We love a dreamy, garden celebration, and real Martina Liana bride McKenzie’s wedding to husband, Dean, is no exception! Surrounded by florals, family, and friends, McKenzie looked effortlessly beautiful in her beaded, crepe gown. Read on for a good swoon, or two!
From the bride: Dean proposed to me on 25.6.15 in Queenstown, New Zealand. He planned this wonderful week-long trip touring the South Island. It was all a surprise. All I knew were the dates. This was for our seven year anniversary, well so I thought at the time. We had many amazing memories of that week. At the start of the trip, we did a walk in the snow up this waterfall track. We happened to stop for a moment for a drink and write in the snow beneath us was “Will you marry me?” – turns out it wasn’t for me. Dean was so worried trying to cover it up. We saw the newly engaged couple about an hour later down the track. Then two days later he took me on a helicopter from Cromwell and we got off at the top and had some hot chocolate. There was a photographer. I was so ready for this proposal. Nope. Then later that afternoon he took me up the skyline gondola and proposed me to, with a photographer, on sunset, overlooking the Remarkables.
I had done a lot of Pinterest research for our wedding. What I wanted was; lace, medium height front, sleeves, only fitted to the waist, no belt or buttons and ivory. I had so many Stella York dresses pinned. I was living in London right up until my wedding so my mum came over we and went shopping. We went to two places and the second place had the “one”. Love Bridal, Crystal Palace, London. I had the most gorgeous and amazing stylist – Laura. She was just beautiful. It was Friday, so didn’t have to battle with other brides looking. I had the whole studio to myself for 3 hours. I kept trying on what I thought I would like and getting more and more annoyed that I didn’t love them. I really liked them but didn’t have that overwhelming sense of the one. Then Laura asked me to try on the Martina Liana 823 dress and I straight away said NO! I didn’t like the look of it and knew it wasn’t me. She said, please, we have just got it in and I think it would look great on your figure. Well, it did. I put it on and instantly it was the one. I knew because my mum, was bawling!
Our colours were blush pink, white, with a touch of purple. Rose gold was also prevalent though table decor. Our tables had round mirrors in the centre with; candles, tea lights, tall candlesticks, sprayed jars, and either a really tall vase or medium height vase. The jars were filled with wholesale flower we got from Central Wholesale Flowers in Wellington. We stemmed these the day before. We also did the medium height vases ourselves too with gypsophila. We used the wholesale flowers to decorate the; aisle, food table, bar, signing table and gift table. There were also petals down the aisle. My good friend from high school is now a florist and she owns Botanica in Fielding, Amelia. She did our tall table centrepieces, the large bridal table flowers and the flower archway we got married under, which my dad made. She also did all the bouquets and buttonholes etc.
We made our wedding really personal and special by using all people important to us, and that we knew. Both of our venues are friends businesses, our celebrant is a friend from Wellington, my make up artist was one of my bridesmaid sisters-in-law, hair was done by my mum and her besties, flowers by my high school friend, music by another friend, cake by a wedding guest, calligraphy and boards by my bridesmaid – Made by Evie. So it was absolutely amazing to use all people special and close to us for our day. We wanted to maximise our time with our guest so we only had minimal photos, we were only away for 55 minutes which included commute time between venues.
Walking down the aisle, with my dad to a song called “I loved her first” – Homeland was my favorite memory of the day. My friend Sonny Tatana was playing acoustically on his guitar with his loop pedal. My dad was overwhelmed at the moment, I was trying to compose myself. Then I saw Dean, my now husband, and the way he looked at me walking down the aisle towards him, was something truly indescribable.
