Anna + John by Blancorazon Wedding - Together Journal

Being an elopement, our main focus was to have fun and enjoy the moments of exploring a new city.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…

John is a Police Officer and Personal Trainer, and Anna is a nurse. 

We both love staying active, signing up for the latest triathlon or running race, heading to the gym together, or taking our dog, Ginger, out for runs. 

We both have a love for travelling, exploring new places, and spending time with our friends and family.

How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?

We met back in 2018, although we had attended high school in the same city and had some mutual friends, our paths didn’t cross till we were both living overseas.

John lived in France playing rugby, and I lived in London working as a nurse. 

John had travelled to London to catch up with some friends who were visiting from New Zealand. 

After we got talking, we realised the following weekend, I was travelling to the same region of France John lived in for a French wine weekend getaway. The trip ended up being a collection of friends and friends of friends, staying in a French Chateau in Bordeaux so I invited John to join us for the weekend. We were pretty inseparable, enjoying the weekend as if we were already a couple, admiring John speaking French as we toured around Saint-Emilion vineyards. As they say, the rest is history!

Anna – My first impressions of John were that he was extremely genuine and kind. He was fun, charming and he started to feel like home. He got along with everyone, was always looking out for my best interests and he grounded me.

John – My first impressions of Anna were that she was beautiful and caring. Always taking care of everyone around her, especially of me. 

When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?

I’d say pretty quickly! After that first weekend we spent together, we were both pretty smitten and found ourselves spending our days off organising the next trip to see each other. We didn’t really know how things were going to work out, but we both knew we wanted it to, so over the following months and many trips between London, Bordeaux or other European destinations we visited, we decided to make it official. 

We moved home to New Zealand together at the end of 2019, just over a year after we had first met.

Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…

Well, there wasn’t going to be… I thought I was all over what was happening having planned our elopement together. We had organised wedding rings to exchange during the ceremony and back-up Pounamu (greenstone) rings too. 

What I didn’t know was that John had secretly been organising an engagement ring all along. We started our trip to Paris, where John and my father ran the Paris Marathon together. On our second night there, instead of going for dinner with some friends who had travelled over from London to see us, John surprised me with a dinner up the Eiffel Tower. As if that wasn’t already romantic enough, John got down on one knee to officially ask me to marry him! The whole restaurant erupted in applause, and a lot of champagne was consumed that night! This made for a pretty short engagement, five days to be exact! 

What was one element you were happy to splurge on?

The photography. Being an elopement, our main focus was to have fun and enjoy the moments of exploring a new city. We knew we needed the right person who would understand our vision and capture it perfectly for us to be able to look back on for years to come. That’s where our amazing planner and photographer, Patrizia, came in! We were so lucky to have found her; she made the whole day effortless and fun, and we couldn’t be happier with our photos now. 

She lives between Spain and Italy but we were lucky enough to meet in New Zealand before our big day while she was over on holiday and have since met up in Florence to reminisce on elopement.

Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?

We actually can’t think of anything. 

The day started early, about 0530, to beat the crowds of tourists, but everything went smoothly and was just so much fun. 

We’re both quite relaxed people so we were happy to go with the flow of the day, enjoying moments along the way like stopping for breakfast, sharing a churros, and discovering our new favourite drink Tinto De Verano (red wine served over ice topped with lemon soda). 

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story? The history of the ceremony dress…

Anna – I didn’t have a clear vision of what I wanted to wear on the day. I went back and forth with the idea of wearing a bridal gown or a white/cream dress that was a little more casual. 

I went to some bridal shops to try on some gowns, which helped me make up my mind… go all out because why not! 

I totally underestimated the time it takes to choose, order and alter a gown in my casualness which narrowed down my options but I knew what style I wanted. 

I ended up getting a Trish Peng gown and had a blouse made to go with it to give me two different looks. 

Seville, being the Flamenco capital of Spain, I had so many comments on my dress from locals who loved the style as it reminded them of Flamenco dancers.

The pearl bag and Prada sunglasses added a fun touch.

John – I wanted a sleek, smart, classic look, so I went with a black suit, white shirt and bow tie. I also wanted something that represented my Maori culture. When we picked up our backup Pounamu (greenstone) rings, I saw a raw piece of Pounamu that I loved. Over the following weeks, I carved the stone into the shape of a pocket square that I was able to wear on the day and have since made into a necklace.