Anna & Geoff

Travelling to New Zealand for their wedding, Anna and Geoff kept things simple. Focussing on their love for one another, their family and friends, and celebrating their romantic wedding together, the bride and groom planned good food, handmade touches and a relaxed day for everyone! Lovelenscapes captured the day.

Both from New Zealand, Anna moved to Australia not long into their relationship. After two and a half years of long distance, they both decided to move to Brisbane. The bride tells of Geoff’s eventful proposal, ”This is a crazy story! He wanted us to design my engagement ring together so he got the diamonds, but hadn’t had it set in a ring yet. We were off to Europe and Geoff had planned to propose to me over there. The day before we left, he checked our insurance to make sure diamonds were insured and they weren’t. Geoff panicked and decided he’d better propose – he put together a gorgeous picnic and took me up to the hill by our house where he got down on one knee and I said yes. We then decided to hide the diamonds in a suitcase in our house. Two weeks into our trip, Geoff was up early and saw that there had been two housefires in our suburb – one of the houses looked a lot like ours.  We’d missed everyone’s attempts to get hold of us – our house had burned down. The first thought we had was ‘what about the diamonds!’ Thankfully we knew exactly where they were and they were found! After we got back from Europe we had them made into a ring we designed together.”

Wearing a gorgeous Anna Campbell lace gown, Anna originally found it difficult to find her dream dress. She shares, ”I’ll be the first to admit that I’m super picky, and I didn’t go into the process knowing what I wanted – so it was never going to be easy! I found one dress I liked, went in to get measured, and then changed my mind. In my desperation to find something I decided to contact Anna Campbell‘s staff and they kindly sent the dress to one of their stockists for me. I tried it on and it just felt right. It had all the details I’d wanted in a gown and I couldn’t wait to wear it for real!” The groom and groomsmen wore suits from Peter Jacksons in black, white and navy.

Choosing Tarureka Estate for both ceremony and reception, the lush gardens were perfect for Anna and Geoff’s wedding. They tell, ”We wanted our ceremony to feel intimate and casual. Anna’s brother played a song during the signing of the register and Geoff’s sister Heidi and friend Cathy did beautiful readings during the ceremony. Anna’s good friend Sarah is a celebrant and she married us. She did an amazing job – it felt relaxed and familiar and so special to have her lead us through the ceremony. During the ceremony, Anna’s parents prayed for us. That was a really special moment and felt like we were kicking off our journey as a married couple right. We also decided to have champagne, cheese and speeches straight after the ceremony. Doing this meant there were no speeches during the reception and we were free to catch up with people.” The bride walked down the aisle with her father to ‘The Sweetest Gift’ by Sade.

With family and friends all based in New Zealand, the bride and groom to be knew where they would be married. They share, ”The Christmas before the wedding, we went on a big road trip around the lower north island and scoped out lots of different venues. We had a really open mind about what we wanted. Coming over from Australia meant we needed to keep everything as simple as possible, so we didn’t overthink the details. The vibe was very relaxed – the food and drinks were delicious and abundant and we had an amazing DJ. We didn’t have a wedding theme but our goal was to have everything as natural as possible – all our printing was all on wood, and we kept the decorations simple with flowers and fairy lights. Geoff’s sister in law, Jane at Rosarie Flowers, is a florist and we were fortunate to have her do our flowers. Jane worked tirelessly to get our bouquets, button holes, archway and tables ready for the big day and did an amazing job.”

Anna and Geoff may have kept things simple, but they put a lot of heart into every detail! They remember, ”We had fun designing our stationery and putting it all together with our family. We also did wedding favours together so there were a few nights of us all sitting around, watching reruns of Seinfeld, drinking champagne – it was good fun and we had lots of laughs.” Geoff designed personalised cufflinks for each of his groomsmen, saying, ”Each represented the relationship I have with the guys, and they made the time leading up to the wedding and tonne of fun, and low-stress.” One of Anna’s favourite details from the day was cake! She shares, ” My mum and aunty had made my Nan’s brandy butter fruit cake – my Nan had passed away a few months earlier so that was really special. The other layer was a white chocolate and caramel mud cake which my lovely friend Mel had made.”

Becoming friends with Doruk and Tina from Lovelenscapes came about in a beautifully generous manner. The bride shares, ”After our house burned down, some amazing friends set up a gofundme page for us to help us get back on our feet. The info on the page mentioned that we were planning our wedding. Lovelenscapes blew us away when they donated a full-day wedding photography package – people who we didn’t even know at the time. They lived in the same suburb and had heard about the us via their friends. After meeting them both, falling in love with them and their beautiful work, we decided to fly them over to New Zealand to capture our day. Over the last year they’ve become our friends – that has definitely been a highlight of our wedding journey.” Walking down the aisle was a special moment for both the bride and groom, with Geoff sharing his favourite moment, ”The anticipation of Anna walking down the aisle, and then the big reveal. She looked breathtaking!” Anna says, ”I loved putting my dress on, and I loved seeing Geoff’s face as we walked down the aisle.”

The lead up to the wedding became a little frantic, with the bride telling, ”The night before the wedding, my brother’s wife went into labour – one month before her due date. During the setup of the venue, we were all hovering around Anna’s mum’s phone as we were updated with news. That evening, Jake was born, safe and healthy. Emotions were really high – the news brought on quite a few happy tears. We were disappointed that Anna’s brother and sister-in-law couldn’t make it – but the wedding present of becoming uncle and aunt to our first nephew was pretty hard to beat.”

Thrilled with the team they worked with, the newlyweds share, ”Well, obviously, Tina and Doruk from Lovelenscapes were absolute superstars. Our DJ, DFresh was outstanding as well – not only did he DJ for the party, he also managed and mixed sound for the entire wedding and had curated playlists based on our tastes in music and did a beautiful job.” The bride and groom made sure to feed their guests plentifully, with gorgeous food from Crescendo Cuisine. They tell, ”Geoff and I loved researching caterers and looking over their menus. After choosing one, we then had the fun task of selecting canapés, entrees, mains, sides and desserts – we’re both really into our food so this was a highlight!”

Thank you to our beautiful bride and groom for sharing your gorgeous wedding day, and congratulations! Thank you also to Lovelenscapes for sharing your magnificent images!