Jess and Jonathan wanted to do things a little differently for their wedding, with a super romantic ceremony at dusk before celebrating with loved ones under twinkling festoon lights. They had a wishlist of unique elements (including a pink dress for Jess!) and together with family were able to create a magical evening wedding filled with stunning details and personal touches. Jess shares more about their special day...

Ever since I was a little girl I had dreamed about getting married at dusk. The magical time when the light goes down and hidden light begins to sparkle. As a couple we also had a really beautiful experience with fireflies while on holiday in Malaysia at this time of night that made it feel just right for us.

Finding my wedding dress was it’s own love story. As a lover of fashion, one of the first really exciting first things I did after we got engaged was do a Pinterest board of dream wedding dresses. My search criteria were ‘colourful, romantic, pink’, and as you’d expect my feed was flooded with all sorts of amazing gowns of unknown origins. Searching in the real world was a different experience… I flew up to Auckland and had some great experiences with some bridal stores, but, like all brides I’m sure, I was looking for that slow-heart-thud moment where I’d find ‘the one’. While their were beautiful dresses, when I asked for any pink or blush ones, I was quite disappointed with the ‘barely-there’ tones of pink – more like an off-white than my elaborate rosy fantasy dresses on Pinterest.

What actually led me to my incredible dress, was a post on a Facebook group called ‘Rock n Roll Bride’. A gorgeous curvy bride posted images from her wedding day wearing one of the fantasy dresses I had on my board from day dot. I immediately sent her a message asking what the details of the dress were and if she would be interested in selling me hers! – I was that desperate. Unfortunately she had plans to turn the dress into a tea-length version and keep it, but at least I had the details. I immediately searched online for ‘Celestina Ronald Joyce’ and the very first listing that came up was the dress on a secondhand page…. in my size exactly….within my budget. I sent the person selling the dress a message immediately, and called my mum to have an immediate hour-long conversation about whether or not it would be absolutely bonkers to buy a dress secondhand and online from a person on the other side of the world… My ever-encouraging and equally as fashion-minded mum agreed that a dress this exceptional was worth the potential risk.

When it arrived from the UK it came in the most beautiful gigantic white box with a big white ribbon. It was packaged with so much love and care. I took it to one of my close friend’s house to open it for the first time and try it on. As soon as the lid came off the beautiful box I had my slow-thud-heartbeat moment. I was in love. I stepped into it and it zipped up perfectly… right fit, right length – meant to be.

Jonathan had grand plans for a bespoke tailored suit which he was excitedly in the process of finalising when the tailor had a family emergency which meant we couldn’t get the suit done in time for the big day. In the last two weeks before the wedding we contacted Mandatory in Wellington and they really saved the day. The staff pulled together a beautiful dark navy made to measure suit for him just in the knick of time. We also found and incredible vintage Pierre Cardin burgundy velvet bow tie in Ziggurat on Cuba Street.

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We had the wedding venue for the whole weekend and had the wedding ceremony itself on Saturday evening. So, Friday midday the Chubb-family descended upon Tarureka estate and went into full set-up mode with my incredible Wedding CEO/MC dad Kevin at the helm. When we got engaged and I shared with mum and dad my ideas for an evening wedding, for an intimate, romantic and family orientated magical garden wedding, he flew into planning mode for ways we could make it all work. He designed a lighting plan for the garden and set up a practice version on his own back lawn.

On Saturday we had guests arrive from 5.30pm for an outdoor grazing table, and delicious local wines. The photographers also made the most of this time by photographing guest portraits. The wedding ceremony started in the bridal cove garden at 7.30pm just as the light started to go down and the sparkling fairy lights began to light up the trees and bushes.

Because of the wedding taking place outside in a garden at night, we needed to figure out how there would be enough light for the guests and the poor photographers! We knew we wanted to fill the bushes and trees with as many fairy lights as possible, but we needed light above the guests and enough to light us at the front. So dad literally invented a way to make festoon lights criss-cross above guests in the middle of the garden. He actually manufactured poles with specific hooks on so that they would go into the grass and at the top hold the festoon light cords securely.

The closest I believe I came to a bridezilla moment was in the realisation of a vision I had of having a chandelier float between two trees in the bridal cove. This was another of my ideas to which my dad came up with a perfect genius plan. He had connected a cord from one tree to another and then suspended the chandelier right above the signing table to the side of the ceremony. Dad had gone about putting this together while I was off setting another area up, so he came over very proud and lead me to see it. It was perfect, it held the chandelier…the chandelier worked….it was beautiful… it was in the exact right place… but…. the cord was white – it stood out from the green bushes, and in all honesty it looked like a washing line. I praised him as best I could, considered my options, but in the end went with…. “any chance we could make the cord black?” In classic Kevin Chubb fashion he scratched his head, rubbed his cheek and chin briefly while eyeing up the problem. 20mins later it was black. Perfect. He literally made the chandelier float for me. Magic.

We were really very lucky to have many family and friends to help fill the garden with over 50,000 fairy lights in the end. We celebrated a job well done with a casual family barbeque event on the Friday night with all of the wedding guests who travelled from Wellington, the Waikato and Bay of Plenty Australia and the UK to be with us.

The ceremony was intimate, romantic, emotional and had a few good laughs too. The beautiful trio Ida Lune, one of which is a colleague and friend of mine, had recorded a cover of ‘I Love you Always, Forever’ for walking up the aisle. It set the scene perfectly and it’s first line immediately sent prickles up my spine “Feels like, I’m standing in a timeless dream”.

Something a bit special we did was the Irish tradition called ring-warming. The ritual meant that the wedding bands were tied together (ours were tied with the ribbon of a lucky horseshoe from my parent’s wedding), and passed around the guests during the ceremony. Each guest would hold the rings briefly and ‘warm’ them with their love and best wishes before passing them on. We both have irish ancestry and really loved this as a way to connect with the guests who where there with us in that moment and carry that with us and with the rings into the rest of our lives. Douglas, Jonathan’s youngest was the ringbearer and watched over the ring and helped pass it round all of the guests.

A funny moment in the ceremony came when Douglas the ringbearer brought the rings up to us for the ‘exchange of rings’ – Jonathan couldn’t untie them! I don’t know if it was nerves, but the way they were looped onto the ribbon flummoxed Jonathan and I in the moment, and so I went to my gut instinct, which was to ask my dad to fix it! To the crowd’s amusement I passed him the rings, and of course he had them untied in no time.

Following the ceremony guests moved through to the beautiful barn loft and family and bridal couple photos were quickly captured before supper was served at 8.30pm. Cake and dancing followed wonderful speeches from friends and family.

The reception was so much fun! The food was fantastic, the wine was delightful and the speeches were touching, hilarious and enjoyed by everyone. In particular, the Best Man speech was a highlight – and was much discussed for days, weeks and months to come. Jonathan’s best man was Henry, his eldest son. He has recently just finished a BA (Film and Literature) and is an incredible writer. He had everyone in stitches, with a tear in their eye and with full hearts for Jonathan and the family. It really was the most brilliant best man speech I’ve heard.