Anna + Chris - REAL WEDDING

Venue: Anna's Family Home and Borland Lodge
 
150 guests
 
How did you meet? We met in a bar in Christchurch - there wasn't much that was really that romantic about it all! It didn't take many dates for us to realise that we had both met our match and as they saying goes - the rest is history!
 
Wedding style: Elegant, fun and relaxed!
 
What inspired theme/styling? Pinterest was a fantastic tool! There are soo many ideas on there and you could definitely waste a lot of time scrolling through!
 
Mum and I have very similar taste, and she can visualise how things will all come together so we worked together to pull everything all together. We really just had the goal of creating something simple, yet elegant and beautiful and I think we achieved that!
 
We didn't really have a theme as such but we did choose navy and silver as our main colours.
 
Splurge and save?
 
We did our best to choose things that were not over the top and extravagant and I can't really pick any particular aspects where we splurged or saved.
 
Chris and I decided right at the beginning that we wanted to have beautiful wedding photos that we could treasure forever so getting onto a photographer quickly was a key priority.
 
Music:
Walking up the aisle: This I Promise You - Ronan Keating
Signing the Register: Better Together - Jack Johnson
Back down the aisle: You Make My Dreams
Into Reception: Signed, Sealed, Delivered
First Dance: Wanted - Hunter Hayes
 
Photography : Heidi Horton Photography - Heidi's work is amazing! She and Matt are extremely talented and they are awesome people to go with it! Choosing Heidi Horton Photography was one of our best decisions I would HIGHLY recommend considering Heidi!

Videographer: Mainland Movies - we are really pleased we have our video! It's awesome to be able to relive our day and Gael and David were great.
 
Flowers: Ambrosia - couldn't speak highly enough of Shani and her team. I was over the moon with our flowers and had lots of comments on them. Better than I expected! Shani had great ideas and just 'got' what I wanted, even though I probably wasn't great at explaining my vision!
 
Venue: Family Home and Borland Lodge. Special to get married at home and then head up to Borland Lodge. Yes, it's in the middle of nowhere, but it is gorgeous! There is something quite cool about being out in the middle of nowhere with all of your favourite people in the world. We put a marquee on the lawn, which worked really well, and the facilities are perfect – our caterers (Country Manor) loved the kitchen! Another cool thing is that all of your guests can stay the night and keep partying the next day ;)
 
Entertainment: The Yardmen were our band and they were incredible! The dance floor was full from start to finish - so much fun and great tunes!
 
Celebrant: Tracy Kilkelly - relaxed and fun celebrant who created an awesome ceremony for us that really was 'us'. It was short and sweet as we had hoped and we'd highly recommend Tracy as a Celebrant!
 
Cake: The Cheeky Cake Company - our cake not only looked fantastic, but it tasted great too!
 
Transport: We were lucky enough to have friends drive us in their cars :)
 
Stationary: The Avenue Design Studio - Carmel is fantastic at what she does! We were stoked with our Save the Date's and Wedding Invitations. Carmel had great ideas and was fantastic at communicating.
 
Make Up: Kendyl Tuilagi - lock her in quick! Kendyl is absolutely fabulous! She made us all feel beautiful and our make up stayed on all day.. maybe even lasted two days ;) Not only does Kendyl do a great job, she is lovely, relaxed and fun to have around (just what you want on your wedding morning).
 
Hair: My aunty did my hair and Abbie Harris a friend, and the owner of Pulse Hair Design, did my beautiful bridesmaid's hair as well as my Mum's. She did a great job!
 
Brides Dress/Shoes/Jewellery: Brides by Donna Rae of course! I live in Christchurch but as soon as I knew that Brides by Donna Rae existed, I wanted to go and check it out and it was good call! Donna and Kay are awesome - they have an eye for detail and know how to make you feel special. My shoes were from Mi Piaci and my jewellery was from Lovisa!
 
Bridesmaids Attire: The girl's dresses were also from Brides by Donna Rae and their shoes were from Number One Shoe Warehouse. I gave them their jewellery as gifts in cute little boxes that I got off Etsy :)
 
Groom Attire: We purchased Chris's suit from Sergio's Menswear in Christchurch. They were really helpful and it was fantastic that they did all of the alterations and it was ready to wear when we left the shop.
 
Groomsmen: The guys suits were hired from Sergio's - the hire team was great and would highly recommend them.
 
Rings: Michael Hill
 
Wedding Hire: Our marquee was hired from Marquee and Party Hire along with all of the tables, chairs, lighting and decoration for inside the marquee. Pam and the team were great - nothing was a problem and it was fantastic having the marquee up a couple of days early so we had plenty of time to get things all set up.