Since Bachelor baes Laura Byrne and Matthew Johnson (AKA Matty J) announced that they’ve got a bun in the oven towards the end of last year, all eyes are back on the ridiculously good looking Aussie couple.
In addition to preparing for her upcoming role as a mumma, Laura’s also juggling her kickass jewellery business, Toni May, and fielding rumours about a potential engagement. Safe to say, she’s got a lot going on right now.
While walking PEDESTRIAN.TV through her brand new Paddington store, and pretty-as-heck Finery collection, we spoke about all thing engagement rings, babies and careers.
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On their upcoming bub…
“We’re super stoked. We told everyone mid-December – we told our friends and family prior to that – but December 15th was the day we could be like ‘there’s nothing to hide anymore!’ so yeah it’s happening and it’s super exciting for us. So much will change next year, but yeah, we’re ready for it.
I probably made the announcement it a little earlier than what we would have because I didn’t want someone taking that away from me. Like, I wanted the opportunity to do my baby reveal and talk about it in my words, when I was ready, and not have the DailyMail take that.”
On their baby’s gender…
“We don’t know what’s going to get thrown our way, but we’re looking forward to it either way. As long as it’s a happy baby, except for the fact Matt’s like ‘we’re having a boy!’ and I’m like ‘okay, you might want to rethink this just in case it’s not’. No, he’ll be happy either way.
I’ve always thought I’d have a boy first, but I don’t really care at all. Whatever happens, we don’t want to find out so, it doesn’t matter to me. We’ve already got two boys [Matt and the couple’s rescue dog, Buster] so we need a girl to balance it out.”
On balancing work and the fam…
“I think we’re pretty lucky because my sister, Alisha, is my business partner and she had her baby in May and this is pretty much what a day in our office looks like. Baby nearby, dog nearby, while we’re still working. So I think I’m obviously going to take some time off after June a little bit, after having the baby. And then I think it’s just trying to find my own balance with things.
When you run your own business you have that flexibility as well and you can dip in and dip out as needed.
My sister lives just across the street, so when the babies are a bit older we can just hire a nanny to take care of them over there. My motto with all that kind of stuff is that ‘you do the things that add value, and things that don’t add value, you outsource’. Like cleaning doesn’t add value, so I have someone who can do my cleaning, so that means I can focus on the things that are really important, whether it be parts or work, or parts of your child’s life.”
On her perfect engagement ring…
“I have never even thought about the sort of ring I’d want. If and when that happens, that’s on Matt, and I feel so sorry for him because I don’t know how he’s going to do it. I was thinking into this, like he could give me a stone, and we could design it but I just have no idea.
I got into doing non-traditional rings because, as much as a solitaire diamond is stunning it’s not my style and it’s not something that I need, and I don’t need my partner to spend $10,000/$20,000 on a ring. There are so many other incredible stones out there you can make something beautiful and one-off, which is more important to me than the monetary value attached to it.
The engagement ring is a representation, a token. Your relationship and your love are supposed to be what lasts forever, not a ring that you might want to replace or get reset in 10 years time anyway.
I like something that’s unique and stylish as opposed to something that just says ‘we have lots of money’ because that’s not what a relationship is supposed to be about.”
On designing her new jewellery collection…
“This has been a new venture this year, the engagement pieces. They’re for the girl who doesn’t want a traditional engagement ring. But it’s not just engagement rings, it’s forever pieces and Finery pieces. Everything is unique, using white diamonds, grey diamonds, morganite, aquamarines, we don’t use any traditional solitaire white diamonds.
We try to use rarer or more unique stones that we can’t duplicate. So more one-off pieces, bespoke pieces. We have lots of services where customers come in and pick their stones and we design the piece around that and I love it. Now that I feel like we have the other side of the jewellery (with men’s and women’s collections down part) we can start expanding into the bespoke side, which is more challenging because every customer wants something different out of it. It’s a negotiation between my style and their vision.”
Stay tuned, fam. Because this year looks like it’s gonna be a corker for these guys.
