New Zealand Winter Wedding - Polka Dot Bride

Nicole & Jethro

The moody tones of Winter can add such a magical feel to a wedding day, Nicole and Jethro choosing a day that was “a sleek event with the biggest chill vibes possible” for their New Zealand Winter wedding. In a day that was all about focusing on the love story unfolding, they kicked off the day together in their brand new home with photographer Haley Guildford Photographer

Nicole tells the tale of how Jethro popped the question. “We’ve known each other for 13 years and been a thing for 9 of those years, we meet through mutual school friends. The proposal wasn’t exactly romantic. We were on a family holiday with Nicole’s extended family and this was the time. We headed on a scooter trip around the Island for the day. Jethro had tied the ring tightly onto the drawstring of his swimmers and away we went.
It’s totally dark, we’re blasting away on the scooter, hair flying everywhere, while Jethro yells over the engine noise & wind “I have something in my pants for you”. I reached in and tightly tied to the drawstring was my bling.

Hair still flapping everywhere, still unable to hear a word Jethro was saying, I could only assume he was asking me to marry him. I yelled YES and clung on for dear life. The scooters behind caught a glimpse of the shiny bling and before long the whole scooter gang were excitedly celebrating with beeps, cha hoo’s & high fives all round. Thankfully, our wedding was a lot more romantic than the proposal.”

Nicole chose Ingrid Starnes to make her gown, remarking “I took myself along to a wedding dress shop, tried on about 20 wedding dresses and every time I looked in the mirror at these beautiful dresses, I just didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel myself so it was back to the drawing board. While shopping in New Market one day I walked into Ingrid Starnes and spotted a beautiful knee length silk slip dress in the window with a simple back detail. I tried it on and it just felt right! It was olive green and not at all like a ‘wedding dress’ but it immediately felt like my wedding dress. After a consultation with Ingrid, she added a small train and created it in soft ivory silk.”

After their first look in their brand new house, Nicole & Jethro wandered their farm for photographs.

The bride remarks “As you can see from the photos, there was almost too much laughter … did I even shut my mouth once that day?? One silly little funny moment was when Haley our photographer was directing us and she asked Jethro to kiss my chin. She meant cheek but Jethro blindly following the instruction was hilarious.”

The couple’s photographer was a very close friend of the groom’s, and the bride says, “Our photographer was Haley Guildford Photography. She is a very close friend to Jethro, they have known each other since they were at primary school so it was an absolute pleasure to have her do our photography. We didn’t even look for another photographer, we’ve seen lots of her work in the past and we don’t think anyone else could have captured us in the way Haley did. We laughed almost the whole time and just felt so relaxed which we think is really important to ensure your photos are natural and sincere.”

Nicole and Jethro held their wedding at Provenance , entering the ceremony together to “The Greatest” by Cat Power. The bride noting “The venue was a no brainer for us – it’s 5 minutes from our house, we love the architecture furniture and style of the venue so set up was going to be very simple but still have the look & feel we wanted, the food is amazing, the staff are even better and we feel 100% at home there. A huge part of our day was feeling relaxed and happy and our venue played a big part of achieving that.”

Nicole and Jethro were married by Trude Bethell. “Our ceremony was relaxed and emotional. It still had the structure of a conventional wedding, however without some of the normal traditions. We decided to walk down the aisle together, we didn’t have any bridesmaids or groomsmen etc. Instead, we tried to incorporate those same people into our day in a different way with speeches, MC tasks etc.”

The ceremony backdrop was created by the groom. “Jethro designed a magnolia wall for us to stand in front of for our ceremony. It was huge and a fun undertaking for our family the day before the wedding. (Some “bridesmaids” fingernails were damaged in the making.) It was two temporary fences that we hired and a trailer load of magnolia cuttings from a friend’s farm were cable tied to the fencing.”

Nicole tells “We are incredibly lucky to have so many talented friends who were able to be involved in our day. Our talented photographer Haley already mentioned. Absolute rockstar Abigail McEwan who did my hair and makeup is a dear friend of mine so we drank champagne, chatted and watched Million Dollar Agent while getting ready. The list goes on and all of their personal touches to the day just added to the love and fun of it all. As above, all of our talented vendors/friends were amazing. A special mention to Leanne our wedding co-ordinator and the staff at Provenance, you guys were freaking rock stars. Our guests were so beautifully looked after and every request was met with such bloody brilliant service. So good.”

“Reflecting back on the evening we are both just so glad we didn’t cave into the social pressures of including parts of our ceremony or other details which we knew we really didn’t want.”

The dance floor kicked off and one of the bride’s favourite moments did too. “I shared an incredible moment with my dad. You Can Call Me Al by Simon & Garfunkel was playing, he’s played this music my whole life and we slow danced and shed happy tears together for the whole song. It was bliss.”