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The Proposal

It wasn’t a big surprise as we had been talking about it for a while and looking at engagement rings and one Saturday morning when we were out shopping we popped into The Goldsmith in Tauranga “just for a look” and ended up falling in love with and purchasing a ring. I told him he still had to propose so we drove home and he mowed the lawn then got down on one knee in our backyard and asked me to marry him!! Not the most romantic story you have ever heard but it still made me cry.

The Planning

We had just over 12 months to organize the wedding and booked our venues and photographer in the first couple of months. I was so excited to legitimately be able to buy wedding magazines that I bought just about everyone I could lay my hands on.

Bits we did ourselves

We organized everything ourselves, made all the invitations, table decorations and bonbonniere, which was a mammoth task for just over 90 guests, luckily my Mum and Dad got stuck in too and were a great help.

Wedding Theme

We met in London on our OE’s so there were hints of our time in London but the main theme was Breakfast at Tiffany’s my all time favourite movie. Ben bought me a silver necklace from the jewellery store Tiffany & Co in Old Bond Street, London and I have been obsessed with all things Tiffany every since. The colour of our invitations, bridesmaids dresses, table decorations and bonbonierre were Tiffany aqua blue.

Ceremony and Reception

We had our wedding photos before the ceremony which is a bit different but was really fantastic as we were able to spend the whole time from ceremony to the end of the day with our guests who had come from all over New Zealand and also from Australia and they weren’t waiting around for hours.

Our ceremony was in the grounds of The Elms an historic homestead in Tauranga with huge old trees and beautiful sweeping lawns with the homestead as the backdrop.

My Mum and Dad walked me down the aisle to Brooke Fraser’s Arithmetic, we signed the register to Frank Sinatra’s Moon River and walked back down the aisle to U2’s Beautiful Day.

The reception was just around the corner at The Hotel Armitage where a lot of our guests were staying. The staff at the Armitage were just fantastic, they had everything under control and we had nothing to worry about. The reception room opened out onto a pool area and as you can imagine on a lovely warm evening with a few drinks in them, a number of guests ended up in the pool! Including the groom – fully clothed and the father of the bride and the father of the groom, both in their underpants, a sight to behold!!

The Dresses

My dress was from Step by Step Bridal in Rotorua and was designed by Raylia Designs, Australia, it was absolutely stunning, a little bit vintage and was all I could have hoped for. My bridesmaid’s dresses were made by my good friend and dressmaker Shino Henderson in a simple Audrey Hepburn style in Tiffany Blue with a white satin ribbon.

The Car

We hired a Modern London Taxi as our wedding car which reminded us of our time in London.

The funniest moment

Putting the ring on the wrong hand of my groom! In all honesty it was his fault as he held out the wrong hand! Followed closely by our fathers stripping down to their underwear in front of all our guests and jumping in the pool at the reception.

Tradition

Wearing the pearl necklace my Nana gave me on my 21 st birthday in my hair was very special as she is no longer with us.

The Honeymoon

We spent a lovely week in the Hawke’s Bay just sleeping, eating and relaxing it was fantastic.

Advice for future married couples

Enjoy every minute of your day and believe it when everyone tells you it all goes so fast! Make sure you have a good photographer/videographer to record your special memories so that you can look back when it’s all over and remember how fantastic it was.