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The Offbeat Bride: Steph, Nanny
Her offbeat partner: Mark, Truck Driver
Date and location of wedding: Wrights Watergardens, Patumahoe, New Zealand — November 24, 2012
Our offbeat wedding at a glance: We started out planning our rockabilly wedding by adhering to a budget and DIYing the stationery and decorations. Plus, my mum handmade my dress! This meant my dress was incredibly special to me and I was able to have a hand in the design and making of it. It was important to both of us that our personalities came through on the day through everything from the cars, music, ceremony, and outfits.
We chose the gorgeous venue, Wrights Watergardens in Patumahoe, New Zealand. Our cake was based on classic tattoos and our shoes.
Tell us about the ceremony:
Both Mark and I didn't want a long ceremony as we're not really into declaring our undying love in front of everyone. So we opted for a short and sweet ceremony with all the important bits to it, and how we love each other. Our celebrant was great at keeping such a short ceremony about us and not too sterile. Both my dad and Mark's dad were the witnesses, my stepdad was on Mark's side, and my sister-in-law was the emcee.
My favorite moment:
I'm originally from Northern Ireland in the U.K. and my grandad (aged 76) made the journey with his wife for the big day, along with my dad, too. So that meant a lot that they would travel to the other side of the world for us. We also wanted to include my granny and Mark's mum, who have both passed away, but would have loved to have been there. So we incorporated pictures of them onto the signing table.
My funniest moment:
My brother gave me away as we are very close, and I had always wanted him to do the job. He was amazing, and when I thought I was going to have a bit of a breakdown before the big walk up the aisle, he completely took my mind off it and made me laugh! Then when he brought me down, he said to Mark, “Here you are, no returns!” It was typical.
Have you been married before and if so, what did you do differently?
Mark had been married before, so it kind of took the pressure off doing the whole traditional thing and I felt that we could do things a bit differently.
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?
- Photography: friends of the couple
- Venue: Wrights Watergardens
Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!
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The car looks awesome! Congrats guys, sounds like a lovely day
That cake is fabulous! (So is the whole thing, duh.)
What an amazingly gorgeous couple– congrats!! I love water gardens, and I am DYING over that venue. Amazing!
Thanks guys! I think it was pretty special too 😉 And I just want to put out a special word about my hair and make up artist Michelle from Debonaire Doos if you’re in NZ get in touch with her, she’s the best!
Oh man, I clicked on this in part to learn who made your dress, as that’s really close to what I’m looking for! I love it! Your mother did an awesome job!
It was a mission to make but I’m so glad we went down this road as I couldn’t find the exact thing I wanted anywhere and then Mum found a vintage pattern and we thought that it would be a good idea to make it (a number of times throughout we questioned this decision!) but in the end it was perfect 🙂