A LORD OF THE RINGS THEMED WEDDING AT KAITOKE REGIONAL PARK
Katie and Hamish have been together ever since they met in high school after Katie moved down to live with her dad for her final year. They got paired up together to tell each other 3 facts about themselves on their first day of school, and a few months later, Hamish asked Katie out for a date.
Ever since, they’ve been inseparable. Kaite says “ There was never a moment of ‘we’re going to be together forever’ it was more a feeling of contentment, like we had been together forever already.”
KATIE & HAMISH’S ROCKSTAR VENDORS INCLUDE:
Venue: Kaitoke Regional Park
Bride’s gown: Stella York style 7065
Bride’s shoes: Number 1 Shoes
Bride’s accessories: Lovisa
Bridesmaids dresses, shoes: Pagani, Number 1 Shoes
Groom’s suit, shoes: Barkers, Banks Shoes
Groomsmen’s attire: Hallensteins
Photographer: Cushla Marie
Celebrant or Priest: Emma Ayling
Rings: The Village Goldsmith (custom design)
Cake: Beach Babylon (custom)
Catering: Kickflip Pizza
Hire: Wellington Stretch Tent, Happy Hire
THE PROPOSAL
Katie and Hamish went for a road trip all around America. One day when they were hiking up in Boulder, Colorado, Hamish asked Kaite to come and get a photo with him on one of the big boulders - he got down on one knee and proposed as a friend was secretly recording instead of taking the picture. How sweet is that!!
THE THEME
There’s no other way to explain their wedding theme as “Elven forest meets a hobbits party”. It was such a fun theme with lots of green natural leaves and pops of colourful flowers to match Katies hair and dress, a pizza food truck with an array of flavours with our one signature flavour (they cook pizza together every other week), and a banging spotify playlist. Their wedding truly expressed their personalities with all of these details, from the location to food, and the guests absolutely loved it too.
To match the whole theme Katie of course went for the Elven vibe, soft and flowy! The dress was the perfect combination of fitted and flowy, with a beautiful long train. Matching it with a drape veil, a tree of life crown, moon and star earrings, and a necklaces gifted to her by her cousin, she looked like a true princess.
The bridesmaids wore navy blue dresses and nude heels, which was chosen to compliment the greens in the forest-like venue. They chose slightly different cuts to suit their body types, and they all went together perfectly.
Hamish loved the rust colour of the shirt he tried on, which matched perfectly to Katie’s hair (which was a surprise to everyone on the day). He loved the look of a waistcoat instead of a suit jacket, which also matched the LoTR vibe so well. What’s amazing is that they didn’t match anything in particular, it all just came together perfectly. All the colours played in so well.
THE WEDDING
Katie and Hamish were looking for a woodland fairy/elven inspired location, and as soon as they discovered that they could get married at Kaitoke Regional Park, they knew that it was the perfect scene for capturing our love story. It had the perfect elven woods vibe and was even the filming location of Lord of The Rings which was the biggest selling point for them as they have always shared a love for movies and always watched LoTR together. Having such a beautiful and peaceful venue surrounded with nature, they wanted to have their wedding in the summer so it was still warm enough to have our outdoor wedding to fully take advantage of the location.
ROMANTIC RIVER SHOOT
After the wedding and the group shots at the bridal party, we set off by ourselves down to the river. There was a rock in the middle of the water which would have made the perfect shot, so Hamish took off his shoes and hiked his pants up, picked Katie up and crossed the river. It made for the most perfect photo of them together. Katie says “I thought it was going to end with me being dropped in the river by accident so the whole time I was laughing and freaking out - it was hilarious.”
THE BRIDAL PARTY
All their parents as well as some of their siblings made the speeches the wedding, and Katies says “the most memorable part of it was a 100% when my cousin printed out an A3 embarrassing photo of Hamish and passed it around the guests as she spoke - he had dressed up as V from V for Vendetta and it was the first picture she ever saw of him, it had us all in stitches!”
KIND WORDS
“I came across Cushla on the facebook page for NZ Weddings, after checking out her instagram I was sold - her work is absolutely stunning and her edits and shots perfectly matched the vibe we wanted! We loved our time after the ceremony where we got to go around the beautiful park and take pictures together - it was such a nice time together before we got back to a busy reception with our friends and family.”
Cushla was amazing!! Such a chill person on the day she slotted into our lil fam so well! She captured our day perfectly, really matched our elves/nature/forest fairy wedding vibe! Would book her again in a heartbeat!”