Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love…
We live on the wild west coast of northland where we recently brought our first home together. I’m a Diesel mechanic and Katie works as admin, and is a qualified chef, which is a great bonus.
We have a beautiful and firey 7 year old daughter Faye, she was the flower girl at our wedding. We both grew up in northland and came to love the coastal beaches and bush scenery which influenced our wedding quite a lot.
We are both into the outdoors as much we can with myself being an avid hunter and 4wd enthusiast which Katie enjoys also enjoys along with her horse riding. We both enjoy exploring new places and learning the local history.
How/where/when did you meet – and what were your first impressions?
Though we were both family friends growing up we were actually set up by my brother and his fiancee who was Katies close friend, they both thought they could play at cupid and reintroduced us at a dinner where we instantly felt a connection, and we started dating not long after. Sean was so sweet and kind and that was what initially drew me towards him, I think the last time I had seen him he was 13 so it was a massive change seeing this handsome gentleman man he had turned into, I remember making ambrosia in the kitchen and him coming in and helping me and I was just a shambles, he made me so nervous. Sean: Haha she was so nervous that she forgot to cut up the strawberries for the ambrosia and had just put them in whole. It was quite amusing seeing how flustered she got with me being around. It’s alright tho she’s a steady hand in the kitchen now!
Was there a proposal? Tell us a little about it…
Sean: So we had close friends of ours invite us on a trip to Rarotonga which we leapt at the chance to go. Initially I had not planned on proposing but once I knew we were going to Raro I couldn’t think of a better place for it! I managed to find a ring in time for the trip and headed off, although I had no plan in place for a proposal I knew that there would be plenty of opportunities.
Now Katie had no idea what was in store as I’d enlisted her best friend to make sure that she didn’t suspect anything and I left it to almost the end of trip just to make her think that it wasn’t a possibility. One evening after a game of tennis while downing a cold brew I saw the sunset about to happen so I told my mate that this was it! And took off to find katie. I took her for a walk down the beach and sat and watched the sun sinking into the ocean. I told her to close her eyes and that I’d bought her a set of earrings to replace the ones she’s lost. And you guessed it when she opened her eyes there was me with a wedding ring! In between her tears of joy I’m pretty sure she said yes. A very spontaneous proposal that turned into a super special time for both of us.
Tell us about the vision you had for the mood or style of your wedding…
We both wanted an outdoor wedding with a good amount of native backdrop so a farm or forest themed wedding was the only choice for us. The other big focus for us was that we wanted a very relaxed day with us being able to enjoy an awesome time celebrating with family and friends and eliminate as much rush and stress as we could. Katie also loves the bohemian vibe so our colours and final theme was a cross over of the two styles. We ended up finding an amazing native plot on a farm not far from us that had been used for weddings previously so worked perfectly! With a lot of hard work and help from friends and family we were able to turn a patch of beautiful native in a paddock into an amazing wedding venue that met all of our expectations and more!
Ceremony and reception location: family friends farm / Photographer: Flurogrey / Marquee: Tents and Events Kerikeri / Flora: Seans lovely sister Mikayla Bollen / Cake: Family friend, Jodi Gamble / Bride’s dress: Bank Street Bridal / Grooms Attire: Whangarei Suit Hire / Rings: Global Diamonds / Makeup: Gold Beauty Bar / Hair: friend Kimi
