Here’s the thing about Central Otago – it doesn’t rain often, but occasionally it does rain, and when you book your wedding in, you have no way of knowing if your chosen date will be one of Central Otago’s few rainy days or not.
When the weather doesn’t play the game you have two choices. Get upset, or don’t.
I highly recommend option two. You only (generally) get one wedding day, and yes it would have been lovely if it wasn’t raining. But spending your wedding day focused on the one unpleasant thing that is happening rather than the million wonderful things that are happening (most importantly you got to marry your favourite person!), would be a huge waste of a wedding day.
On Natalie and Callum’s wedding day, it rained. And they chose option two – don’t get upset. Yes Callum was left making the big decision – inside or outside? And like I said to him, unless you are obviously completely mad – as in it’s torrential and you and your guests do not have spare clothes, or it’s bitterly cold, you have a long ceremony and everybody is dressed for a summer wedding – I will back your decision 100%. I will calmly but firmly tell anyone who questions the decision that the wedding is happening outside.
It helped that they had chosen Orchard Garden, and I cannot rate Wendy and Dale highly enough. They had both options ready to go – indoors also looked beautiful, and would have been beautiful had that been the way Natalie and Callum decided to go! They had a LOT of umbrellas available for the guests use. They provided every guest with a towel to wipe the rain from their seats with before they sat down. They too backed Callum’s decision 100%.
We were running slightly behind schedule thanks to the rain, but the bride was not. We had (as I always try to do) set up a plan, when they were leaving their accommodation, a bridesmaid would call me and let me know. Which means I was able to say, great, everything is fine here, but can you go on a little tiki tour (in what turned out to be a beautiful Bel Air!) and give us another 10 minutes? No problem!
Cue guests heading into the maze with umbrellas, the intro and housekeeping (please turn off your phones, clapping cheering laughter is all good, in fact encouraged, no smoking in the maze or gardens etc etc) and right on time, the bride and her bridesmaids arrive.
They are played in by Natalie’s cousin Matt – even though I have a PA System through which music can be played from a phone or mp3 player, and it does a lovely job, there is something so special about live music at a ceremony, I absolutely love it!
And the ceremony was perfect. There was a lot of laughter and smiles, Natalie’s brother and Callum’s sister both gave readings and did an excellent job.
Natalie and Callum both wrote and delivered vows that reflected their beautiful relationship, it didn’t suddenly start persisting down and everybody got back to the reception venue happy and reasonably dry.
There is so much you will not be able to control on your wedding day (Natalie cheerfully told me before I left that her friend had spilled a glass of wine down her back, but she was planning on dancing up a storm, so she wouldn’t notice anyway).
On my wedding day I had my hand shaken repeatedly by a drunk, effusive, heavily tattooed, bearded man at the Gorge Road Country Club on our way to the reception, which was a very weird experience. And I can almost guarantee those things that were unplanned, out of your control and maybe even decidedly weird – they’ll become the stories you tell the most about your wedding day, the bits you find yourself loving without knowing quite why.
If you want to know what Natalie and Callum thought about me, visit their review here.
And these are the amazing vendors they used on their wedding day:
Venue: The Orchard Garden
Photographer: Carla Mitchell
Florist: Farmhouse Boutique
Celebrant: Me!
Bride’s Dress: Christine Reeves
Bridesmaids Dresses: The Iconic
Suits: Hallensteins
Hair: Renee Hayley Hair
And wherever and however you’re getting married, massive congratulations! If you’re after a celebrant in Central or South Otago who is all about #yourweddingyourway have a bit more of a nosy around my site and get in touch!
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