Beach turned Historical House

Daniel & Kelly

When Kelly & Daniel's wedding day dawned, their dream of a beach wedding on Long Bay beach reserve was not to be, a light misty rain was blanketing Auckland. Luckily Kelly had done extensive planning and all key people were armed with comprehensive manuals with details of the wet weather option. The pre-organised phone/text tree went into place and all the guests were diverted to the new location of Alberton House.

This historical house, based in Mt Albert, is a gorgeous setting for a wedding and was beautiful in the rain. We all had to breathe in to fit in the room, but the large mirror behind the couple gave everyone a great view, although it did prove to be a videography challenge making sure we weren’t reflected in it!

In a personal touch, Daniel sang with guitar the song "You say it Best" by Ronan Keating as Kelly walked down the aisle. There was also a moment of "silence" whilst Daniel signed his vows to Kelly, who is an early childhood deaf education teacher.

Photos with friends and family took place in the garden, on the steps, and upstairs on the balcony. The historical location proved to be a beautiful setting for the photos.

Whilst Jai stayed with the Bridal party for their photos, Sarah travelled by bus with the guests capturing the unplanned sing-a-long on the way to Sorrento in One Tree Hill. "When we got to Sorrentos, we heard there’d been some singing on the bus. We would have liked to be part of it and obviously couldn’t. It was so neat getting to see it on the DVD."

The reception saw several musical highlights with Daniel, and fellow groomsman Wes, taking to the stage to perform with their band. Daniel serenaded Kelly with "Everything I do" by Bryan Adams, before the father of the Bride Roy took over the drums to belt out "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

In creating the DVD for Kelly & Daniel Jai was inspired by Daniel's rendition of "Everything I do" by Bryan Adams and the video clip for the original song. Jai combined footage of Kelly, from through out the day, to the song to give them their very own video clip.

Father of the Bride Roy also got his own video clip featuring him on drums. Although drumming is Roy's passion, and has been such a huge part of his life, he had no footage of him playing. He was very touched to have his own section of the DVD featuring him playing the drums on such an important day.

The DVD menu featured a shot of a window at Alberton House and the window was the frame for a montage of clips from the day.

Also included on the DVD was footage from the proposal which Daniel had filmed with a hidden camera.

From the beginning Kelly & Daniel were confident that the DVD would be all they wanted it to be - this came from the initial meeting. For Kelly this initial catch up was very important. "It gave us the opportunity to talk everything through. We were prompted about things we hadn't thought about. They also asked who all the key people were and wanted to know what was special to us, to ensure it was recorded. We felt so comfortable that it would all be okay - I didn't even feel the need to give them a manual!"

When the DVD was delivered there were a number of surprises, with footage Kelly and Daniel didn’t realise had been captured. "We felt so comfortable with Jai and Sarah we forgot they were even there at times. Being a husband and wife team was part of this. Sarah knew just what I was going through." says Kelly. "I would not have felt nearly as comfortable with a guy filming me getting ready. Also, because the boys were relaxed around Jai, he got some fantastic footage of them being silly in the lead up to the ceremony. They make a cool team."

Says Daniel "It was fun having Jai with us in the morning setting up, the funny interviews we had with each other that he recorded are one of my favourite bits. It's so great to look back and see all the things that happened especially the bus trip - it was just like being a fly on the wall!"

Just as the day was emotional, so too was watching it on DVD. "I cried when I watched it." says Kelly. "On the day, there was so much going on. Even though I tried to take it all in, you just can’t remember everything. You are also so involved in the wedding you don't realise you’ve missed stuff. When you see the footage, you get to relive it again, see the bits you missed or couldn’t be part of on the day. We've watched it lots of time and each time you notice something different."

In particular seeing the huge smiles on their faces reminds both of them of exactly what the day meant to them at that moment in time - and they get to remind themselves whenever they want!