A beautiful garden wedding set the scene for Tahnee and Leighton Te Kanawa who married in March this year.
When and where we met: Leighton and I met in February 2005. He was a chef at the Reef and I worked at the Lone Star. We were both sent to do a liquor licensing course at the university for our respective jobs. We had met previously at parties etc, but we had never really talked. At the training course we began chatting and realised we remembered each other. That week we met up for a drink and quickly discovered we share the same birthday. We have been together ever since!
The proposal: Leighton and I went to Blenheim for a holiday in March 2011 to visit his dad. While we were there we took the kids to White's Bay, a beautiful little beach that we had been to before. As we sat there talking about all the things we had done together and achieved together Leighton pointed out that the only thing we hadn't done was got married. It took me a minute to realise what he was saying, quickly followed by "are you asking me to marry you?". He nodded, I said yes!
The venue: We were married on March 10th, 2012. The ceremony was at Lady Thorn Dell in Port Chalmers, a beautiful little rhododendron garden, looked after by the local Lions club. It overlooks the port and the sea, and is private and sheltered, a gorgeous wee spot. The reception was held upstairs at Lone Star Dunedin in the function room.
Why we chose the venue: We chose Lady Thorn Dell because we wanted to get married outdoors (providing the weather agreed -- it did) and somewhere near the sea but without running the risk of our kids running into the water. My uncle got married there a few years ago and a friend of mine got married there in 2010. We chose Lone Star as our reception venue firstly, because I have worked there off and on for a long time and it means a lot to me. Secondly, we wanted somewhere that served lots of hearty delicious food, wouldn't kick everyone out at 11pm and didn't mind a decent noisy party. It had the space for a band and plenty of dancing. The boys even chucked a rugby ball around later in the night.
My dress: My dress! I love my dress! I want to wear it again! It was a strapless dress with a soft sweetheart neckline. The top of the dress was covered in crystals and the colour was diamond white. It was an Alfred Angelo dress and I purchased it from Je T'aime Bridal in Dunedin. I went in there with an idea of what I wanted but was aware that it might not be what suited me best. I spoke to Joy, tried on a couple and as soon as I tried the dress on I knew it was ''the one''. Joy was brilliant, she did a couple of tucks, added a button at the back so I could hook up my train for dancing and added a tab to my grandmother's veil that I was going to wear. The veil was important to me as it had been my grandmother's but also my mum had worn it too. I added a necklace as a headpiece that belonged to my dad's mum, so I had a little piece of each of them with me on the day.
My bridesmaid's dresses: I had three amazing bridesmaids who helped make the day so easy and stress-free. My maid of honour Jeni, had bought a dress from Dotti for a work conference. I had mentioned to her that I was looking for one-shouldered dresses in a dark plum colour. She rang me to say the dress she had bought was a navy colour but she thought the style might have been what I was looking for. It was perfect! One-shouldered navy cocktail dresses with a tulip-style skirt and chiffon overlay. They suited all my bridesmaids Jeni, Rosie and Chantalle, even though they have different skin tones. We paired the dresses with nude heels from Hannahs.
Flowers: My boss and very good friend Neisha is a dab hand at flower-arranging. I asked her to do our flowers, and we decided to have only my bouquet and a bouquet for each bridesmaid. We had candles as centrepieces on the tables. We had white calla lilies wrapped in navy ribbon with small boutonniere pins. Simple, clean and fresh, exactly what I wanted.
Caterers: As we had our reception at Lone Star Dunedin we had a carvery buffet and no shortage of food at all. Plenty of options, everything was delicious, cooked well and we got the leftovers wrapped up for the BBQ the next day. Choice Kiwi food!
Highlight: The whole day was incredible and went so fast. So many amazing memories, but the one moment that people keep talking about and that makes us laugh is right at the start of the ceremony our son Maz aged 2 stood right in front of us and asked very loudly "Daddy are you going to marry Mummy?", he then proceeded to pull a flower out of the garden and give it to my maid of honour. It was so special for us to have our kids as part of our day and the moments like that are the ones that make us laugh and we will cherish forever.
Favourite photo and our photographer: Our photographer was Chris Garden and he was brilliant! When we met him he hadn't done a lot of weddings, but we loved his work and booked him straight away. We didn't want super-posy group ones but more special moments being captured. Chris was with us the whole day and you kind of forgot he was there. Nearly 1000 photos later he finished up. We haven't got all the photos back just yet, but he uploaded about 70 edited ones two days after the wedding and we truly couldn't be happier!
Chris completely outdid himself and we love every single one. My favourite so far is one of us kissing in the railway tunnel at Port Chalmers. I can't wait to get it on canvas and up on our wall.
