South Island High Country Wedding By Bayly & Moore

New Zealand has plenty of jaw dropping scenery. That’s a pretty undisputed fact. And we see it a lot in weddings that take place in the Queenstown area of the South Island but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the landscapes captured quite like Bayly & Moore have in this amazing wedding of Jun & Faye’s. The textures and moodiness are insane!! The couple wanted a natural and rustic wedding but weren’t quite sure how that was going to look until they found their venue which then served to inspire the rest of the wedding. The ceremony took place at Moke Lake which I actually visited earlier this year, and can attest to it’s incredible sceneryééò what an amazing place to get married!! A reception in the middle of a high country station, surrounded by water and mountains, followedééò not to mention helicoptering all the guests up!! Yep, it really doesn’t get much more spectacular than that!! The very lovely and talented Kath from One Fine Day did a beautiful job of the styling.

How and/or where did you meet? It’s actually a pretty funny story. I was living in Chicago at the time, when a mutual friend of ours called me up one day and said he had a friend from college named Jun who had just moved to Chicago. He thought that we should meet, so had given him my phone number. Sure enough, a few days later I got a voicemail from Jun but was so busy, I forgot to return his call. In the following weeks, I received several more voicemails from Jun but proceeded to ignore them. I think it was because I felt a combination of guilt for never having returned his first few calls, in addition to cautious skepticism regarding his persistence to meet me. Shamefully, I have to admit that he continued to leave voicemails for me for over a year (!) without a single response from me. Finally, when our mutual friend made a visit to Chicago, he forced me to Jun in person. That was over ten years ago, and the rest is history.

Tell us about your proposal: Jun and I were on vacation in New Zealand and had just finished a week of trekking in the Milford Sound when we decided to relax and stay at a friend’s bach in Coromandel. It was there that he proposed – in the morning, while drinking tea on the porch, watching the ocean. It was such a surreal experience for me that I forgot to give him a simple ‘yes/no’ answer and it was only until a few hours later that he finally had to confirm and ask, “so is the answer yes?”

Describe your wedding flowers: Roses Florist did a great job with my flowers. I didn’t have wedding colors and wanted the flowers to serve as the main source of color for the wedding. I wanted a gathered, natural, and undone look for the flowers as though they were freshly picked with lots of wildflowers. For the wedding, wood boxes of wildflowers were placed along the aisle which were then used for the reception tables. My bouquet was also gorgeous with a mixture of garden and wildflower varieties.

Favourite detail of the day: My wedding planner, Kath McKenzie from One Fine Day, did an amazing job styling my wedding, taking my vision of rustic, modern vintage, and executing it perfectly, down to the smallewdx3st details. I will say if I had to pick my favorite detail, it would have been the place settings with the mismatched vintage plates, antler place holders, and gold cutlery.

What advise would you give out to a couple planning their wedding? No matter how much things seem like they won’t come together for the big day, they somehow will as long as you just take the time to let go of the small stuff and just enjoy the company of your family and friends.

Most memorable moment? Definitely when all the boys’ shirts and pants came off for a group swim in Moke Lake!