Sara and Sean's Surprise Wedding

Our Love Story

Sean and I met in 2014 when I took a room in the flat he was living in. We broke the age-old rule of “don’t screw the crew” and those flatmates are still our besties!

I am a Dietitian and founder of Your Monthly (Instagram @yourmonthly) and Sean is an Engineer. Spare time is scarce but we love hiking with our Springer Spaniel Mae and spending time with our favourite people in Christchurch. Skiing, jet boating and good coffee are also some of our favourite things.

On the hiking front, Sean suggested an overnight camping trip to Mount Thomas in North Canterbury as a means to propose. I was a little suspicious but he was so cool, calm and collected I shrugged off any thought of a proposal. When we got to the summit I was busy taking selfies with our dog (classic me) and he was waiting for me to stand up so he could get down on one knee! Eventually, I got up to walk back down the mountain and he called me back and I turned around and he was on one knee.

Our Wedding Planning

We wanted our wedding to feel fun and not be stressful. You hear of so many couples saying “thank goodness that’s over” when it comes to planning a wedding and we didn’t want to be another statistic!

Bringing our day together felt pretty easy really. As we got engaged over the weekend before lockdown in April 2020 we decided pretty quickly to do something different and turn an engagement party into our wedding. The surprise element meant that we made a lot of decisions with our vendors and avoided everyone else’s opinions weighing on our decisions.

We managed to pull off the surprise by trying to keep things low key. We used electronic invites - I had to hold off from sending them out too early otherwise we felt people would be suspicious! We also had a cover-up story that we were planning on eloping and asked people to arrive before 6 pm so they didn’t miss out on food and speeches.

Our Wedding Day

I spent the afternoon getting ready with my bridesmaids during the day. We decided not to get photos taken of the getting ready part so it was really relaxed. Sean and his groomsmen came to pick us up and we arrived at the engagement party together. My dress and the bridesmaid dresses (and flowers) were already at the venue but hiding upstairs at O-Studio for when the big change took place!

The surprise factor was pretty magical. We spent the first hour and a half of our engagement party just enjoying it with our guests and sneaking a look at each other every now and again as we knew that we would be getting married shortly, before our final wink at each other to get the surprise underway. While the girls and I were upstairs changing, Sean announced speeches and welcomed everyone. We had one of the bridesmaid’s husbands video this for me and it brings me to tears watching everyone’s reaction! He said “seemed like a good day to get married. Is there a celebrant in the room?” and our gorgeous celebrant revealed herself. Hearing everyone scream with excitement when I was hiding to come in with my bridesmaids as Sean announced it was our wedding day is a memory that still gives me goosebumps!

Hannah, our celebrant, helped organise an aisle quickly and went up to my parents to ask them to meet me outside to walk me down the aisle in a moments time. The groomsmen quickly popped on their buttonholes and ditched their jackets that covered up the fact that they were dressed in matching outfits.

I walked down the aisle to Fleetwood Mac (dream moment), he cried (every wife-to-be crosses her finger for this) and we laughed and smiled the whole ceremony. A lot of guests told me there was a buzz in the room due to the surprise!

We then shared a grazing platter and bubbles with guests before only a handful of family photos and then photos in the city with our clever photographer, Hannah. We arrived back and had speeches followed by our amazing band and pizza on the dance floor! We omitted several traditional wedding moments. We didn’t have a cake, didn’t do a first dance and didn’t toss the bouquet. We simply just chose the moments we loved about weddings and opted out of the things that didn’t feel like us.

Our Advice

Trust your vendors and let them work their magic! Our flowers, menu, drinks list, photographs and band playlist were all chosen by the vendors themselves and we couldn’t be happier with how it came together. When you trust people in the wedding industry to use their talents I think it takes the stress away from the couple but it also allows your vendors to do what they do best.

Stand Out Vendors

Sophie from The Welder was a stand out for us. She kept the surprise a secret (so much so that every email she sent me had “Engagement Party” in the subject line) and went above and beyond to support us to pull off the big day! Our celebrant Hannah was also incredible and her energy was infectious.

Our Vendor Team

Venue, Catering + Beverage | The Welder Events Space

Photographer | Hannah Bird

Florals | Bunch Floral

Celebrant | Hannah Duder

Hair | Danielle Hall

Makeup | Alex Lyttle

Dress | Kenny and Harlow

Brides Accessories | Earrings - Meadowlark, Shoes - Kathryn Wilson

Bridesmaids Outfits | Ruby, Juliette Hogan, Witchery, Petal and Pup

Grooms Attire | Country Road, Rodd and Gun

Groomsmen’s Outfits | Hallensteins