Hayley & Payton Photographed By Stories By Bianca

After a ten year engagement and a super romantic New York proposal, Hayley and Payton tied the knot in Waimauku, Auckland in a beautifully rustic barn and forest.

With the private venue beginning as a blank canvas, artist Hayley put her talents to work and along with friends and family, transformed the barn into a gorgeous setting to marry her Navy man Payton. Bespoke signage, stationery and decor made by the bride were styled alongside wild foliage that perfectly complemented bouquets by The Honey Bunch Shop. Their day full of relaxed celebration, magic moments and dancing in golden light was captured by photographer Stories By Bianca and videographer Oh Leone.

How did you meet and how long have you been together?
One winters night in Christchurch I was having my 21 st at my flat and Payton turned up uninvited… Being the hostess with the mostess I got yarning to the guy and didn’t let him go home! That was over 10 years ago now and we got married on our 10.5 year anniversary.

The Proposal…
After three weeks of wandering around New York a couple of Christmas’ ago, Payton finally made things official for us. He picked a pretty incredible spot over looking the Manhattan skyline at night from Brooklyn Bridge Park to propose to me, it was pretty special! Payton is in the Navy so we spent most of our engagement apart… In the lead up to our wedding we discussed most things online with Payton being posted to in Korea for six months, so not the norm at all! We had a pretty busy couple of months when he got back before the wedding but everything fell into place.

The wedding style…
Being an artist, I have a very eclectic eye when it comes to anything visual so I just went with what was right for us rather than have a theme or style. I also found it important to be sympathetic to my dude style wise, as it was Payts day too. We were so lucky to have an amazing bunch of vendors that were happy to take what we liked and turn it into their own
creation, so our day was a massive collaboration.

Our wedding DAY style was just all about having all our favourite people around us and having a big party.

The Destination…
With our families being all over the country we thought it would be best to have it where we live, so started looking around Auckland. After looking at some amazing open spaces, we decided to go with the barn and forest because it provided a bit more coverage in case of bad weather and had more amenities. The space was an absolute blank canvas, which was fantastic for our ideas but also was a lot of work for our super helpful crew.

Favourite details…
All the little things… Our unique touches throughout our ceremony, the small nods to Navy life, having a touch of home feature (Stoke Beer for a Stoke girl!), seeing the barn at night all lit up, carrying around my beautiful Pounamu from Payton’s Mum wrapped around my flowers and all those magical smiling faces that had the best time ever.

Favourite moment…
Dancing on the grass with some magic golden light in the background to our favourite tunes with all of our loved ones around us and saying our vows “tit for tat” really showed how much we were in this thing together. The whole day was just magic and so much fun!

What does marriage mean to you?
It really just cements having your best mate by your side, always. He’s got my back and I’ve got his, plus Payt’s stuck with me forevveerrr, what a sucker!

Advice for other couples planning a wedding…
– Do you! Don’t listen to others or follow the norm if it isn’t your jam and make it a day that really represents you guys.
– Don’t be afraid to shop around and think outside the box when sourcing things you need.
– If your venue is fully DIY – GET A CO-ORDINATOR! Best money we spent for the day.
– Look after each other in the lead up – Lots of water, sleep and food. (Oh and swims for me!)
– And on the day – Have the best time, trust in your vendors, soak up every little moment
and make sure you get a few sneaky pashes with your mate in there too!