What was the total budget for your wedding? Please give a breakdown of your budget
This is kind of tricky because it merged with a 2 week holiday.
But if we look at just the flights from New Zealand, accommodation for 3 nights and wedding-related purchases it came in at around $5,275 NZD ($3,800 USD)
- Flights – $1442
- Accomodations – $1081
- Pip’s Dress – $72
- Girls’ Dresses – $130
- Ceremony / Celebrant / Licence – $526
- Photographer – $415
- Dinner – $137
Total: $3800 USD
How did you meet?
12 years ago my flatmate at the time invited her boss around for a drink, her name was Pip and the rest is history 🙂
What is your proposal story?
The day before Pips 25th birthday (because it was a Sunday) I convinced Pip we would go out for a celebration brunch at a flash restaurant down on Auckland City’s waterfront. We unintentionally had a big night the night before and were horribly hungover. Pip complained the whole way to brunch about not wanting to go but I was adamant we had to. When we pulled up to the restaurant we walked past the front door and into a small office on the bottom floor of the building.
Pip had no idea what we were doing until she saw large posters of Helicopters on the wall. She had always asked me to take her to Waiheke, an island just off the Auckland coast full of vineyards and holiday homes and I finally I made good on my promise. We flew over in a helicopter (for the first time) – halfway over I pulled out the ring and asked her to marry me.
Tell us about your wedding vision
As far as the color and style we left that up to the beauty of the landscape – We didn’t put a huge amount of thought into it really apart from which beach we wanted to do it on.
Tell us about your attire choices
Pip chose to go with a simple white dress while we got the girls matching dresses from a handmade boutique on Maui and my shirt was also something simple with a Hawaiian flavor.
What was most important to you two while planning? Was there anything you chose to splurge on or skip?
We had always planned on eloping, a big wedding was never really for us. Originally we planned to elope in Vegas but along came our beautiful daughters and buying our first home and so on. We are lucky enough to be in a stage of our lives where we can vacation overseas as a family and after going to Hawaii last year we decided to come back and finally get married while we were there.
All we wanted was a simple ceremony with no bells and whistles somewhere beautiful, no fuss. Just the two of us and our girls. One thing that was important to us is some quality photos of our special day and that’s where we decided to spend more money.
What were your favorite parts of the day?
Our favorite part of the day was probably getting McDonalds before getting the photos done…. just joking. We were on a high after getting the ceremony out of the way and just enjoying the fact that we were married and in Hawaii. The girls played in the sand while we took photos, laughing and joking with our awesome photographer. Dinner that night and a walk on the beach after was also special.
Tell us about your wedding flowers
Simple Lei supplied by the wedding ceremony company.
Tell us about your wedding cake
No special cake but we went to the Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki for dinner.
Do you have any advice for couples planning their weddings now?
All I can say is to each their own, but if you want a simple ceremony in a beautiful place why not think about eloping somewhere like Hawaii? It’s a magical place.
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Photography: DeLine Photography • Submitted via: Matchology
