Hannah & Jared
After dating long-distance for a year, Jared moved to Auckland to be closer to Hannah, and the couple spent many weekends at Muriwai Beach, which influenced their wedding style and made it very special to them. Hannah shares their story...
Photos by Zanda Photography
When I started wedding planning I didn’t really have any ideas about what I wanted as a theme or style. Jared’s main concern was having his beloved ute as a wedding car, to which I was only too happy to oblige.
My mum and I decided that it would be fun to try to do everything on our own, and since I was moving to Christchurch after the wedding I wanted to use this time to spend with Mum and my family. We spent the summer collecting and drying flowers, op shopping for crystal glasses and decorations, on Pinterest for hours, meal planning and trialing for the reception, making the backdrops and bar, etc. We ended up going for a rustic boho theme.
My custom dress was simple, elegant and timeless and I couldn’t have been more in love with it. For the guys, we decided on a more casual attire since Jared isn’t the type to wear a full suit. He was super comfortable and impressed with his and the boys’ outfits. We wanted all our family to be a part of our day as much as possible. I am one out of 13 kids and grew up super close to all my siblings. So having them take part of our day was important to me.
Some of the ways we involved family was by having my older sister as my bridesmaid and stationery designer, my eldest brother playing cello and Jared’s cousin playing the piano as I walked up the aisle, Jared’s two brothers-in-law as our MCs, my younger sister walking around at the reception taking amazing Polaroids for us to look back on, both our families spending the Friday prior setting up the reception hall to create the look we had in our head, and having the siblings roll and shape over one hundred bits of dough to make into naan the afternoon of our wedding day.
Our photo shoot location was never up for debate. Muriwai Forest, which is right next to the beach, and West Supply Coffee were definitely the places where we wanted to be. We had so many enjoyable memories there, and the trucks at West Supply are something we both love! We managed to catch golden hour and loved how the photos turned out.
We are also so stoked with how all the food came out. We decided that we would make different types of Indian curries accompanied with naan and rice. We spent hours in the kitchen during the week of the wedding preparing the curries and all the reception food, and making the wedding cake. Our reception was exactly how we dreamt it to be and am so proud that we decided to do everything ourselves. I am so thankful for all the people that made our special day happen. I’m especially thankful for my mum who helped me do it all and I will always have fond memories of this time spent with her. Our day was perfect!
Photographer: Zanda Photography
Brides Dress: Fritz and Sarah
Bridesmaid dresses: BLAK Bridesmaids
Hire: Carlton Party Hire / Covers Decoration Hire
Avondale Reformed Church / Waiatarua Community Hall / Party Hire Auckland / Mi Piaci / Olive & Piper / H&M / RM Williams / Mishelle - The Lifestyla / Katrina - Luxury Hair Design / Micheal Hill / EastWest Gem Co. / Rev Andre Holtslag