Today's beautiful backyard garden wedding is elegant, romantic and filled with fabulous flowers. Gorgeous couple Fraser & Kendra said I do in pretty Cambridge and enlisted the help and skills of friends and family to create all sorts of beautiful goodies from canapes to the gorgeous cake, and including Hydrangea's to kit out the entire reception area! (and what a result!) I love the couples clever advice to couples...
"There are lots of different stressful things that come with planning a wedding, choosing your battles in important. If it's not going to matter in five years time, let it go."
A huge thank you to lovebirds Fraser & Kendra and clever creative Ruth Gilmour Photography for sharing this special day with us. xox
Who Fraser + Kendra Kilgour
Where Private Residence, Gay Kibbys family home across the road from St Peters School, Cambridge.
Guests 130 close friends and family (had 10-15 extra come for a dance and drinks after dinner also)
We met at a compulsory sports and leisure camp (that we both went on otherwise we would fail the paper) at Waikato Uni, a double date later and a cheeky kiss in town we were very much smitten with each other. We started going out almost straight away and haven't looked back since, from that first magical kiss in town (romantic) we knew we would be together forever.
Fraser rang all of my best friends individually and told them he was going to propose, together they organized a "surprise house warming" ( we had just moved into our first home). My best friend organized a sly drink with me on the Friday night at our fave Mavis & Co, where my other besties were sitting (one had flown from Wellington) and they were like "surprise Katie is here for the weekend" (meanwhile Fraser and my brother and sister in law were at home decorating and blowing balloons and lighting candles)... I was then interrupted with a text from Fraser saying I was needed back home as his grandparents had turned up and wanted a tour of the new house.
I begrudgingly went home and when I got home, fairy lights lined the driveway and our deck and lovely Fras was standing at the end of the driveway dresses in a suit. I stopped the car in the middle of the driveway and got out " Where are your Grandparents?" he took my hand and led me inside where our favourite song played and he asked me to marry him... he had chosen the ring himself and it was perfect. I couldn't believe his amazing taste (and that he had pulled this secret off!!!!!) I kept shaking and crying and laughing and saying "Really? Like a wedding and everything?" I was in shock.
Our families and friends then came around with champagne and nibbles, the best part was the friends who weren't in on the secret kept screaming when they realized what was going on. We partied all night followed by a lovely brunch at Punnet the next day. Second best night of my life, after the Wedding of course.
The beautiful venue had been a huge part of Frasers childhood, and even in the six years we had been together we often went across to Gays home to swim in her gorgeous pool. When Fras said he wanted to get married there it was done, no need to look anywhere else as our dream location was just across the road from his parents. We are both very relaxed and chilled people, so we just wanted everyone to have fun and feel included and most of all feel the love that we had for each other. I guess our style was "Garden Wedding" as our marquee was out in the back lawn, and we got married under three beautiful silver birch tress, such a stunning backdrop.
Our inspiration was from other friends weddings we had been to, we wanted to be ourselves and be relaxed. Thank goodness for our photographer who taught me how to make a timeline etc (hard doing all this when its your first time haha).
Flowers, the flowers on our tables and hanging around the marquee were all hydrangeas that we had got from friends houses and from the side of the road. We all spent time arranging them the night before the wedding, and a gorgeous friend of mine spent the next day ensuring they looked fresh for the wedding. A few of Frasers Mums friends also have lovely gardens so they made some lovely arrangements also that we put around the place.
Our Cake was made by one of my bridesmaids Mums as a wedding present to us. She was amazing, she didn't charge us a cent and it was better then I could have ever dreamed. I showed her a photo and she went above and beyond. We are so lucky,
Canapes, Frasers Mum was a chef for 14 years so the day before the wedding she had all the cousins and Aunties in the kitchen helping her make the most delicious nibbles to hand around. One of our groomsman also went diving a few times for us so we had fresh scallops on the bbq that got nibbled up very fast.
Alcohol + Barmen, some of Frasers lovely teacher friends were our barmen for the night and they were so much fun and so awesome. One of our close friends also owns a supermarket, so he gave us half price alcohol, which was handy. We had a wine and cheese night before the wedding to choose all the alcohol for the night, such a fun way to make people feel included in decision making of the wedding.
The catering. We are very big foodies and food was an important element of the day for us. We got sooooo many quotes for different catering companies and looked into sooooo many options but we went with "Hazel Hayes Catering" from Hamilton and they made the most delicious food ever. Beautiful pork belly, fried chicken, herb crusted beef and lovely salads. Their catering staff also were so immaculate they were worth the extra money.
Remember why you are doing all of this, at the end of the day its because you are in love and want to spend the rest of your lives together. If at any stage it's all getting too stressful, stop and breathe and go out for dinner or whatever it is that you two do together to stress less. There are lots of different stressful things that come with planning a wedding, choosing your battles in important. If its not going to matter in five years time, let it go.
CREDITS
Photographer Ruth Gilmour Photography
Flowers Love Vintage
Venue Gay Kibbys Home
Catering Hazel Hayes Catering
Hire Company Cambridge Party Hire
Stationery & Signage Nakita Dobson ( one of the bridesmaids, so clever)
Hair Jamie Barakat from KTIZO Hair & Spa
Makeup Liana Semmens from KTIZO Hair & Spa
Cake Jude Dobson ( Nakita Dobsons mum, one of the bridesmaids)
Celebrant Lel Ashworth (the Grooms Aunty)
Brides Dress + Earrings Robyn Lee Bridal
Brides Shoes The Iconic
Bridesmaid Dresses Evolution Clothing
Grooms Suit & Accessories The Syndicate
Rings Pascoes (tried to find the cheapest rings ever)
Music Grand Theft Audio