She will be waking to her eagerly awaited wedding day, and, with her first baby due in May, it will be the starting line to 12 months that will change her life forever.

“It’s sort of exciting,” the bride-to-be said. 

“It will be a big year. We’re still getting ready for the bub when it arrives.”

New Year’s Day means more to Ms Fadersen, 23, and childhood sweetheart Bill Colquhoun, 24, than it does to most.

At the top of Mt William while holidaying in the Grampians exactly two years ago was when he asked her to marry him, and they agreed to tie the knot.

The Ballarat East couple met in primary school before falling in love as teenage volunteer firefighters at the CFA in Dereel.

Ms Fadersen said she was in full-swing wedding mode, but expected many of her 40 guests might struggle to shake off fatigue from New Year’s Eve celebrations as readily.

“I think the ceremony will be a short one,” she said.

Eight couples were married at the Old Treasury Building in Melbourne on New Year’s Eve by the state marriage registry, while many other ceremonies were privately organised over Monday and Tuesday.

Marriage celebrant Kali Power said some couples chose December 31 or January 1 as their wedding dates for sentimental purposes and the idea of “new beginnings”.

“It’s about wanting to start the new year with their new partner and having the groundwork for their new lives,” she said.

“They want to make that leap together.”