Our relationship began in August 200 1 through a friend we both knew from The Warehouse, where we both worked while students at Canterbury University. Dan asked me out the first time by text message - ah what did we do without technology making things so much easier.

Dan finished his forestry degree at the end of the year and moved to Gisborne for work in 2002 while I completed my final year at Canterbury. Still together after a year apart we both moved to Auckland, Dan for work and I for more study in forensic science, at the start of 2003.

It wasn't until then end of November 2005 that Dan proposed while having a picnic at sunset at North Head overlooking the city. He told me to go over to the edge of the hill and he was going to take a photo. Then he came over and got down on one knee with the perfect ring he had chosen himself and there was no question about the answer as I had been hoping for this for quite some time. Apparently he had been walking around everywhere for the previous week with the ring in his pocket because he was worried he was going to lose it.

However, the proposal was three days before Dan left for a traveling holiday to the Middle East for six months. This left me to organise most of the wedding myself while confirming details with Dan on the other side of the world via email. This actually proved to be not too bad as there was really no opportunity for arguments over things; I just had to make the decisions. In saying that, we both wanted the same things so Dan ended up being pretty happy with what I decided on.

The wedding was set for 25 November 2006 at Rivermill, Waimauku, Auckland , a stunning, rustic, purpose built venue with a country atmosphere which is what I wanted as I am a country girl at heart.

My bridesmaids were my two younger sisters and a good friend. The best man and groomsmen were old friends of Dan's from school and university.

I found a picture of a dress that I fell in love with but couldn't find anything like it on the rack so decided to have it made. The dressmaker was Susan Barter who I knew from church and had seen her work before. She was brilliant and the dress turned out just like the picture and just how I wanted it. I wanted simple but elegant, none of this puffy meringue stuff, and that's just how it was. It was white with a small cowl neck and straps that went over my shoulders into shoestring straps that crossed down the low back. It was cut on the bias and just fell beautifully with a long train covered in small crystals and pearls. My shoes were simple white and strappy and I found them at Hannahs. They were just what I wanted, so when you're trying not to blow the bank its great to find what you want at a bargain price. That goes for my necklace too. That was from a market in Nelson for $20 - and no one would ever have guessed.

Even though she had no floristry experience I asked my mum to do the flowers which stressed her out immensely. I knew what I wanted, red and white lilies; red for my bouquet and white for the bridesmaids. Sounds simple doesn't it. However, red Asiatic lilies could not be found anywhere in Auckland. Despite incidences like having to bring the red lilies all the way from Christchurch to Auckland on the plane, my mum did an amazing job and the flowers were stunning.

The table centers mum did as well. They were a bunch of three white oriental lilies and some beer grass with pearls on it in a tall dark red vase. The name placings/bonbonniere were small bags made from the same fabric as my dress filled with Russian fudge that I personally make a few days prior - that was a lot of fudge! There was a tag on each bag with the guests name on it.

I was set on having the theme of deep blood red and white and the right red proved difficult to find. I ended up getting ribbon dyed the right colour which I used to hand make the invites, on the bags of fudge and on the white bottles of bubbles that we gave guests as they arrived. I fortunately found bridesmaids dresses in the right red which I was stoked about. They fell just like my dress and fitted in perfectly, they also looked amazing on the girls.

Dan and the groomsmen wore black four button, single-breasted Vermont suits from Frank Casey with white wing collar shirts and black ties. Dan had a white rose buttonhole to match my dress and the groomsmen had red rose buttonholes to match the bridesmaids' dresses.

I was keen to somehow have horses involved in the wedding or at least in the photos as I have had horses for most of my life and they are somehow part of who I am. As I don't currently have my own horse this made things difficult. Then the idea came to me that the perfect way would be to arrive by horse and carriage; and even better, to make it a surprise for Dan. I thought that the hard part would be when we had to decide on transport to get to the wedding but this was actually easier than I anticipated. I just told Dan that I was quite happy to take my car and that it would be a good way to save money not to hire cars, as they were not something that was important to me. He bought the story just like that and he agreed that he was also happy to take his own car and it would be a good area to save some money. He never even questioned it.

I booked the horses and carriage from Quayside Carriages who I was most impressed with. They were so beautifully turned out and professional and they made the day. They picked us up from the Vineyard Cottages where we were getting ready, and where we stayed on the wedding night, and carried us the couple of hundred metres down the road to Rivermill. They provided a dramatic entrance made all the better by the fact that Dan didn't know about them; apparently the look on his face was priceless!

The ceremony was held outside on the grounds of Rivermill at the bottom of the hill. This allowed for people to stand up the hill somewhat like a small amphitheatre and be able to see everything, and also made the entrance of the horse and carriage at the top of the hill most impressive. My dad walked me down the aisle to 'Everything' by Lifehouse, sung live to acoustic guitar by a friend.

The weather turned out beautifully. There was threatening rain and wind in the morning but by the afternoon the sun was out and it was a lovely ceremony which was relaxed and filled with love and Christian values important to us. We were married by Richard Kay, a Pastor from our church who was great and made the ceremony informal and fun. Another friend sang 'Without You' by Brooke Fraser as we signed the register and then we walked backup the aisle to 'You and Me' by Lifehouse amid rose petal confetti and bubbles. We cut the cake straight after the ceremony as bubbly and punch was passed around to the guests.

We had 96 guests including family and friends from all our activities throughout our lives. The furthest anyone traveled was a good friend of Dan's from school who came all the way from London. Unfortunately my Dad's family who are all in France were not able to make it. Even my first school teacher from when I was five, who is a friend of the family, was able to come. Having all those people who mean so much to us all in one place at the same time was quite overwhelming but it was awesome even though there was not enough time in the day to spend enough time with each of them.

The horse and carriage drove us to and from two different locations for photos close by and we arrived back at Rivermill after having a lot of fun and had a wonderful meal. Then speeches, dessert and dancing followed. We opted for the clutch and sway method of first dance rather than having dancing lessons and we had our first dance to 'Beautiful One' by Julia Grace.

The day was wonderful, the weather was perfect thankfully as the impact of the horses and carriage just wouldn't have been the same if we had to have the ceremony inside. We had an amazing time and our guests all enjoyed themselves, which resulted in the perfect day that we will never forget.

We left for our honeymoon at midday the following day which was to a surprise location that I had no idea about. That was one thing that I put Dan in charge of and I told him that I wanted to have nothing to do with it seeing as I had enough to organise already. However, I did put in some requests such as warm, beach and preferably an island. I really want to go to Tahiti but we decided that was going to be too expensive. I had my suspicions that it was going to be Fiji , but as we were walking into the airport to check in and we were heading towards Air Tahiti Nui I realised that my dream honeymoon place was going to be a reality and we were off to Tahiti!