Pretty garden Wedding by Anna Allport

This wedding from Anna Allport is a little case of a six degrees of separation. Alyssa's name was familiar to me, and I realised that she was friends with one of my closest friends, then I received an email from her telling me we were related!! Now I only have 5 cousins and a very small extended family so this kinda puzzled me but it turns out that by marriage we have the same uncle and aunt, so yep kinda related indeed. Talk about a small world!!

One of my favourite things about Alyssa & Brenton's wedding were the table numbers... rather than the stock standard table numbers they printed a three fold booklet which asked guests to leave the bride and groom a message to open up on their 6th anniversary (each table number corresponding to the anniversary year). They have put them in a keepsake box to open up each year... how fun would it be reading these on your anniversary! Alyssa shares more details of their day with us...

Being an Architect, design is very important to me, and it was always expected that I would have an impeccably planned wedding. My husband is an arborist so his love for the outdoors also had an influence on our wedding style. We have been together for 6 years, but known each other for at least 15 years. My husband played school aged rugby with my brother, and our parents developed a friendship. Despite having a crush on my now husband for a while, it wasn't until my brother's 21st he was brave enough to make his first move.

Architects are known to dislike colour, and that isn't far from the truth for me either. But in contrary to that, my husband LOVES colour and bright ones at that. We hadn't yet chosen our venue, but we knew it would be a beautiful house on manicured gardens, appealing to myself the architect and my husband the arborist. A garden setting, in my opinion, doesn't suit something as harsh as black. We finalised our colour scheme of White, Grey with an accent of Yellow fairly early on, with few arguments!

The venue was harder to find. We had a budget that we needed to stick to, and a guest list that couldn't get any smaller. We looked at many options but fell in love with an out of town venue in Gordonton, Waikato. An hours drive from our home city it wasn't impossible for guests to drive home, but also gave them a good excuse to have a weekend away. The venue had a large, historic homestead on manicured gardens, with an attached function room that opened out onto a beautiful lawn bordered with roses.

The overall look for our wedding was to be contemporary, despite the historic venue. I like the juxtaposition of old and new, and my husband and I are both modern people. A vintage wedding would not have suited us whatsoever. We had to find a balance between my wedding dream and his. He would have been happy with a bbq in the back yard, I preferred a plated, sit down meal with fine wine and waiters. We compromised, a sit down buffet in a venue which allowed us to flow out into the garden.

My dress was the most beautiful dress I have ever seen. It is a Martina Liana dress, which is fitted to the hips with a flower detail on the hip and one strap. It was the only dress I tried on and I fell in love immediately. I wore a beautiful pair of bridal shoes which were classic and contemporary. I wore my mothers pearl earrings and necklace, and a ring from my grandmother who passed away last July. I also managed to incorporate the "something blue" in a unique way. My mother got married in blue in the 1980's so I was able to sew some of her dress into the lining of my dress.

The ceremony was our most personal part of the day. I kept an element of surprise in it for my husband. We wrote our vows together, but apart from that he was unaware of the plan. I managed to track down an old friend who is an amazing singer, Nick Afoa, to sing during the ceremony. I kept all the song choices a secret, telling my husband lies about what we were walking down to and signing the register to.

My daughter and the bridesmaids walked down the aisle to our singer's own version of "Somewhere over the Rainbow". The emotions when he started singing were indescribable. His voice was just amazing and it set the mood for the rest of the ceremony. Watching my daughter walk down the aisle was very emotional, and she was greeted by her daddy which sent me over the edge! Somewhere over the Rainbow seamlessly changed to "What a wonderful World" for when I walked down the aisle. I am not usually a crier but I sure did struggle keeping back the tears (while trying to smile and show I was actually happy to be here!).

Our ceremony was relaxed, with our daughter interrupting and making sure we all still knew she was the centre of attention! I wouldn't have it any other way.

I spent a lot of time on the details for our wedding. The centrepieces were very unique. They consisted of a yellow button chrysanthemum pomander ball suspended into a fishbowl vase off a piece of white painted bamboo. The yellow pomander balls were the only colour in the entire reception hall so they stood out and looked amazing against the white and grey. On the bridal table we had square vases lined with beer grass and filled with white hydrangeas for our centrepiece. On the outside tables we had moroccan lanterns as centrepieces.

The yellow pomander balls were also used to add colour to the ceremony. Two balls were hung on ever second aisle chair. The aisle was also lined with white and yellow roses, and petal filled cones were placed on the aisle chairs to be thrown as we walked back down the aisle.

The table settings in the reception had some personal touches. My attention to detail really came out here. I didn't want our napkins tied with a regular bow so I spent 6 hours making the bows prior to the wedding, and spent another 6 hours making the bows for the favour boxes which were filled with both mine and my husband favourite lollies, gummy bears. We also had an I SPY card which listed things to snap photos and send to the bride. 

It was the most enjoyable day of our lives. It was so nice to have our families and friends come together and we both noticed how they mingled with each other so well.

Celebrant | Lynley Keightley, Florists | Sharyn Mead as well as Brian from Flower Concepts, Wedding Gown | Martina Liana, Bridesmaid | Storm, Flower Girl | Made by Shirley from I SEW 4 U, Grooms Attire | Frank Casey, Bridal Shoes | Trousseau Bridal, Photography | Anna Allport Photography, Venue | Woodlands Homestead, DJ | Andy Bramwell, Singer | Nick Afoa, Hair | Angela at Revamp Hair Co., Makeup | Kate Maxwell, Stationery | ten11, Chairs | Carlton Party Hire