Poppy + Cameron by Stephan & Nakita

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

Cameron and I met in 2012, We met as we both do competitive Cheerleading and have both been competing on Team New Zealand together ever since. Cheerleading is our passion and we both work teaching it and running competitions.

Cameron proposed to me when I was just 21, on our OE, under the Eiffel tower in Paris, madly in love and so excited to get home and start planning our special day.

We know so many couples who have had to cancel or postpone their weddings due to Covid, So starting to plan our wedding in the middle of 2020 to then have it go ahead at December 2020 without disruption was a huge risk, but it paid off. All of our friends and family were to happy and thankful to be attending an event such as this and we consider ourselves one of the luckiest couples out there.

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:

Our wedding was held at our family home in Whenuapai, Auckland. This was super special to our family as there has been 2 family weddings also held on the property before us, and we are hoping many more to come! This is also the home where Cameron and I have lived for many years and share so many amazing memories, we couldn’t have had our wedding at a more fitting location.

Before even starting to plan our wedding, I knew I wanted a clear marquee and lots of modern outdoor furniture to create a relaxed, winery like feel. L.L Hire helped us create exactly that! I kept the styling very minimal as I didn’t want to clutter the area and also wanted to keep things simple. We received so may compliments on the look and feel of the wedding, we couldn’t be happier!

Tell us about your main outfits:

I fell in love with my dress from Jessica Couture in Newmarket due to the detachable overskirt, create two different looks. I originally thought I wanted a very simple dress with minimal detail and defiantly no sequins, but after trying a few on, my mind completely switched.

The groom and groomsman worse beige linen to match the nude colour that came through on my dress, they also wanted something light weight for the summer heat.

Bridesmaids wore white dresses from Ruby. White is often thought to be a big no for bridesmaids, but I always knew I wanted them in this colour as it goes with the minimal, natural colour scheme and looked so great in the pictures.

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

Cameron and I both have an obsessed with the Friends tv show. So much so that our entrance song back into the reception was the friends theme song. The whole bridal party can dancing in and our guests thought it was so amazing!

We had so many compliments on our food and drink at the wedding, thanks to Little wolf catering and black pineapple cocktails. Rather than a large buffet area in which all the guest went up to get their dinner, we did sharing plates on every table so that guests did not have to get up to get food and was a point of different from the usual wedding buffet. We also had no wedding cake. Cameron and I both knew that both ourselves and our friends/family were not going to get through a whole wedding cake and thought it would be much more enjoyable to have a buffet tables of lots of little desserts such as mini cheesecakes, tarts, slices and much more. This was a huge success thanks to blue bells cakery!

Going into the day, according to the forecast we were expecting a brides worst nightmare – Rain! Especially with a large outdoor setting. However, we were super luckily in that is only rained for about 10 minutes whilst we were sitting inside for dinner. We were actually very lucky it was overcast as if it was full sunshine, our guests would have been too hot!

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

At your wedding, don’t forget to spend some time with your partner! You can often feel like you need to go talk to every guest and make conversation with everyone, but don’t forget to also make some special wedding memories the one most important person.

Photography: @stephanandnakita | Videography: BW Filmography | Ceremony and Reception location: Family Home, Whenuapai Auckland | Celebrant: Ria Vandervis | Bride’s gown: @jessicabridal | Groom’s suit: @trenery | Rings: @walkerandhall | Bridesmaid’s attire: @rubytakessnaps | Groomsmen’s attire: @trenery | Entertainment: @mixitdj.co.nz | Marquee: @llhire | Flora: @blush_flowers | Catering and Beverages: @littlewolfbite, @blackpineappleco and @bluebellscakery | Cake: @bluebellscakery | Ceremony arch and benches: @aucklandeventhire