When it comes to throwing an uber-fabulous wedding celebration, this darling NSW duo really knows how it’s done. I mean, really knows how it’s done. Because not only did they fly with all of their friends and family to New Zealand for a week of fun-filled festivities (think snowboarding, skiing and nights out on the town), they booked the entire Cardrona Hotel on the night of their wedding, so their guests could have a roaring good time. Are they awesome or what?!? Oh, and their wedding captured beautifully by Damien Furey? Amazing. See it all in the full gallery.
From the Bride… Our guests, including us, all travelled via plane to New Zealand from the Newcastle region in NSW, Australia and stayed in Queenstown. This made for some really great nights out in the week before the wedding! The week of the wedding was the last week of the ski season and so we all enjoyed skiing and snow boarding the week leading up to it as well as some big nights out! Our wedding took place in New Zealand at The Cardrona Hotel. This was a special place we had visited on previous ski trips to Queenstown and we wanted to share it with out family and friends. We booked out the whole hotel so our guests had free run all night and could kick up their heels knowing they had a bed to fall into only 20 metres away!
We met with the staff at the hotel the day before to finalise all our ceremony and decorative plans that we had previously organised via email from Australia. The owners were great and we only had to give some explanations of our ideas and they ran with them. The decorations we organised had to be portable and not weigh much as we needed to take them on the plane over with us. We had a finger print guest tree from Etsy that was set up for guests to ink their finger and leave a message on the tree. We also had an old Polaroid camera set up where guests could take a pic, write a message and peg them up on some string. Mini chalkboards provided instructions for guests. The photos were really candid and beautiful memories of the night. We explained where we want our cupcake stand ( from Cup and Cake in Queenstown) set up on a wine barrel and had some bunting also purchased from Etsy placed around the hotel with small vintage vases of purple, white and green flowers to go with our bridal bouquets of lavender. All ordered via email from the Green Room Flower company in Wanaka, including hire of vases.
On the morning of our wedding we awoke to see light snow falling outside. This continued on and off throughout the day and made for a real ‘four seasons in one day’ experience! This made things a little complicated as all our guests including us needed to travel through the Crown Range Rd to make it to the ceremony and this road is easily closed due to snow. We got ready in Queenstown and travelled to the hotel. I got my hair done at Heaven Hair in Queenstown and had my make up done by Renee Little who has done lots of international work and did a great job. Both stylists were selected from careful internet research and organised via email. Once we were done we travelled to the ceremony and luckily the snow wasn’t heavy enough to block the road and we made it safely to the hotel. I got changed into my Wendy Makin dress (customised with cap sleeves from Fashions by Farina in Sydney) and Samantha Wills headpiece at the hotel.
The light snow cleared literally minutes before the ceremony and the sun peaked out from behind the clouds just for the length of the ceremony. The ceremony was beautiful and short, which was great as it was freezing in our dresses. Luckily we had purchased vintage fur stoles from Etsy and put these on at the end of the ceremony when it started snowing again! We were lucky enough to have our incredibly talented friend Damien Furey travel over with us to do our wedding photography and he did an amazing job capturing gorgeous images of us and the beautiful New Zealand landscape. The reception was a beautiful night and we had a great live band LA social club provide entertainment all night long! Guests were able to pick what they wanted to eat from our custom made menus we ordered on Etsy and printed off at a local printers before we went.
Guests enjoyed breakfast provided by the hotel the following morning before travelling back to Queenstown to enjoy the rest of their holidays they organised around our wedding. Our wedding was everything we dreamed it would be and we were so happy to have shared the week leading up to it and the actual day with 30 close friends and family in our favourite location!
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Photography: Damien Furey | Ceremony + Reception Venue: The Cardrona Hotel | Floral Design: Green Room Flower Company | Band: LA Social Club | Guest Book + Wine barrel + Bunting: Etsy | Cake: Cup and Cake | Hair: Heaven Hair | Wedding Dress: Wendy Makin | Headpiece: Samantha Wills | Vintage Fur Stoles: Etsy