Bay Of Plenty Wedding By Quinn & Katie Photography

By Magnolia Rouge

It was love at first sight for Emma and Sam who first met 13 years ago at a party. The were inseparable from that moment on. For their wedding at Charlemagne a Victorian style Lodge in Tauranga the couple used a lot of vintage pieces that Emma had inherited from her grandparents so this formed the basis of their styling. Sadly her grandparents passed away prior to the day so it was a lovely way of having them there in spirit. Emma and her maids also arrived at the ceremony in a 1925 Buick Tourer which her grandfather had lovingly rebuilt. Thanks to Quinn & Katie Photography for sharing this beauty with us.

Tell us about your proposal: We were on a five week whirlwind tour of Europe only spending a few days in each place. Our last stop was in the Greek islands on Santorini. Here we were going to spend a few days unwinding from our hectic pace we had set across the continent. We had met up with a group of friends and on the last night of our stay we all arranged to watch the sunset. We arrived first with our friends arriving �late'. Sam had actually left it to our friends to set up the hotel room. The girls raided the local flower beds and spread them all over the room, arranging tea light candles all over the place and a bottle of Moet. A hotel room doesn't sound too romantic but it was an amazing place right on the cliff side overlooking the water.

Our friends left before us because Sam wanted to �hang around a bit longer'. Really this was so our friends could get back before us to light all the candles! We had to trawl back through past the shops and much to Sam's dismay I wanted to visit nearly every one. He hurried me along as much as he could without giving it away and we raced back from the end of the island to the hotel on our quad bike. We arrived back at the hotel room and I stopped at the door to wait for Sam to get the key. Sam said it should be open so confused I tried the door which opened up to an aisle of red petals and candles leading to a petal love heart on the bed. I turned around and Sam had dropped to one knee and proposed!!

Tell us about finding your wedding dress: I saw Corina Snow at a wedding show and I new that I found my dress as soon as the model walked onto the catwalk wearing it. I booked an appointment with Corina Snow and it was only dress that I tried on. Instant love, it was perfect and a lot easier than I had imagined.

Describe your wedding flowers: I love peonies and a family friend, Heather McAlley, is amazing with flowers so she agreed to put together my relaxed looking, amazing bouquet of five simple white peonies. I had a piece of lace, an off cut from my wedding dress and my Grandmothers broach attached.

Most memorable moment? There was no �one' special moment for us on the day. The whole thing was amazing and everything that we had hoped for. It was so awesome to have Sam's family there all together for the first time in 12 years. He is one of 10 kids and everyone had made a special effort to be there for our big day. If there was a moment that we are never going to forget it would be seeing each other for the first time that day, both a ball of nerves but so excited and happy all at the same time.