Giles and I met in 2011 while I was partway through my nursing degree in the Waikato - being in a female dominant area of study and the demands of student life made it difficult to meet people - enter "find-someone" (for those who don't know, this is like pre-historic tinder!) - we like to joke that we met on trade me. We had our first date at a local bar, and sat there yarning until it closed and we were the last ones there. We have been together ever since, life has been busy - now both completed our degrees, and have relocated to the beautiful Hawkes Bay, bought our first home, and have two gorgeous dogs Mishka and Muriel.
Fast forward 11 years to Christmas time 2022 we finally got engaged, and after being together this long, naturally I had pinterest boards, flow charts and screenshots galore of what kind of wedding I had envisaged!
Finding the dress was one of the most difficult parts of the process for me (until I went to BB ) The first shop I went to was a horrific experience - nobody told me how bizarre bridal sizing was…which led to disappointment, lots of “no’s” followed by a trip to the pub!! The moment I’d been looking forward to forever was so disappointing, and followed three other bridal shops with dresses which were nice, but not quite the WOW factor I was going for - I knew I wanted something with "boho" vibes, flattered my shape and stature and something a little bit different.
Walking into BB was the most relaxing experience, the beautiful woman who helped me filled me in on the whole process, told me from the outset to ignore the numbers on the dresses, listened to what I was looking for but also was so helpful at showing me some other styles I would not have considered, and truly made me feel like a queen. The size range in the store was great and didn’t leave me feeling like I had to change my body to fit the dress in order to look beautiful, and allowed me to see a true reflection of what the finished product would look like.
I could have walked away with any of my top three dresses by "All Who Wander" and been happy, but the Remi dress ultimately stole my heart and ticked all the boxes.
Our day was a gorgeous hot February Saturday on Waitangi weekend, held at Crab Farm Winery in Napier. We chose to complete our photos prior to the ceremony in mostly urban locations in Napier which are special to us - this was the best decision we could have made for our day as we got to spend so much quality time together and with our friends and whanau and resulted in some incredibly unique photography from our talented photographer Michael Schultz.
We had a large guest list (~130) so saving money where ever we could was a necessity, and we were so blessed to have such supportive people around us to pull this together - from my Aunt being our celebrant, to our friends providing our wedding cars, to a friend making the cake to name the least. Being a creative person myself, this also meant lots of DIY for the florals, archway, decorations and signage which was super fun and rewarding to complete.
The day went without a glitch, and turned out to be the best day we could have imagined, and we didn't go broke in the process which I am so proud of. But best of all I got to marry my best friend.
