DANIELLE + CAMPBELL by Ana Galloway - Together Journal

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love, what is unique about you and your relationship:

Living abroad has harnessed our adventurous side, seen our relationship take some big jumps and encouraged us to do things in our own unique way. 7 years ago we fell in love and after dating for only a few months, we were already living together in the UK and travelling the globe whenever we could.

Surrounded by amazing friends and everything London had to offer, life couldn’t get much better. It was at this point, due to visa issues, our time together and the incredible life we were building was about to come crashing down. Instead of letting go of each other, we decided to do something we never imagined. We secretly got married! We told no one, not even family or close friends… and somehow kept our secret for 6 years!

Looking back, we love our romantic, spontaneous and whirlwind story. It’s the mindset and approach we want to keep embracing in life, often taking the fun route instead of the safest. Our relationship has been set around exploring different places, cultures and sharing those experiences with so many people. Though living away from home isn’t easy, it highlights to us the importance of friends and family. It makes us cherish every moment we get with the ones we love. We never take that for granted, it’s our greatest asset and we do our best to show the people around us how much we value them.

Tell us about your special day, was there a specific theme or style? Tell us a little about the setting, the styling and some of your favourite details:

Rarely do we get the chance to bring all our loved ones together. So when it came to our official wedding, we wanted to hero that. So this impacted most of the decisions we made. After getting engaged in St Emilion, Bordeaux, we always dreamed of a vineyard wedding. Martinborough was already our favourite spot to visit in NZ, plus it seemed like the perfect location to reflect our love for European vineyards. The boutique streets, surrounding vineyards, hidden gems and stunning scenery, it ticked everything on our list. We love a destination wedding and for us, it meant not investing as much on the wedding day itself, instead, we focused on various events across the 3 days. Drawing inspiration from some of our favourite times together. The weekend consisted of golf tournaments, bistro meetups, a wine tour on bikes and a secret ‘Vineyard En Blanc’ style party, all before the big day. With Cam’s experience in events and food markets, we managed to create an experience that saw us work with 3 venues, 2 vineyards, 7 local food traders/restaurants and even a doughnut and gelato cart. A big highlight was having our favourite Mexican dishes from Mesita Wine Bar after the ceremony, they quickly became our favourite Martinborough local and even helped us source the best musician for the wedding!

Tell us about your main outfits:

The day before our wedding we wanted to do something special for our guests. We attended ‘Diner En Blanc’ a few years ago in Europe and wanted to create a similar, fun vibe. So at our ‘Vineyard En Blanc’ event (at a secret location), all our guests wore all white and the décor/styling matched. Everyone looked amazing and it was an incredible day and evening. On the actual wedding day, our beautiful bridesmaid’s wore NZ designer Céline Rita. I wore a Sassi Holford dress and a Céline Rita dress at the reception, later in the evening. The men all looked very suave in black French Connection suits and bowties, these were individually altered and paired with loafers to create a French summer look.

What were some of the most memorable/unique moments from the day?

There were so many special moments over the whole weekend. We were so overwhelmed with all the love and effort from our friends and families. We divided the speeches over the two nights which allowed us to involve more of our close friends. Our MC’s were incredible, they lead the charge and created an amazing atmosphere, which everyone felt. The most memorable moment has to be the final speech on the wedding day when we announced that it was actually our 6 year wedding anniversary, that was pretty priceless, the ultimate mic drop moment! There were some hilarious reactions and it was a really fun way to end the best weekend. Thankfully our incredible photographer, Ana, captured our entire weekend so beautifully, we love reliving all the moments.

Any advice for other couples planning to spend the rest of their lives together?

Well, being secretly married for 6 years… maybe we do have some unique advice? What is clear to us is that it’s between the two of you, often when you think about marriage, you think about that pinnacle wedding day, but you realise pretty quickly a marriage is building a life together not just a day. We always wanted a wedding to celebrate with all the people we love the most in the world. In saying that, our secret £100 wedding was just between us and in some ways just as special to us because it represents how we worked so hard to have the relationship we do. We also placed a big importance on investing our money on fun alternatives rather than big elaborate styling. We wanted to fund the weekend ourselves and to do that we had to be creative with our priorities. We believe you should look back at your wedding and remember the funny speeches, the brilliant dance floor, and the warmth and love you felt above anything else.

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