 We had been together for 2 years when Dave proposed to me. It had started off as a full day of shopping for my birthday, and then he put me in the car and blindfolded me. We finally arrived at the wind turbine (where we first met) and my blindfold was taken off to see my boy on one knee and behind him was a HUGE banner (like the billboards in town) saying "Pinny will you marry me?" I was in so much shock but eventually "of course I will!!!" came out of my mouth.
We had a long engagement (3 years) as we had things we both wanted to do before hand. I had to go overseas for 5 months which was very hard, then when I got back we started saving for a house once that was finally done, we set a date for the wedding - Saturday 22 January 2005. The problem was though that I was always thinking we had heaps of time, but before long it was 6 months before the wedding and we hadn't done anything yet!!!
So we got down to it and started making plans and decisions. The first thing we decided was the wedding theme. Dave picked the colour blue straight away as it is his favourite colour so he definitely wanted that included somewhere. Then we added in sunflowers, but that was soon changed to yellow (a bit easier to use throughout the wedding), so our theme was blue and yellow with a hint of red!! (My favourite colour). We chose Tatum Park as the perfect venue for our wedding and narrowed down our invitation list to 100 guests.
We couldn't have organized our wedding without the help of our friends and family. My mum went and did a flower course so she could do all the flowers for us, I must say I was just a little bit worried about the time that she had to do them on the day, but she did a wonderful job, All the flowers were amazing!!! My sister made all the stationary side of things, the invitations, name cards, table names. She also did an amazing job; I was a very lucky girl!!
Dave made all the wire holders for the table names and instead of numbers we had names that mean a lot to us, like Tessa, who is our much loved dog, just to be a little more interesting.
My dress was made by a lovely lady called Dot (not sure of her last name) who lives in Porirua. My mum found her years ago when she made my sisters and I school ball dresses. She did a wonderful job then so I knew she could do it again!! For the bridesmaids I got the material (a lovely Yamaha blue) and they picked the particular style that they wanted. My sister got hers made by Dot too as she lives in Australia so we were very short on time once she finally got here. Hannah and her mum made her one and Anna and her mum made hers. For the flower girl Tayisha, I did the same thing, I got the material and sent it to them and they went and got one made. For the two boys I got a real bargain and got two 5 piece suits from Farmers which were just perfect!!
My something old was a hanky of my great-great grandmother's, something new was my dress something borrowed was my veil, which was my mum's and something blue was my garter.
Even though we didn't really need cars as everything was in one spot, we still used my parents' Holden to take us to the beach for some photos which we really appreciated.
The ceremony started off with my Dad driving Dave's quad (4 wheeler motorbike) down to the aisle with the two young boys sitting on there with him. Then there was a trailer on the back with 2 couches which carried us girls. I planned this as a little surprise for Dave, as he loves quad bikes. He totally loved it.
I had both my mum and dad walk me down the aisle as they both mean the world to me.
It was a really special ceremony and we both felt it was very romantic so it was quite unexpected that it was also one of the funniest moments of the wedding. We did a candle ceremony as part of the service but it went a bit wrong!! First off, on the morning Dave and I went down (we all stayed at Tatum Park the night before) to set stuff up. We put the candles under the table in a box because it was so hot, thinking that our celebrant or one of the boys would get them out but they didn't!! So when our celebrant said "now Corrin and Dave will light the candle" we walked over and I had to bend down to get them out!!! Also we had great difficulty trying to light it as the candles we had got were way too big!! It was a real laugh though!!
We decided that we wanted an exit song that was really happy to explain how we felt so we DANCED down to 'I'm in the mood for dancing' by the Nolands. God it was such a hoot I can't wait to see the video!!
The reception at Tatum Park was fabulous - a great night was had by all. For us the best thing about the reception was seeing how much fun everyone was having. I think nearly everyone got up for a dance!! There was one stage in the night when I asked Matt, our DJ, to play 'going to the chapel' a song that has meant a lot to me and mum. Mum and I started dancing then dad joined then Dave joined and the circle just got bigger and bigger. Then suddenly, Dave and I were pushed into the middle and everyone around us was coming in and out, in and out. It was so much fun and totally unplanned which makes it that much better!
I threw my bouquet and then Dave threw my garter. Dave and I got these 'just married' jandals - so cool, when you walk in the sand you leave a trail of "just marrieds". My poor feet were sore so I decided to wear them, then when I put my leg up for Dave to take my garter off everyone got a nice view of the jandals!!! Oops!!
When the evening threatened to be over early it was my sister to the rescue. The bar lady closed the bar at 12.30 (I was told it would close at 2am) so my sister went and had a little talk to her and she stayed open till 1.30am which was great as it kept the party going. In fact once she was finally gone there were still heaps of people having fun so the DJ stayed on, till nearly 3 am !!! He was such a lovely guy; he said he was having fun so he just didn't want to go!!
Both of Dave's parents have passed on quite some time ago (I didn't get to met them). The rest of his family is very small but close. Having the blessing from his older brother, which for some reason I thought didn't like me, really meant a lot, His sister walking round all night saying "this is my new sister" meant even more, and his uncle during his speech welcoming me to the family meant the world!!
The best decision I made was probably the bridesmaids that I picked. When I first picked them some people got very upset, which made me think I had made the wrong decision, but now after the day I am so glad I did what I did. They were all so wonderful, and helpful, I really don't think I could have done it without them (and my Mum)!! I really don't have anything that I would do differently, We both enjoyed the day so much that the little things that went wrong just didn't matter, they weren't important.
For our honeymoon we went to Fiji . We decided to stay and one place for 5 nights then a real flash place for 2 nights. We first stayed at the Hideaway on the Corral Coast . It was so lovely; the people there were just so much fun. It was really sad to say goodbye as the fun we had had there was just amazing. We then went and stayed at the Sheraton, which was very lovely but no were near as fun.
And the couple's tips on life as a married couple: Not much has changed really, except we are just so happy. My mum keeps going on about this 'glow' that we have! Enjoy it; it really goes so fast, I would do anything to have that day again!!!
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