Well, of course it was going to be sunny, right?!  It is summertime on Waiheke Island after all!  But…the Friday night before brought a weather bomb of epic proportions which saw a rainfall of 151mm between 8pm and 8am – a rainfall not recorded here on Waiheke since the 1970s.   I woke several times through the night with the downfalls and everytime I was thinking, “oh, my poor bride and groom, they’ve planned a beautiful relaxed wedding outside for 130+ people – they’re going to be devastated!’  My mind was working overtime with wet weather options and locations.

But Liz and Regan had faith that the sun would shine for their wedding last weekend … and shine it did.  We won’t mention that Regan and his men spent the night before bailing out water from a minor flood and the morning pushing wheelbarrows and shoveling gravel that had washed onto the ceremony site in the tremendous rains – after all, there’s nothing quite like a spot of manual labour to begin your wedding day.  Playing golf is for wimps. 

So when Lance and I arrived at beautiful Te Toki Retreat in Palm Beach we were greeted with a venue looking absolutely pristine and some relaxed, happy men about to get into a spa pool.  Yep, all was right in Wedding-ville this morning.

Liz and her bridesmaids were a total hoot so there was laughter flowing the whole day (we won’t mention the tissue trick, will we girls!).  The bridesmaids dresses were a very summery green colour which matched Liz’s shoes. The gorgeous hair-dos were by Amanda and Kelly from Toni & Co in Epsom and make up by local lovely Hannah Bylo.  Liz made her own wedding jewelry which was the perfect complement to her Alfred Angelo gown.  Flowers from Vicki Roycroft at Wildflower Waiheke.

Liz reads a card from her mum…

Liz and her dad see each other for the first time…

We went down to Palm Beach for our photo session.  I had recce’d the location by car in the morning to make sure all would be well after the storm but hadn’t really taken into account quite how scrappy it would be looking until we got down there and started shooting.  I quickly realised that I was shooting at the wrong end of the beach so after a couple of shots we re-located (thanks laid-back and lovely B&G + bridal party for being so go-with-the-flow!).

Regan brought along a non-vintage bottle of bubbly for a shake it up shot… but I think we might have over-shaken it or something because it didn’t really spray forth as planned!  Regan improvised with some pretty mean moves much to the amusement of the collected bridal party.

In keeping with the theme of the day, we did a shot to imitate their very cool wedding invitations (which showed silhouettes of people at a cocktail party).

Ah boys, boys, boys!  Honestly, what are you trying to say…? (OK I’ll let you off the hook and admit this shot above was my idea).  A few more photos at the iconic Red Shed in Palm Beach and then we headed back to Te Toki for their reception.

Thanks Liz and Regan – we had a ball at your beautiful wedding!  It was such stylishly relaxed and fun affair and your special wedding cocktail aptly entitled Waiheke Passion looked just divine!    Enjoy your sneak peek…. xx