So I have decided that my first ever post is going to be about a pretty awesome day I had earlier this year – our wedding! Also, we are about to head off on our honeymoon, to Europe and Mexico for 6 weeks, so I wanted to get a little post in before we left.
(e+e shoppers – don’t worry! I have a lovely girl named Chantal in the office while I am away so all orders will still be shipped out)
Anyway, back to the wedding. We got married on the beach on Waiheke Island, New Zealand in January, on the only sunny day in a month. Phew!
It was a super casual affair, which was perfect for us. From the beach we all wandered down the road to a friend’s barn, where we had picnic rugs and games like petanque (or bocce for the Aussies reading) spread out on the lawn. There was a big marquee set up with pretty doily-covered tables and a hay strewn dance floor with a great local band playing.
Once there, we all just danced, ate and laughed the day and night away. Well until noise control arrived anyway!
Our wedding ceremony was held under a big pohutukawa tree on the beach
Mat was in charge of making an aisle with little jars of flowers and also hanging the fabric ‘chandelier’
On arrival at the reception the guests all got one of our signature cocktails – a feijoa cooler – and also a nibble bag
The nibble bags contained crunchy spiced nuts that I had made and were sealed with green stripey bakers twine
There were also green stripey straws to sip through
One of my bridesmaids wrote the day’s menu on a beautiful borrowed vintage mirror
The pretty wild flowers were picked by my mum, sister and sister-in-law
All the jars and vases were collected by my mum and bridesmaids from various charity shops around NZ
My wonderful bridesmaids did all the decorating too – from filling vases to raking hay. They were awesome!
Mat and I listening to the speeches with all the lads
We used a giant community puzzle instead of a guest book. Everyone really enjoyed writing on the puzzle pieces and we now have it framed and hanging on our bedroom wall
We didn’t have an official photographer for the day – my brother was in charge of the photos – but we also had lots of disposable cameras and a photo booth so we could get fun shots of our guests. We had a vintage tin for collecting the used cameras
My dad drilled holes into a piece of firewood to make a coloured pencil stand for the kids
He and I also made the wooden signs which directed guests to different parts of the venue
We used local businesses for all our food – a woodfired pizza truck, a paella van, a gelato cart and of course the amazing chocolate buttermilk cake which was made by one of my bridesmaids
My dad took a chainsaw to the golf course the day before the wedding and cut up a tree stump to make the cake stand
My mum went on numerous trips to spotlight before she whipped up the cushion covers, which my mother-in-law then stuffed with inners
As there was limited running water at the barn we used eco wooden cutlery and plates for all the food
Everyone having a boogie on the open-air dance floor
7 comments
What a lovely relaxed affair your wedding was! It must be that much more of a special memory for you both knowing how much love and effort your family and friends contributed to the preparations. Lovin’ the guest book idea.
All the best with your blog – have you got access to extra time somewhere in the universe – website, shop, blog ! how do you find time for it all ?!
Hi Susan, ha ha ha some extra time would be good some days! Lots of multi tasking generally gets me through though.
[…] the other day and we came up with a fun bake-off idea. I think I have mentioned Susannah before in our wedding post, she is the talented girl that made our delicious choc buttermilk cake. She now has a great […]
[…] Posted by jane on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 var addthis_product = 'wpp-264'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"data_track_addressbar":false};if (typeof(addthis_share) == "undefined"){ addthis_share = [];}I’ll start by saying this, aren’t men so hard to buy presents for? So when my husbands birthday rolled around in December (yes right before Christmas!) I was a little stuck as to what to get him. Then one day we were chit chatting about how some of our walls really needed some personality and also how awesome our honeymoon was and I had a lightbulb moment – why not print and frame some of our favourite honeymoon snaps?! Since I’m not big on making photo albums because I don’t have the patience, it seemed like a great way to remember such an awesome trip. Suffice to say, he was pretty happy with the gift and we finally got around to hanging them this week, 1 year after our lovely wedding. […]
[…] == "undefined"){ addthis_share = [];}We made these delicious candied spiced nuts for our wedding guests to nibble on when they arrived at the reception. They are a delectable combination of spicy, salty […]
[…] This rustic wood log pencil holder is so cute for the kids table at an outdoor wedding. We had one similar that my dad made for us at our wedding in a barn, which you can check out here. […]
[…] This DIY rustic pencil holder is so cute for the kids table at an outdoor wedding. We had one similar that my dad made for us at our wedding in a barn, which you can check out here. […]