BEN + VINA
The Wedding Style
Our style for the day was very modern, minimalist, elegant, with the colour theme being classic black and white with hints of gold and a whole lot of greenery! We also wanted everything to look very cohesive with the Perspex signs and ghost chairs, greenery used throughout and subtle touches of gold in the cutlery and brass candlesticks.
Being a qualified Florist meant that I was able to make my own bouquet & bridesmaids bouquets, as well as all the other greenery used throughout our big day. A really special touch was the dried flowers I put into my own bouquet, I had kept them drying from a Valentines bunch that Ben had given me earlier in the year, so it was really cool to know that I was reusing the same flowers from Valentines Day on my wedding day!
The day before our wedding was spent waking up at 6am to forage the Red Zone for greenery, then picking up flowers to make the bouquets, then making sure the ceremony was set up the way we wanted it to be, so we were definitely very involved with it all.
We’re both really creative and were lucky enough to be able to ‘DIY’ a lot of things for our big day. We gold foiled the invitations ourselves, I made the greenery garlands for the table centrepieces and backdrop, while Ben made the frame for our greenery backdrop, cut the Perspex signs to size, and even made our table signs using Perspex cut offs and quick dry concrete which turned out amazing!
We were very fortunate enough to have a lot of support from our closest family and friends throughout the whole process, my Mum’s cousin who is a Chef flew down from Wellington just to cater our wedding, along with a few other family members that helped with the whole reception set up and pack down. My cousin sewed our beautiful table cloths, and my aunty who was an event manager helped us to plan and manage the whole day (allowing us to relax), and of course our amazing and talented friends who helped design our invitations, do all the calligraphy for our signage and filmed the whole day for us – the list could go on!
The weather report said that it would be raining throughout the morning and into the night, but thankfully it was a beautiful, calm day up until our very last few photos with the bridal party at our location shoot in the afternoon. Some of my favourite shots were taken when it started to rain. We’re both running back to the car hand-in-hand, I’m wearing my white sneakers, Ben’s holding my heels and flowers and we both look so happy despite the downpour!
Favourite Part Of The Day
My favourite part of our wedding day was our dance floor! Even though we wanted a minimalist and elegant theme, our dance floor was the one room where we went all out, making it the ‘fun’ area where the decorations and colours went wild! We had our awesome Bridal Party help us set up the room the week of the wedding, with plenty of hanging streamers, tassels and beautiful fairy light curtains that sectioned off the room.
VENDORS
Venue: Celebration Centre
Flowers: Vina Tuiletufuga (The Bride)
Photography: Velvet Photo & Cinema
Cake: Cakes by Ari
Lights: House of Twinkles
Hair: Rafaela Lira
Makeup: Danielle Pamata Makeup
Dress: Pretty Things
Bridesmaid Dresses: Portmans
Suit: ASOS
