Steph & Brad

"A classic story of a boy coming up the stairs locking eyes with a girl and then walking away to the bar! Only to come and introduce himself later that night, from which time we have been inseparable, we both knew straight away this was a strong connection, feeling we had finally met our best friend.  Ironically, we had been living only 50m from each other for the last 5 years and had never met until that night!"

"We had no particular theme, but I had a brief of elegant, classic and romantic, which I portrayed heavily through lots and lots of flowers and candles."

"My only prerequisite was I had to honour my mum and get married in a church, so Brad went on a hunt for an old little white chapel, hence we came across the beautiful old Pukehou church.  For the reception venue, we fell in love with the wine and service at black barn and I felt I could turn the old empty olive shed on the property into something magical. . . I absolutely love that my vision and styling came out better than I could have imagined, especially with the hanging installs created throughout the olive shed!  I had to put a spin on the décor to suit my new family who are well involved in the car scene, so I spent months collecting old matchbox cars and hand-painted them to use as place settings and guest favours, Brad tried to give each guest a car that suited their personality!  We also got to drive down the family ford Cosworth to use as our wedding cars - was very cool!"

"Being a curvy girl and naturally a bit self-conscious I was daunted by the prospect and found it hard choosing a dress that flattered my figure and I felt amazing in.  Until I tried something completely out of what everyone thought I would wear - the Jae dress from the Atelier Wu collection!  There was something about it that I knew this was the one!  The amazing seamstress I dealt with at JB altered a few things to make it more flattering - thicker shoulder straps and a more pronounced 'V' back.  I also had a friend spend hours painstakingly removing the daisies from my mum's wedding dress - these were added to my dress so mum would be with me on the day and they formed the base of my custom made veil, which I will treasure forever!  Advice:  I went and tried dresses on a weekday when it was quieter and found this a much more pleasant/relaxing experience, and would recommend this to any future brides if they are able to."