Sam and I were married over 5 years ago (!!) in February 2008. I was 21 when I got married, and it’s easily one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Sam proposed to me after a picnic dinner on the top of Mt Eden, just above our University Hostel (where we first met) in December 2007. We were engaged for 2 and a half months, which sounds shocking, but in hindsight it was perfect for me as I knew what I wanted and could make decisions easily. Well I sort of had no choice but to make decisions quickly, as 2 and a half months didn’t leave any time to muck around! I was also working part time at that time, so had a bit of extra time on my hands. Planning the wedding was one of my favourite things to do, and although the thought of planning a wedding in 2 and a half months was initially frightening (especially for our parents) it ended up being a great decision.

This is the first of a little blog series ‘My Wedding Re imagined’ where I will talk about things I would do differently if I could do the wedding over. Have you ever thought of this? It’s a question I get asked so frequently! Our wedding will always be one of the best days of my life. But nearly 5 years of experience photographing weddings have taught me a thing or two, and I thought this would be a fun series, that will hopefully provide a bit of insight for those of you planning your weddings now!

  The Timeline.

As I mentioned, we didn’t have long to plan the wedding. This wasn’t an issue, but one thing I wish I hadn’t glossed over so much was the timeline of the day! I was (and still am) pretty organised, so making a schedule/runsheet for the day was quite fun for me, but there were huge things I just didn’t think too much about…

– Driving time between locations.

I got ready at my parents house and we were married in my old school chapel at Waikato Diocesan in Hamilton, which is nearly an hours drive from where my parents live. We had photographs at various Gardens/Parks in Hamilton (for 3 hours), then drove nearly an hour and a half back to my parents property for the marquee reception. After the reception, we drove to Auckland (we were leaving for Rarotonga the next day).

All up, we spent a total of about 4 hours of our wedding day in. the. car….!!

The timeline of the day {reimagined} would now look a little something like this…

The whole wedding would be held in one location at my parents property in the country.

Pre-ceremony: We would have a First Look, bridal photos + family photos in the afternoon. Photos would all be taken around my parents property, within walking distance, and 2 hours for photos would more than enough.

Ceremony: The ceremony would be held around 7.30pm, about an hour before sunset.

Post Ceremony: We would go straight into celebrations with our guests, there would be champagne and cocktails served. I’m going to talk more about the look of the day in later blog posts, but I imagine a formal black tie event, but not a sit down meal. Does that even exist?! There would be places for people to sit, but no seating plan, or long tables where sometimes you don’t get up, and only end up talking to about three people all night. So I guess a mixture of formal and informal. There would be an amazing band, and lots of dancing, toasting, speeches into the night.

—

If you could re-imagine your wedding day, what would you change about the timeline? Ahh the beauty of hindsight!! I’d love to hear your thoughts xx