Taryn and Matt’s Stunningly Styled Wedding

We’ve long admired Taryn from Make Your Day Events for her ability to infuse pretty into many a wedding. But today? We get to relish in the beauty of her very own Big Day. And boy are those details lovely—but she sure does steal the show.

Don’t miss her and Matt’s love and wedding story below.

Wedding date: 03.12.2016
Wedding location: Te Puru, Thames Coast, Coromandel Peninsula
Number of guests: 100(ish)
Wedding budget: Under $20k
Wedding cost: Actual $12k but as we own all the hire stock etc. we didn’t have to pay for this which I have estimated to be roughly $6.5k worth of hireage.

The Couple

Tell us a little about…

How you first met… At a mutual friends about 8 years ago.

When you knew, it was love…Can’t put a specific time on it, but something about us just clicked.

The proposal… Sunset at his favourite beach, wording was not so romantic but the setting was epic after a day out fishing and having a kid free evening.

Pre-wedding celebrations… None- we found out we were expecting our second child a week later and then sold our house a week after that so have been busy ever since.

The Wedding

Tell us a little about…

The ceremony… We were planning to have it our property but as we had just finished building our house (literally nailed off the deck the day before the wedding) the landscaping was and is far from complete so we spoke to Chris and Drew at La Casa Lodge in Te Puru and we had our ceremony on their beautiful front lawn looking out over the sea.

The reception… We had a marquee wedding outside our new house and strategically used the walls to cover the areas we needed hidden and had our main view looking out over native bush. I am a stylist and own a small marquee/party hire business so we had all the items we needed. We had a real fruit ice-cream truck, an epic band and all our favourite people.

Your favourite memory about the day?
Everything, I tried to absorb all the moments as it goes so fast. We just had the best day. A few standouts would have been our speeches which were very emotional and dancing the night away with all our friends and family.

The best thing about having a backyard wedding?
No rules, we could do it all ourselves; alcohol, caterers, music, volume, could stay up as late as we wanted, we had plenty of space for camping so no one had to drive, could clean up whenever we wanted. And at the end of the best day ever we just headed off to sleep in our own bed in our new house.

The Logistics

What made you decide on a backyard wedding?
My husband built our house and when we finally decided to tie the knot he was keen on having it where our home is.

How did you discover the backyard?
It’s my father’s property and we kind of just came to stay after our house sold 3 years ago, and never left. Now we have built a house and a flat for him. Our ceremony venue I discovered as I am local and have been there before but had got in contact with them in case they needed a marquee or any equipment for weddings as their front lawn is nice and large with amazing views and they have some accommodation on site.

What are some of the challenges that you faced planning a backyard wedding?
Our biggest hurdle was trying to get our house finished, this meant we didn’t have time to stress over the wedding. Trying to find a backup venue in case of bad weather was quite difficult but we had to have one (luckily wasn’t needed) I had no hiccups with the planning side as it’s my job to style and organise weddings.

What part of the day or planning are you most proud of?
That the vision I had for the styling matched what was produced. I had a lot of pressure (in my eyes) to pull off some amazing styling and I was so proud of how it looked. I was also very proud of our daughter who is almost 5 with how she embraced the whole day and had a blast, and I choose some amazing vendors that just made our day awesome.

What were your save and splurge items?
So, in a roundabout day we saved on all our hire since we own it all but I also DIY’d all our invites. We had builder’s pencils with “pencil us in” for our save the dates paired with wooden paper for the invites. I designed and printed these myself and we put them into pocket folds. I also made all menus, place cards, seating plans etc. We splurged on our band and having the ice-cream truck and we are glad we did.



What advice do you have for couples who are considering a backyard wedding?
Consider parking, electricity sources, toilets, access logistics. Ensure that you have shelter from the elements -rain/wind and sun. Make sure you have plenty of hands on deck to help with the set up the day before. And if it’s what you really want then you should do it. We wouldn’t have had ours any other way.

The Wedding Team

Wedding Dress and Shoes:
Felicity’s Bridal- Stella York- The service at Felicity’s is amazing and they are so approachable and friendly, the dresses are amazing. I bought my shoes from Modcloth and then I added glitter to the front to tie in my theme more.

Hair and Makeup:
Jess Drought-this women is a miracle worker. I loved loved loved my makeup. She also did two of my bridesmaids and Chantara Williams did the other 3 bridesmaids, I would also recommend Chantara- she is very talented. Hair was done by two of my friends- both local Thames hairdressers. They did an amazing job. Jess also did all of our nails and they were so perfect.

Groom’s Suit:
Hallenstines- I hunted high and low for light sand coloured suits and no hire shops seemed to have them so I bought them all from Hallenstines on a 50% off mystery code discount.

Photographer:
Katherine & Ger from The Undefined Photography- These guys were just wonderful, they were easy going but focused, had great ideas and just made us so comfortable. The images are just amazing.

Bouquets and Boutonnieres:
I ordered all our flowers from our local green grocer via their wholesaler and made 7 bouquets and 7 buttonholes the night before the wedding. The buttonholes were dahlias from our garden that my dad grew. The bouquets were raspberry pink and white peonies and lisianthus with eucalyptus and dusty miller.

Table Florals/Centrepieces:
I styled all our wedding in our theme “Woodland Glam” think lots of greenery, a bit of wood, tons of flowers and a bit of sparkle. Our centrepieces were large vases with raspberry hydrangeas and glass candlesticks, mini terrariums with succulents and gold chargers and rose gold cutlery. Our place settings were in little wooden holders and it all sat on a rose gold sequin table runner.

Tables:
Our custom made wooden trestle tables- these were our feature pieces and I love them.

Chairs:
White Bella chairs with a champagne gold sash.

Decorations:
Purpose built backdrop with floral garland (2m of florals) with custom made wording of our aisle song. Suspended ivy hoops, festoon lighting, fairy lights, raspberry pink paper lanterns.

Officiant:
Janie Storey- registered celebrant based in Whakatane and my late mothers dear friend.

Wedding Cake:
Janine at Jara Delights- honestly the best cake ever, I sent her a million pics of the cakes I wanted mashed together and what she produced was epic- Chocolate Gluten free gold layer, White Chocolate naked layer and Lemon Gluten free naked layer. I made our cake topper to match our theme

Videographer:
Katie Lewis- another epic vendor, value for money and so happy with her work.

The Ice-cream Truck:
We had real fruit ice-cream from the end of ceremony until after dessert -unlimited ice-cream, this was a massive hit and so delicious.

Band:
Two-Crew Duo- Auckland based but travel, two neat guys that can sing and keep a crowd going. No request was too difficult, they learnt our first dance song and did an amazing job and everyone young and old loved them.

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