How did the two of you meet?

Byron is a soldier in the New Zealand Defence Force and I met him on Anzac Day, all dressed up in his fancy Service Dress uniform. And the rest, as they say, is history.

How did Byron propose?

Byron had the ring for ages and I had no idea. He was training up at the Navy Dive School in Auckland for a few months and one weekend we caught up with his family at Mt Maunganui. His mother lives right on the beach and before I came back down south we were sitting on the sand dunes in his favourite spot when he put his arm around me with the box in his hand and asked me to marry him.

How did you choose your wedding dress?

My wedding dress was a lengthy but fun process, I sat with Robyn (from Mille Feuille) and cut every individual piece of lace out and got her to pin them exactly where I wanted them. The dress kind of built itself. Each fitting, we would add more and more lace wherever I felt the dress naturally told us to.

Tell us about the ceremony, did you write your own vows?

Our celebrant, Carol Gunn, was fantastic. We were able to

customise the entire ceremony to suit us. We both wrote our own vows and kept them secret from one another. It was a lovely surprise on the day when we had both written them with the same kind of humor and they matched so well. I kept the soppy stuff for the last few sentences and it worked a charm, lots of tears all round and even Byron cried!

Where did you have your photos taken?

All of our photos were taken at Trott’s Garden.

Tell us about the reception.

As a graphic designer, it was really important to me not only to create something beautiful but also to create an atmosphere for everyone else to enjoy themselves. And Trott’s really was the perfect location for that.

We had people travel from Canada, the USA, the UK, Germany and a lot from the far north of NZ.

It was really important to me right from the beginning stages of planning to provide a location where everyone could arrive and be comfortable from the ceremony to the reception.

This meant it needed to be somewhere close to our home, close to accommodation and easy to provide travel to and from so people could fully relax and be present with us on our special day. I also wanted somewhere that I could have the ceremony, cocktail hour and the reception all in one as I knew there wouldn’t be enough vehicles with so many people flying in. Trott’s ticked every single box for me right from the beginning.

The new pavilion at Trott's was beyond fabulous. I kept the dance floor central and in front of the bridal table to maximize the visual impact as people entered. From our first dance until midnight the dance floor was totally packed. Byron even said he had never been to a wedding where everyone had been dancing so much and having such a good time, so I was very proud of that. I truly believe it was all the little details that I spent so much time planning that made it all come together to create the perfect atmosphere for our guests.

What was your most memorable moment?

Walking back down the aisle as husband and wife. As we left the ceremony we led our guests through the gardens to the lake side cocktail area, which meant Byron and I got a nice bit of time to ourselves and we were just buzzing.