A wonderful day shared with great friends and family, surrounded by a dramatic alpine sky. Sally and Jeremy Craw were married this summer at The Venue in Wanaka.
When and where did you meet? We met in November 2007 through friends one night on the town in the Octagon. Sparks flew instantly and Jeremy couldn't take his eyes off me. I thought I must have had food on my face, but turns out he thought I was the most beautiful girl he'd ever laid eyes on (very sweet!)
The proposal? We were walking our Briard puppy, Franc, along the Outlet track in Wanaka on Boxing Day 2010. We sat on a bench seat to rest for a second and take in the beautiful view. I wanted to continue walking but Jeremy said we should sit for a while longer...20 minutes later, after building up a tonne of courage, he pulled a stunning white gold princess cut diamond ring from his pocket and asked me to marry him! And of course I said yes, yes, yes!
Where was the wedding? We were married on January 6th 2012 in Wanaka. Our ceremony was at the beautiful Wanaka Station Park where we were bathed in sunshine, and our reception was held at The Venue on Orchard Road.
Why did you choose the venue? We chose Wanaka as a venue because we've both holidayed there all our lives and both love spending as much time as we possibly can there. We chose the park to hold our ceremony because we loved the idea of an outdoor wedding (we were lucky enough to time it perfectly on the day because it started raining just as we were getting the last of the bridal party photos done).
And we chose The Venue to hold our reception because we'd heard such amazing reviews of Maxine & Brent, plus we'd been to several weddings that they had catered for and their food had always been exceptional. The Venue was perfect for our wedding as it has several different spaces we could use for bubbles & canapés, dinner and dancing. We held our dinner in the courtyard under the silk lined canopy, it was magical!
The dress? I found my dress at Je Taime Bridal Boutique. I wasn't expecting to find it right there and then, I'd only set up a fitting appointment to try out a few styles and get some ideas of what I might like. It was number five out of eight and I knew it was perfect by the look on all my mums (mum, step-mum & mum-in-law) and bridesmaid's faces, they all gasped and there were a few teary eyes.
The dress was designed by Allure and was a ball gown style with a sweet heart neckline, strapless and went into a deep V at the back with a slight train. The detailing was beautiful, it was covered in lace and big flower shapes and had a satin panel around my waist that balanced the whole dress perfectly. I topped it off with a full length cathedral veil which I'm so pleased I chose as it looks awesome in some of the photos when the wind caught it.
Joy at Je Taime was so helpful and patient. She took the dress in, then out a little and made sure the fitting was just right. My advice to all brides to be is shop around the bridal stores in Dunedin before heading further a field. There are some stunning dresses in our city and I know Joy at Je Taime has lines of dresses from all over the world, so why would you spend money on a plane ticket or petrol when you could put it towards your wedding dress!
The bridesmaid dresses? They are designed by Henry Roth and came from Australia through Joy at Je Taime Bridal. I found a picture on the internet and knew it was the exact dress I wanted for my four bridesmaids, Chloe Teasdale (my younger sister), Jacinda Munro, Jo Cockroft and Emma Robertson. It was by pure chance that Joy was the only stockiest in the South Island for the Henry Roth line. When the dresses arrived they were even more amazing than I'd ever imagined. And Joy did a wonderful job of tweaking each dress to fit the girls perfectly. They were so flattering and the rich purple colours turned out amazing in the photos. I should also mention the groomsmen's outfits too! Their suits came from Frank Casey in Wellington. They had so many suits to choose from and we chose a dark grey one that had a light pinstripe through it and a black satin tie. Frank Casey couriered the suits from Wellington to Wanaka with plenty of time to spare so our groomsmen, Hamish Muir, James Smith, Brad Coughlan & Tom Walton could try them all on to make sure they were perfect - which they were.
The flowers? Jude at The Flower Shop in Roslyn made the bouquets and button holes, and sourced the flowers for the center pieces at the reception. I gave her a few pictures of flowers and colours I liked and told her I'd love a messy, cottage-like, hand-picked & interesting bunches of flowers with dark purples and lilac colours for the bridesmaids, and creams and lavender colours for my bouquet.
I wanted to steer clear of the structured, formal style of a perfect bunch of roses. Jude was absolutely amazing at bringing all my ideas together. She was honest with me about what would and wouldn't work and made sure all the flowers arrived safely in Wanaka for us.
I had saved dozens of glass jars throughout the year and added cream lace and raffia to them for the table centerpieces. A large center jar held blue, purple and cream colored flowers, and the two outer jars on each side held home-grown bunches of lavender from the Craw holiday house in Wanaka. The lavender garden is where my inspiration for the colour theme came from in the first place. It looked stunning all pulled together under the white silk canopy of the marquee.
The caterers? 63B at The Venue were our caterers. They were the main reason we chose our reception venue, The Venue. Maxine was amazing at giving us ideas and offering suggestions. We put a lot of trust in them and let them have a bit of free reign, and it all paid off on the night. The food was amazing, very flavorsome and there was plenty to go around. We had a buffet dinner with beef and ham off the bone along with several vegetables and salad dishes.
Claire from Cakes of Wanaka made our three tier chocolate gateau cake that we served for desert with fruit and cream. Clair was able to source a rustic looking rough iron cake stand which held three plates with a cake on each level. She was so helpful and added cream colored lace to match the flower jars and purple ribbon to match the bridesmaids dresses onto the cakes, as well as a few flowers from our florist. It was beautiful and delicious!
Our beer and wine was supplied by Cableways in Dunedin. They were so helpful in arranging a chiller-trailer for us to keep the drinks ice cold. They were also wonderful at assisting us in choosing our wines, we wanted to have a range of wines available for our guests, not just one white and one red. The team at Cableways helped us pick a bunch of bottles that we blind-tasted at a family dinner one night where we chose the winners.
Highlight of the day? Was driving down the main street in our three amazing wedding cars and watching people on the street stop, stare, then wave like we were royalty. And then driving through the massive oak trees at Wanaka Station Park towards our family and friends and seeing their jaws all drop at the amazing vehicles. We were so lucky to be able to use the cars, the most special being the 1932 Packard Sp Phaeton, which is now housed in the Wanaka Wings & Wheels museum. My Dad could have spent the whole day riding in the cars and asking the driver a hundred and one questions.
Your photographer and favorite photo? Simon Darby of Wanaka Photography was the hero of the day! We had a slight hiccup with our original photographer who got the day of our wedding mixed up so didn't show up and luckily Simon was available with an hour to spare before the ceremony. He was our Best man's photographer for his weeding 6 months before ours, and it was a blessing that Hamish phoned him when he did, otherwise Simon would have been out of a bike ride and unavailable.
We find it too hard to choose a favorite photo as they are all so amazing and so different. We love the photos with the bright orange Packard, and also the pic's down by the lake when it was just about to start raining and the sky was so moody and dramatic. Simon must have spent a lot of time photo shopping the bright orange buoys from the lake that had been set up for the Wanaka Challenge Triathlon.
My personal favorite photo is one of my Gran hugging my straight after the ceremony. It was so special that she was there with us, my Grandpa had recently passed away just before Christmas (2 weeks prior to our wedding) and I think that this photo shows so much love and pride when it was such a happy time but we also had very heavy hearts because Pa was not with us on the day.
