OUR WEDDING PT 2: THE CEREMONY

Welcome back to Part Two of our wedding day!

A quick recap:

Nate and I were married 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.

So now it’s time to delve into the ceremony!

✦ All pics are from the super talented Bryony from Newfound Photography

Pssst. Have you read Part One yet? If not, head back now and start from the beginning!
Our Wedding Day Part One: Getting Ready & First Look

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CEREMONY

Ooh the ceremony… The most important part of the wedding day, yet the shortest part of the wedding day haha! Here’s a glimpse into the planning of our ceremony…

THE SET UP

For the ceremony design, I didn’t want anything too cluttered. I was after a clean, tropical look.

We had potted palms framing the circle arch. And the arch itself had two tropical floral arrangements.

The palms were from The Green Room and the circular arch was hired from Love Club. The beautiful floral arrangements were by Carmen from Pretty Wild Floral.

Our wedding planner, Alina from Wild & Whim did such a gorgeous job with the set up. I didn’t need to be there at all for the setup that morning… Making the day a whole lot easier!

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We had rows of dark wooden bench seats for guests to sit on with a few white bali umbrellas providing some shade.

THE RUNNING OF THE CEREMONY

We preferred a ceremony of about 30 minutes run time. We found that was more than enough time for us, and then we could move on to the PARTYYYY!

The ceremony began at about 3:30pm. Nate and the groomsmen were there to greet the guests from 3pm and get everyone settled. Our celebrant, Kelsey, started it off with a few words where she let everyone know that it was an unplugged ceremony; meaning we preferred it if our guests didn’t film or take photos with their phones.

Kelsey was an amazing celebrant. She made us feel comfortable during the entire ceremony and the lead up to the wedding, which is very important when choosing a celebrant!

Now it’s time to walk down the aisle!

We chose ‘Ocean Eyes’ by Billie Eilish to walk down the aisle to. It’s such a beautiful song and gets all the feels going.

One tip to remember is to walk SLOW down the aisle. When you’re in the moment it’s easy to pick up the pace and rush down. But this is your entrance, take your time.

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For our vows, we decided on a joint vow. We wrote it together and then we both took turns to read it to each other during the ceremony.

It’s quite a relief when you get to the kissing part!
HOT TIP: Our photographer said to go in for two kisses, not just one. Just to make sure they get the perfect kissing shot!

When it came to the signing, we surprised both our mums by having them sign as our witnesses. It’s a nice way to include the mum’s in the ceremony!

The songs that we chose for the signing were ‘Love on the Weekend’ by John Mayer and ‘Sunny Days’ by Allen Stone. I’m glad we had two songs lined up instead of just one because one song definitely isn’t long enough.

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Woohoo! We made it! I officially became Mrs Buchan. You may call me Mrs. B 😜

We walked back down the aisle to ‘Special Edition’ by Fat Freddy’s Drop… One of our faves and such a good tune!

The ceremony goes by so quickly. Before you know it, you’ll be officially married!

After the ceremony we got a big group pic of everyone then headed over to a different area of the venue for canapés and drinks!

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DRINKS & CANAPÉS

The great thing about doing a First Look (which I talked about in Part One) was that we didn’t have to go off and do the bridal party photos during the canapé and drinks time (as typically this is the time to do them). Since we did all the pictures before the ceremony, we had all this time to catch up and hang out with all the guests. This was a big reason for us choosing to do a First Look.

THE SETUP

Again, we wanted to keep things pretty simple and continue with our tropical Bali vibe. We hired bar leaners and stools from Twelve Tables. And we also created a little lounge zone with some cool rattan furniture from Love Club Hire.

We scattered around the Bali umbrellas that we had made while we were in Bali and topped off the look with potted palms and tropical greens from The Green Room.

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THE BAR

Our venue was a BYO venue so we were able to bring in all our own alcohol. There was also no corkage fee so it worked out much cheaper! Our friends and family enjoy a good party, so we made sure we overstated on the amount of drinks we bought! We had a selection of New Zealand wines (Rosé is always a hit at a summer wedding), a selection of beers, cider, and non-alcoholic drinks.

We used Blume & Darling for the management of the bar. They supplied 3 bar staff with glasses, ice, lemons, water dispensers and everything needed for the bar.

Nate and I love a summer Gin & Tonic, so we put on a Gin Bar for a few hours too!

Next we headed on in to the beautiful marquee for speeches and dinner but I think I’ll leave that for Part 3!

I hope you enjoyed the pics of our ceremony 🙂 I love looking back on them all.

Stay tuned for the final Part 3; all about the reception, speeches, sunset portraits, and of course…. The PARTY! 🎉

★ Hannah