Live brings you five of the most gorgeous weddings from the 2023/2024 wedding season, plus a themed wedding we couldn’t resist from 2022.
Bianca Brown & Jordan Hooper
“We met at a former workplace and quietly started up the classic workplace romance,” Bianca remembers. After five years together Jordan proposed on a private beach on October 17 2022.
“We decided we didn’t want to wait for the following summer and got onto trying to find a venue and bring the wedding together right away.
“We didn’t end up booking our venue at The Bungalow until the beginning of January and four months later we got married on the 6th of April 2023 right before the Easter long weekend.”
The vision was for a very classic, timeless and romantic feel for the wedding day. Everything in black and white with beautiful bright red and pink roses stealing the show.
“We were both so nervous for the ceremony and went down the traditional route of not seeing each other or talking to one another the night before and day of. It meant we had so much emotion built up that the ceremony was such a blur!
They were lucky with the weather and had the most perfect and still, slightly overcast day.
“The whole day was so amazing and we were so grateful to be surrounded by our friends and family.
“We couldn’t believe how lucky we were to be able to book and work with so many amazing vendors especially at such short notice! Everyone was so great to work with and did a fantastic job.
“The band definitely played later than we were meant to and I spent the whole time from the speeches onwards on the dance floor. It was such a fun way to end the most perfect, emotional and happy day.”
Melissa Jensen & Troy Burbidge
When Inglewood farm girl met Fitzroy local boy at a dinner with friends, “well sparks flew” the couple remember. Fast forward 10 years together, raising three kids, and an endless villa reno; at around two years engaged they decided it was time to actually have a wedding.
“The kids were super-excited about it which made it a big family affair, so we started planning,” says Melissa. “A tropical island wedding was my dream — a wedding and a holiday in one, perfect!” Or maybe not… With the uncertainty of covid and traveling again being new, they decided to keep it simple. Plus in the shed, Troy had already started restoring the ‘wedding car’ a 1976 Mazda RX4.
“So we decided that a 5-10 minute walk down the road from where we live and where Troy grew up, it would be!
“The weather delivered the best summer day we could have hoped for. We got that island kinda feeling wedding, sunsets and all, and the new hubby got to drive his pride and joy out of the wedding with his other pride and joys in it (his new wife and kids, in case some readers were wondering…)
“But more importantly, we got to be married finally in our own town & country where we met and have grown our family.”
Steve & Kylie Gardner
“Steve and I met through mutual friends in 2017,” says Kylie. “We both had two children and lived together as a blended family of six.”
In April 2022, Steve proposed down on one knee at Lake Mangamahoe.
“We wanted an intimate wedding with our family and close friends. We searched for months trying to find the wedding venue that was perfect for us.
“Pukekura Park Gardens quickly became our favourite. We loved this option as we had our reception in the Pukekura Raceway Function Centre.
“We also wanted our guests to remain at the same location without having to travel far and somewhere that was central in New Plymouth, so this was another tick in the box.”
The bridal party were Kylie and Steve’s children Lauren, Charlise, William and Sienna.
“With a special greeting for each of our girls when they walked down the aisle and vows that were from the heart made sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the house!” Kylie says of the ceremony itself. “We were told our wedding was like watching a love story unfold and we love that – it was a perfect day!”
Sarah Hanrahan & Gerhard Furter
“Our aim was to have a fun celebration of love with our nearest and dearest,” says Sarah. “Having been together for about eight years, we had plenty of time to plan the big day after getting engaged in 2020.”
Sarah was the first to propose, making the most of an Irish Leap Day tradition, and Gerhard’s proposal followed swiftly about a week later!
“The wedding day was everything we had hoped for and more. The weather was stunning, so much so that the groomsmen were all a bit red by the end of the day. All of our friends and family who had travelled from out of the region raved about Taranaki and loved seeing the mountain.”
The couple put a lot of work in to the big day themselves, with help from family and friends and the vendors they chose, to make the wedding day what it was.
“Hikurangi Gardens was the ideal venue, with beautifully manicured gardens for the ceremony and a rustic woolshed to dance the night away. “Our incredible photographers Ryan & Ilse captured the day beautifully, and we treasure being able to look back on the day so clearly.”
Natasha Quinn & Shaun Neal
Natasha first met Shaun when they were both school age.
“My first introduction to Shaun was as his younger sister Aleisha’s close friend,” she recalls. “Ten years went by and it wasn’t until we both settled into our careers back in Taranaki that we crossed paths again and realised how much we had in common.”
The couple has now been together for over four and a half years, and Aleisha, who she’s still very close to, was Natasha’s bridesmaid.
The proposal was a complete surprise to Natasha and came about after a planned fishing trip and BBQ dinner down at the river on the farm.
When it came to planning their wedding, they were both keen on a garden wedding in early March.
“We were lucky enough to have celebrated some of our closest friends’ weddings the previous two years, so had experienced a variety of vendors first-hand which made our decisions much easier,” Natasha says. “We can’t recommend our chosen vendors enough!”
They both felt incredibly fortunate to have all of their friends and family in one place to celebrate with them including having four of their nieces join the bridesmaids walking down the aisle as flower girls.
“Ending the day with a perfect sunset that allowed Aimee Kelly to capture some amazing photos was an added bonus!”
Rosie & Braxton Wilson
It took more than Cyclone Dovi to put a dampener on Alex and Braxton’s wedding day.
“It was directly over us during our wedding,” recalls Alex. “We managed to get lucky for the majority of the day then in the evening and the next morning we were being blown away trying to get everything packed down and sorted.”
But the tempestuous weather worked brilliantly with their fantasy-themed celebrations.
“Think Lord of the Rings meets Harry Potter. We are both self-proclaimed geeks and enjoy various fandoms so we combined different elements of this into the theme of our day.”
“We also encouraged all of the guests to dress up and they did which was incredible. We had witches, wizards, elves, Geralt from the Witcher, hobbits and all sorts.”
The pair met at intermediate school when Braxton was best friends with Alex’s brother. “We started dating in high school and the rest is history.”
Alex crafted and made the majority of the decorations then she, and Braxton, plus friends and family, together with Linda from Lake Farm, assembled everything the day before.
“Lake Farm had an incredible amount of decorations and props for us to use alongside the rest and they went above and beyond every step of the way to make sure it was exactly how we pictured it. We even had a custom hobbit hole door to fit the big barn doors for added flair.”