With family and friends scattered all over the world, Shann and Tony planned an intimate backyard wedding, and broadcast the celebrations online for all of those who couldn’t be there. Shann tells us more about their beautiful and personal day…

‘We chose an intimate wedding including our most immediate family members to celebrate this day with us. Since my family and friends are in Canada, we decided to do a modern-day style, and include a zoom link for everyone to watch overseas. This included family and friends in Australia, the UK, and Canada. It was a brilliant idea, as we felt like everyone was there and included.’

‘We got engaged in 2020 (after knowing each other for 11 years), during the on and off again pandemic, and we didn’t want a big venue-style wedding day, as it didn’t feel like us. We often thought about elopement, but we still wanted our core family included. This is when we thought a backyard wedding would be perfect, and no better location than Tony’s Nana’s backyard in Takapuna, Auckland.’

‘We wanted to keep the style very rustic and boho, nothing too elegant and more close to home. I love lace, earthy tones, dried and fresh flowers and wanted to combine all these elements together.

We were blessed with the only day of sun, in a week of rain. The day after our wedding was pouring down, and we honestly thought it was a dream, and wondered how we managed to get so lucky!’

‘We had the whole family helping us out within every small detail, from the food platters to the BBQ, to arranging the zoom call on the day, and to Nana Grace for getting her backyard to absolute perfection. It was a big family effort and we are so thankful for everyone who helped bring this vision to life.

All the planning and details came together just how we imagined, maybe even better, and we were able to laugh and play lawn games, talk to family via zoom and enjoy each other’s company as just family. We felt so much love that day.’

‘It was a lot of hard work (I won’t lie) to bring it all together, but it was beyond worth it. We’re so happy after 11 years of friendship, 4 years of partnership, many visa applications and long distance calls, we are finally where we dreamt of being as Mr and Mrs T.’