Tegan + Michael \\ Queenstown Engagement

We love wild love stories, how they began and their journey are what we swoon over at Wild Hearts.

Always inspired by this untamed wanderlust destination, those dreamy brown tones and wild mountainscapes. This week we head to Central Otago with a wild love story that started with a friendship and was rekindled years later, with a move to Queenstown and a romantic lakeside proposal.

We love the sense of relaxed adventure and honest love in these photographs, set against some of New Zealand’s most stunning Southern landscapes, captured beautifully by local photographer Kate Roberge. Read more about Tegan and Michael’s love story below….

Tell us a little bit about yourselves, and how long have you been together?

We are just a couple of best friends lucky to be building a life together in one of the country’s most beautiful spots, Queenstown. We love a night of conversation & laughs with our friends and families, but we are just as happy at home binge watching Brooklyn Nine Nine & eating far too many snacks. Michael is a planner & a realist and I’m a bit of a go with the flow daydreamer, it works a treat. We’ve been friends for thirteen years but together one.

The love story // how did you meet?
It’s a bit of a cliche story to be fair but it’s ours so it’s still my favourite! I moved to Dunedin from down South to attend Otago in 2005 & during this time I became friends with the lads in the house across the road; at this time Mike was overseas for sports. Over the next month or so the boys in the flat were starting to give me a little grief about how they thought I’d fall in love with Mike once he returned. I was so certain they were wrong I actually bet them $40 each that I wouldn’t be interested (Money I still owe). On the night he returned they came to get me so I could meet him – he was nothing like I had expected, I adored everything about him. We spent a little time together and before we knew it we were inseparable, a couple of teenagers who were crazy about each other. Reluctantly we went our own ways at the end of the year after I decided to move back home resulting in a couple of broken hearts to say the least.

In the years that followed we stayed in touch, he was always there for me & there were always feelings I just couldn’t shake. My girlfriends would often tell me how foolish we both were and that we needed to give it another crack. 12 years later we took that plunge, both questioning whether we were stupid to think those teenage feelings would still be there. We went on our second first date and everything was as we had left it – perfect. Two months later we relocated to Queenstown and after 6 months Mike drove me to Glenorchy for a walk to the beautiful Lake Sylvan where he dropped a knee and proposed, it was the easiest “yes “of my life. Once we got home I was blown away by the most beautiful set up in our home which his sister & my best friend had been busy putting together while we were on our walk.

So here we are, a couple of 30 something year olds feeling incredibly lucky to have found each other again.

How did you choose your shoot location?
We only knew we wanted our shoot to be here in Queenstown where we plan to build our life and start our family. Kate suggested the old Shotover Bridge saying the colours at the time of year would be beautiful. I had been following her via social media and was a huge fan of the photos she had taken so her advice was all we needed to decide a location.

Style and vibe of the shoot?
One of the reasons we love Kate’s work is because her photos are so natural and not at all staged, this was the vibe we wanted to go with, some casual photos in a beautiful setting. We were looking for photos that captured us as a couple, two idiots who couldn’t be happier to have each other. Kate was amazing on the day & made us both feel so comfortable. We laughed after our shoot telling her if she had managed to get one decent photo we would be thrilled, when we received our session photos we were over the moon, the photos exceeded any expectations we had.

What does love mean to you?
After being apart and unsettled for so long I think love for us is that discovery that home isn’t a place, it’s a person.