Bailey + Matt by Kate Baron Photography - Together Journal

For both of us, we weren’t looking for anything serious, but soon realised after a few trips tovisit each other, we wanted to spend as much time together as possible. As we both becamemore serious in our careers, love and life, it was clear to both of uswe were a great team,and we wanted to be there for each other through it all, forever

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

We have lived in Wellington for 6 years together, after a first year of long distance. We both work in community and health related roles, and supporting our community is a passion of us both. We are both active and watch a lot of sport (one of the things that first got us talking). We have a lot of shared values and goals, although we are very much opposites. I ( Bailey) am very extroverted and a planner of everything, whereas Matt is very chill and goes with the flow.

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

We met in Dunedin while I (Bailey) was studying. I was on the University Basketball team, where one of Matt’s good friends was my coach. Matt and another friend came along to watch as they were visiting from Christchurch. That night I had a flat party and Matt came along luckily. When he saw an NFL jersey in my room, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him straight away! I obviously thought he was a bit crazy and very cute, so we didn’t talk again for another year or so as he was travelling America, and reached out as I was living at Walt Disney World in Florida at the time.

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

Matt had an idea of the ring styles I liked, so he worked with the amazing Courtney at Village Goldsmith in Wellington to make my dream engagement ring over about six months. With Matt’s shift work and my side business as a wedding celebrant, it is rare in summer for us both to have Saturday nights free, so we went to our favourite cabin in Cape Palliser (Waimeha Camping Village), where Matt proposed. It was low key and intimate and perfect. We try to go there every year to celebrate in our favourite spot.

Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding…

It took a lot of convincing to get my parents to agree to host the wedding at my (Bailey) childhood home. My parents have a vineyard in Marlborough, and the front yard is perfect for a wedding, there was no alternative in our minds!

My vision was simple, elegant and natural. I wanted to go with the beautiful greenery of the property, the symmetry of the vines, and the natural colour tones of the house and garden. So we easily went with colours of white, wood, and greenery. We had seen the tipi’s online before and thought they were exactly the vision of our day, with the colour and the wood framing.

We are so grateful for some amazing family and friends who helped out to bring our vision to life. Antique champagne flutes that were collected, flowers grown by my mum and lots of her friends, and help from so many of our friends the week of for set up.

Another really important factor was bringing my (Bailey) Māori culture into our day. Our celebrant Tane McMillan-Parata is a good friend and relation (who I was lucky enough to officiate his wedding in 2022) and brought te reo Māori into our ceremony. A vision I had for our wedding was bringing Matt into my whakapapa, and in our ceremony Tane and I had planned a surprise of gifting a pounamu taonga my grandad had given me as a physical symbol of him being welcomed to my whānau. I love how Matt is wearing it in so many of our photos.