Tyla + Ben by Sapphire Studios - Together Journal

We wanted our day to feel calm and relaxed. Our biggest priority was that it felt like a true reflection of us and our love. And that our guests had a great time.

Tyla—Ben is a photographer and graphic designer who runs his own creative agency. I work for Marle, a clothing label. We’re lucky to call Mount Maunganui home. We’re both homebodies and have spent the last six years making our home our sanctuary. We met over 10 years ago at a bar in Mount Maunganui. There was a connection from the beginning, although it took us a few years to do anything about it.

When we were in Queenstown for the half marathon, Ben said he wanted to take photos up Coronet Peak and I should have guessed something was going on as the weather was so bad, we could barely see in front of us, let alone take in the view. But I was completely surprised when he got down on one knee at the Skippers Canyon lookout. He had a full speech prepared but I was so shocked and excited, I barely let him get a word in. Ben had snuck in a bottle of champagne and since the weather was so awful, there wasn t another person in sight. I loved that we got to take in the special moment on our own, drinking champagne in the rain. Ben proposed with his Granny’s ring which was intended as a placeholder but once I put it on and it fit perfectly I knew I didn’t want to wear anything else.

We wanted our day to feel calm and relaxed. Our biggest priority was that it felt like a true reflection of us and our love. And that our guests had a great time. We both love minimal design and went with a pared back colour palette of black, ivory, beige and burgundy. This was brought to life through our stationery, flowers and a simple tablescape of ivory linen and earthy sandstone accents.

Our overall style was timeless and classic our groomsmen wore traditional tuxedos and the bridesmaids were in varying black sand washed silk silhouettes.

We knew we wanted to get married in Tauranga and Black Walnut was the only venue we looked at. We wanted the formality of a sit down dinner with our favourite people sharing a family style meal together.

I love fashion so I was always going to put a lot of thought and consideration into my bridal outfits. I had three looks, with two different dresses. My main dress was designed by Juliet Souter of Marle. I ve worked for Juliet for almost eight years and it was a joy to create my dream dress together. I wanted a short veil so bought the netting on Etsy and my mother put it together with many bobby pins. Later I changed into a Paris Georgia minidress which made dancing a lot easier. Because Ben works in the surf apparel design industry, he doesn’t wear a suit often, so he was excited to engage in the process of getting a made-to-measure suit from Crane Brothers. A nice touch was having his initials and our wedding date embroidered on the inside.