Dylan and Niki get married

I have so been looking forward to blogging Dylan and Niki’s sneak peeks!  What a special day and such a cool couple!  Thank you for choosing us to capture your special day – we loved every minute of it with you!

Niki, tell us a bit about yourselves and how you and Dylan met?

“We went to varsity together for years, but the romance only really started when we were already living in different countries and we had to get international flights to see each other…coz we are so simple like that! ;)  We have to be really thankful for the Howard College Rowing Club….we made some amazing friends during our varsity days, but that’s also where we got to know each other initially. We have done long distance for the whole of our relationship, so “unconventional” is a word that you may use to describe us!  Otherwise, we are a pretty standard couple…love spending time with family and friends….always keen for a party….in particular Dyl loves to go to music festivals.  We love to travel and are hoping to see lots of Europe once we are finally living together in the UK. “

Tell us about your proposal story.

“Dyl did REALLY well with this!  In October last year we planned a trip to Paris, and the night that we arrived, he took me for dinner in the Eifflel Tower…I had never been to Paris before, so it was a heck of an introduction :) ….anyway, after a really romantic view, with an amazing view of the city and the gardens, we went for a romantic walk along the Seine.  We stopped on the bridge that has all the locks on it (as I had painted a lock with our names on it), and he proposed in the moonlight (with background music from a random banjo player…I know right…couldn’t have scripted that better myself)…on that bridge.  Super romantic!  Then we spent the next few days lapping up the Parisian sights and sounds as a newly engaged couple…AWESOME!”

Niki do you have any advice for future brides?

“Pinterest is your best friend, and your worst enemy…..it’s so fantastic to find ideas, but my advise would be to trim those ideas down!  Ha ha.  In the end I started to get really frustrated that my DIY to do list never seemed to get any smaller….maybe just pick your fav three things and do those!  Spending money on flowers is totally worth it…don’t be stingy with that part of your budget.  I was incredibly lucky to have my amazingly talented best friend doing my flowers (Row Rood from Botanica Flowers).  I totally loved my bouquets and the bridesmaids bouquets, and the incredible flowers on the arch, but I have to say, when I walked into my venue to see the beautiful flowers in the venue…I was super chuffed to have let her do her thing without restricting her creative genius.  She did exactly what I had in my mind, and in the end it was within the budget as well….trust your florist…I think that is a must! Let people help you…my clever aunt made our amazing cake.  We just trusted her to do her thing, and on the day we saw her creative genius come through…and we totally loved it!  Especially if you are having a DIY wedding, dish out tasks to friends and family and let them crack on with it…get everybody over for a weekend…you supply the wine, and they can supply the helping hands…that is what worked for us.”

Love this moment (below) between Niki and her Gran!!! So special!

Did anything unexpected happen on your wedding day?

“The massive Wedstock sign at the wedding was an idea that I loved, but I just never seemed to be able to pull it together to get it made.  So you can imagine my surprise and delight when I walked down the aisle with my Dad and I saw it in the field in the background….my brother-in-law James, Dyl and the other grooms people had put it together the day before the wedding and got it up the morning of…all without my knowing.  That act of thoughtful kindness definitely brought a tear to my eye! :) My other favourite unexpected moment was when our English friend James (who had come out from England specially for the wedding), stood up and made an impromptu speech…very funny, but very cool of him to feel like he should just do that….we loved it! :)  When I stood up to speak, despite having key cards written down, the first thing I said was “can everybody get a load of my dress!” ….ha ha.   was just so chuffed, with the day and my dress and being married, and it just kind of popped out…maybe if I could go back in time, I might not do that again! “

What are you most excited about for your future together as a married couple?

“Both of us are most excited to be in the same place!  We have been doing long distance for two years now, and so we are really looking forward to the “stupid small things”, day-to-day things in the same place are what we are after! :)”

What was your vision for your wedding day?

“Above everything else, we wanted our wedding to be inclusive and personal.  We wanted our favourite people in the world, to feel included and welcome and appreciated.  We had a vision of a relaxed, festival-type-feel (Dyl has been to many music festivals all over the world – it’s kind of his thing).  I love everything DIY, so I made quite a lot of the “stuff” at the wedding myself/with the help of my ever-patient family.  It took months of cutting and sticking and painting and sewing…in the end it was totally worth it!  I think we managed to pull off a personal experience for everybody….old friends and new friends coming together for one awesome Wedstock night. Thanks specially to my Mum, Dad, Meg and Jamo.”

In Niki’s words