy house or dirty laundry – slide.
Instead she’s excited for the future, one where she and Matt will be married and raising two girls who are already seem to have inherited their mum’s tenacity and dad’s cheeky wit.
Laura can’t wait for her girls to grow up together as best friends.
(Image: Instagram)But is Laura dreading the teen years? Surprisingly, no.
“I’m actually really looking forward to it. I know that everyone says that young teenage girls are hard and maybe I’ll swallow those words when I actually have teenage girls,” she laughs.
“But it’s such an incredible time to be able to raise young women. Women have so much more agency, they have so much more control, their voices are heard … it’s a privilege to raise two young girls in this world.”
She expects Marlie-Mae and Lola to serve up the just as much defiance and rebellion she did as a teen, but for Laura that’s just another stage of motherhood she’s ready to dive into with Matt at her side.
