Marlborough Sounds Wedding By Deborah Foote

I’m thrilled to be teaming up with the wonderful Julia of Studio Home with this post today. Her sister Caroline got married a few short weeks ago to Simon, in the stunning Queen Charlotte Sound in the South Island with a team of amazing vendors. On top of showcasing the gorgeous photos of the day by Deborah Foote, there’s an amazing giveaway of some awesome products + a nights accommodation at the end of it ééò SO be sure to scroll to the bottom to find out the details and then head over to Studio Home to enter! But before that the gorgeous bride shares some details of their day with usééò

ééòI was very keen to have the wedding in the Queen Charlotte Sound as it is a special place for our family and where Simon had our first New Zealand trip together. Simon happily obliged. Furneaux Lodge matched us with its relaxed friendly style which became the main vibe we were trying to create throughout the day. This meant low key but lovely elements which we both liked and trying to keep it simple for everyone involved.ééò

How did you meet? Simon and I met in Launceston, Tasmania where I was living and working at the time and he was living two hours away in Coles Bay. Our mutual friend Nick (who performed the role of celebrant for us on the day) felt it was important for us to meet considering Simon was coming on a trip to New Zealand with us later in the year and would be spending time with my family and me. We were very pleasantly surprised by each other and by the time the NZ trip came around Simon was coming to be introduced to my family as my boyfriend.

Tell us about your proposal: After three years and then six months of travelling and camping around Australia in our Ute Simon decided that the stability of home and friends was the perfect setting for a proposal. He had secretly arranged with my mum to have a family ring arrive in Australia and with our good friends visiting us from Tasmania for the weekend he proposed to me in the living room of our Queensland cottage.

Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I searched fairly half heartedly for a dress to purchase and had just started thinking about exploring dressmaker options when my close school friend announced to us that she was giving up her day job to pursue her training and talent as a designer ééò starting with a bridal range! I spoke to Caroline and could not believe my luck to be able to work with my good friend to design the dress for my wedding. Working with Caroline (Caroline Campion Couture) was amazing, even though she was my friend she was professional and warm and found ways to make my ideas work! This is a big heartfelt plug for Caroline ééò she made the experience extremely special and relaxed as I trusted her completely. When it all came together it was just magic.

Any DIY/Budget elements? Being in a remote spot (boat access only) and keeping money in mind we were DIY everything we could! We created our own invites using Instagram photos of us over the last few years. I made the envelopes for the invites out of an out of date atlas. We also used maps to make origami animals to mark the seating plan on the tables and food labels. Simon and I went on op shop hunts the week before the wedding to gather our earthenware vases. We had incredibly talented guests who supported us hugely by providing home baking for dessert, mum made the cake, a friend helped with our hair, and we had a gang for the decorating, making petal confetti, and flower arranging. Not to mention Nick as the celebrant of the marriage and good friends assisting with the photography. We were so lucky to have amazing people resources available to us which made the day even more memorable. The bridesmaids and I did our own make-up after a lesson at Mecca Cosmetica.

Describe your wedding flowers: Being an hour away by boat and the day after Valentine’s Day we knew from the beginning that we would be looking to the native bush and bach gardens for the flowers. Luckily the hydrangeas in the bay were having a bumper season with a really unique array of colour combinations and petal textures. Another talented guest and florist Briar Redfern-Pokaia lent her skills to our bouquets and buttonholes with the bridesmaids having greeny-blue tones and my bouquet more green and white with touches of raspberry-red to go with my lips. The vibe was relaxed and natural. The flowers in the marquee, again pulled together by guests, where miles and miles of a prolific native creeping fern which we gathered and wrapped around the poles. Varieties of other native greenery were foraged, along with gum-nuts for the Aussies, and were used in clusters of vases.

Favourite detail of the day: We loved that it was more than a day! We had guests arriving on Friday for a BBQ then time to see people on Saturday before the wedding and then the event itself and breakfast on Sunday. For us the whole month felt like a beautiful big celebration with friends and family often meeting each other for the first time.

Talented friends were a theme and photographer Deborah Foote was a prime example! She quietly worked her magic and captured the light simplicity of our day without us even noticing. The bridal party had so much fun during the photos and Deb was skilled at facilitating and capturing genuine (and flattering!) moments for us. Another pleasure was wearing the organic fragrance Vintage’13 from Abel, a beautiful warm scent carefully created by another good friend and guest Frances Shoemack. Abel generously provided us with samples of the fragrance for wedding guests to enjoy too which added another meaningful touch.

I also think that working with Moira and Steve at Furneaux Lodge with their professional, relaxed staff was a major reason for the success of the day, it was seamless and the food was delicious!

Most memorable moment of the day: Having a waterski on the morning of the wedding and then finding my plait had completely matted from the salt water! It took four people hacking at it with brushes and mum with scissors to untangle it! This was memorable as the only stressful time, the rest of the day was wonderful moments one after another.

So now for the awesome giveaway details!! Check them out below and to enter for one or all four of them head over to Studio Home to lodge your entry. A night at the lovely Furneaux Lodge sounds like just the ticket to me!!