Jane & Jarrod

Jarrod and I worked together a long time ago and lost contact after we moved jobs. When we bumped into each other again a few years later, we started to catch up for coffee and then dinner and one thing led to another. We just clicked and wish we’d met when we were younger!

We were travelling to the UK to see family and friends for my birthday and we stopped off in New York, which I didn’t know anything about until we checked in at the airport! Jarrod proposed in a restaurant by the East River under the Brooklyn Bridge.

We looked at lots of venues around Auckland and chose Markovina Estate in Kumeu as it gave us so many choices, whatever the weather was doing. We loved the fact that we could spend the whole day there and take all the photos at the same location.

Our photographer was amazing; she was everywhere and captured some beautiful images in the grounds after the ceremony and during golden hour, surrounded by trees.

The styling was timeless with shades of peach, white and a pop of burgundy to tie in with the bridesmaid dresses and navy blue suits worn by the groomsmen. We chose dahlias, gypsophila, lisianthus, hydrangeas and belladonna in those colours.

To represent the coming together of our families and our countries, we used the Union Jack flag and the Kiwi flag on the back of our invites, on our name cards on the tables and on the cake, too. We had 100 guests.

For dinner, we treated guests to a buffet, followed by an ice cream cart and our three-tiered wedding cake: lemon, cookies and cream and Jaffa. Our George FM DJ, Grant Marshall really got the party going. He played late 90s and early 2000s house music. We saw Grant at a number of events and knew he was the man for the job!

Some of our guests couldn’t travel to the wedding because of Covid so we had recordings of their speeches, from my parents and my brother (who was meant to be the MC) in the UK, for example, that played on a large screen in the reception area over dinner. This was so special. We’re so glad we live-streamed the ceremony for our family and friends in the UK, Australia and the US. Jarrod’s speech was so touching. I travelled to the ceremony with my sons in the white vintage Lincoln Continental Convertible from 1962 that I own with Jarrod.

For the dress, I didn’t want anything that was too OTT so I chose a simple, flattering, ivory gown with a fitted bodice, a flowing skirt, an open back and a long veil decorated with petals to match the bodice. I wore Chaos & Harmony shoes and a silver Tiffany necklace.

The vows were the most memorable part of the day for me, especially Jarrod’s as they brought tears to many an eye! Jarrod’s friends and family were so happy to finally see him getting married!

We had a quick honeymoon in the Coromandel for five days and when we can travel again, we plan to return to New York where we got engaged. We will also travel to the UK to party with my family and friends.

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