Wedding Day Minus 1

Friday 18 April

Friday was all about pre-wedding plans. Weather was not playing ball as I took my walk around our neighbourhood so after getting rather wet, I grabbed the opportunity to do a bit of jigsaw puzzling before we headed out to the rehearsal, dropping Louis for a swim along the way. Was a little shocked in this day and age at the sticker on a local car's petrol cap... really? This is not the 70s!

Lots of prep to be done at the lovely venue - Ataahua Garden Venue - Esther & her bridesmaids had made name ribbons for everyone’s wine glass (lots of bows to tie) and there were table flowers and candles to sort. Once we had dressed the tables the place looked so pretty - the candy coloured candles & coordinating name ribbons were just lovely and the casually arranged flowers were really delicate and adorable. Bride & groom had very posh Vera Wang champagne glasses - so cool. We were forbidden to read the personalised notes from Esther and Reb - looking forward to seeing all the messages on the big day!

Most exciting of all was the delivery of Jeremy & Esther’s new hot air balloon basket which was being installed as a kinda photo booth! Sadly if it had been dry enough they would have put it outside and been able to fire up the burners - but as it was, it made a great back drop.

Rehearsals had to be done in two locations to account for wet & dry weather options - fingers crossed for Saturday! Mia was keen to avoid the white marquee area as she found the floor quite scary!

After an elusive hunt for lunch (we forgot about Good Friday closures) we chilled back at the AirBnB with kumara chips and hot cross buns!

Joined the wedding gang for dinner & drinks at The Island in the evening and got a chance to catch up with some long lost friends, Amy's Lynfield cohort and assorted Tomkinson relatives. 🥰