TESSA & MIKEY | KARAPIRO

This couples day had ALL the intimate, personal touches! Tessa and Mikey held their big day at the special location of the family home in Karapiro, with their two gorgeous sons as their ring bearers, and the bride wearing a dress with the same name as her sister, who was also one of her bridesmaids. We don’t think you can get a more special or personal combination! But what makes this day even more incredible, the happy couple were already legally married (for four years) and signed vow renewals on their wedding day! So their wedding really was purely about celebrating their love with all of the most loved and special people in their lives. Absolute perfection if you ask us! And they had the most amazing, laid back, yet elegant set up that we just loved being able to help create!

Tell us about your venue and why did you choose it:

My parents house in Karapiro! Was the perfect setting overlooking Lake Karapiro and farm land. It felt more special and personal to us to have it here rather than at a specific wedding venue.

Where did you purchase your dress and accessories from:

Grace Loves Lace. I have always loved long sleeved wedding dresses. Its also called the Camille dress and my sister who was my maid of honour, is also named Camille. My mum and I flew over to Aussie to try it on and then it got made.

Accessories: earrings were from Grace Loves Lace, wedding shoes from Sisters on London, Bride robe All the While.

What were the highlights on the day:

The reception.. just celebrating and soaking up all the love with our favourite people. Also, seeing Preston and Hudson in their suits when I walked down the isle and have them as our ring bearers was so special.

We saved on….

Our venue! also just did our own styling / planning / setting up and made our own table runners and napkins. Also didn’t have seating arrangements so definitely saved on time too.

Our love story began…

Over 9 years ago! We met through Mutual friends when we were both studying at Uni and started dating straight away.

Where did you find your inspiration for your wedding day:

I kind of always had in mind what I wanted and liked but I do also follow a bunch of wedding, dress, floral and hire social media accounts which gave us a few ideas too. We actually were already legally married at our wedding! We signed papers over 4 years ago and then when we decided we really wanted to have a ceremony and celebrate it with our loved ones too - so we signed just signed a renewal of our vows on our wedding day. So the focus for our day was having the wedding we never had!

Tell us about the proposal…

At the top of the Taipei 101 building when we were visiting Mikeys family in Taiwan..

Our wedding style was…

Outdoorsy / Minimalist / Elegant backyard wedding.

Do you have any tips for other brides & grooms?

Try not to stress and overthink your day – it will all be perfect! We would also recommend your wedding starting quite early in the afternoon because the day and night just flies by so quickly!