J E M M A & C H R I S T O P H E R
After a Las Vegas proposal, Jemma and Chris planned a bright wedding in Auckland, the city where they first met. From their home in Melbourne the couple organised a February wedding centred around family and friends. Set amongst the gardens of Cornwall Park their garden wedding took on a distinctly summer vibe with a yellow and grey colour palette.
F R O M T H E B R I D E
The Meeting…
We were introduced by a mutual friend that we’d both grown up with. We met for the first time at Christmas in the park in the Auckland Domain, New Zealand.
The Proposal…
We were in Las Vegas with Chris’ family, revisiting his parents honeymoon trip. We travelled Europe together when we were 22 and Chris always said, if he could afford to he’d propose to me under the Eiffel tower in Paris. He walked me to a part of Las Vegas called ‘Paris Paris’ and got the camera out under the Eiffel tower replica. He told me to lean over the camera and squeal as if I’m falling off the Eiffel tower as he got down on one knee to take the photo. As he snapped the photo, he pulled a ring out of his pocket and asked me to marry him. I burst into tears and said yes as he stood up to kiss me, the hundreds of people in the huge balcony restaurant to our right all stood and clapped and cheered!
The Wedding…
We both wanted a relaxed, summer, garden wedding. We agreed early on that we wanted yellow and grey to be the colour scheme so we worked around this, incorporating lots of floral and lace designs. Chris is a graphic designer so he did all of our designs (invites, table numbers etc) We wanted our family to feature strongly throughout our wedding as we have been together for 7 years, since the age of 18 and they have been a huge part of our lives and our relationship. It was important to us that, more than anything, our guests had fun!
The Ceremony & Reception…
‘Sorrento in the Park’, Cornwall Park, Auckland, New Zealand
Pre-wedding Celebrations…
We had a dinner the night before with our families, our bridal party and their partners. We also had a huge BBQ at our family home on the Sunday after the wedding.
The Dress…
My wedding gown was designed and made by the incredible Maria Gonzalez in Melbourne. We worked from one of her dresses off the rack that I liked, but together, we added to it and adapted it to the dress I wanted it to be. Because I am a relatively young bride, I didn’t want anything too glamorous. Especially as we were aiming for a relaxed garden wedding! I wanted soft, floaty fabrics with some lace detail and a beautiful back. I always wanted a bow to be somewhere on my dress and I wanted straps so we adjusted the original dress to cater to all this and ended up with a dress that looked like something out of a fairytale.
The Bridesmaids…
My bridesmaids wore convertible dresses made by Staysi-Lee who I found on the website Etsy.com. They were a golden yellow colour and the girls all wore them in different styles which suited their different shapes. My best friend was pregnant at the time and my other friend had lost a lot of weight so these worked perfectly. They wore grey wedges from Siren and simple jewellery I bought them as a gift.
The Suits…
The boys wore suits custom made for them by Formal Red. They were grey 2 piece suits. Chris designed their shirts and had them made. They wore white shirts, the groomsmen had yellow details on the buttons, cuffs and collars and Chris had grey. As a gift and a nod to their hockey ties, they had hockey stick cufflinks given to them as gifts along with yellow ties that matched the girls dresses.
The Flowers…
A good friend of my mum’s, Lorraine, from ‘The florist’ in Auckland did our flowers. I know nothing about flowers so I simply advised her that I wanted a blend of yellows and whites and she created masterpieces! My Grandma had lillies in her bouquet when she was married and my mum had roses so I had touches of these flowers.
Styling…
The venue we hired for our wedding took care of most of this, which was great for us as we were planning our wedding from Melbourne. They took care of the centrepieces which consisted of fishbowl vases sitting on mirror discs, filled with lilies and other flowers that fit with our theme. Chris designed our table numbers and we had them in simple white frames. We had name cards on each setting, made of recycled card with their names written in typewriter font. Fairy lights lit up the dance floor and were also draped behind a sheer curtain behind the bridal table. Throughout the reception area, our colour theme followed on from the ceremony with yellows and whites. We had a yellow ‘J & C’ at our bridal table that sat in front of a beautiful flower display.
The Cake…
Erin Phillips from Planet Cake in Sydney flew over and made our cake as she was also a guest at our wedding.
On The Menu…
We had a sit down, buffet style menu. There was a glazed leg of ham on the bone, accompanied by a selection of Chutney’s and whole scotch fillet with a mustard herb crust. There was also breast of chicken marinated with lemon and roasted garlic, grilled boneless fillets of South Island salmon drizzled with lemon, Moroccan style lamb tagine, crisp roast potatoes with caramelized onion, wok tossed summer vegetables. We also had an Australian king prawn tower, New Zealand green lipped mussels and a selection of salads, Caesar Salad with crisp bacon, shaves of Italian parmesan and chunky croutons, marinated mushroom salad with a honey, balsamic vinaigrette, chickpea salad with cashews, mint and roasted peanuts, Greek salad with sweet summer capsicums and crumbled feta, Thai style chicken salad with coriander and crisp shallots. For dessert we had Kahlua and white chocolate cheesecake, tiramisu, chocolate decadence torte and fresh fruit salad. Our cake was served later on with tea and coffee but we were all too busy dancing to eat it!
The Soundtrack…
I walked down the aisle to our good friend Billy playing the wedding march on the guitar. We walked up the aisle together after the ceremony to ‘ho hey’ by The Lumineers. Our first dance was to ‘To love somebody’ By the Bee Gees and we also consider ‘yellow’ by Coldplay very special to us and our day.
Bomboniere…
In lieu of gifts, we made a donation to the cancer foundation as both Chris and I have lost grandparents to cancer. Tied to each guest’s name card was a daffodil that the cancer society of New Zealand had given us. We wrote on the back of their name cards an explanation of our gesture. Our guests really appreciated this as almost all of them had lost someone to cancer.
Photography…
We went to school with Anna of Anna Allport Photography, but none of us knew each other- we only her name. We followed her page on Facebook and loved all the images we saw of weddings she had photographed. She was the first booking we made for our big day- we knew we wanted her! We loved her romantic, soft style of photography and she was a brilliant person to work with too. We love how honestly the photos capture our love for each other, our emotions on the day, the emotions of the guests, the all-round mood and beauty of the day.
Special Memories…
The speeches were incredible- we had the father of the groom, the mother of the bride, the best man and the groom speak and all were great. They were really funny and quite emotional. I also surprised my Husband to be by having a Mustang pick he and his best man up for the wedding. He was so excited and had a blast going for a ride around for half an hour before the wedding!
Photography Anna Allport Photography Ceremony & Reception Venue ‘Sorrento in the Park’, Cornwall Park, Auckland, New Zealand Bride’s Dress Maria Gonzalez Bridesmaid Dresses Staysi-Lee via Etsy Groom and Groomsmen Suits Formal Red Wedding Flowers Lorraine from The Florist Wedding Cake Planet Cake Bomboniere Donation to the Cancer Foundation
MW x