Designing Weddings That Leave a Lasting Impression
With well over a decade of experience creating some of New Zealand’s most memorable weddings and events, Claire Donaldson has become one of the country’s leading authorities on wedding styling and event design. As Founder and Creative Director of Claire Donaldson Styling, her work is recognised for its distinctive creative vision, meticulous attention to detail, and ability to transform spaces into fully considered experiences.
For Claire, styling extends far beyond how a wedding looks. Her practice brings together design, florals, furniture, lighting, stationery, bespoke builds and coordination, considering the entire journey of a celebration and how it will be experienced by both the couple and their guests.
Claire is also the published author of Creating Moments, and her work has appeared across numerous magazines and online publications. With more than a decade at the forefront of New Zealand’s wedding industry, she brings extraordinary depth of experience to her craft, along with the confidence to keep pushing creative boundaries.
For Wedding Vanguard, Together Journal speaks with Claire about how weddings have evolved, the celebrations that have stayed with her, the difference between beautiful styling and truly memorable design, and what she still dreams of creating.
You’ve spent well over a decade working at the forefront of New Zealand weddings and have seen the industry evolve enormously during that time. What have been the biggest shifts you’ve witnessed, and what do you think New Zealand does particularly well when it comes to weddings today?
Weddings have changed so much since I started. There was definitely more of a formula back then, both in how they looked and how the day ran. There were things you just did because that was what a wedding was supposed to be.
Now couples question everything a lot more, which I love. Do we actually want a seated dinner? Do we want a bridal party? Do we need a cake? Do the speeches have to happen then? There’s much more freedom to keep the traditions you love and lose the ones that don’t mean anything to you.
The design side has changed hugely too. People are much more aware of interiors, fashion, food, music and hospitality, and that has naturally found its way into weddings. There’s a much bigger appetite to do something interesting and to spend money on the things that are actually going to make a difference.
I think New Zealand does that mix really well. We can create incredibly beautiful, sophisticated weddings without them feeling stiff or too formal. There’s still a looseness to the way we celebrate here. At the end of the day people want an amazing party with all their favourite people in one place, and I don’t think that part will ever change.
With experience comes instinct. After creating so many celebrations, what do you understand about wedding design now that you perhaps didn’t when you first began, and how has your own aesthetic evolved along the way?
I think experience teaches you when to stop. When I first started, I probably thought more was more and that every little area needed something happening. Now I’m much more confident knowing when something is enough.
I can walk into a space now and pretty quickly see what it needs, but also what it doesn’t. Sometimes one really strong idea is far more powerful than ten smaller ones. I think that instinct just comes from doing it over and over again. Seeing what works, what people respond to and, probably just as importantly, what nobody notices.
My own style has definitely become stronger over the years too. I’m naturally drawn to things that feel modern, fashion-led and a little unexpected. I don’t really follow wedding trends. Obviously I’m aware of them, but I’d much rather find inspiration in fashion, interiors, art, restaurants or something I’ve seen travelling and think about how I could bring that into a wedding. I love it when couples are open to that.
I’m also much less afraid now of an idea not being for everyone. It needs to be right for the couple and right for the space. That confidence is probably the biggest thing experience has given me.
Your approach goes well beyond how a wedding looks. You consider the entire guest experience, from what people see and hear to how a space feels. When you begin designing a wedding, how do you translate a couple’s personalities and story into something that feels completely their own?
Every couple is different, so I never want to start with a set formula or a particular “Claire Donaldson look”. It has to start with them. I get to know what they like, what they definitely don’t like, how they want the day to feel and what’s actually important to them.
Then I take all of that away and start putting things together. Often it isn’t one big idea, it’s lots of smaller decisions that slowly start to connect. The venue, furniture, lighting, flowers, stationery, music, even where and how people are going to have a drink. I’m always thinking about how one part leads into the next.
I also think something can feel really personal without it being obvious. I don’t need every design decision to have a story behind it or need explaining. Sometimes it just feels right for those people, in that place, and that’s enough.
Ultimately I want their guests to walk in and think, “Of course this is their wedding.” Somehow it just feels like them.
You’ve worked on some extraordinary weddings across New Zealand, transforming everything from established venues to marquees, private homes and remote locations. Which celebrations have challenged or creatively stretched you the most, and are there particular weddings that have stayed with you long after they were over?
The weddings that stretch me the most are usually the ones where we’re starting with very little. A private property, an empty paddock, somewhere remote where absolutely everything has to be brought in. They can be incredibly challenging, but creatively they’re often my favourites because there really are no rules. You’re basically creating a venue from nothing.
I actually love the problem-solving side of those weddings. There’s always something. Access, weather, power, lighting, how we’re getting furniture in, how guests are going to move around. You can have a beautiful idea on paper, but then you have to work out how on earth you’re actually going to make it happen.
The weddings that stay with me aren’t necessarily the biggest or the most elaborate either. I generally spend well over a year working on each wedding, so by the time the day arrives I’m incredibly invested in it and in the people.
Then suddenly everything we’ve been talking about for all that time is actually happening. The space is full, the music is going, everyone has a drink in their hand and you can feel the energy of it all. I still love standing back and watching that.
If I look around and get that feeling of, “God, I’d love to be a guest here,” then I know I’ve hit the mark.
Couples now have an almost endless stream of wedding inspiration at their fingertips. How do you take inspiration and move beyond it? In your view, what separates a beautifully styled wedding from one that feels truly original?
It’s really helpful having so much inspiration at our fingertips, but I think it can also create a lot of confusion for couples. They can come to me with hundreds of images and ideas they love and sometimes, without realising it, they’re basically asking to recreate somebody else’s wedding.
That’s one of the challenges of my job. Getting them to trust me enough to move away from those images. I want to understand what they’re drawn to, but then take that and create their wedding, not a version of someone else’s.
Often the best ideas come when we stop looking at wedding inspiration altogether. I’m constantly taking things from fashion, interiors, restaurants, art, travel, even something completely random I might see during the day, and thinking about how we could use it.
For me, originality isn’t about doing something crazy just because nobody has done it before. It’s taking all those things a couple is drawn to and turning them into something that feels right for them. Usually my best work comes when a couple trusts me enough to let go a little. That’s when we can create something that really feels like their own.
I’m also incredibly invested in every wedding I do. I don’t design something and then send a team in to set it up without me. I’m there from the moment the first marquee peg goes into the ground until the last one comes out. After spending well over a year working on each wedding, I want to be there seeing every part of it come to life.
Your work brings together creativity and an enormous amount of behind-the-scenes logistics. How important is that combination, and what do you think couples sometimes underestimate about what is required to make an ambitious wedding feel completely effortless on the day?
The creative and logistical sides have to work together for me. I would never present a mood board full of things that aren’t actually achievable. I’m not going to suggest crockery we can’t get, furniture we don’t have access to or a design that simply won’t work in the space.
By the time I show an idea to a couple, I’ve already thought about how we’re going to make it happen. I’ve researched what I can get hold of, who can make something if we need it and which vendors can actually pull it off.
That definitely comes with experience. You learn what’s possible, who to call and how far you can push something while still making it work.
I think couples would be surprised by how much work goes on behind the scenes. There are so many moving parts. Deliveries, access, lighting, power, weather, timings, suppliers, set-up and pack-down. All of it has to come together.
For me, a great idea is only a great idea if we can execute it beautifully. If we’ve done our job properly, it should all feel effortless.
A significant proportion of your clients are based overseas and come to New Zealand to marry. What do you think makes New Zealand such an extraordinary destination for weddings, and how do you approach designing a celebration for a couple who may not know the location as intimately as you do?
I think New Zealand is pretty hard to beat. We have incredible landscapes, but also so many beautiful private properties and places that aren’t traditional wedding venues. You can create a wedding somewhere that guests would probably never normally get the chance to experience, and that’s pretty special.
With my overseas couples there’s definitely an extra level of trust involved. Often they’re planning from the other side of the world and they don’t know the venues, the suppliers or what’s actually available here. A big part of my job is being their eyes on the ground.
I know the suppliers, I know what we can get here and I know the realities of creating weddings in some of these locations. I can tell them where it’s worth spending money, where we can push an idea and when something simply isn’t going to work.
I also don’t think getting married here means you have to have a wedding that screams “New Zealand”. You already have this incredible location around you. Everything else should still feel like the couple.
After more than a decade of creating weddings, what haven’t you done yet? Is there a location, creative idea, collaboration or type of celebration that you would love someone to give you the freedom to create? And ultimately, what do you believe makes a wedding truly unforgettable?
There’s still so much I want to do, which is probably why I still love it after all these years. I don’t have one dream venue or one wedding sitting in my head waiting to be created. For me, it’s more about finding the right couple who trust me and give me the freedom to really run with an idea. That’s my favourite.
I’d love to do more in completely unexpected locations. Somewhere that isn’t a wedding venue at all, where we have to create everything from scratch. I love walking into a space and thinking, “How on earth are we going to turn this into a wedding?” That excites me far more than starting somewhere that already has all the answers and templates.
And I don’t think an unforgettable wedding comes down to how much you spend or how elaborate it is. It’s the atmosphere. It’s when everything comes together and the room has this incredible energy. People are comfortable, they’re having fun, they stay longer than they intended to and nobody wants the night to end.
Photographers: Sapphire Studios, @sapphirestudios___; Danelle Bohane Photography, @danellebohane; Stephan & Nakita, @stephanandnakita
For more information visit clairedonaldson.co.nz and @onelovelydaystyling
