Photography

I looked ahead and Tamehana popped out from the bush and surprised me. I had no idea he was in Queenstown. He proposed to me on the waterfront, and it was such a beautiful evening.

One of our long tables had table names in the wrong order which I noticed halfway through the reception but all of my family said they loved being mingled in rather than sitting across from their partners so it worked out in the end anyway!

When Gerrick gave his speech at Pilkingtons both boys came up and sat with me, he addressed us together and there wasn’t a dry eye in the entire venue. Having them with us made the day just that much more special and unique.

We knew when we started planning big things together like the house and plans of moving overseas. Getting excited about these things and only seeing each other in our future plans and goals made it more certain that we wanted to be together forever.

Over time, it became clear that she was someone I could trust and let my walls down with. To quote my wedding vows, which I stole from a James Arthur song, she met me in the dark, she lit me up.

My car was not starting when we were leaving from the Airbnb to go to the venue. I wish I had a photo but there was me in my beautiful dress jump starting the car.

He took me to a hill near a forest in Halle and sang me a song I love (Run Away by Ben Platt) and changed the lyrics a bit to fit our love story, although I didn’t realise this at the time because I was too busy crying.

He brought out the big guns with his best 16-year-old pick-up line: “Has anyone ever told you that you have the most beautiful eyes?” A few weeks and several dates later, we were boyfriend and girlfriend, and obsessed with each other.