THE LOVE STORY
"We meet in May 2015 at the Massey University Young Farmers Duck Shooters Ball when a communal leg of lamb was being passed around. We ended up chatting and soon learnt that we lived in the same flatting complex. My room was a fishbowl at the top of the driveway where many people would frequent for a chat by poking their head through my window. After the ball, this is something Fraser started doing too."
THE PROPOSAL
"Fraser set a proposal date for August 2022 with a surprise trip to Wellington with some of our close friends. There was plenty of bluffing and cancelling plans with my school friends behind my back to make it work and everything was falling into place, until lockdown cancelled the trip.
So plan B was activated. We started a date night routine where we had to take each other on a surprise outing. Fraser had planned a night away to Raglan, one of our favourite spots, where we had fish and chips at the beach. Still none the wiser, with the ring stuffed in a pair of socks in his shorts, we went for a walk down the beach at sunset. He spent most of the walk awkwardly looking around, which I thought was weird! What he was doing was looking for the right opportunity as people kept appearing on the beach. The right spot was found, and he popped the question."
THE WEDDING
"Our wedding was held at Longbeach Estate, 20min out of Ashburton, my hometown.
Our wedding was so special! There were many unique moments, such as surprising both our nannas as the witness's to our wedding and instead of a head table we had a couch up the front next to the speakers which we sat on. We got to snuggle up next to each other, laugh, cry and see everyones reactions to all the speeches and then go back to our table with all our crew to eat.
I think having the wedding in my home patch meant there were many special moments for me, there's far too many to name but a really special one, for not only me but my parents was; Ron, who drove my parents to their wedding back in 1993 in one of his vintage cars, then got to drive me to mine. He was absolutely honoured and it was the only time he's driven two generations to their weddings."
THE BRIDESMAIDS
"My bridesmaids were Courtney Hill, Kate Stewart, Daisy Higgs and Robyn Engels. This was one of the easiest decisions for me. Friendships come and go but no matter what distance is between these four and me it's always been easy and we can each pick up where we left off. I think that's what true friendship is.
Each of these girls also inspire, motivate and challenge me daily, I feel honoured they agreed to stand next to me on the best day of my life to date.
Daisy and Kate both got married only 4-6 weeks before me, so getting to chat weddings and all be living that life at the same time is rare. A couple of weeks before the wedding the girls planned a 'girls weekend' as I didn't want a hen's do.
Work and life had been occupying a lot of time in all of our lives and I couldn't think of anything worse than a big weekend partying. Luckily they know me well and planned a cup-filling weekend of glamping, books, knitting, good food and hot tubs. 10/10 weekend!"
THE DRESSES
"We are all very indecisive as a group, so I was grateful to the girls at BLAK in the Mount who helped me choose a colour!
I knew what I wanted but was doubting myself after seeing other cool colours on Instagram so I'm glad they gave me the confidence to go with the colour choice I wanted.
I had said from the get go that I wanted each of the girls to feel beautiful in their dresses and if that meant different styles, that was perfectly fine.
Daisy and Courtney ended up wearing the Golden Hour Dress, Robyn the Polaroid and Kate the Lights Out Dress. They all looked and felt amazing!"
BRIDESMAIDS WEAR TANIA PINK IN TWILL
VENDORS
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