Wedding of the Week – Megan and Kerry Tippet

Megan and Kerry Tippet became a tippet on the 10th of March 2012 at Olivers in Clyde.

When and where did you meet: Kerry and I first met while working together at Tablet Colour Print. Five years later (2002) we ran into each other at a local Dunedin pub, hit it off and have been a couple ever since! I always had a crush on Kerry when I worked at Tablet Colour Print, so the fact that we are married now is a fun story to tell.

The proposal: Kerry proposed August 2009 while we were snowboarding up at the Cardrona ski field (Wanaka), which looks over lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables mountains. I was freezing my butt off and trying to snowboard down a skinny cat track, this track had a beautiful view overlooking the lake and mountains and as I came around a corner Kerry was down on one knee waiting for me. I couldn't believe he was actually asking me! It was so romantic up on the mountain and all in the midst of doing something we both love; snowboarding!

Where was the wedding: The ceremony was at Olivers Lodge bed and breakfast in Clyde, under the Archway. Olivers historcally was created as an old general store for prospectors of the former Otago Goldrush. It now has been restored into a unique lodge, keeping with the theme of it's history. Each room has its own individual style, which makes it very distinctive and memorable. As well as getting married there, it was an ideal place for my bridesmaid and I to get ready in before the ceremony. Kerry and I also had the same room booked in for our wedding night. The stay was wonderful and the breakfast was delicious! Our dessert reception was also in Clyde at Kerry's parents holiday home. 

Why did you choose the venue: We both love central Otago and have lived in Clyde for the past 4 years, both previously born and raised in Dunedin. We got married in front of the archway at Olivers because I have always thought they are so beautiful and Oliver's is such an amazing and historic building. We had our reception at Kerry's parent's holiday home, as a majority of the accessories for the wedding were handmade or sought out by myself or by friends. Having close access to the reception venue meant that we could decorate it how we liked at any time before the wedding.

The Dress: I designed my wedding dress and have always had an idea of what I wanted it to look like. Having a degree and background knowledge in fashion design contributed hugely with the final outcome of the dress. Joan Leach, an amazing designer from Dunedin, pattern made and constructed my dress. Joan did an outstanding job and I was over the moon when I saw it! I got my lace online from Tessuti fabrics in Australia; it is French lace. I got the trim from Inspirations in Alexandra; it is cotton grosgrain.

The bridesmaid dress: My sister Nicky was my beautiful bridesmaid and I wanted her dress to be floral to go with one part of our wedding theme, ‘floral'. We got Nicky's dress from Refind rig in Dunedin. I feel it complimented my wedding dress and the features of the wedding.

The flowers: My bouquet was made up with orange, white and yellow dahlias (we were lucky enough to be able to pick them from a garden in Alexandra), dried yellow billy buttons (which we had to order in from Australia) and white gypsophila. My bridesmaid bouquet was made up with Billy buttons, gypsophila and white daisies. We got the bouquets made at Stems in Alexandra. My friend Suzy Wood helped me make the guys and parents buttonholes; which were made from floral fabric as the leaf and dried billy buttons. Because there was nothing fresh used to make the buttonholes they will last forever, which I like.

The caterers: We had a small family dinner at Speargrass Inn (Fruitlands) and then a dessert reception later with the rest of our friends and family. We asked some of our family and friends to make a dessert for the buffet; we are very lucky that we know a lot of amazing talented chefs and bakers! For supper we got a local chef to make sushi and it was delicious!

The wedding cake: Our wedding cake was a gift from our talented cake maker friend, Heidi Ingram. The main wedding cake was gluten free with meringue icing and topped with a single dahlia and underneath was gluten free vanilla bean cupcakes with butter icing. We had two side cakes, which were carrot cake and banana cake iced with rich Italian meringue, both topped with a single dahlia flower. All cakes and desserts were displayed on tier cake stands, we made these ourselves by hunting out beautiful second hand plates from ops shops and antic stores that would fit in with the style of the our wedding.

Highlight of the day: We both had an unbelievable day but we absolutely loved performing our first dance to everyone. We came up with the short routine 2 days before the wedding. I'm a huge fan of the movie ‘Dirty Dancing', so of course we had to do our first dance to the song ‘Time of my Life' (Kerry didn't really get a choice!). We copied some of the moves from the movie and even though we had only practiced it a few times we did a super job! And everyone seemed quite impressed.

Your photographer and favourite photo: Steph Paterson was our photographer and also helped us with a lot of the wedding planning. She is a very close friend of ours and gifted us the photos as a wedding present. She put a lot of thought into the different locations, fun props and the layout of the photos, which all fitted with the theme of our wedding. Steph had an assistant photographer; Steph Reid, who also did a great job. Suzy Wood also took some stunning photos for us too. All the photos turned out amazing and are a delight to be able to look back over. We have a lot of favourite photos but there is one that stood out in particular; it is of us at Butcher's dam, which is just out of Alexandra. We love this photo because the water was so still and the clouds were breath-taking.

Details
Nails were done at Buff in Alexandra.
Hair and make-up were done by Perfect Perfection in Cromwell.
Bride's shoes are from Mi piaci.
Rings are from Jamie's Jewellers in Alexandra.