Sonya and Brendon married Cargill’s Hotel in Dunedin. They share their day with the ODT.
When and where did you meet: Brendon and I met both working at the Kingsgate Hotel in Dunedin 6 years ago. He was the Head Chef in the kitchen and I was the Restaurant Manager so we spent a lot of time together. The attraction was there from day one of us meeting as we both remember it very clearly. I had always told my mum that I would marry a chef as I really don't like cooking.
The Proposal: Our proposal was amazingly beautiful. I have been a coach for a Rhythmic Gymnastics Club in Dunedin for about 15 years and the club and my gymnastics is a huge part of my life and is a passion of mine. In 2009 on Dec 12th, we held our annual club Christmas break-up and Brendon had our Club President to propose to me at the end of our prize giving. He had rung my parents and asks for their permission to marry me. He had organised for my whole family to be there and in front of about 100 people and on a microphone he told everyone how much he loved me and got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. It was such a special day that I will never forget.
Where was the wedding: We had our whole wedding at Cargill's Hotel in Dunedin. We had our Ceremony in the court yard/gardens and then our Reception in their restaurant. Our ceremony had approx 150 people attend and our reception had 100 people. It was so gorgeous and such a beautifulsunny day. All the staff at Cargill’s were amazing.
We also had one of my senior gymnasts in our wedding party. She did adance down the pathway before the bridesmaid walked down. She wore awhite dress/leotard with diamantes on it that I had made for her. Once we had exchanged our vows she then did another dance that we hadchoreographed together. It was such a different way to celebrate ourwedding and to include my lifelong passion of Rhythmic Gymnastics.
Why did we choose the venue: We have a 2 year old son so we really wanted somewhere with accommodation so we could put him to bed and not have anyone missing out on the night because they had to babysit. Also the gardens were so perfect and I loved the windling path that I got to walk down. It was beautiful.
The Dress: My dress was purchased from House of Kavina. It was "Ella" brand and was pure white and strapless. I love sparkles so I had one of my gymnasts mothers put lots of diamantes on it and it looked stunning. It had a huge train and I felt like a princess in it.
The Bridesmaid Dresses: The dresses were brought from Stax and were a lolly pink colour. They were knee length and very floaty. The girls just looked so gorgeous. Pink was my theme colour as my nana just loved it and she passed away a few years ago so didn't get to share the day with us so I did it in memory of her.
The Flowers: We purchased our flowers from Dunedin Flowers. They were artificial white and pink roses with gipsofila and greenery. I really wanted to keep my bouquet which is why we had artificial ones.
The Caterers: Even though my husband is a chef, we had Cargill's doing our whole dinner catering. My mum provided us with sandwiches during the day and the Speight's Ale House feed the males before our ceremony.
Brendon and I did however make our own wedding cake. It had 3 layers, with the bottom layer made of lolly cake, the middle was mud cake and the top one was banana cake. We also decorated it and it turned out to be perfect.
Highlight of our Day: The day was just perfect! The weather was perfect, the food was perfect, and the venue was amazing. Everyone went to such an effort to get dressed up and our guests looked stunning. We had all of our family present. People had travelled from Australia, Auckland, Hamilton, Christchurch, Central Otago and Twizel just to spend the day with us. There were no dramas and everything was just perfect. We had so muchhelp from some many family members before the wedding which made the day run so smoothly.
Photographer: My Aunty Rhonda Hooper did our Photos. Photography is a hobby of hers and she really wanted to have the opportunity to develop her skills and I loved having her as part of our day as it made it so much more personal.
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