I wanted it to be simple, clean and laid back.
Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…
We are both lawyers (we know, we know). We love travelling, and have lived and worked so far in Auckland, Sydney and London. We have been to countless countries together and have more lined up for this year – which is the best thing about living in Europe now. We are both avid relaxers and think a good book on a beach holiday is one of life’s best offerings.
Both of us claim to be the funniest people we know, and while it’s obviously only true for me, we love inside jokes and nonsense conversations with friends. The best moments in life are when you are silent-laughter-catatonic over a joke that would make no sense to anyone else. We often go away on group trips with our friends and have for years now, which is where I find the silliness really comes out – something about being on holiday in a new place brings back that kid-like feeling of no rules. We wanted to carry on the tradition of going away for big group trips together, which is why we spent a whole week on our chosen tiny island in Greece with our friends and family. We anchored the week around some key events in a formal welcome dinner, a day out at sea, and a day after brunch, and it really did feel like one big group holiday – especially because we ended up meeting up for drinks or dinner with nearly the entire wedding guest list nearly every night!
How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?
We met in our first year of University at the University of Otago – we were in the same house in the same Hall of Residence. We became friendly quickly and even lived together in our second year. However, as is the cliché, a group of friends going into a flat in the second year doesn’t come out intact. I had James blocked on all social media for a solid year after that flat until he apologised in our fourth year, and we quickly became closer than ever. Not so much that we were receptive to our friends teasing us about being a couple however – we didn’t start dating until a year and a half after we reconnected.
As for first impressions, I thought James was loud, and he thought I was shy. He’s definitely still loud, but I’m not sure anyone would describe me as shy! I admittedly did have a bit of a crush on James in the very beginning, and he has since told me that he had tried to flirt and I simply wasn’t picking up what he was putting down…
When all is said and done though, I think our five (ish) years of friendship before we ever turned into something more has given us the solid foundation that our relationship stands on today. We are always laughing together and we can still talk for hours without running out of things to say. I think everyone should marry their best friend.
When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?
I don’t think either of us had a particular moment. I think it was an unspoken understanding from the very beginning of our relationship as a couple. That being said, when we initially started dating, James had a job lined up at a law firm in Dunedin the following year while I was heading to Auckland to begin my career. For those first six months of dating, during our final two semesters at University, we were both pretending that it was less serious than it was, much to the annoyance of our friends. We never really had a conversation about whether we were official or if we would be doing long-distance come the following year – we both just seemed to understand that it would.
When we got engaged in 2022, my ring had already started to become popular (a solitaire oval on a thin gold band) – and has obviously stayed that way ever since. I recall hunting for evidence that I had liked the style since before it was trending and found an identical photo I had sent James in 2018 of an engagement ring, just in case, for those playing along at home – less than a year after we started dating. So I like to think that we both always knew, even with the months of being ‘just friends who kiss sometimes’, that so annoyed our friends.
Tell us about the vision you had for the mood and style of your wedding. (theme, key styling elements, florals, colour palettes etc.).
I wanted it to be simple, clean and laid back. I get overwhelmed easily with choice but also visual clutter, and I knew one way to be sure I would feel peaceful on the day would be to predominately be surrounded by white. However, I am a sucker for trends, and I fell in love with the butter yellow of 2024, so we added some butter yellow elements throughout the florals and the bridal party.
More encompassing than a colour theme, we wanted it to feel like a holiday – to really lean into the surrounding scenery and encompass that we were on a tiny Greek island with no one else but the locals. We didn’t want anything to feel too fussy or too perfect. We wanted it to feel like us. We added in some handmade elements like dinner napkins embroidered by hand by me with all of our guests’ names to include a personal touch, and we worked closely with our celebrant, Elizabeth, to make sure that the ceremony was perfect for our personalities. We wanted it to be fun and joyful, so we included ‘reverse vows’, where each of James and I wrote three vows for the other to read for the first time (out loud!) while we were exchanging rings. We had so many people tell us that it was hilarious and such a fun element to include.
What styling and visual elements worked best for you? (could be things, the florals, particular hire products or your marquee etc., something the stylist created or simply just the scenic beauty of your location or the existing design of your venue).
The pool was a huge focus for us. James, very early on in the process, decided that he wanted there to be floral installations floating in the infinity pool. We loved the view of the infinity pool looking out over the bay, with the blues melting into each other – it was the most amazing view, like nothing I’ve ever seen, particularly when we got the most spectacular sunset on our wedding evening. It remains strange for us on this side of the world to not have pool fencing regulations like we do in Aotearoa but it meant the visual effect of the pool was everything we dreamed of on the day.
We held the ceremony in front of the infinity pool, and then had cocktails around it. Dinner was off to the side of the patio, and then that same area turned into a dance floor – but it wasn’t long until the boys were cooling off from the heat in the pool while our harried wedding planner scooped out the floating floral installations before someone (or the flowers!) was injured.
It was also the focus for the day after brunch where everyone came back up to the villa to spend a few hours in the pool and in the sun with leftovers and a barbeque. I think the blues and greens of the landscape, together with our largely clean white florals and linens, was such a perfect encapsulation of the Greek islands, and that’s what made it feel really special.
What did you enjoy most about the planning process and do you have any tips for couples starting their wedding planning journey?
My bridesmaid’s outfits were when it started to feel real for me. I knew I wanted mismatched neutrals, so we ordered some dresses from some bridesmaid-specific stores in London with the idea of having the same colour and fabric but different styles. None of them felt right at all – too ‘bridesmaid’ (an impossible ick to explain to James).
We had told Claire, our wedding planner, a completely different colour scheme, but one night, it was like a bolt of clarity that I needed there to be yellow included, and I wanted the girls completely mismatched. I didn’t want the fabric to be the same, I didn’t want the colours to be the same – I wanted no cohesion except for the vibe of the overall palette.
While Claire and my bridesmaids immediately jumped on board with me, the next worry was that as one of my bridesmaids was in London, another in New Zealand, my Maid of Honour in Melbourne, and the last in-between Sydney, the Philippines and then moving to Spain, we wouldn’t be able to see the bridesmaids outfits together until the day before the wedding.
Of course, they were absolutely perfect, individually and together.
My main tip is – trust your gut. You don’t have to do something just because the internet says you need to. If you want to do something different, you can make it happen. And you can change your mind! Don’t fall into the sunk-cost theory – if you aren’t loving something, change it!
Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?
I had no idea what I wanted in a wedding dress except for a vague idea that I wanted a ballgown – but trying a few of them on, I found that they were immediately so heavy and overstimulating to wear.
Grace Loves Lace was the third bridal store I had been to, and I originally tried on the Olive dress with white lining. I loved the back but wasn’t sold – then my stylist put me in the version with Chai lining, and I was immediately in love. It was stretchy lace, and it was the most comfortable dress I had tried on. But it wasn’t a ballgown, and it had long sleeves – and I was getting married on an Ionian island! When I went back to Grace Loves Lace to put Olive on twice more and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, I realised my decision had already been made.
The initial idea was for James to wear a beige linen suit, but he had worn one for our engagement party, and I thought he should have something completely different to anything else he owned. We decided to get a double-breasted suit jacket custom-made at SuitSupply and for him to wear white trousers instead of a matching suit. We had his trousers made extra wide, and he also wore an oversized bow tie. I loved his look – something about a double-breasted jacket just feels so classy and is different from his daily work suits.
What was one, or two elements that were most important to you both that you were happy to spend a little more on? (food, photography, florals, the venue, your outfits?).
It was super important to us to splurge on food and drinks, and the videography. We both love Greek food, and we knew we wanted to showcase the very best of it to our friends and family. We also knew we wanted a few different cocktails – frozen and spicy margaritas at cocktail hour and an espresso margherita after dinner were musts.
We also knew we wanted a videographer to capture the day. As everyone says, the day goes by in a blur. We knew we would want it immortalised – it’s only been three months now so many small details are already slipping our minds. I am so glad we will have a gorgeous video to relive the day for years to come and be able to rewatch speeches from our friends and family, and Nana Hope’s reading during the ceremony.
One final splurge was extra administrative fees – we wanted the same last name, but rather than one of us taking the other’s, we decided to take a few letters from each side of our families and create our own new last name. Because of this, James had to change his name legally via deed poll, which was tricky and expensive from overseas and resulted in the need to order a last minute urgent passport before we left the country. But it was so worth it, and we had nothing but positive reactions from friends and family (although a few raised eyebrows for James in the conservative legal world).
Did anything happen on your wedding day that you laugh about in hindsight (even if it was stressful at the time)?
There was really nothing that went wrong on the day! I’m generally quite an anxious person, and so I thought the week and the day of the wedding, I would be a ball of nerves, but I spent the entire week almost preternaturally calm – almost everyone commented on it. I was just so happy on the most gorgeous small island, with all of my friends – I don’t think I could have been stressed if I wanted to.
That being said, we had had perfect weather all week, with blazing sunshine (amazing for our activities during the week), but on the day of the wedding it poured all morning. Thankfully, it cleared up but it remained somewhat cloudy for the rest of the day (which the boys were grateful for in their suits). The cloud cover, however, gave us the most incredible sunset I’ve ever seen in my life. It was such a pinch me moment – it was honestly like a dream.
The only other thing that went wrong that I was had bought mesh sleeves to wear with my afterparty dress – I was so excited for them, I think they were part of my outfit change I was looking forward to the most. Come outfit change – and I completely forgot to put them on! I don’t drink, so I can’t even blame it on the bubbles going to my head – I was just so excited to get back on the dancefloor and continue dancing!
BRIDE Courtney Kinnely, @courtneyamy GROOM James Kinnely, @jamie_pw VENUE Villa Chriselia, Vathy, Meganisi, Greece, @villa_chriselia_meganisi PHOTOGRAPHER Lense2Lense Photography, @lense2lense VIDEOGRAPHER Angelos Lagos, @aggelos.logos PLANNER Claire Salisbury – Lefkas Weddings, @lefkas.weddings FLORIST Gourioti Flowers, @gouriotiflowers CELEBRANT Elizabeth Cass-Kanti, @weddingcelebrantingreece ENTERTAINMENT Kosmas Pafitis, @kosmas_pafitis CAKE Tulip – Catering Services – Lefkada SIGNAGE Signed by Stavroula, @signedby.stavroula RINGS Four Words, @fourwordsnz BRIDE’S CEREMONY & RECEPTION DRESS Olive Dress – Grace Loves Lace, @grace_loves_lace BRIDE’S CEREMONY & RECEPTION SHOE Zara, @zara BRIDE’S CEREMONY & RECEPTION ACCESSORIES Family jewellery and handmade veil BRIDE’S AFTER PARTY DRESS Primrose – Rosie Etienne Bridal, @rosieetiennebridal BRIDE’S AFTER PARTY SHOE Arizona – Birkenstock, @birkenstock BRIDE’S AFTER PARTY ACCESSORIES Tennis Bracelet – Monica Vinader, @monicavinder; Vintage beaded and faux pearl headband BRIDE’S FRAGRANCE J’adore – Dior, @dior MAKEUP Despoina Kourbei, @kourbei HAIR Effie Katsabiri, @effiekatsabiri GROOM’S CEREMONY & RECEPTION SUIT Custom Made – SuitSupply, @suitsupply GROOM’S CEREMONY & RECEPTION SHOE Custom Made in Positano, Italy GROOM’S AFTER PARTY SUIT Wax London, @waxlondonclothing GROOM’S AFTER PARTY SHOE Boston – Birkenstock, @birkenstock GROOM’S FRAGRANCE Acqua di Gio Parfum – Giorgio Armani, @giorgioarmani BRIDESMAIDS DRESSES Caitlin Crisp, @caitlincrisp; Sundays The Label, @sundaysthelabel; Club L London, @clubllondon GROOMSMEN SUIT Uniqlo, @uniqlo
