GOING WEST

How do I even start our wedding blog?!! Most questions are who did I use for what, so I’m going to break the blog into two with the next one being a bit more personal. We were very lucky that we struck gold with everyone we used and I would recommend them all. No lie. Also wedding planning comes with a lot of spreadsheets and I loved it. My Google Drive has never been so full but it was such a great way to keep myself and who was on the other end in the loop of updates, changes and the run of the day.

VENUE

https://boomrock.co.nz Boomrock was AMAZING. We held both our ceremony and reception here. When looking for a venue we needed to find somewhere that would look stunning in both good and bad weather as the wedding was in Wellington, in June. The views, staff and food could not have been better. I worked really closely with Harriet through the whole planning stage, we have an email trail with 100+ emails and to say she was efficient is an understatement. I’d remember really random things at random times and flick them through to her and be able to fully trust that’d she’d sort it out and get it done. The organisation and timing of the day was all planned out on a spreadsheet run by myself and the staff which was a great way to have everyone knowing the same thing and us all being on the same page with no confusion (SRSLY Boomrock didn’t cause me one headache and I think its because of how organised they keep everything). We could change and add anything into the spreadsheet super easy and it was a good guide that I could plan out the day from too. Ihaia and I went to visit the venue once and the second time we saw it was on the rehearsal the day before our wedding day. The rehearsal at Boomrock was easy and straightforward and the staff super kind and helpful. Twig&Arrow (who we used for flowers) communicate with Boomrock themselves so we just had to bring up any other decorations and the cake to leave with the staff to set up. Wedding day! Ihaia and his men made their way up to Boomrock early by their own shuttle and the only way to and from Boomrock for guests is by bus charter that Boomrock organise and this is run by another spreadsheet (amazing) of who is getting on the bus at what stop. We had 2 buses picking people up from 2 different stops and then any could get on the early bus back, followed by the last bus at 12am. The buses ended up being great as we had all our guests arriving together at the same time and it got everyone together from the start to set a good vibe! On arrival they were served bubbles and canapés and Boomrock have a few activities wedding guests could do. We bought some golf balls and set them up to be hit during the day where there was also prize money to be won, 1st hole at 75m $1,000 Boomrock Voucher, 2nd hole at 175m $2,000 Boomrock Voucher and 3rd hole at 320m $75,000 Boomrock Voucher. I don’t think our guests managed to score any of them but pretty fun to do. I love the car Ihaia and I own and as we have to sell it before we move overseas, I definitely saw the chance to drive it up to Boomrock with us girls in it with the rugged coastline as a backdrop. One of my bridesmaids, Brooke, drove us up in our Jeep Wrangler where we had Drake playing on the way and reality hitting of where we were heading!! Once we got to Boomrock, we had a glass of bubbles and then it was time! We were so lucky to have a dry day, it was cold and windy but no rain which was my only worry weather wise! We held our ceremony outside and I still can’t get over the view. Boomrock is great as you can hold both your ceremony and reception at the same venue and you don’t have to go anywhere for photos either. All the scenes around the place is amazing, we stayed on site for photos and didn’t take long at all. Ok – the food that is served up is INCREDIBLE. I hate to say that I hardly ate a thing because I was anxious, overwhelmed etc but every single person I’ve talked to about the wedding mentions the food. Everything from the cold canapés to the main meals were insane. Ihaia and I put together two playlists for the night which Boomrock played off our iPad, a ceremony one to be played as people turn up and the second was the main wedding one which was played from the reception into the night. We flagged a DJ as we kept our wedding relatively small and felt it’d be bit awkward a big DJ both in the corner, also feel like not many people notice, as long as there is good music playing people are happy! From the first email to Boomrock to the last contact I had with them, they were great. Easy to plan with, all the views you could ask for, amazing food, and great staff. We had the best time!!

SO CLOSE BUT SO FAR AWAY!

Coming back into the reception

Golf

Girls arriving

MARRIED!

Under the lights

PHOTOGRAPHERS

https://www.timandnadine.com Tim Kelly & Nadine Ellen. Ok if you’ve got a wedding coming up its going to be a no-brainer to book these two in. I rave about these two any chance I get! Tim and Nadine were my first choice photographers out of 3. They usually go and catch the Europe summer weddings when it is winter in NZ but just our luck, they decided to stay in NZ this year and we were so so so happy to have them part of our day! I came across them on Instagram and fell in love with the way they captured moments from different angles then your standard. Ihaia and I Skyped Tim and Nadine and shortly after we booked them in. They were super organised and closer to the day they sent me through a photography information sheet which covered time plan of the day to if there is anything in particular to bring to their attention/anything to know in advance which was awesome as it got me thinking of particular things to be captured. Tim and Nadine are some of the coolest people we’ve come across. We both had heaps of fun with them on the wedding day and felt nothing but relaxed. Having amazing photographers I’d say is up there in the top 3 things as photos and videos are something you’ll always be able to look back on. When our photo collection arrived only 6 weeks after our wedding, it brought up memories/details that I’d already forgotten so its nice to have a whole collection that we can forever look back on! They also videoed our wedding which we’ll be receiving shortly and we are so excited to watch that! All the photos on this blog post are Tim and Nadine’s work and we could not have had better people to capture our day in the most perfect way. We are hugely obsessed.

Wedding party

FLOWERS & SEATING PLAN

https://twigandarrow.com Twig & Arrow. Ahhh I love Mindy! She is so helpful and fun. We also held my hens party at Twig & Arrow, we made flower crowns and had bubbles, punch, platters and a couple of games. I’m not too much of a go out and get wasted type gal so it was perfect for me! Mindy is so helpful and her space is beautiful. Super spacious and white, perfect for that Gram pic! I first sat down with Mindy having not much of a clue on what I was wanting and after about an hour I left feeling really happy with what we came up with. Our colour scheme was white, gold and green and a lot of simplicity. On the morning of our wedding I had ordered one less protea for my bridesmaids and Mindy made no fuss of going to grab another one. On the day, Mindy set up the tables with runners, fairy lights, little vases of flowers, put up the “you&me” sign and also printed our seating plan for us. I didn’t see the final set up at Boomrock until after everyone else which was after the ceremony. Its so weird how I organised everything with Mindy but was the last to see what it looked like altogether! It was amazing though. Exactly what I had in mind and just enough of everything. Working with Mindy and her team was easy and I loved how she set up Boomrock for us.

The men

The gals

Wedding party table

Set up

Seating plan

DANNIELLE’S DRESS

http://www.loverssociety.com/north/ Lovers Society. I bought my dress from Paper Swan in Kelburn. I went for two fittings with some close family and one friend. This was the first place I went and THE dress was the second I tried on. I went in thinking that I didn’t want a bold lace print and what did I end up getting??!! The dress was in the window and I had to be persuaded to try it on, thank God I did! It was my favourite as soon as I put it on and it didn’t take long to seal the deal. However as I was on such tight timing, we had to pay extra to get it made in under 8 weeks and when it did arrive, it was too big! After about 3 trips to get it altered, I picked it up all finished the DAY BEFORE the wedding. The dress did end up being a bit stressful to deal with and not being able to tick it off until the day before was a bit of a pain as well. I guess it comes with the timing of planning in 3 months! None of my bridesmaids had seen the dress I had chosen before the wedding and I did the dress reveal once I was in it the morning of. The photos of their reactions are a few of my favourites from the whole day. That was the moment for me where it all hit me. I’m currently selling the dress on stillwhite.com and wanting it gone before we move to France in 3 weeks so let me know if you or anyone else is interested!!

Arriving in the Jeep

Lovers Society dress

Dress reveal

DANNIELLE’S VEIL

Mum got married 6 years ago I wore her veil for some pictures when Ihaia and I went off after the ceremony. Super special that I now have pictures in that too.

RINGS

https://naveyaandsloane.co.nz Naveya and Sloane. SO, about 2 years ago while living in Auckland Ihaia and I went into Naveya and Sloane and designed my bespoke engagement ring together. I obviously thought it was going to happen any moment from then, when we were overseas on holidays or weekend trips around NZ I held my breath each time (haha!) but it took so long that by the time Ihaia proposed earlier this year, he’d caught me off guard! Good things take time, hey. Naveya were an actual dream to work with. We worked with both Olivia and Lisa and they are so professional and friendly. Ihaia had all the comms with Olivia with the engagement ring and he isn’t the most organised person I know so to be able to pull that off was amazing work from both of them! We went back up to Auckland after we got engaged to order our wedding bands and had only but the best service from the team. No wonder they have the rep that they do. I’d shout from the rooftops where our rings are from! We absolutely love them, they mean so much to us. Here are some pictures of our rings getting polished in the workshop and also photos Tim&Nadine took of us.

Dannielle’s ring

Ihaia’s ring

Rings

BRIDESMAID DRESSES

https://misscrabb.com Miss Crabb. I got all my girls to choose their own Miss Crabb dress in the same Navy. Everyone is different shapes and sizes and I wanted them to feel comfortable and beautiful on the day. They just rented the dresses for the wedding off NZ rental sites (great $$ saver) and bought the same shoes off the Iconic.

Ceremony

My girls

BRIDESMAID EARRINGS

https://zoeandmorgan.com/nz/ Zoe & Morgan. My gift to the girls were stunning Zoe&Morgan earrings. They all wore them on the day and now they have a special something from the wedding in their day to day life too!

02 Getting Ready 113.jpg

BRIDE AND BRIDESMAID MAKE UP

beautybook.co.nz Kate Keogh from Beauty Book. I was in close contact with Beauty Book to look for a make up artist and they were so helpful! I had my trail with Kate (who also owns beauty book) on my hens day which I loved and the wedding day was no different! Kate is great at what she does and all the girls looked stuuunning! Kate was actually so good to have around morning of the wedding as we had so many laughs and a super relaxed atmosphere. She also knew our hair stylist so it was such a good vibe between all of us. I had a couple of favourite products from my own make up bag that I knew worked with my skin and she was happy to use them too.

Make up by Kate K

HAIR

DollhouseDo. I booked this wonderful lady only a couple of weeks out from our wedding and had my trail during the week before. Asha is so talented! She was recommended by one of my bridesmaids and she was amazing. I gave her pictures of what I was wanting her to recreate for the bridesmaids which were all similar but each a little different and she nailed it. Everyones hair was insane!

Hair by Dollhouse Do

CELEBRANT

Pania Gray. We were lucky to have Pania as I have known her forever with her and my mum being close friends. She also married mum and Josh a few years ago so to have that link is super special. Pan gave us an outline of a ceremony and Ihaia and I followed that to write our own ceremony. We choose everything that was included ourselves and wrote our own vows. We also asked Ihaias sister, Aorangi, to read out some lyrics for us, my great Poppa to say a speech on love and marriage as he has been married for 65 years (!!) and Pan to create a piece about love for us. We also choose my nan, Lynn, and Aorangi to sign the register as our witnesses. I thought whoever signed the register needed to be in the wedding party but thats not the case so it was a nice time to incorporate other people to be involved too.

CAKE

Sarah at finom.co.nz Sarah is my mums friend who is based in Carterton. She made us this beautiful cake to feed 70 people for dessert. One tier was vanilla and raspberry and the other was chocolate. We served our cake as dessert which is a great way to actually get it eaten so its not sitting at home for the next month and Boomrock plated it with berries and ice cream.

Josh Burt. Josh is my mums husband, Gracies dad and has been in my life for over 10 years. I knew from the get-go that he was going to be our MC! Josh is a great speaker and had no problem getting the attention of the room which is key to keep a wedding running to time! Josh had his notes in Grace’s bag and when she was taken home after the ceremony, the notes went with the bag so Josh did the night off the cuff! I didn’t know until after the formalities and couldn’t tell at all. I don’t think finding someone to MC is an easy job so we were lucky and thankful to have had Josh.