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The Proposal: Darren works on a Saturday morning usually, so on this particular Saturday, off he went to work as usual. He didn’t come home until late that afternoon and in his hand he had a bottle of bubbles. Not being the hopeless romantic type, I had to wonder what was with the bubbly. I thought here we go, what’s he wanting to apologise for!

Turns out he had been to collect an engagement ring and had then gone around to my parents to get their permission. He then asked me to marry him, just like that, in the kitchen while I was doing the dishes, and so I said yes, and the rest they say is history!

Date and Venue: We gave ourselves a year to get organised and set the date for 24 th March 2007 in Whitianga. We wanted to get married on the beach, so choose Simpson’s beach for the ceremony and Salt bar in Whitianga for the reception.

Clothes: The theme was a simple Black and White one. I have always been a fan of black and white, I think it looks sharp, so bridesmaids wore black and white dresses, which I brought off the rack at Kookai in Sylvia Park, and the guys wore white shirts, black pants, black ties.

My dress I found at a shop, Brides Corner. I walked into the shop and had to have it!

I’m not a very traditional person, so I didn’t do the something old, something new, borrowed or blue. I kept it all very simple, just the dress and a pair of earrings alsofrom Brides corner, and my shoes, believe it or not, from the number one shoe warehouse!

Guests: We had 106 all up, Darren’s family all came over from Oz, and we had friends join us from all over the world

The day: I woke up and it was pouring with rain, I thought if this continues it’ll ruin everything! By the afternoon the rain had gone, and it turned into a beautiful afternoon. It wasn’t a still day, but the wind added to the whole atmosphere at the beach.

The bridesmaids, myself and my mum met at Coastal Sanctuary at 9.30 to start the hair and makeup. I thought this was a bit early, but the time went so fast that when we walked out of there at 2.30, we only had one hour to go.

We went back to Mum and Dads bach, had a bubbly (a couple actually, was trying to calm my nerves!) I got my 18 month old daughter Clea ready in a little dress I brought at farmers for $30. Once she was done I went and got my dress on and headed with my family to the beach.

Dad walked out with me and I carried Clea in my arms, I couldn’t have imagined not having her next to me as I walked to meet Darren.

The ceremony was over very quickly, the kiss went well (I was telling my bridesmaids before hand that I was worried about how we were going to kiss, were we meant to hold for 3 seconds then release? I didn’t have a clue?) We hadn’t wanted guests to stand around for ages, so after 5 mins it was all over.

The best man had his 2 kids at the wedding, so we wanted to give them a task each, tho we didn’t see it necessary to have flower girls etc at a casual beach wedding, so we gave them each a box of monarch butterflies, which they opened and released. They were a beautiful touch, and in symbolising new beginnings, were very fitting.

Salt Bar came and catered bubbly at the beach, so people could mill around before heading to reception venue, whilst we had our photos. The beach was such a beautiful backdrop we didn’t have to go anywhere else for photos.

It went very well considering we didn’t have any practices or didn’t really organise what anyone was to do or anything like that, I’m happy we did it that way, it just seemed more natural.

The Reception:

Silvia at the Flower House, in Whitianga, did all the table arrangements and decorating of the venue, and what an amazing job she did. The white and black roses looked gorgeous, and were just everywhere. (The black roses, were kept chilled until just before we needed them, they turned red by the end of the evening.) The chairs were covered white with back bows, the table cloths white, with back and white favour boxes, with Clevedon chocolates inside. I had tags done, with each guest’s name, and these we attached to the favour boxes, as their place settings. Each table was named after a beach on the coromandel, adding a bit of local flavour.

The black and white looked awesome. Salt Bar put on a magnificent three course meal, the menu options were perfect and the guests raved about the food.

The cake was made with love by our close friend Sara. It was the most divine cake, chocolate mud cake, and was done in cupcakes. It looked so great and really fitted in with the whole theme of the place.

We had a DJ for entertainment. I was so tired I went home reasonably early and surprisingly sober, (which for me is very unusual!) I think it’s just such a big day and there is such a big lead up to it, that by the time it gets there, you are just exhausted!

The next day:

Sunday we got Salt bar to cater platters of wholesome, hearty hangover food at the bach, and we just had an open home, which, worked well.

The whole wedding was just fabulous and what made it so extra special for us both was having all the people in our lives that we just adore, in the one place. It’s not very often in this day and age that you can get everyone together like that, so we were so ecstatic to have everyone there.

We decided that we wouldn’t go on a honeymoon straight away, we made a pact with each other that we will go somewhere special at a later stage, when things settle down a bit. So now that the weddings over, that’s something new to look forward to!