Angela + Matt – Wellington

A romantic wedding on the rustic coastline of New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington. This stunning setting at Pencarrow Lodge was the styling inspiration that Angela and Matt choose for their day, beautifully captured by destination photographers Michelle & James of Patina Photography.

They kept the styling simple opting for white florals, a divine Karen Willis Holmes gown, bridesmaids dresses in mismatched neutrals, simple foliage and candles for table decoration, so that in every part of the day, from the ceremony to the photos,the dramatic sweeping coastline was the main feature. Check out their love story and more beautiful wedding day details below.

“Take moments to observe your surroundings and just be with one another.”

THE PROPOSAL

Matt proposed whilst fishing on lake Taupo, I was set up with a deck chair and book. Very ‘us’! We didn’t have a long engagement, about a year while planning the wedding. We are low key people so didn’t have an engagement party or anything, just straight to the wedding! We had been together for 6 years by the time we got married.

THE STYLE

I wanted something uncluttered, classy and traditional. I think we achieved that. I tried to stay away from ‘in’ colours and went for a black and white style with candles and white flowers on the tables. Pencarrow Lodge is such a beautiful location we wanted it to speak for itself.

FAVOURITE DETAILS

Hmmm… this is a hard one but a lot of what we planned we centred around the photographs because when they day is all done, the photographs are all you have to capture every moment. I loved that we did our photos before the ceremony, it made us more relaxed for the ceremony and meant we had time to get some amazing shots. We also popped away during dinner/dessert to take some more photos which I think if we hadn’t of done a majority of our photos pre-ceremony we wouldn’t of left again to get more.

WHAT DOES MARRIAGE MEAN TO YOU?

Unity and friendship, we love each other and neither of us ever had any hesitation it making a commitment to each other in front of our family and friends.

ADVICE FOR COUPLES PLANNING A WEDDING

Get involved in the detail, the schedule, the band play list etc and make sure the right people know the schedule. It all pays off on the day. Do as much as you can in the months before the wedding, don’t leave things until the week before! Make sure you have an amazing MC who can ensure things go to plan and trouble shoot anything that crops up the day (thanks Zack!). The guest list is the hardest thing so don’t rush into it, as a rule (again at the advice of Matt’s sister) we didn’t invite anyone we wouldn’t invite around to our house for dinner and I think that worked well!

FAVOURITE MOMENT OF THE DAY

Gosh, it’s too hard to choose one moment! The entire day was amazing! Matt’s sister gave us some advice in the lead up to the wedding – “Take moments to observe your surroundings and just be with one another.” There were a few occasions where we did exactly that, Matt and I stood back together and just went WOW. We loved our vows and writing our vows in the lead up and the speeches.