Kat & Mikey. A Waihau Bay Wedding (with a Stunning Coloured Dress!) by Courtney Horwood

As soon as I saw the above image of the brides wedding dress in today's wedding.. I died. But seriously. It's WOW. Then I saw the church, and I started to realise there is something a little bit magical about Waihau Bay, as everything seems to be perfectly... well PERFECT! (even the fishing club!).

Kat married her 'catch of the day' Mikey with a theme of Fishing & Flowers (and had fake Hydrangeas from Mitre 10 and The Warehouse as the remote location meant the flowers would have perished on the way to the wedding!). All perfectly captured by the talented Courtney Horwood Photography, this whimsical waterfront wedding will have you inspired for sure!

In three words describe your wedding style... What were your save and splurge items for your wedding? What music did you play for those special moments? What was the most difficult part of planning your wedding? And the most fun? Did you have hens/stag nights? If so, what did you do? Did you DIY? If so, what did you do? Do you have any money saving tips for engaged couples? Where did you go for your honeymoon?

We were flat mates. I (Kat) had my own place and Mikey was the night in shining armor that helped me with the mortgage repayments. We became best friends and spent every spare minute together. It took a year for us to realize we should jump into a relationship together but wouldn't have had it play out any other way.

Fishing and Flowers

Saved on the cake and venues and splurged on the wedding dress!

Walking down the aisle we played LUCKY by Kat Edmonson, for the first dance we had SLOW AND STEADY by Monsters of Men.

Because it was a "destination" wedding we had to book the accommodation options a year out and then organize the guests to group themselves and divvy up the accommodation to fit 114 people into a tiny town for the weekend.

The most fun was probably making the games for the guests to play while we were getting photos. We made giant jenga, "whack the rat", a throwing the ball target, and fishing casting. We knew it was all worth it when we could hear the yells of excitement from the guests while they played.

Yes of course! The girls organized a Moulin Rouge themed night out on the Auckland town where we dressed to theme and learnt to burlesque dance! And the Boys kidnapped Mikey for a "make over" of orange fake tan, a pink wig and a full face of make up to play golf in, play zorb soccer and then drink...a lot.

YES! we did the games, the cake and pudding plus some of the nibbles, the decorations, and place names.

Look into DIY and search plenty of websites to get the best prices. Compare your want of a nice venue versus top notch food. A venue can be dressed up but the guests will have the best time with great food and wine. Also if family members or friends have special talents or left over decorations etc from their weddings give them a go! We had some of our best friends donate bunting to us from their wedding which saved time and money!

We had Mikey's family come out from the UK for the event and we were 12 weeks pregnant so only managed a 2 day get away to Rotorua. It was a blissful 2 days of rest and relaxation!

CREDITS

Photographer Courtney Horwood Photography
Flowers The Warehouse & Mitre10 (we had fake hydrangeas as the flowers would have perished on the way to the wedding! Waihau Bay has no florist!)
Venue/Catering Waihau Bay fishing Club (clubs quiet often have a discount for members) we had an independent Caterer Gillian Te Moana (Everyone LOVED the food!)
Hire Company Paramount Hire Tauranga
Makeup Blush Makeup (Mandy)
Hair Hair on Botanical, Tauranga (Bev). These two lovely ladies drove the 3hrs the night before the wedding to spend the day making us (Bride, Bridesmaids and Mum and Mother in law) beautiful.
Cake Homemade (A muffin recipe from "Little and Friday" amended as a cake)
Celebrant Patrick Wilick (based in Gisborne)
Brides Dress Alma J Bridal
Accessories & Shoes Lovisa and shoes were bare feet!
Bridesmaids Dresses Von Ronen Transformer Dress. This dress was absolute gold, the girls got to pick a style out of a possible 7! That suited them best.
Grooms Suit and Accessories Frank Casey and shirts from Hallentines
Music Sid Carter with our own playlist after 11pm

Founder and editor of P&L. Self-proclaimed shoe guru and lover of bogan chic (wtf!) Wife of a butcher, mother of 7 dogs and a cat. Bonkers.