Welcome back to Part Three of our wedding day!
A quick recap:
Nate and I were married at the end of February 2020 right before COVID changed everything! We got married in Tauranga, New Zealand (our home city), and celebrated with all our closest friends and family. The vibe ended up being ‘Tropical Bali meets Rural New Zealand’ because they’re two of our favourite countries 🤗
Part One was all about getting ready the morning of the wedding, and doing our First Look and bridal party portraits before the ceremony.
Part Two was all about the ceremony and the cocktail + canape hour.
Now it’s time to delve into the reception, sunset portrait pics, and the party! 🎉
✦ All pics are from the super talented Bryony from Newfound Photography
RECEPTION SET UP & STYLING
It’s fair to say the entire wedding was based around this beautiful clear marquee from Twelve Tables. When we got engaged and I started searching for wedding ideas, I came across their marquees and instantly fell in love. I knew from the get go that a (clear) marquee wedding was what I wanted… I mean, dining and dancing under stars? How romantic!
Once you decide on a marquee wedding, then everything else is decided around that. You have to choose a venue that has space for a marquee. You have to choose a mobile caterer that doesn’t require a kitchen. You have to bring in everything yourself; like tables and chairs, plates, cutlery, glasses, napkins, mobile toilets, speakers, perhaps a generator if you have no access to power. Everything! It’s a big job… But it gives you so much freedom to create a wedding day that is entirely your style!
TABLES, CHAIRS & LAYOUT
The dark wood tables and bench seats were also hired from Twelve Tables. These are the same bench seats we used for the ceremony seating. For the head table we chose black steel chairs.
We chose to organise the tables into three long banquet tables. I personally love this look and it makes the space seem less cluttered.
There is a trend these days of the Bride and Groom opting not to have a head table, and instead sitting among the guests, which is a lovely idea! But I always heard from people that during the dinner, sitting at the head table and being able to look out to all your family and friends gathered before you in one place is a very special feeling. Which is why we decided to have a bridal table.
TABLE STYLING & PLACE SETTINGS
We wanted our table styling to be quite minimal and uncluttered. I personally don’t like sitting at a table and feeling like I have nowhere to put my glass down haha! I also don’t see the point in paying exorbitant prices for floral arrangements that people don’t even notice 😂 So we opted for gold brass vases with a single tropical leaf as the table ‘centrepieces’. The bridesmaids bouquets and my bouquet were put in vases and placed on the head table after the ceremony.
The plates were a grey speckled design and we paired that with gold cutlery and an oatmeal linen napkin. The plates and cutlery were hired from Love Club Hire, and the napkins were hired by Drape Linen.
We printed little dinner menus and spread them out over the tables, as well as having acrylic table numbers to help people find their seats.
DINNER & SPEECHES
PRE-DINNER GAME
Once our MC moved everyone into the marquee, Nate and I made our grand entrance to take our seats 😂 We kicked it off with a pre dinner game just to mix it up a bit. It was called ‘Boobies or Balls’. The MC would say a statement and people had to guess if the statement was related to Nate or to me. You put your hands on your balls if you think it was Nate, or put your hand on your boobs if you think it was me. Whoever gets it wrong, has to sit down and the winner is the last person standing after a series of questions. I was a little apprehensive about doing this game but it actually turned out to be hilarious!
SPEECHES
We decided to allot a couple of the speeches before dinner, and a couple after dinner. This was just to help break it up so the guests don’t get restless. We had already organised who was going to say a speech. We had heard horror stories of having an open floor for speeches, which is why we settled on a select few people and gave a 5 minute time limit. Nate then closed it out with his own brilliant speech!
*HOT TIP: Repurpose the wedding ceremony arch by placing it as a backdrop behind the head table at the reception. Or use it as a photo backdrop space for guests to take pics!
FOOD
Having good food at our wedding was important to us. We had guests fly to New Zealand from places like Canada, Bali, United States and Australia… So the least we could do was put on a good feed!
When it came to picking the caterers we wanted someone who could do it all: canapés, dinner, and dessert. And of course they had to be fully self contained and mobile since it was a marquee wedding.
No Biggie Catering blew us away! Delicious food, professional, and on the ball. We didn’t have to worry about them one bit. Plus they catered to everyone’s dietary needs. In today’s world, that is quite important 😜
We opted for the ‘Banquet’ style dinner; where the food is put out on shared plates on the tables and everyone helps themselves. It’s like a big family sit down meal!
The most delicious lamb you ever will try
We decided to have a dessert table, instead of a ‘sit down’ dessert. By that time in the night everyone is keen to get up and move around, so little bite sized dessert pieces seemed the way to go.
This salted caramel brownie was life changing 
At 10:30pm we also organised for a late night snack to come out. Just to keep everyone well fed and not so sloppy on the dance floor 😂
SUNSET PICTURES
If there’s one thing to do on your wedding day, it’s to sneak off at sunset for some final portraits. Not only is the sunset lighting magical, but it also allows you both to have a quiet moment together away from the party.
When planning your wedding timeline, think about what time sunset will be on the day. We timed it so we could sneak away while everyone was eating dinner. That way, no one really noticed we were gone. Don’t time the speeches or your first dance at the same time as sunset!
BOUQUET TOSS, FIRST DANCE & PARTY!
I had never planned on doing a bouquet toss, I just got dragged into it last minute…
But really, I think Nate just wanted a reason to do one too 😂
Time to take the stage for the first dance… We really wowed everyone with our incredible moves! No I joke…. We didn’t rehearse anything, and just made it up as we went along. The first dance song we picked was Sweet Melodies (Shier Remix) by Lizzy Land. It’s got a groovy tune! We thought it would be a good song to kick off the dance floor!
Belly flops on the dance floor, broken glasses, lots of laughs, nudity, and newsworthy dance moves are what unfolded during the rest of the night!
A special thanks to our legend of a wedding planner, Alina from Wild & Whim! She made the whole process stress free and kept us in line when it came to the organisation of the day!
THE END!
🖤
