Rebecca + Ryan by Hannah McMaster - Together Journal

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

We’ve been together almost entirely since high school, verging on half our lives. Having grown together over so many years we’re fortunate enough to share an amazing group of friends and our families know each other and get along so well.

I’m an Event Planner and with wedding planning being not an insignificant part of the events we manage, it was nice to be able take the experience I’ve drawn from so many weddings and create our day. Ryan is a Business Growth Advisor, plus is looking after our new build project.

We’ve recently relocated to Gisborne and are really enjoying our new lifestyle, one where we spend a lot of time at the beach! We both love the beach, Ryan’s a very keen surfer and the only one excited even more than the two of us by the sand and surf is our dog Roddy.

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 day was all about being stress free, personal and being able to really enjoy it. Often weddings can put a lot of pressure on the couple and their friends and family in the build up to the day so we made a real effort to avoid this. We wanted our ceremony to be intimate, having just our first family and bridal party present, both so that we could enjoy it without the pressure of a large group watching and so that we could celebrate immediately after with those closest to us. The reception therefore became more of what we think they should always be, a good party. It was less traditional and more informal with Pipi pizza on tap and only a few formalities including some well pointed speeches and an amazing cake to cut.

Our venue was the Black Barn River Room overlooking the Tuki Tuki river and across to Te Mata Peak. It’s an amazing venue and size wise it suited the number of people on our guest list. I have a few favourite suppliers that I work with and who I really wanted to use for our styling, they’re all such great people and their work’s amazing; Planit Events, Flock Events, Miss Frou Frou, Society of Loves and Pipi Pizza.

It’s hard to pick out any specific details that as our favourite as it all worked so well and looked just as we’d envisaged.

Tell us about your main outfits:

The gown that I chose was not what I initially thought I’d go for. After trying on a number of them I came back to the first one I tried. We wanted to keep both our gown and suit very clean and classic. I wore the Viola dress from Daisy by Katie Yeung, a sleek, v-shape back with mother of pearl buttons and a nice sweep train. As the temperature cooled slightly in the evening I wore a Huntley jacket by One Day Friday with CHOSEN’s signature beading on tulle, cropped and featuring statement sleeves and chiffon neck tie. Ryan’s suit was also very classic, black with silk bow tie from Crane Brothers, and a pair of single monk strap shoes from Working Style.

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

The ceremony. From arriving and walking in with my dad, seeing our beautiful family and friends, to standing there together and actually getting married! Our celebrant made it flow so nicely and and it was very ‘us’.

The entire day was just so good, from getting ready with our favourite people, right through to dancing at the end of the night, and then being able to continue celebration the following day with everyone relaxing around the pool at Black Barns Clifton Retreat, it was just a perfect couple of days.