Vintage inspired backyard wedding in Queenstown

In their own backyard, Chris and Claire celebrated their marriage with a sweet celebration surrounded by loved ones followed by a ‘Retro Prom’ at the bar they met at. Their entire wedding was photographed on film by the talented Lauren from Wildfolk Photography.

How did you meet and how long have you been together?

Chris and I met 5 years ago, on April 11th in Yonder – I was hosting a live storytelling event with two of my best friends and it was our opening night. Chris was the Marketing guy for Yonder at the time and was at home for a leisurely night when he got a call from a coworker that they needed someone to run the soundboard, so he popped down. He came up to me backstage as I was about to pop on stage to open the night, we chatted for a minute and I knew immediately he was the one. I told my friends that night that I had met my husband!

Tell us a little bit about the proposal and your engagement?

After a few bad weather weekend thwarted Chris’ initial proposal ideas, him and one of his coworkers and amazing photographers, Andy Brown, concocted a fake photoshoot that took us up in a heli to the top of Remarks. I thought Andy needed photos for his website, but it turned out to be a perfect opportunity for a surprise from Chris down on one knee. When my parents landed in Queenstown 4 days later, we surprised them with the news and took them (practically) straight from the airport to our engagement party! 6 months later we were married back home in Portland, Oregon surrounded by our family and our officiant, Meghan, one of my best girlfriends who was there the night we met. Our Queenstown party we called “Wedding 2.0” was a chance to celebrate our love with our friends. So essentially 2 weddings within about a year of engagement… Chris thought it would be a long proposal, whoops!

Tell us about your wedding style. What influenced your planning for the day?

We wanted our celebrations to be true to us and intentional. There are so many decisions with wedding planning, we tried to use each of them as an opportunity to rethink tradition and decide what was really important to us at each step. Our Queenstown wedding was a two part celebration – our backyard garden party was for the friends that have been a part of our story from almost day dot, it was intimate and a chance to really share our love and gratitude to each of them. From the backyard we headed into Yonder (where we met) and hosted a Retro Prom with 130+ of our friends in town. Everyone went all out on the dressing up and we had decorated the bar to look like a true American Prom night, with the theme “Written in the Stars”. That was all about goofy, pure, fun with all our friends.

Why did you choose your destination?

We wanted the first part of our wedding to be quite intimate, hosting it in our backyard felt like the best way to keep the whole thing focussed on what was most important to us. It also allowed us to be a bit more DIY with the setup which was a really fun part of the day, setting up with all my girlfriends. Prom at Yonder was a no brainer, that bar is a huge part of our story – from Chris working there from it’s conception, to meeting there, writing my vows there and so much more – we were so grateful to Gary and Emily for entertaining our wacky idea!

What was your favourite detail from the day?

Garden Party: I ordered a stack of vintage postcards off Facebook Marketplace and at both of our weddings we had guests write us a note to read at our 1 year anniversary, it was fun to see people writing these and was our alternative to a guest book. We can’t wait to read them!

Prom: Chris and I spent many days and night cutting up cardboard into stars and wrapping them with aluminium to hang above the dance floor at Prom, seeing them twinkle in the lights was an incredible moment. Like all the prep and planning was worth it.

Did you have a stand out vendor from your wedding?

We were blessed with such talented vendors for our special day – Lauren from Wildfolk photography exceeded our expectations. We asked a bit of a wild request, to shoot the whole day on film, which she went above and beyond to accommodate – capturing so many special moments. We’ve gotten so much feedback from our friends and family on the photos and just how perfectly they captured the essence of the day. She’s hilarious, effortless to work with, and has such a visionary eye.

What was your favourite moment from the day?

After the ceremony we had our friends take a quiz on “Who knows the bride & groom best” – quizzes are a family tradition that my Oma used to do at every family gathering. It was a really fun, interactive part of the day and was nice to share a family tradition of ours with all of our friends.

What does marriage mean to you?

For us it has been such a beautiful strengthening of our relationship. We always knew we loved each other, but we really are a unit now, intertwined, taking on life side by side! Our marriage is also not possible without our community of family and friends, which is why we were so grateful to celebrate this new chapter with them all.

Advice for other couples planning a wedding?

Don’t let anyone tell you there’s a right way to do a wedding! If you want to host 3 different celebrations and one is a dress up party with all of your friends, DO IT! It’s your day, your marriage, your celebration!
We had a ‘marriage planning’ weekend before our wedding where we discussed our views on marriage, what was modelled for us growing up, what we want our marriage to look like, etc. I highly recommend taking time to do this, so much emphasis always placed on the wedding – but it’s everything that comes after that can be easy to forget about!