Emma & Matt

Emma & Matt - 17 September 2005

Matt proposed to me at sunset on little Oneroa Beach on Waiheke Island. The first thing that we did was choose our venue - we chose St Vincents in Milford for the ceremony and the Spencer on Byron Hotel in Takapuna for our reception. The next 12 months were spent planning everything else! The guest list was a bit of challenge but we managed to get it down to 112 guests.

We wanted to make our own wedding favours so Matt spent two days before the wedding making fudge as our table favours for our guests. In the end he made 7 batches of fudge! My bridesmaids helped us bag the fudge up and put name labels on it which doubled as place cards for the reception.

We had magnetic invitations which confused a few of our older guests who did not realise it was a wedding invitation when they arrived in the post. It was great to visit friends and see our wedding invitation slapped on their fridge and not stuffed away and forgotten.

Spring was our theme and we had 200 bunches of daffodils beautifully put together by Angie J Weddings. Our colours were aqua blue and yellow which really set the tone for the event.

I wore an ivory strapless gown with a detachable shrug. The gown had beautiful baby blue crystal on the feature panel of the skirt and a rouched bodice. My gown was made by Felicity Bridal and was exactly what I had dreamed of.

My bridesmaids wore beautiful aqua marine strapless gowns from Staxs. The dresses had matching wraps. My girls looked gorgeous I was very jealous of their dresses until I put my wedding dress on. The best man and groomsmen wore black dinner suits with matching blue waistcoats to complement the girls - we had a hot looking bridal party!

We arrived at the ceremony in class in a Holden Club sport and Ford XR6 lent to us by my friend and work colleague Waynne and his brother Craig. The lads loved the Club Sport and my dad was very impressed with the XR6 - the cars looked great.

Our friend Paul who is an excellent guitar player was a bit shy about playing in public so when he agreed to perform an acoustic sole of our favourite song we were stoked. Paul played beautifully and it really moved our guests.

The reception at Spencer on Byron went very well and we were pleased with our choice. Having our closest friends and family all in the same room celebrating our wedding made our night. A highlight of the evening was the speeches as they were hilarious!

I think the first dance was the most romantic moment. Matt and I had practiced a lot and there had been a few tense moments at our dance lessons. On the day it all seemed to flow so beautifully. Our guests sang along to our first dance song, it was really something special.

Though Matt and I got caught beforehand practising our first dance in the foyer of the reception venue when we thought no one was watching in front of quite an audience!

I wanted to follow the wedding traditions so had:

- my something blue was the blue crystals on dress
- my something borrowed was my mother gold chain
- my something new was my dress.

Our best decision was to have it in a small church as it felt intimate and our guests could hear everything.

What would we change next time? Nothing - everything was perfect.

We went to the Rarotongan Beach and Spa resort for our honeymoon. It was bliss we had the honeymoon suite for 5 days - it even has its own pool!!

And my advice for other couples: Remember to make time for each other and celebrate every month of marriage. You don't have to spend a lot of money - just acknowledging it and spending quality time together is the most important thing.