Becca and James

Our Love Story

James and I met when we were both studying design at CPIT. We were in separate courses but our mutual friend Gareth introduced us. Over the year we caught each other's eyes throughout the corridors and started chatting away at parties. James asked me out on a date after a few months of playing it very cool and we spent our first date at the art gallery and eating souvlaki! A few weeks passed and James asked me to be his girlfriend on the dance floor at Base nightclub. Fast forward 10 years and we're married! We've had so many glorious years together exploring the world, getting creative, socialising up a storm and eating burgers.

I had a sneaky suspicion that James would propose on one of our trips to Sydney but as he was showing no sign of being nervous it went to the back of my mind - until I spied a bunch of envelopes stuffed in James's pockets! I didn't lead on that I'd seen them and we went out shopping. I was looking through clothes at Princess Highway and the shop assistant passed me my first envelope. She looked at me very strangely when I said that I had to leave and go on a scavenger hunt! Each envelope contained a cryptic question that I needed to answer in order to go to the next location. The clues took us all over the city as well as a trip down memory lane. We visited the art gallery and had souvlaki for lunch just like on our first date, we went and found jellyfish in Darling Harbour like we did a few years prior and had incredible drinks and tapas at Donny's Bar which is one of our favourite places in Manly. We ended the day with a romantic stroll down Manly Beach and once we arrived at the cliff face overlooking the beach James got down on one knee and popped the question. I of course said yes! We spent the rest of the week in Sydney in such a love bubble.

Our Wedding Planning

We knew that for our wedding to be a hit we wanted great food, a great venue and great people! We love Christchurch and knew that we wanted to celebrate in our home town, supporting local suppliers and vendors. It was great to be able to share our enthusiasm with our guests and get married in one of our favourite spots.

Planning was both an enjoyable and incredibly overwhelming experience. There are so many incredible ways to celebrate and it can be quite difficult to make a decision on which direction would be best. There are also many variables to consider and the eye is always on the budget. We booked in a few one-hour sessions with Lucy during the planning stages and handed over the coordination to Lucy three months before our wedding day. Our meetings with Lucy immediately took the pressure off and she was able to answer all of our questions on the spot. While we still had a few things to do three months before our wedding it was such a relief to see the inbox go quiet. It felt so great to pass our plans over to safe hands and not have to worry about all of the logistics.

Our Wedding Day

We started our day with a first look at my mums’ house. Once we had a moment together we shared a glass of bubbles with our immediate family. It was such a highlight to spend time with everyone before heading to the ceremony. It was a great way to calm nerves and share the excitement! After bubbles, we jumped in our chauffeured Kombi van and headed to enjoy the beautiful spring day in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens with our best man Gareth, his lovely partner Maddie, my sister/bridesmaid Rachel and her partner Neil. After our formal shots, we jumped back in the Kombi and headed to our ceremony at The Welder Events Space. James and Gareth were driven into the ceremony in the Kombi to the song The boys are back in town by Thin Lizzy and Rachel and I entered soon after to Woman by Wolf Mother. We had so much fun with our entrances and credit our friend James Barron for the amazing song choices.

The ceremony was definitely a highlight of our day. We've been together so long and although we felt we were already committed there was something so nice about sharing our vows and acknowledging our commitment in front of our loved ones.

Styling within the space was minimal with a complete focus on the beautiful floral installation created by Bunch Floral and custom circular stage supplied by The Hirer.

We walked out of the ceremony to Make it wit chu by Queens of the Stoneage and jumped straight into the party! The Welder team put out some incredible platters and canapés made their way around the room. There was such a buzz in the room and it was such an incredible way to celebrate the ceremony.

After about an hour we moved the party into the indoor courtyard. This gave everyone a chance to sit, explore a new space in the venue and continue to eat plenty of canapés.

Guests enjoyed souvlaki as they re-entered the events space and eyed up the mini cake display that Full Time Tart just put out on display. Neil kickstarted the formalities and my beautiful sister Rachel and our exuberant best man Gareth got up on stage and delivered such incredible speeches full of joy and energy.

Following the speeches and cake cutting, DJ Paul McKessar got the dancing started. We requested a few songs but mainly left it up to Paul to work his magic. Paul had everyone up dancing and managed to keep the energy levels up so high, with the circular stage quickly becoming a dance podium!

The night wound down around midnight and James and I walked to The Muse Hotel to stay the night. The Muse was beautiful and such a great place to relax after our big day.

Our Advice

Enjoy the planning as much as possible and if you can put the coordination of the day into safe hands like Lucy’s we would highly recommend it. Your wedding can also be as unique as you are. Don’t feel restricted by trends, old traditions or opinions. Plan a day that you will love and enjoy every moment of it!

Stand out vendors and why?

We were so thrilled with all of our vendors! They made such a great team and pulled together an incredible day for us.

The Welder team went above and beyond to throw us an amazing party. They were full of enthusiasm and ideas and brought all of our visions to life. We're still getting rave reviews about the food and we're receiving so many compliments about how cool the venue was!

Alicia of Bunch Floral created this incredible floral installation that hung above us during the ceremony, speeches, cake cutting and dance floor! It was such a beautiful statement and completely transformed the space. Alicia also created two stunning bouquets for Rachel & me and pins for James & Gareth. She took our brief and turned it into something so extraordinary.

Our photographer, Sophie Isabella is such a star! Sophie is incredibly talented and an absolute pleasure to work with. She has such great energy.

Sophie from Full Time Tart is an absolute joy and makes the most wonderful cake and desserts. She was so great to work with during the planning stages and delivered the most amazing desserts on the Wedding day.

Our Vendors

Venue + Catering | The Welder Events Space

Photographer | Sophie Isabella

Videographer | Ella Waswo

Stylist | Sophie - The Welder, Lucy - Christchurch Weddings

Furniture Hire | The Hirer

Planner | Lucy - Christchurch Weddings

Florals | Bunch Floral

Celebrant | Brooke Bayliss-Brown

Hair | Graceful Hair Art

Makeup | Kasia Stanicich

Dress | Karen Willis Holmes - Paperswan Bride