Real Wedding: Georgina + Liam

You really can't go wrong with using pink in a wedding can you? Especially when it's used in such a pretty pretty way. The wedding which was held at St Benedicts Church followed by a reception at Mantells, was beautifully planned and coordinated by Gayle at Exquisite Weddings and as you'll see by the brides glowing words, you couldn't be in safer hands. The delightfully pretty flowers were by Sue from Flowers at Pink, makeup by Amber Haldane, and once again some sensational photography from Shots Photography.



How did you meet?
Liam and I met as members of the Aotea Youth Symphony’s cello section, when Liam was 14 years old and I was 12! At that young age it definitely wasn’t love at first sight but we ran into each other throughout school and university, and later at work, when Liam (now a chartered accountant) was auditing the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, where I was working as a fundraiser. We finally realised we were meant for each other at a party 15 years after we first met (speed-dating was not for us!) and have been blissfully happy together ever since.
Tell us about your proposal:
It took place five days before we left to live in London, but might not have happened at all!! The day before our engagement we were with family at Opito Bay on the Coromandel and drove back to Auckland that night. We were nearly home when we just avoided a head-on collision at 100km an hour with a madman driving the wrong way down the motorway – terrifying! Feeling rather shaken, poor Liam then had to face a (secret) conversation with my father the next morning before we went out to Karekare beach for a picnic, where he proposed down on one knee – very romantic. Liam putting the beautiful engagement ring we had chosen together on my finger over the black Karekare sand was a really special moment – then it felt like we lived on a diet of nothing but champagne for the rest of that week celebrating with friends and family before leaving for the U.K.
Tell us about finding your wedding dress:
It was quite hard work! I looked in so many places, but finding the perfect combination of style, quality and affordability was quite tricky. I also made the fatal mistake of trying on a dress I loved – which cost £5,000! It took a long time to come back to earth after that…. In the end, my brilliant bridesmaid Lucy found my dress for me. It was off the shoulder ivory satin, with beautiful pleating and diamante sparkles that worked slimming miracles – I loved it. It was a suitably grand dress for St Benedict’s, the church in Auckland we were married in, and teamed with my gorgeous Pied a Terre shoes and Lucy’s sister’s borrowed wedding veil, I couldn’t have been a happier bride.
What was the design inspiration for your wedding?
Rather than have a traditional wedding gift list, Liam and I decided to start up an art fund for our family and friends to make contributions to if they preferred this idea to a more conventional gift. We always wanted to collect artworks but knew that once we were married, saving to buy a home would be more of a priority than original paintings! This idea of original art was very much a theme for our wedding, with an artist friend, Bridget Miles, drawing the church for our stationery, and a calligrapher friend, Bronwyn Harrison, handwriting all the invitations, envelopes and table cards – it was a real labour of love from them both. I love hot pink, so incorporated that into the colour scheme (diplomatically avoiding Liam’s love of orange!) alongside a more gentle pink, ivory and black.
Describe your wedding flowers:
Sue from Flowers at Pink did a stunning job of the flowers for our midwinter wedding, using local seasonal roses and ivy. In a detail which I loved, she also interspersed dried leaves, processed in a way that left just the golden translucent ‘skeleton’ of the leaf which looked like living lace – just beautiful! She carefully added a crystal bead here and there which caught the light all day. My pear shaped bouquet was lighter pink with lots of greenery while my bridesmaids Lucy and Rebecca had hand tied bouquets of hot pink roses, which set off their ‘Little Black Dresses’ wonderfully.
Describe your wedding cake:
Our cake was a Cervin family affair. Liam’s mother Anne-Marie baked the three tiers of fruit cake to the family recipe, then iced it with traditional fondant icing. Liam’s Grandmother, Elva, a hugely talented maker of sugar cake decorations then painstakingly made each little pink rose by hand. The cake was stunning and everything we had hoped for.
Favourite detail of the day:
Gayle from Exquisite Weddings, without whom no one should ever get married in our opinion! Immediately after the wedding, our photographer (the wonderful Steve, from Shots Photography) took a shot of us outside the church which, while we were off having photographs taken with our wedding party, Gayle whisked off to have printed. Once this was done, she took them back to Mantells, our reception venue, and tucked a photograph into a hot pink envelope at every table place before the guests arrived. Seeing our guests’ faces, when they opened the envelopes at their seats to find their own copy of our wedding photo was priceless – they couldn’t work out how we’d done it so quickly, and many thought we had posed for it the day before!
What advice would you give out to someone planning their wedding?
Hire Gayle – immediately! Her advice was absolutely invaluable from start to finish, she was completely cool, calm and collected, and dealt with every difficulty with a “that’s no problem, here’s what we can do to fix it.” She was with us every step of the way and I will never forget how much help she was to us – she’s absolutely brilliant. We loved our wedding day and to be able to look back and know that we wouldn’t have changed one single thing is a really good feeling. I think keeping your close friends and family around you and focusing completely on one another makes the day so precious. The details do make a difference but try and trust someone else to take care of the little things on the day so that you can relax and enjoy yourselves.
Were there any special traditions that you included?
We didn’t realise until just before the wedding, but Liam’s Aunt & Uncle were married at St Benedict’s almost 50 years to the day before we were. It was wonderful to make the same commitment they made with them in the church to share the ceremony with us.
Most memorable moment?
For both of us – that moment when we first saw one another in the church. Walking down the aisle with my Dad was just so special and Liam and I both felt so overwhelmed knowing that this moment had finally arrived!!!
What’s next for you as a couple?
We’re still enjoying working and living in London and look forward to the next Cervin family wedding, between Liam’s brother Seamus and his beautiful fiancée Julia in her home city of Rio de Janeiro in December 2009!

Congratulations to Georgina & Liam. All the best for your travels and future together!