Gaby + Dwayne by Beaux Art Co - Together Journal

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

Dwayne runs his own tennis academy and Gaby is a registered nurse working in urgent care. Covid took away one of our main loves – travel – and with it the honeymoon.

But we like to think of it as blessing in disguise as it moved forward our family plans and we now have our beautiful baby girl to soak up all the love and attention!! Still…we can’t wait for that border to open and get back overseas

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

We met on January 24, 2014, and by chance got married on the same day 6 years later! We met on a night out in town at a bar called Lenin. Dwayne: Tbh first impression was just how stunning she looked. And how different she was from anyone I’d ever met. GABY: I thought this guy is nice, he offered to buy me a drink and all I wanted was water. We went to the dairy outside and he got us a bottle each and just chatted. He was just so sweet and authentic.

When did you first realise that this was someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with?

Dwayne: Pretty early on. Gaby was totally different. Completely genuine and earnest. Always willing to give anything and everything a go. She was so warm with this huge zest for life. I’m not someone who stops to think and evaluate but I just always felt Gaby was who I was meant to be with. Gaby: when I got my first job as a nurse. I just felt it was such an exciting chapter and I was thrilled to share that with him and that feeling never went away. I realised then he was always the first person I wanted to share the best and even the hardest news with.

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

Dwayne proposed on a trip to Wanaka I planned for us so it was absolutely unexpected!

I had finished a full week of nights, then flew down with Dwayne, and had been really tired from the week. So I was sleeping late afternoon and he was desperately trying to get me out of bed. He said his parents were waiting at the top of mount iron as they had to sort the irrigation and they will wait for us up there and go to the rodeo. He asked me to shower and dress nice to which I said no. I thought a sports bra and tights were sufficient

We walked to the top of Mount Iron, very quietly as I was still half asleep and grumpy from being sleepy. We stopped at a random view point, and he dropped to one knee and proposed. I was so shocked I couldn’t give a proper yes and of course was so guilty for being so difficult! He got half a yes verbally, but I was was whole heartedly accepting. His parents were such legends, they hid in the bushes and took photos.

Tell us about your main outfits, what was unique, is there a story?

Gaby’s mother and grandmother were super excited about the dress so it was really cool the 3 of them were able to hunt for it together in Manila. They found one off the rack that fit perfectly with no adjustments needed, and bought a year out from the wedding. Dwayne’s was quite simple driven from the boys dreading having to shop. But it was a great excuse for the boys to get together.

What was one element you were happy to splurge on?

Our friends and family! There wasn’t one element we excessively splurged on but having a destination wedding where the majority of people flew in from all over NZ and around the world – especially Gaby’s family from the Philippines and USA. To be able to show off Central Otago – where Dwayne’s family is all from, have the ceremony at the church where his parents were married then onto the epic Corbridge Woolshed – was important to us. So to repay that we wanted to make sure the key ingredients for a great party – food, booze and the band – were plentiful and top notch!