Romantic Taranaki Summer Wedding Under the Trees

2 Jun

March 2025

Rueben and Shannon’s romantic summer wedding was filled with vintage charm, pastel florals, and whimsical details. Set at a private residence, they exchanged vows under an old pear tree before celebrating in a rustic barn styled by the bride herself. With vintage cars, parasols, flowing bridesmaid dresses, and a champagne tower, this garden wedding was the perfect blend of elegance and personality.

Read on the see what made their day so unique and special…

Tell us a bit about yourselves and how you met?

Rueben and I met through Tinder, at a time when I was about to give up on online dating and was giving it one more chance. Our first date was at Snug Lounge in New Plymouth and we had a great time. Rueben chose to sit next to me rather than opposite me and I thought this was a bold move, that paid off! The conversation flowed easily (with lots of eye contact) and we had a lovely time. I was really taken with Rueben's surfer lifestyle, his easy going nature and Australian accent, and he was impressed and excited about everything I had going on in my life at the time and wanted to know more. 3 months later it was March 2020 and we are going into lock down. He lived in Opunake and I lived in New Plymouth and I was going to be off work for at least 4 weeks, so I took the leap to move in with Rueben so we wouldn't be seperated, and I think from there that was it! We knew it was going to be a forever kind of thing :)

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

I really wanted to make our wedding signage, table numbers and menus to bring in a few personal touches, so I am very grateful and proud of my past self for starting this task 7 months in advance. I loved the creativity it brought out in me and I felt super relaxed through it all, painting away with a chick flick on in the background. It was great!

We also wanted our ceremony to be very personal and very 'us', and Emily captured our story so well. It was so lovely.

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

I definitely spent a lot of hours on Pinterest and Together Journal looking for inspiration and there were a few themes that became consistent in all of the images I liked, with Rueben's in put too of course! :)

Summery pastel colours for flowers and bridesmaids dresses, flowing materials, garden ceremony, homemade signage and menus, lots of hydrangeas, champagne tower, I could go on.

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

We were really lucky to secure the venue we had in Oakura as it is a private family lifestyle property. We really wanted somewhere where we could spend the whole day in one place, a wet weather option for the ceremony if it was raining, multiple ceremony sites and photography locations, and an indoor spot for dinner. It ticked all of the boxes and was just perfect for us!

How did you go about choosing the vendors you booked?

I had already chosen Emily to be our celebrant back when my best friend was getting married and looking for vendors (I was not engaged at this point but just planning ahead of course) so she was the first one we locked in.

I have always loved Rebecca's floristry and admired her creativity and ability to bring visions to life through colour and texture. We trusted her knowledge and experience and so this was another easy one!

Photography and video were also super high our our priority list and after meeting with Rachel and Tom, and loving their work, we just clicked!

Jennifer from L'Epicure is a fabulous cook and again, we really got along with her. Ultimately, I feel we chose all of our vendors not only because of their work, but because we wanted to work with them and have them be a part of our special day. This was really important for us and truly made the planning process and the day all that more fun.

Tell us about the planning process.

I loved it! Once we had a rough budget, it all came down to being organised right from the start and locking in our key vendors 12-9 months in advance. This took a lot of the stress away and we could work on the smaller decisions and have fun thinking about bringing it all to life. The key vendors for us were - location, celebrant, florist, makeup photo/video and catering.

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

Honestly we are so happy with how it all went and we wouldn't change a thing!

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

Choose vendors who you truly like, gel with and trust to bring your vision to life on the day, so you can be a guest at your own wedding :)

It is a lot to plan and it was truly amazing for us to take it all in and spend quality time with our friends and family, knowing that our vendors were taking care of everything. We paid a little extra to have staff on board to run the day for us, like Emily our celebrant who stayed on post ceremony to do co-ordination, and our catering and bar team who took care of us from cocktail hour until 11pm. It meant we could be present, relaxed and just enjoy it all because it truly does go so fast!

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

Shannon “I will never forget the feeling of arriving at the venue in our wedding car with my Dad and bridesmaids, looking over to the ceremony and seeing Rueben standing at the alter. It really hit home that this was it and I was about to get married to the love of my life. All of the planning had lead to this and it was finally happening!”

Rueben “It was a really great day and it's hard to pick a moment, but something that stands out is reading our vows to each other, it was very special”.