Bruno and I met at age 16 at my beach house in the Coromandel. We didn’t see much of each other until five years later when we were 21. We’ve been together ever since. We spent a lot of years apart travelling separately and stayed together throughout – it was a testament to our relationship we were always going to be each others. Things haven’t changed too much in our relationship since getting married, but we thought after eight years it was time to make it official and become Mr & Mrs. We’ve recently moved home to New Zealand after living in Sydney and abroad for the past six years. We bought a wee place in Auckland and are finally settled, surrounded by all our family and friends.
We wanted a relaxed style of wedding, rustic and unstructured. Bruno and I are both very laid back. All the details were well thought out but delivered in a really homely, relaxed way.
Having the reception at Bruno’s family home was perfect. His parent’s home is surrounded by beautiful gardens, so it hardly needed any styling or decoration. Anything we did add to it was built, painted or made in the days prior. The atmosphere and general vibe of the day was so chilled and exactly the style of wedding we wanted.
My mother-in-law was in her garden for months leading up to our wedding. It looked amazing, with sculpted trees and manicured gardens. She had timed perfectly for all the flowers to be in bloom. We made three wreaths out of the neighbour’s kiwifruit vines, which hung from the marquee with white hydrangeas and white dripping amaranthus flowers from the garden. All the tables were decorated with jars of more hydrangeas and lots of Ecoya candles. We cut olive branches and slotted them around the inside of the marquee roof.
I found my dress in Rue de Seine on my birthday and it was called the ‘Hannah’ dress, so it was meant to be! I loved the daisy lace but I really wanted a strapless dress so took it to a dressmaker in Sydney and she took it through some dramatic changes and eventually had to sew in an Alex Perry corset on the inside to hold up the lace and allow it to be strapless.
We had two of our oldest friends sing and play piano while I walked down the aisle. We both love listening to the songs now, they bring back such fond memories of the day. We were also pretty nervous about our dance, but we were all having so much fun and with all the formalities out of the way we danced bare-footed and surprised a few people I think!
Photography by: Anna Kidman / Location: Tauranga
See more of this wedding inside issue three available to purchase here: issue two
Brides Dress, Rue de Seine | Brides Shoes, Balenciaga | Bridesmaids, Custom Made | Grooms Attire, Farage | Grooms Shoes, RM Williams | Groomsmen, Hallensteins Suites & RM Williams | Ceremony, Bethlehem Chapel | Flora, Honeysuckle Rose | Catering, Juz Catering | Cakes & Sweets, Spongedrop
