Dave + Alyssa by Haute Weddings - Together Journal

Next thing I know, he’s in the bathroom with my big wedding dress on the floor, carefully pouring cold water on it — the funniest sight! His hard work paid off and the blood came out completely. I’m very pleased this one happened at the end of the night!

Alyssa ——Dave is from the UK and I’m from New Zealand. We’re renovating a Victorian terrace in East London together. After hours of chatting on a dating app, we met for our first date four years ago. It was after work at a West End bar where the waiters served drinks and then jumped up on tables to break out in song. It was the best (and last) first date both of us ever had.

Dave visited New Zealand for the first time in 2019. We have a holiday home in Whangamatā and it’s one of my favourite places in the world. Dave surprised me by coming on one of my daily morning swims and proposing on the beach at 7am. A resident in one of the beachfront houses came down and popped a bottle of champagne for us. The bubbles kept flowing from then on!

Dave got measured up for his tux at Crane Brothers in 2019 and then had to wait more than two years to wear it. He just managed to squeeze into it after a post-lockdown diet! My dress was a timeless look I fell in love with. For my second look, I wanted something super fun and what could be more fun than a mini dress with ostrich feathers added by my mum?

Our wedding looked nothing like the wedding we’d planned before Covid, but it was just perfect. We held our ceremony at a church in Clevedon. My family had donated the land to the church in the mid 1800s, so it’s rooted in family history and was the aisle I’d pictured myself walking down when I was a girl. The vision was an elevated garden party with oysters, champagne, and lots of colour.

The Farmhouse Deli provided us with a gorgeous garden in the middle of Clevedon’s stunning surroundings. I wanted guests to turn up to the remote venue and be surprised by the gorgeous set-up, and then listen to jazz, drink champagne and graze their way through the afternoon. We finished with our wedding cake and a cart of artisanal ice creams. We had our evening meal with immediate family and a few close friends at the private venue at Hotel Britomart, which has a sophisticated vibe that was perfect.

We were staying at the hotel’s Poraenui Suite, so we ended up having a bit of an afterparty in the room, with dancing on the terrace next to the open fire. When we were getting ready for bed, Dave noticed a couple of stains on the front of my dress and he had something all over his tuxedo shirt, too. We realised he’d cut his hand and Dave panicked about the wedding dress and started googling what to do. Next thing I know, he’s in the bathroom with my big wedding dress on the floor, carefully pouring cold water on it — the funniest sight! His hard work paid off and the blood came out completely. I’m very pleased this one happened at the end of the night!