Saturday 25 August 2012

The Greene-Harper wedding


Brooke Harper is 31 and Charlie Greene is 29.

We decided to have the ceremony in St. Mary's Church. Charlie and I both felt that it was the perfect place to exchange our vows.

Due to the small size of the church we couldn't invite everyone to attend the ceremony so it was just our families and naturally everyone in our wedding party.

We signed our marriage certificate after the ceremony with my bridesmaids and Charlie's groomsmen as witnesses. I wanted a four bridesmaids because I didn't want to leave anyone out. I probably would've had five but Dixie didn't want to do it since she's heavily pregnant and just wants to take things easy now.

We had the reception at Starry Nights Function Hall. It's a big place so we could invite even more people to join us on our big day.

We arranged some toys for the kids so that they wouldn't get bored. Bobbie took care of the smallest kids while other adults were eating.

We wanted the reception to be informal so we had a buffet and also decided not to have a seating order. As long as Charlie and I could sit together I didn't mind where everyone else ate their food.

The food was delicious and everyone seemed to enjoy the company of whoever sat in the same table.

After the lunch it was time to just enjoy the day and celebrate with our guests. Seeing Charlie with all those kids made my heart ache for a child of our own. We're definitely going to start trying right after the wedding so hopefully we can celebrate our first wedding anniversary with our first child.

It was great seeing everyone so happy and obviously enjoying the party.

The last official part of the reception was cutting the cake. We both love chocolate so it was an easy choice to get the triple chocolate cake.

I had warned Charlie not to smash the cake into my face so he was very careful not to drop anything on my dress.

It was so great to see all our loved ones under the same roof for once. It also made me think that even though we just moved into a new apartment I eventually want us to buy a house so that we can have guests over.

Our original plan was to have our first dance as a married couple outside but it was raining cats and dogs so we stayed inside.

Not that it mattered. There wasn't a single thing that could have made the day anything but perfect.

We left on our honeymoon right after the reception. We quickly changed clothes and grabbed our suitcases and headed off to the airport.

We stayed at the Pontibon Beach Resort which is designed for honeymooners.

Most nights we stayed in our little cabin and had dinner on the balcony.

We're not the types to just lay in bed all the time (although we did a lot of that too) so we rented a couple of surf boards. Charlie has a real natural talent for all these kinds of activities so he was like a pro.

I on the other hand mostly just sat on my board and paddled back and forth.

I loved the island and our honeymoon but I can't wait to get home and start our lives as a married couple. You would think that nothing has changed since we've lived together for years already but somehow it feels that something is different.

Extras:

I decided to take the posed pictures in the backyard of Starry Nights Function Hall. The lighting at sunset was awesome!








Brooke and Charlie with their parents.

The happy couple with the bridesmaids and groomsmen.

Brooke with her bridesmaids Patsy, Alexa, Janie and Paige.

Charlie with his groomsmen Will, Danny, Tom and Thomas.

Notes:
  • I hope this update was worth the wait! It's been such a long time since the last update that honestly it felt like I've forgotten how to write, lol.
  • Brooke's favourite colour is red and Charlie's is green. Combining those two colours would've been too tricky so I went with red and gold instead. I think Brooke is the kind of type not to shy away from rich colours and I think it all turned out quite pretty.
  • I wanted to try having the ceremony and reception on different venues. Mainly because the church hall would've been too small for all these guests but I still wanted to get them married there. Starry Nights Function Hall, in case you're wondering, is one of the many amazing lots by Carla. I definitely want to use it again soon, I just have to figure out someone who would throw a huge party.
  • This was the biggest wedding reception in the history of Wellington. 33 guests + the couple on one lot, all selectable! My computer took it all really well, I didn't have any problems besides a few lags here and there. So obviously now I'm going to try adding back all those downloads I weeded out when my computer was acting out.

15 comments:

  1. The wedding looks great, here's some baby dust in the hopes that they expand their family soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. I hope they get pregnant soon, she's been hoping for a baby for some time now.

      Thanks for reading. :)

      Delete
  2. That must have been a lot of fun to plan, prepare and play! Thank you for this lovely post. The pictures are great; I love the one where the newlyweds have that dreamy look on their faces.

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    1. It was fun! This was the biggest wedding but in some way also the easiest because I had it all planned from the beginning and it went pretty much as I had imagined.

      That's my favourite picture too.

      Thanks for reading. :)

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  3. Loved the wedding!! Brooke was a beautiful bride! Loved her hair! The wedding colors were really pretty too as was the ceremony and reception. Looking forward to them starting their family one day. They're such a fun couple I'm excited to see how they parent.

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    1. Thanks for all the nice words about the wedding. I think Brooke looked really pretty. I'm really looking forward to them having kids too and I think they'll be more of the laid-back kind of parents.

      Thanks for reading. :)

      Delete
  4. What a great idea to put some toys out for the kids! I'll have to remember that for my next wedding.

    Such a stunning wedding! Brooke and Charlie made a gorgeous bride and groom. I love the colours and Starry Nights looked great with the red and gold. The posed pics are beautiful too. Did you recolour the bridesmaid dresses yourself? I would never have thought to have them two-toned like that. The picture of them looking off to the side is my favourite.

    I have a WCIF for you, of course! Where did you get Brooke's hair? It's lovely.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I thought the toddlers would be following their parents all the time if I don't give them something else to do.

      The wedding turned out as I had imagined so I'm glad others liked it too. I recoloured the bridesmaids dresses and wanted to try something different so I made them two-toned. They look quite different that way, I'll probably make a few more two-toned recolours and share them at some point. That picture is my favourite too. Brooke looked off to the side and that's where I got the idea.

      The hair is by trapping and you can find it here:
      http://trappingit.livejournal.com/91056.html

      Thanks for reading. :)

      Delete
    2. Oooh, I'll be looking out for those recolours! Thanks for the link to that hair; I'd seen it before and completely forgot about it. :)

      Delete
  5. Such a lovely wedding! And those colors work really well together. A little bit heavy, but nice :)

    Brooke and Charlie really were the starrs!
    Don't you just love that function hall? I'm looking forward to using it much more myself, and I can't wait to see it some more in other people's posts!

    Lovely posed pictures! I'm going to say what every one else has said already, but the one where they look off to the side is my favourite!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Thank you. :)

      I really really love the function hall. It's the kind of lot that can be used for so many purposes. I want to do a prom there some day.

      I think that picture has already become one of my all-time favourite pictures! It was really effortless to pose these two so I took many pics but that one is definitely the best.

      Thanks for reading. :)

      Delete
  6. This is a really, really beautiful wedding. I love the bold colors--I definitely wouldn't have thought of red and gold together, but I really like it.In the pictures it doesn't look like 33 people are present, but that's a lot of family and friends.I like the idea of having toys for the kids---I never know what to do with kids at weddings to keep them entertained.The honeymoon looks like so much fun and I was just looking at the surfing mod, unsure if I should add it, but after seeing these pictures, I'm going to download it later.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Thank you. It really doesn't look like there's 33 people... because some guests were standing in the doorway and others were stomping their feet because they couldn't get in, lol.

      I've been wanting to try the surfing mod for a long time but my computer was acting up so much. Now that it's working better I thought it's about time to give it a try. It looks like so much fun.

      Thanks for reading. :)

      Delete
  7. What a gorgeous wedding! I love red and gold together. It reminds me of royalty or something. Brooke looked stunning and thanks for the link to that hair. I don't remember grabbing it.

    Ditto to what everyone has already said about the posed pics. That dreamy one is definitely a favorite of mine and will have to remember to do stuff like that when I finally have a wedding. So lovely and great job with the dress recolors. Can't wait to see babies from these 2!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Now that I think about it, red and gold remind me of royalty as well. I really like the way Brooke looked too, I think it really fitted her personality.

      Taking posed pictures can be a lot of work but it's worth it. Now I just have to do some recolours so that Brooke and Charlie and their families can hang up those pictures in their homes.

      Thanks for reading. :)

      Delete