A magical day at Ahu Ahu Villas

30 May

March 2025

When you stand on the clifftop of Ahu Ahu Villas you can understand how Sophie and Mitchell were happy to keep it simple, sweet and all about them. Flowers were important to Sophie, however they were well thought out and selected for specific areas of the wedding party. I was besotted with her choice to have a rose aisle sprouting out of the ground for her ceremony space. This showcased the jaw-dropping view of the coastal beaches of New Plmouth and Taranaki, and the moment they shared their vows.

Read on to see how their day unfolded

Tell us a bit about yourselves and how you met?

Mitchell and Sophie met in Taupo when they both went for holiday. Sophie travelled from Sydney with her friend, Chloe, and met a bunch of Chloe’s mates in Taupo at the holiday house. Mitchell was one of them being Chloe’s cousin. It was a summer fling that turned into many messages and two international holidays during uni break until Mitchell moved to Sydney straight into Sophie’s parents house. He lives with my parents and myself for 5 years before we moved back to NZ, to then move back to Sydney when Sophie’s sister was unwell. Sophie is a Physio and Mitchell a plumber. Both into outdoor activities like hiking.

Were there any important details that were special to you as a couple, you wanted to incorporate in some way?

Family is very important, Sophie’s niece and nephew were incorporated into the wedding ceremony and all kids were invited for the whole day.

What was your vision for the day and how did you choose your style?

We didn’t want to go overboard with decorations and loved the natural setting of ahu ahu. I wanted real flowers to make the day extra special and suit the natural setting of the day. We didn’t want any extra decorations as we thought less is more, especially with the beautiful backdrop of the beach. I don’t really like waste so didn’t want to purchase or need to sell or throw out too much stuff. The flowers were our main decoration along with the natural wood furniture. I would have chosen more wooden furniture downstairs but the styles I wanted were already booked out so had to go with the white look.

How did you find and select your venue? What were you looking for in a venue?

I wanted decorations and feature to be in the natural environment. We love New Plymouth and the beach. I didn’t want to have to decorate a setting, rather have a beautiful setting and not have to do too much at all.

How did you go about choosing the vendors you booked?

We went via word of mouth a lot. One vendor would give a recommendation for another.

The planning process: Did you love it? What was your plan of attack? eg, Budgets, making decisions, choose who to invite as guests?

I planned everything as early as possible. I knew I would get nervous towards the wedding and wanted all the decisions made early. We didn’t over think anything so would make a decision and probably not go back to it again.

Was there one key moment in your day that you will never forget?

Mitchell’s key moment was the first look, the anticipation of Sophie coming to find Mitchell while he was just admiring the coast.

For Sophie it was the dancing at the end of the night, getting up on people's shoulders and singing Mr Brightside was so much fun.

What’s some advice you would give to couples, reading this, planning their day?

Choose your own style, don’t just copy someone else. Maybe do for some inspiration but try add yourself into it somehow. We used some personal favourites for songs and got a lot of compliments that they could tell it was our wedding. It was more fun, felt less formal by being ourselves more.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about your wedding?

Looking back on your day, is there anything you would do differently?

We had a food truck which cut costs but tasted amazing!

Loads of compliments on the food also. This also meant people could walk around and talk to lots of different people while eating instead of being stuck with just a few. This also meant more dancing.

Not really. I mean I could name a few things I could have done better but if I had done them better I would be thinking about 10 other things that could be better again. I think I’m a perfectionist and I knew this going into the wedding. I trusted the vendors knew what they were doing and let them take control of the show. When I’m less invested I’m less stressed about the outcome.