A Raining Coromandel Wedding

David & Katrina

David & Katrina chose Pauanui as the location for their wedding, a logical choice as Katrina's parents live there. Unfortunately, the weather could only be described as shocking and it definitely threw up a few challenges to the day's plans.

Whilst the boys tucked away some nice food from the Lakes Resort and chatted the morning away, the girls prepared for the day armed with a lot of hairspray and hair pins!

Shortly before 11am bridal preparations halted as a wedding message was read out on Coromandel FM for Katrina and David. Despite some interesting pronunciation of their surnames, it was still a really neat moment.

Prepped and ready to go from the neck up, the girls headed back to Katrina's parents to finish getting ready. As the rain was not easing, there were mad dashes inside to avoid the hair & makeup getting wet. The bridesmaids in their black satin strapless dresses with pick jewellery and roses in their hair looked stunning, as did the flower girl in a gorgeous white dress with black trim.

The arrival of the stretched black limo from Lincoln Limousines saw another mission to avoid the rain. With Dad armed with a large outdoor table sun umbrella, and the driver with another golf umbrella, they teamed up to get the girls to the limo.

After a further challenge of getting the limo to the front door of the church, the ceremony commenced in front of 80 friends and family. The signing of the licence was accompanied by Katrina's cousin singing the song "If". The minister then pronounced them husband and wife.

While the bridal party braved the weather for their photos, the guests headed to the Lakes Resort for a celebratory drink and hors d'oeuvres.

The Lakes Resort provided a striking venue with its large windows overlooking the Lakes Golf Course. Although it was raining outside it was beautifully warm inside and the view could not have been more spectactular.

With the arrival of the couple, all the guests headed out to the entranceway for a group photo. It was then time for the reception to begin. The food was amazing, the speeches touching and once dessert was out of the way, the party really began, with David and Katrina stepping out for their First Dance. The whole day was a fabulous celebration and everyone certainly kicked up their heels and rocked out to them music!

For Katrina, having Jai and Sarah filming their big day was natural. "Jai and Sarah just fit into our day so perfectly. In one respect I did't even notice them there. Sarah was a great help during my preparation stage and Jai helped calm Dave's nerves before the service. They are both so easy to get on with its like having two more friends at your wedding."

"It was very moving reliving the day on the DVD. We were very impressed with the footage and even how the DVD was formatted." says Katrina. She was especially touched by the Photo Montage set to the song "If". "It was such a beautiful piece of footage that seemed to fit the piece of music brilliantly. We had been really unsure about the photo shoot as we hadn't banked on it being such a wet day! We had all these great ideas of where we could have photos taken if the weather was nice, but we didn't really have back up plan if it was wet. This meant I was unsure what the photos would turn out like, with the quick back up plans put in place, but Jai had some great ideas during our photo session and he didn't even mind getting soaked so he could capture the footage."

Their family and friends loved the DVD. "We had to order more and more copies to send to friends and family!"

For Katrina and David the finished DVD was well above their expectations. "It was wonderful to re-visit the day on film, especially as the day goes by so quickly that its hard to take everything in on the day. It was great to see what was happening when we were off taking photo's and watching what we both got up to before seeing each other at the church." It has been interesting for them seeing the reaction of couples who have watched their DVD. "Seeing our DVD really showed what having a wedding video is all about, they all wished they had their day filmed as well!"

Katrina believes that anyone contemplating spending the money on a videographer shouldn't think twice about it. "At the end of the day its money well spent, photo's are a lovely memento, but a DVD brings life to those memories. It also meant so much that guests who were unable to attend didn't miss out, as they got to experience our day watching the DVD. It's also going to be neat to be able to show our children what our wedding day was like."

"We can highly recommend Jai and Sarah."