Gemma was the only girl working in the mines when she met her husband Roger
G?emma Kirby was the only girl working in the mines when she met her husband Roger a decade ago.
Then a 22-year-old girl on a 90-man crew, Gemma was working the opposite 12.5 hour rotations to Roger, missing each other in the day and night shift swaps.
Apart from being the sole girl on the team, the Western Australia native stuck out to her future husband for one completely different reason.
"I had this pink shirt on all the time and he said he remembered me bouncing through the breeze," Gemma, who is now a musician, recalls over the phone.
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But there was one moment that sealed the deal ?and solidified the love at first sight tale.
"We'd been moving a shovel cable," Gemma remembers. "I think I was just delirious by this point."
"As a joke, I'd gone and picked up all this pink tape and I had plaited my hair into like two plaits and had tied all this pink tape into my hair with a hard hat on," she says.
Apparently the pink-covered fit worked the trick. According to Gemma, from Roger's point of view she had burst through onto the breezeway with so much energy.
"He's like, 'this chick is just wild'," Gemma recalls Roger later telling her he thought.
"I think from there it was just like this connection."
"There was no conversation had, there was just like this glance and I think from there it was kind of history right where I got love at first sight kind of thing," Gemma gushes.
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Neither had been looking for a long-term relationship. Roger had two children and was eight years older than Gemma, who was focused on starting out her music career.
But their love story has been a whole lot of perfect 'didn't go to plan' moments จC all starting with their first date.
Well technically, the pair didn't even really have a first date to pinpoint for anniversaries. ?
"We worked in the mines so we always ate together," Gemma explains.
While Roger has argued the one time he made her pizza was their first date, Gemma hilariously refutes that counts, let alone even happened. ?
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Then came the wild way the pair became official.
"I remember saying to him, well, if you wanna date me, you have to ask me to be a girlfriend," Gemma recalls.
While Roger initially laughed, it clearly worked because three weeks later he asked the musician to be his girlfriend.
The Queenslander asked Gemma behind the background of his home in Mulaney while taking her to go see deer and watch the sunrise at 4am.
"It was super cute," Gemma gushes over the phone after spilling the anecdote that that was when she hilariously first discovered deer actually bark.
?After five years at the mines, Gemma decided to leave the job and pursue music full time. By that time she had moved in with Roger.
The couple purchased a part of the family farm that had been in Roger's family for over 100 years, and moved in together with his two children.
The next 'didn't go to plan' chapter in their love story was arguably the biggest จC their engagement. ?
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In 2016, the pair were meant to go out for dinner at a restaurant to celebrate their anniversary. But the evening ended up being stormed out.
On to take two.
"Then all of a sudden, two days later, Roger said, 'oh, I've got to go down the paddock and do some spraying and stuff'," Gemma sets up the story.
Roger then went back to the house and told Gemma he had to show her something.
"He'd set up a table and he'd gone into town again because he can't cook," she jokes. ?
The Queenslander had created a playlist for the romantic moment, including their song Will You Marry Me by Jason Derulo, to pop the question to under an arch in the paddock.
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"I was completely gobsmacked because the kids were just in the back of ute," Gemma shares another sweet detail from the picture perfect moment.
Not long after putting a ring on their relationship, the pair tied the knot in a simple wedding at their farm with their now children and a couple hundred guests present.
But there was one twist - none of the guests knew it was a wedding when they arrived. They all thought they were just attending the engagement party.
"It was a total surprise to everyone except for our three best friends," Gemma says.
After successfully pulling off the surprise, the couple married in the exact same spot they got engaged? under an archway out of the wood that Roger's great great grandfather built their home out of.
Since first saying 'I do', the pair have now been married three times over the years, renewing their vows on Father's Day and again when their son Hunter was born.
As the parents of a five, 13 and 15 year-old?, they have since sold their farm and relocated.
But their love had stood the test of a decade for one special reason.
"I adore my husband and I know I know how much he adores me and, I think the crux of it is friendship and I think it's so important," Gemma says.
