We received our wedding photos recently and there were over 900 of them. Sitting together we went through them all and I felt all the emotions again as I relived the most beautiful day (aside from having babies) that I have ever experienced. As you can see from the photos that I am about to share with you, the day was nothing short of perfect and one that was full of laughter, fun and A LOT of emotion. I wish I could do it all again (with my husband of course!).
We got married in Queenstown, New Zealand, which in my opinion is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Queenstown has a significance to us as it was the first place Chance and I lived together. After studying in Invercargill, which is where Chance and I met, I decided to follow my career and move to Queenstown to work as a journalist for a daily and weekly newspaper. Although only two hours away from Chance, he ended up following me there because he simply couldn’t live without me . After a year and a half living there we decided to move to Melbourne, just before we found out we were pregnant with Finn (also conceived in Queenstown ) but we decided to move anyway. We absolutely love going back there for holidays as it is so familiar, but this time around it was so much more special as we got to share this amazing place with all of our friends and family, many of whom lived in Australia and had never been before.
We chose to get married in March, mainly because all of the days in February were already booked out even 18 months before but it worked out perfectly in the end because Queenstown had a late start to summer so our weather was just stunning.
Our wedding venue for the ceremony was Trelawn, an amazing bed and breakfast with the most outstanding view you could come across. It is owned by an older couple who maintain it beautifully and use the garden area for weddings whilst also running the B & B. You can choose to have your wedding party stay there over the weekend but because of our larger bridal party we had to find a bigger house. We could have also held our reception there in a marquee but I was a little worried about how the weather would pan out and didn’t want to risk it although the weather ended up being perfect.
For our reception, we decided (I say we but I mainly mean me ) to have it in a hall. After much research, I decided that I really wanted to decorate the reception my own way and to really be able to do that I needed an empty space. The Lake Hayes Pavilion is a perfect spot with again, the most stunning view and I couldn’t be happier with how it looked. I wanted a modern romantic theme and the soft tones of white and gold with the fairy light and draping gave it the most comfortable, warm and intimate feel.
Our ceremony started at 2pm and afterwards we had drinks and canapes as well as our band and lawn games for entertainment whilst we got all of our photos done. During this time, Chance and I also took a helicopter ride up to Cecil Peak to get photos. This was something I had always wanted to do and I am SO glad we did. It was absolutely beautiful up there and we could not have asked for more perfect conditions. Even our photographer said she never saw it that serene and without a hint of wind!
Our reception started at 6pm, although we arrived late because we wanted to get a few more bridal party photos but everyone was happily drinking and socialising while enjoying the amazing views at the pavilion while they waited.
We immediately served dinner first because we felt people would be hungry and then we moved in to speeches. Our speeches went for over an hour as we had a lot of people who wanted to talk but we didn’t mind that because that part was the most fun and memorable. All of the speeches were amazing!
We did run quite a bit over time as Chance was the last speaker (and had quite a lot of red wine by then) so I had to tell him to hurry up . We then served dessert and cut the cake before moving in to the first dance. After that it was time to dance the night away with our beautiful guests before calling it a night at 11.30 and boy was I ready to crash after such a big but unbelievable fantastic day (after getting the kids to bed of course!)
Overall our wedding day was absolutely stress free and I managed to stop a few times and just totally absorb it and how much fun I was having (my advice for all brides is too try and slow down for just a few moments and absorb it as it goes quickly). I was expecting something to go wrong, but nothing did. In fact in the morning, Chance actually misplaced the marriage license but I never knew about it as my bridesmaids sorted it behind my back which is a real credit to them because I would have started to stress out but I didn’t have too (he found it within half an hour in the car. Men!)
Even the weather which was forecast for rain, turned out to be the most beautiful Autumn day we could have ever asked for. The decorating was absolutely stunning and the food was so incredible that everyone was raving about it. We actually went for a shared style menu and I am so glad we did as everyone loved how social and intimate it was and the food was just delicious.
I am so grateful for those who travelled far and wide to share the day with us, to our amazingly beautiful bridal party who kept us laughing the entire day and all the incredible vendors who made our day what it was. Perfect. Please if you are getting married in the South Island, get in touch with these amazing vendors. Our band was just stunning to work with and so friendly (and sounded amazing), our celebrant Jodie was so relaxed yet organised and Kelly my stylist made my dream wedding come to life! My photographer, well her photos speak for themselves and our videographer Wes so so laid back and professional.
I have had to shorten this to the VERY best photos for this post as on social media I shared possibly over 300 and it took too long to upload. However, these photos display all the love as well as all the detail in the wedding that I spent planning 18 months prior. I have also listed all of my suppliers down the bottom for you, if you’re interested in using them for your own wedding and I totally recommend you do!
Please also check out my other posts on helping you to plan your wedding!
Suppliers
Wedding Dress: Raffaele Ciuca
Hair: Tina from Hair To Wed
Makeup: Sharmaine Kerr
Bridesmaid dresses: For Her & For Him
Suits: Hallensteins
Photographer: Nicole Gourlay Photography
Videographer: Wes Video
Styling and props: Kelly from So Sweet Hire
Bouquets: Kelly from So Sweet Hire
Catering: Wanaka Catering
Band: The Hamiltones
Ceremony: Trelawn
Reception: Lake Hayes Pavilion
Celebrant: Jodie Stuart
Bridal party bus: Remarkables Experience
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simon says
Thanks for sharing. Very informative
sarah.lamont@hotmail.com says
Thanks for reading Simon!