Paige + Chris by Keryn Sweeney

We wanted to focus on tonal elements, keeping everything warm and soft.

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

Chris owns a software company, and Paige is a senior leader in a global organisation. Our minds work very differently, which Paige likes to say makes us formidable opponents to any challenge we face. Our differences fill in the gaps for each other, and that works so well when we put our minds to something together. We work so hard on shared dreams, and we have so much fun together while doing it.

In our day-to-day existence, we are very similar. We like the same things, love to eat a lot of Japanese food, Paige loves to cook, and Chris loves to eat what she cooks! We go on walks in the evening with our dog, Doug. We love to renovate and are currently working on our second home renovation. We work on our house together and spend a lot of time talking about planning what we want to do to the house. We love entertaining with our friends and family. We are both extroverts and love getting up and doing karaoke together or just dancing in the lounge, the two of us. The quiet moments together are just as fun as the loud ones.

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

We met through friends at a party. However, we didn’t really speak to one another at the first meeting as it was loud and late! It wasn’t until Paige was at an event with a mutual friend of ours who turned to Paige out of the blue and said “oh my goodness, I’ve just realised you should be with Chris Wiggins!!! You two are so similar – how have a not realised this before!” this friend then proceeded to invite him over to have some drinks with us all (without Paige knowing) and the rest came so easily… Paige thought Chris was so vibrant, uninhibited, kind, warm, handsome and confident. While Chris thought Paige was equally uninhibited, fun, energetic, and intelligent and described her as smoking hot to friends the next day. We have a lot to thank our friend for (thank you, Isabella!)

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).

It all worked together so well. The day we ventured out to look at the McCallum Residence as our venue, we were in awe. We loved the idea that we could be there the whole weekend with our bridal party and families and make the wedding feel like a destination wedding without having to go overseas – really making the most of the experience together. We got in the car, and Chris immediately turned to Paige and said, “Well, I guess that is our venue then.” We both felt it was the most stunning venue and fitted what we wanted entirely. The Residence itself was just incredible, the grounds, the private beach were gorgeous, but it was mostly the greenery that Paige really fell in love with. Paige knew it would work perfectly with the opulence of the drapery in the marquee.

Drapery was an element we really wanted and felt had moved into a really stunning place over the last few years. We wanted to focus on tonal elements, keeping everything warm and soft, rather than anything too stark, black or white. So went for a cream drape against tones of cream, deep crimson red and very light blush florals. This worked so well with our rich dark brown bridesmaids’ dresses and the Man of Honour’s matching Brown suit!

What did you enjoy most about the planning process, and do you have any tips for couples starting their wedding planning journey?

At first, we weren’t in love with the idea of planning a wedding. We wanted to fly to Italy and get married in a very small setting – even just the two of us! We were well down the path of doing this. It wasn’t until Paige’s best friend and Man of Honour said to her over dinner on a Saturday, “Well, we will be going too; there is no way you are doing it without us”, that we just couldn’t shake the feeling that we had to have a proper wedding to share with everyone we love so much. We suddenly realised we would deprive ourselves of something so special, as well as the fact that it didn’t even make sense for us! People were shocked that we wouldn’t want the big party, as that is who we are!

So, Paige woke up the day after that was said and reached out to who would soon become our wedding planner and celebrant (Lisa Langsford), with Love Wedding and Events. We couldn’t believe it, but she responded within an hour on a Sunday, and by Monday, we were sitting down to plan together. We knew then that this was the right direction for us.

We loved the process once we got started, and we loved moving quickly! What we loved the most about the process itself is that even though we now had a shorter lead time (4.5 months), as we still wanted to get married within the year, all of the vendors we wanted were available. Our advice would be to lock them in as quickly as you can. Paige was so afraid of not being able to work with the vendors we wanted. So, research, find the people that bring you joy and go for it as soon as you are able.

Tell us about your vendors. Were there any standout suppliers you would like to make special mention of?

All of our vendors were spectacular. Just know each person we worked with was absolutely knockout.

Lisa Langsford, our wedding planner (With Love Weddings and Events), we have to give so much thanks to her. She was even mentioned in Chris’s speech on the day, because we grew to adore her so much! We will never get over how easy she made the process. Every single step of the way, she was there by our sides, every text, call, Zoom, and decision. She understood our vision very quickly and then just worked tirelessly to help make it happen. Paige cannot stress the benefit of a planner enough, and Lisa is one of a kind. We would recommend her over and over again.

Paige loved the fact that by having a planner, she knew she wasn’t missing anything or forgetting to think of something that would become very important and be too late to do anything about. Paige thinks wedding planners are money very well spent and actually could end up saving you money (as they know things we just don’t), as well as so much time, in the end.

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

Paige had fallen in love with the idea of a lace gown and was going to start her hunt with that in mind. Paige started at Trish Peng with Trish herself. Trish immediately asked if she could grab a couple of dresses from her new collection (which at the time had not been released yet) for Paige to try. The very first dress she suggested, and actually the first dress Paige even tried on, ended up being the one. Paige found that the ease and confidence she got working with Trish was just so calming that she was so drawn to her. As well as the dress itself. It was so different to what Paige had thought (no lace!), but there was this gorgeous richness to the fabric that Paige couldn’t get past. Paige really wanted a second mini dress to dance in; she had a vision in mind, and over a rainy Friday afternoon in Trish’s shop, they decided on fabrics together. Trish sketched it right then and there, and it turned out better than the vision!

The really fantastic thing is that Trish’s husband owns T.Begg Tailoring, which means he could also do Chris’s suit. Chris got to choose the linings, fabrics and even embroidered our wedding date into the internal pocket. It was an amazing process for him to be involved in. The other special thing was that Trish and Tim worked together to take a piece of Paige’s dress fabric and make that Chris’ pocket square – which he wasn’t allowed to see until the day, so that he didn’t have a clue about the type of fabric Paige had gone with!

Tell us about your wedding and engagement rings.

Paige had been sending Chris the same engagement ring design from Culet Jewellery in Herne Bay, Auckland, for years. She was set on a particular design. Chris started working with Scott, the owner of Culet and knew (pretty well by this point) the right design to go with. There was just a level of finesse that Scott at Culet has with his designs that you don’t see everywhere. He thinks of everything. The engagement ring is incredible – a six-prong platinum solitaire with shoulder diamonds down the sides. Simple but really not simple at all – the finished product blew Paige’s mind.

Wedding rings were easy, as we knew we wanted to work with Scott on those, too. He designed an oval diamond eternity band to go with Paige’s engagement ring. Giving contrast to the band in the engagement ring itself. Chris wanted something simple and yellow gold. Scott designed a cigar-style ring with rounded edges to keep it more classic than modern. We love jewellery, so this was a super important part for us.

What were 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?).

The venue was really important to us. It was really important to have the experience with our whole family and friends at the venue over the entire weekend. We loved that we could look after them and give back for the amount of time and effort everyone had put into supporting us. The McCallum Residence has a butler and full staff there the whole weekend, and this makes it just incredible for you and your families, as they look after you all the entire time. Not to mention, how stunning it was waking up and looking out over the grounds to the water from the bedroom while the marquee was being set up before Paige’s eyes is a moment she will never forget. The boys being able to stay and get ready at the other house was another huge benefit, so it was worth booking that too.

The other thing was photography and videography. We had put so much into the day, we wanted to document it fully and completely, so that we could relive it forever. We absolutely got that with Keryn (Keryn Sweeny) and Andy (Grey Area Productions), as well as our content creator Angela (Your Moments). They were all such fun parts of our day, and we treasure every moment they each captured from different angles.

Was there a favourite moment (or two) that you will treasure always?

The vows were such an incredible time. We both felt a massive sense of calm and peace. That flowed into the signing, and the moment we got just the two of us at the signing table to take it all in. The photographs Keryn captured at that point are so special because they really show the happiness we are both feeling.

The second thing for us would have to be the speeches. We still cannot get over every single sentence in each person’s speech. The effort people we love went to for us makes us both cry even now, and we don’t think there was a dry eye in the room throughout the speeches. We really made sure we had the time to sit and absorb them without trying to rush off too much for photos, and we are so glad we did. You don’t often get to hear from your loved ones how much they love you in a forum like that, and we will never forget it.

What does being married mean to you, and are there any special rituals you have that you would like to share?

We think for us, we love the unity we feel being married to one another – we love feeling like a little unit, and although we are not super traditional, Paige taking Chris’s last name was nice for that reason too.

We have a lot of rituals that we have always done. A funny one, but one that really works for us is to shower together at the end of the day. We literally treat it as a business meeting/debrief. We have always done it, and we use the time to talk about the day and decompress before getting into cooking dinner, etc. We love it because it gives us concentrated time without distractions, just the two of us.