I’m thrilled to be featuring the work of Ryan & Heidi Studio today, it’s very timely since Ryan is here in New Zealand from the US this week, to shoot a wedding, and we’re going to meet up later today. These guys live in New York but were here over the summer to shoot some weddings, and plan to return next summer to do more of the same… which is great news if you’re still looking to book a photographer for your wedding because they are offering an awesome reduction of 25% on photography wedding packages in both New Zealand and Australia from January to March 2014. I’m sure like me that after looking at today’s feature you’ll fall in love with their work so be sure to check out their website and facebook page for more. You can also find them in our directory.

Not being overly traditional, a vineyard wedding fit perfectly for Brenna & Scott. They wanted something carefree, when they could have a relaxed day and enjoy themselves without too much formality or structure. A beautiful setting, gorgeous food and wine would allow them to give their guests a day to remember. And Craggy Range in the Hawkes Bay fit the bill. They chose to incorporate a twenties vintage feel to all the styling elements, from both the dresses and the boy’s attire, to the music and flowers.

With the venue taking care of most of the setup, Brenna could enjoy the day relaxing with her bridal party. And of course there was Mum and an Aunt on board sorting out flower arrangements and cakes!

Without any traditional elements, the ceremony was all about them and their friends and family. Their celebrant worked together with them to include their personalities into the ceremony wording – which involved a lot of laughter. Their main focus was around having all their friends and family around for support. Read on for more details from the gorgeous bride…

Tell us about finding your wedding dress: “First and foremost I must say that I really am not a girly girl and could really never get my head around having to wear a wedding dress. You know how some girls dream about their special day… well I’ve never been that girl!

We ticked this box over the course of one day, I had decided that by the end of the day out hunting I would come back with “the dress” as I really couldn’t fathom putting any more time/stress to it. I checked out a few places in Auckland with mum and Bridgette, my only bridesmaid in NZ at the time.

I had it in my head that A la Robe was going to be the place to find this thing, having done a bit of research I knew Elizabeth’s creations fitted of my ethos of dresses that weren’t overly structured and allowed for personality. After opting to go suss out a couple of places that were at the opposite end of the spectrum, having both mum and Bridgette dress me up in these ridiculous meringue dresses, to have a laugh, I knew that my gut instinct was right.

I never thought I’d be a person to cry when I found the right dress but this is absolutely what I did, as did my mum and bridesmaid. I couldn’t have been more in love with my dress (I still am somewhat). SO many of our friends/family commented how “me” the dress was, and it was, very unstructured, not white, and 100% my style.
Elizabeth Soljak at A la Robe did a great job and really got to understand the person I was to come up with this beautiful creation.

What advice would you give out to a couple planning their wedding? The best advice we ever received was that at the outset of planning to pick your top three things that you would not compromise on in terms of cost or quality. For us this was the photography, food and the venue.

Weddings can be expensive and once you get into planning, it’s hard not to want the best of everything. This really helped to keep some perspective on elements of our day and to not overstep the budget (well at least the contingency line on the budget)!

One more bit of advice is to leave plenty of time for your photographer. Family photos, no matter how quickly you want to get through them, really suck up your time. So make sure you factor this in. Thankfully we had an awesome photographer so even though we didn’t have as much time as we hoped we still got a heap of amazing shots that really capture the essence of the day.

Most memorable moment? Being able to let my hair down once the formalities were over. It’s a long day that whizzes by so it was nice to be able to spend some time at the end of the evening with all our friends and family and just soak up the atmosphere.

I guess the priority for us in having this wedding was to give back to our friends and family for all the support they have provided us, and continue to provide, so the day was as much about celebrating them as it was about Scott and I formalising our relationship.

Photographer | Ryan Browne – Ryan & Heidi Studio, Cake | Kim Taylor / Tania Pringle, Florist | Bouquets; Mary Ritchie,

Table flowers; Kim Taylor / Tania Pringle, Stationery | Wendy Maree Collection, Venue | Craggy Range, Hawkes Bay

Dress Designer | A la Robe, Jewellery | Sutcliffe Jewellery, Hair & Makeup | Suzanne Hardy Hair & Makeup, Prop Hireage | Style Me Vintage, Bridesmaids Dresses | Repertoire, Grooms Attire | Working Style, Celebrant | Bev Kerr, Caterer | Craggy Range

Ryan & Heidi Studio are members of our directory