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How it all began……

Matt and I meet London on our O.E and started our budding romance on 2nd July 2002. Not long after we moved back to New Zealand and on the very special day of 10th September 2005, on my 26th Birthday, Matt made me the luckiest woman in the world and proposed to me.

On that night we had arranged to have drinks in town to celebrate my 26th Birthday. Matt requested that we head down a little earlier to have a couple of drinks by ourselves before everyone arrived. We went to Wild Fire at the Viaduct and had a couple of glasses of wine. We then left and Matt took me to another surprise place, where we both ended up on the ferry to Waiheke Island and was headed to The Mud Brick Café.

The location was stunning! Matt took me out on the courtyard as the rain had just stopped and we admired the view, it was truly a beautiful picture perfect night.

He then got down on one knee and told me how special I was and how much he loved me and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me, he then asked for my hand in marriage and presented me with the most perfect beautiful diamond ring! I said “YES”! He made me the happiest girl alive. We celebrated with champagne and a beautiful meal, which I didn’t eat much of as I had lost my appetite. He then took me back to the Hilton Hotel where there were rose petals scattered all around the room, it was truly amazing and truly romantic!

I later found out that everyone knew about the proposal and Matt had been planning this day for 6 months. He even asked my mum’s approval for my hand in marriage. Everyone was so good keeping this secret from me. Anne my Mother in Law (MIL) would take me into ring shops at every opportunity she had to figure out my taste was in rings. She had been doing this for the last 2 years and would say to me: “Renee, one day it will happen and it’s best I know what your style is, so I can let Matt know.) Of course I never cottoned on to him proposing when he did and I did get the most perfect ring, my dream ring!!!! Matt certainly did his homework in the proposal.

Then came the exciting part of planning our “Special day”! It was amazing! We had so much fun planning our Wedding Day for 17 months. We attended all the Wedding shows, read all the magazines and all the Wedding Internet searching one could do.

The Wedding Party consisted of two Bridesmaids Justine and Louise, two groomsmen William (Matt’s Brother) and Daniel and one page boy James (son of Daniel and Louise. Louise was seven months pregnant on our Wedding Day, so that made it very special, as Matt and I are now God Parents to baby Samantha.

We also had two usher’s who greeted all the guests at the Church and helped them to their seats, Eamonn and Paul.

There was a last minute change to the Wedding party as our original Best man’s wife gave birth to a baby girl at 10:00am on our Wedding Day. Wow who would have thought? She is our Wedding Day good luck charm.

We got married on 10 th February 2007 at the Gorgeous St Matthew-in-the City church. We arrived to the Church in 2 beautiful white Royce Royce’s we all felt like royalty.

Our page boy James who was 17 months old on the day had been in training to be page boy for a number of months, taking the pillow to Matt. We thought it would be a good idea to have his father Daniel (Groomsman walk him down the aisle), James got a little overwhelmed by all the guests so his Dad carried him down, followed by my bridesmaids then myself and my mum.

My mum gave me away and it was so special and we walked down to "Here come’s the Bride”, I am very traditional. My bridesmaids walked down to Cannon D.

Matt cried as soon as he saw me, it was very touching, and considering he is such a bloke and boys don’t cry. He later told me seeing me in my dress and walking down the aisle with my veil was just breath taking. We wrote our own vows and they were a lovely surprise to each other.

We did a candle unity, with our mums and played the song “Somewhere over the Rainbow”, in the background. When it came to James (Pageboy) taking the rings up he had gone walkies, so James Grandfather stepped in as page boy, it was very funny. James saw this happening and ran up to the pillow and he then did his bit. We all couldn’t stop laughing!

After the ceremony we headed outside the church where we met and greeted our friends and family, with the bells ringing. It was just bliss!!!!

After the ceremony the bridal party headed off to the Domain where we had photos. It actually started raining so we got the beautiful white umbrellas in our photos and more good luck for the day. We had a great time, where we drank champagne and had a picnic- it was very relaxed and a good time shared by all.

After our photos we head to our Reception where all our guests were waiting for us. Our Reception was at the Richmond Yacht Club in Westhaven. It was a beautiful location, looking over the water.

We had a beautiful meal and speeches and cutting of the cake and shared our first dance to Elton John - “I guess that’s why they call it the blues”. That song was very meaningful and everyone got onto the dance floor and joined in. We had a beautiful Wedding cake, 3 tiers, with different flavours on each tier: Orange , Chocolate mud and Gin and Lemon. We had beautiful pink roses on top and silver ribbon around each tier to go with our theme.

After a night of partying with family and friends we then took off to the Sebel Hotel.

The following day we had an open home at my new In-law’s, where we opened all our gifts.

I surprised Matt by wearing a top especially designed for him, reading: MRS SWAIN.

Three days later we headed off on a beautiful honeymoon to Mexico and Cuba for one month.

It was the best day of our lives and we loved every minute of it. I truly felt like a princess and I got to marry my prince. We have so many beautiful memories of the day and that will stay in our hearts forever.

Wedding Party:

Bride: Renee Matthews (Now Swain)

Groom: Matthew Swain

Bridesmaids: Justine Gengel

Louise Woollet

Best man: William Swain

Groomsman: Daniel Ratcliffe

Pageboy: James Ratcliffe

Ushers: Eamonn O’Brien

Paul Unger

Mother of the Bride: Sue Matthews

Parents of the Groom: Bill & Anne Swain

Vendors:

Dress maker: Carol Jenkins (Brides & Bridesmaids)

Suits: Exclusive Suit Hire

Cars: First Class Classics

Church: St Matthew-in-the-City

Reception: Richmond Yacht Club

Flowers: Jenny & Nicki from Howick

Rings: Seventy Six

Cake: Brides Best Friend

DJ: Absolute Disco

Photographer: Stephan Card and first photo on site by Wendy Wood

Videographer: Toybox Productions

Hair & Make up: D'aguair

Cater: Lois form Mondo Café in Ellerslie

Tiara: Jane Yeh

Jewellery: Clara

Shoes: Mi Paci

Tradition

Something Old: Aunty Mary's handkerchief (A very dare old friend to my mother and me, who has passed away)

Something New: My dress, my lingerie, my jewellery, my shoes

Something borrowed: My Aunty Robyn's "R" key ring made out of crystal stones, which stayed with me in my purse the whole day.

Something Blue: Garter

What went wrong

Well we had a couple of hic-ups on the day. Our video-grapher left a message on my phone 30 minutes before we were leaving for the church, to say he was cancelling. Lucky I picked the message up and my wonderful bridesmaids and aunty and mum was phoning around everywhere for a replacement. This is when we found Jolyon from Toybox Productions. It was his day off and he was at the church within 15 minutes. He did an amazing job and I believe we would have been disappointed with our original videographer and fate played a part in this.

We also had a last minute change of plans for Best Man, as Sam Anderson's wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on our Wedding Day, who would have thought?

The Grooms family arrived to the church without the rose petals, so my father in-law Bill and to drive all the way home to St Heliers and back to pick up the rose petals out of the fridge. He just made it back to the church in time before my arrival.

Advice to other Brides

Enjoy every minute of your wonderful day. It truly is the best day of your life. The day does go by very quickly and parts of it become a blur. I definitely recommended getting a video-grapher, they really do capture so many special moments on the day and you can keep reliving these moments. We also had an amazing photographer Stephan Card. He was amazing and did some beautiful photo. He kept us all at ease and was so lovely to deal with.