Danielle and Johnny’s Romantic New Zealand Wedding

Something about New Zealand is incredibly romantic, just to prove my point, a stunning wedding full of romance comes along and is every bit the glowy romantic, elegant wedding! Danielle and John married in Homebush, Masterton and their wedding was a beautiful garden ceremony with plenty of romance.

Danielle shares the story of the newlyweds. “Johnny and I were both and born bred in the small town of Masterton, Wairarapa. Although our families knew each other well and we had the same friends, it seemed as though we were right under each other’s noses until we officially met each other! Johnny being a Cray fisherman, is from a local fishing family and my (Danielle’s) father is also a Commercial Cray fisherman and a paua diver on the same coast line- not that either of us eat seafood! After years of just ‘being friends’ and wishing but ‘wrong timing’, Johnny and I finally got the opportunity to spend a little time together and actually officially began our relationship on weekend at his family beach house-where Johnny fishes from. We knew we would never spend a moment apart after that!.. and we haven’t!”

The elegant, romantic photography today is by Mary Sylvia Photography who has captured such beauty of the wedding.

The bridesmaids wore pale pink gowns from Forever New which Danielle bought on a  trip to Perth and had altered.

Danielle wore a stunning gown designed by Louise Anderson. Danielle recalls “Louise Anderson was my dress designer and I have to mention what an exquisite job she did of making me my dream gown. I went to her with an idea of what I wanted and we worked together on the dress until it was perfect. Her skill level combined with her passion for wedding gowns made it an experience I would recommend to anybody. My dress only fits me and it was a one-off. I couldn’t have asked for a better bridal gown- i didn’t even need to wear a torselette or bra!!”

La Fleure Floriste created the flowers.

The couple held the wedding- ceremony and reception at The Landing. Danielle explains “Johnny and I had attended several weddings in the lead up to our own, and we were keen on the idea of just having the one venue for the ceremony and the reception- not only for the convenience but we really wanted to make the whole setting look personal and like it was our own. The Landing offers all of this and more,”

Plenty of DIY decorating was undertaken for the day, Danielle says “I am a fashion designer and I love love love creative projects. My mother is also extremely creative and between us, my mother-in-law and a few helpers, we managed to DIY quite a few elements. Before the ceremony, cones made out of music sheets with my aisle song (Adele) were handed out and they were filled with white and blush coloured rose petals for people to throw over us at the end. We got married under some huge Oak trees and we hung crystal decorations on ribbons from the branches and we also had collected gorgeous ivory coloured birdcages that we hung from the trees, they were filled with roses and church candles.”

Danielle chose a modern classic for the processional. She remembers “I walked down to Adele- ‘Someone Like You’. I know Adele seems to be the popular choice currently but we chose that song because we thought the words captured our story best.”

Danielle and Johnny added a lot of themselves to the day. Danielle remarks “I’m a huge believer of ‘the small details make it’ and I think all of the DIY we did really made the day that much more special and I think it took things to the next level. The Landing is such a beautiful setting, but we still wanted our wedding to look unique. Johnny and I were very involved in the make-up of the ceremony and we chose all of the readings, scriptures and elements ourselves. We wrote our own promises and we had Johnny’s sister there to read a poem for us. The whole thing was very personal.

One thing that also gave it depth for me- was a discovery I made two weeks prior to the wedding. My bridesmaid was arriving from Perth to stay with us and while I was setting up her room, I emptied the side drawers of my book and novels. In the drawer, I found a gold bible that my grandparents (my grandfather has passed and my nana is very ill) gave me before my first birthday. They were Italian and strong Catholics. Handwritten in the bible it said “Dear Danielle, with everlasting love- nana and grandad, 14th of April 1990″ (my wedding date!!) we incorporated the bible into the ceremony and had our rings blessed on it. This was very special for me. Our whole bridal party also made speeches which was great, including myself- they got everybody laughing!”

Danielle’s favourite moment was the coming together of family and friends. She recalls “I loved having all of our close family and friends there who had traveled from so far away to celebrate with us, and just putting so much effort into the personal details. Johnny and I now look back on the day and feel as though it was as special to us as it could be.”

Danielle remarks “Our wedding was a true combination our taste and lifestyle; soft, romantic and classic while still having the outdoorsy and natural, lush feel that is the scene of the Wairarapa.”

Of their photographer, Danielle says “We met our lovely photographer Mary at a wedding expo held the previous year in Masterton. We knew as soon as we saw her photo gallery that she would not only suit our classic theme, but she was obviously extremely talented and had that comforting vibe about her. We were hoping she would capture all of those meaningful moments on our day and Mary did an absolutely exquisite job!”

The celebrations continued at The Landing. Danielle remembers “With a gorgeous house set in even more amazing gardens and surrounded but towering trees, they offer Bed & Breakfast accommodation for any guests that may want to stay the night, they have a separate canape area with an attached marquee and a fully decked-out caterers kitchen (which was great because we supplied our own seafood and the caterers worked from there) and they also have the most fabulous lawn to get married on, and a large tennis court which is where we erected our 22×18 marquee for the reception.”

The reception decor was styled by the bride and her family. Danielle explains “My mother and her team of floral art girls created all of the decorative wedding flowers for me. I had the biggest, most incredible arrangement of flowers that waterfall-ed over the bridal table. They made rings for the tables that were filled with roses, lilies and lisianthus, and had one very large candle in the centre with a few wicks that we lit before the reception began. There were black wrought iron candelabras with church candles on top and ivy wrapped around them.. and white bunting that we made hung between poles in the marquee. At the entrance to the aisle, we even made beautiful twisted willow that stood in a silver pots with a collar of autumn hydrangeas. Those stood on top of wine barrels.

Lastly, my husband and I sourced some vintage windows and I wrote our seating chart onto the panes with a white marker pen and I also created a ‘story card’ to go on the table settings. I wrote a ‘fairytale’ about how we met and got together.. I printed it onto textured card and added little drawings to it- it turned out very cute!!”

Along with the story card guests received fortune cookies from Fortune Cookies. Danielle says “We  had vanilla flavoured, white choc dipped fortune cookies for our favours. They were not only delicious but the notes inside are so funny!”

Johnny and I had ordered the Amazing Travelling Photobooth for the day- they operated during canapes and after dinner. You can hop in behind a vintage curtain and push the button, a bell rings and snaps five photos and you can have them in black&white or colour. They were absolutely hilarious and our guests got a copy for themselves as well as a copy they stuck in a book for us with a note next to it. The funny thing was, there were some highly inappropriate photos that people did not want to stick in our ‘guest book’.. however, little did they know, we received an CD at the end with ALL of the photos on it! Classic.

For their first dance, Danielle remembers “Johnny and I chose a Black Keys song for our first dance called ‘I’ll be your man’. Apart from being Black Keys lovers, we wanted something upbeat and the kind of song that we will hear again and again and it will remind us of our wedding. I have been a dancer since I was small but Johnny was slightly more nervous about the dance.. we didn’t choreograph anything though, we just went with the flow and it turned out great.”

Congratulations Danielle and Johnny! Thank you so much for sharing your wedding day with us! Thank you also to Mary Sylvia Photography for sharing today’s beautiful wedding day!