Living out our vintage fashion dreams with their shop in Newcastle, Stoned Saint Moon, while being a photographer and musician, I guess you could call this couple fairly creative. Add to it that they did all of the flowers- “wildflowers picked from the side of the road all over the New Zealand South Island the week before the wedding and dried out.” Plus, the fact that the bride designed the invites and did her own hair and makeup, and I think we were right about the creative thing. We love a good DIY wedding, and we think you will too. Scroll down for all the deets, some handy advice and the pics by the talented Keegan Cronin…
THE PROPOSAL “Tyler and I have been friends for years, both very unaware of our spark til one day when our paths crossed. Being a big believer in affirmations, Ironically my affirmation for that month was ‘expect the unexpected’ and when our paths literally crossed we were standing under a billboard that said ‘where the unexpected happens’, so one year later on our anniversary Tyler took me out to the hunter valley where we had our first date for dinner, blindfolded me, stopped on the side of the road where he had set up individual neon letters in the bush that spelt out “expect the unexpected” he lit them up and when I took off the blindfold he was on one knee.”
THE VENUE “We both love New Zealand and wanted a small overseas wedding there. We wanted it to be in a house big enough for both our families to stay in together for a couple of days. This led us to search for a house that accommodated 13 people, which lead us the Lake Hawea View. We asked our guests to dress in earthy tones to suit the location and just worked around that. We are both lovers of the 1970s fashion, so there was definitely a vintage influence from that era also.”
FAVOURITE DETAILS “We only had 30 guests, asked them to stand in a circle around the ceremony, so when we walked down the aisle with our parents we walked into the centre and our parents completed the circle. This just made us feel surrounded by love and more intimate with our small amount of guests. We also we wanted everyone to really feel comfortable and get to know one another. So we incorporated a few party games such as a stare off competition, ‘guess the guest’ quiz which was a few fun facts about each guess, a little Pictionary and some music trivia. This really created a fun atmosphere and helped everyone bond a little more.”
DIY “I think I set out to DIY our whole wedding. Every aspect of the wedding, I wanted to put my stamp on in some way. From designing the invites to picking our flowers, to styling the decor on the day, to doing my own hair and makeup. It was my way of making it feel old-fashioned and hands on. I remember my grandma telling me about her wedding in her backyard and how she hired her dress for $2 and I just fell in love with the simpleness of that story, so by doing things ourselves it felt more authentic.”
THE DRESS “One of my oldest friends Lisa is the creator and designer of the Australian brand Lenni, so I knew for years I wanted her to make it. I always knew I wanted to wear red too, so over a few short months I would send her pictures of different parts of different vintage dresses that I liked and I left the rest up to her. She bought the dress with her to NZ the day before, so I literally got to see the final product and try it on an hour before the wedding began. I didn’t stress about this process for a second, because I know her so well and had 100% confidence in her work.”
REFERENCES “Hello May was a constant go to, I would sit in our shop and circle ideas I loved. I also spent many, many hours on Pinterest, but 90% of our key vendors where friends and family which made it easy.”
WE’RE GLAD WE… “I’m so happy we had the wedding on a property because we didn’t have to worry about time restrictions, or moving around. It was also really special to wake up with both families and start the day and end the day together. Having a destination wedding also made the memory of our wedding so much more fun because we got to travel with some of our favourite people and created even more memories together not just on the day. We’re also glad we kept it small, it made it so much more intimate and easy to really spend time with our guests and each other.”
STANDOUT VENDORS “Raspberry Creek Catering was amazing! Two private chefs prepared and served all the dishes in the kitchen and the food and service were exceptional. Also, our photographers, Brett Rutkowski & Keegan Cronin. Brett is a friend of ours who we knew we couldn’t do the day without because of his infectious and funny personality. When he told us his friend Keegan was keen to come and also shoot, we thought we’d won the lottery. You only need to take one look at Keegan’s work to realise just how lucky we were to have him there! But the best vendor we had by far was our celebrant, Sharon (aka Shazma) my new mother-in-law. She just was as bright as the sun! having her marry us just felt so special and right. Her words had that much more meaning because she truly knows us and has witnessed the love we share from the start.”
CONTRIBUTING VENDORS Photographer Keegan Cronin & Brett Rutkowski Printer Vistaprint Ceremony & Reception Lake Hawea View House via Airbnb Catering Raspberry Creek Catering Hire Items So Sweet Hire Celebrant The Next Chapter Wedding Ceremonies THE BRIDE Bridal Gown & Veil LENNI Shoes Seed THE GROOM Suit & Shirt Vintage Tie/ Bow Tie Vintage via Stoned Saint Moon Shoes R.M Williams.