Annelise and Ryan based the style of their wedding around the bride’s fathers beautiful garden. With several different themed garden zones on the property the couple matched a cocktail to each one; from Pimms in the English garden to Watermelon Mojitos in the Vege Patch. Love this idea!! The turned the area into an enchanted garden by hanging giant butterflies in old oak trees and stringing lanterns between them. They also had a jazz band that moved around the garden throughout the afternoon to entertain their guests. They couldn’t not forget the animals so their dog Rufus ran around amusing the guests and the bride’s mother bought along her horse so they could incorporate her in some photos. All in all it was very much a family affair in a location that has special meaning to them. The very lovely Nisha Ravji ééò also a friend ééò was there to capture the prettiness of the day.
Since they run a caf together, food was also an important aspect throughout the day. After quickly working out the doing the food themselves was too much to take on, they enlisted Hazel Hayes who created a menu that honoured their respective favourites and incorporated plenty of edible flowers and micro herbs to fit in with their garden theme.
Tell us about your proposal: We were on holiday in Queenstown together for a week, where some friends and family (who were in on the surprise) joined us for the weekend. We took them night skiing on Coronet Peak because we had done the same thing the year before and had an amazing time watching the sunset. This time there just happened to be a professional photographer up there who took some photos of us jumping around in the snow, then all of a sudden Ryan dropped to one knee and proposed. It was so romantic on top of the mountain, at sunset with our friends and family watching. When I said yes he pulled a magnum of champagne and glasses out of his backpack so we could all celebrate!
Tell us about finding your wedding dress: Finding my dress was such a fun experience that I could share with my mum. We both love shopping so it was the perfect excuse for a girls trip to Sydney to visit family over there and look for a dress for me. We had a fun day at David Jones playing dress ups and then a few more great outings in Auckland doing the same thing. I did a lot of searching online and finally found one that I knew was my dream dress! It was quite different because the bodice was covered in feathers but also felt like a traditional princess dress without being too over the top to wear for a garden wedding. A good family friend of ours, Raewyn Bayer, made my clip and veil as well as a garter made with some of the material from my mums wedding dress.
Describe your wedding flowers: We wanted the flowers to be quite natural and not too put together so they fit in with the garden theme. My bouquet was made up of white roses & lysianthus & green foliage wrapped in lace from my mums wedding dress. The bridesmaids had bouquets to complement the natural tones of their dresses and the flowergirls had daisy halo crowns.
For the tables we got big bunches of flowers and picked extras from the garden to fill jars for the centrepieces. I wanted them to look like wild flowers, these jars were wrapped in ivy and strung with fairylights. The tables looked just magical at night!
Favourite detail of the day: I was so happy that we got to have our ceremony outside under the trees. The day was forecast for thunderstorms, we had set up the outside area so beautifully that I didn’t want to have to move the ceremony into a boring marquee. When we pulled up in the wedding car it was raining so we waited for a break while guests ran around drying chairs and fetching umbrellas. As soon as we got a break in the weather we went for it and the whole thing was underway! Halfway through the ceremony the rain started again and Ryan said to me ééòlets move it insideééò but I said NO WAY!!! So our brave guests sat in the rain, but everyone was so happy I don’t think they noticed too much. I was so glad we could have it there it was just magical being outside!
What advise would you give out to a couple planning their wedding? Take the time to plan it and enjoy the planning. We had the best evenings in the garden with my family drinking wine and planning every detail. It was awesome to see it all come together on the day! If you are organised you wont be stressed on the day and can just relax. Also if people want to help then let them, because so many people were personally
involved in our day it made it a really special occasion for everyone. We were amazed how talented our friends and family were and by letting them have input into things, everything ended up even better than we could have imagined it if we had chosen every detail ourselves.
Make-up | Ivy Row, Bride’s gown | FoGroom’s attire | Working Style, Groomsmen attire | Barkers
Bridesmaids attire | Forever New, Flowergirl attire | Colette Dinnigan
