The Watts Wedding

As Taylor Swift sang, “I like shiny things, but I'd marry you with paper rings”.

Our wedding could have looked many different ways and at the end of it all I’d have just been happy that I got to marry Gareth.

It just so happens that the wedding day we did have couldn’t have been more magical.

It was the icing on the (wedding) cake.

Cake made by our exceptionally talented friend, Lisa.

I’ve heard many people say that they would love to re-live their wedding day, to do it all over again. That post-wedding blues thing.

Remember on Friends after Monica and Chandler get married when Monica is sad because her wedding day is over and she’ll never be a bride again?

I truly thought I’d feel that way. It wasn’t so long ago I wrote about the feeling of nostalgia that I, and many others, get as chapters of life open and close.

So I get why the post-wedding blues is common. But for some reason, when I woke up on the 18th of February, as a wife, instead of wishing to relive that day over again, or being sad that I was “no longer a bride” I was just grateful for the most phenomenal wedding day.

Or maybe I was feeling a little dusty after the tequila and my judgement was clouded?

But seriously, we got so lucky in so many ways, and that culminated in the most magical day...

To set the scene, let me rewind to a little before the 17th of February, 2023.

For the first six weeks of the year it had basically rained non-stop. NZ had faced extraordinary flooding and even a cyclone.

So much for summer.

We had a number of our guests flying in from the UK and Australia and many of them had flight cancellations, diversions and delays due to bad weather.

Somehow, though, karma was on our side because come the 17th of February everyone had arrived (just) and it was a beautiful day, not a drop of rain in sight. It would be the only weekend in February that year to even see the sun.

And thank god, because Plan A was an outdoor cliff top ceremony.

I’ve always thought that weddings just have a different energy about them. They are my favourite kind of event to attend, with an excitement and buzz that just doesn’t happen at any other event I’ve experienced. Our wedding day would be no different.

I woke up that morning with a sense of excitement but feeling calm. As if it didn’t matter how the day went, I just got to marry my best friend, and everything else was a bonus.

I was in for one hell of a bonus.

The ceremony was light and fun, thanks to our wonderful friend and celebrant, Lenore. Emotions were running high, but somehow during the ceremony I managed to stop for a second and tell myself to soak it in. That moment, as I took a mental image, is forever a core memory.

After getting to spend a few minutes with our guests post-ceremony and take some group photos we headed down to the beach for the bridal party photos. This was so much fun, largely thanks to our amazing photographer Lionel and our brilliant bridal party.

The highlight, though, was the serendipitous arrival of two white horses. Two very kind people were riding along the beach and they stopped and offered for us to have some photos with their horses Cruise and Cinnamon. What absolute magic.

Then, having dumped half the beach’s sand out of my heels, it was time for the reception.

Time to get the party started.

We hadn’t intended to do a big bridal party entrance, as we’d planned to get back from photos in time to catch the end of the canapé hour and mingle with our guests a bit more.

But it’s funny how things work out for the best.

We were a bit later than planned and everyone was getting seated for the reception so we decided to do a fun entrance last minute. Thankfully, Jon our DJ knew his stuff and with his help we picked a song (Thunderstruck by ACDC) and all danced our way in while being introduced by Henry, our brilliant MC, friend and matchmaker.

It was a bit of fun and I’m so glad we ended up doing it.

Dinner was incredible, and was followed by speeches. I was the last to speak and really wished I hadn’t planned it that way because everyone else had spoken in such a way that was both heartfelt and hilarious, and I wasn’t sure I could come close to them.

But, I said my piece, and while doing so I was overwhelmed by the fact that we had so many of our favourite people under one roof. When you come from opposite sides of the planet it is a rare occasion to have (almost) everyone you love in one place, and that day is most likely the only time that will happen.

A huge number of our guests travelled from the UK and a couple from Australia to celebrate with us, and “grateful” doesn’t seem a strong enough word to describe how we felt to all of them for making the journey. As I said in my speech, “It’s not lost on us the effort you’ve gone to to be here today. We’ll never be able to thank you all enough, but we hope that the open bar is a start.”

With the formalities over, we snuck away with our photographer for some magical sunset photos. A friend (and guest) who used to work at the venue told us how rare it was to get such a spectacular sunset on a day like we had.

I guess when your luck is in, it’s in.

The rest of the night very much revolved around the dance floor.

Of course, we kicked things off with our first dance (to “In Case You Didn’t Know” by Brett Young, which is a song that we both love). From there we had a father/daughter and mother/son dance to “Stand By Me” by Ben E. King. I’d never been a girl who’d dreamed about and planned her wedding from a young age, but I always wanted to have this moment with my Dad and it was truly so special.

Then it was time to dance the night away, and that we did. Our brilliant DJ didn’t skip a beat (pun intended) and of course because we had the best wedding guests in the world they made that dancefloor something else.  I truly don’t know if I’ve ever had that much fun.

We will be forever grateful to our amazing friends and family for travelling from near and far and making our day what it was: magical.

I also need to mention our amazing vendors too, for without them our day wouldn’t have been what it was. If you are reading this and have a wedding coming up, or another event that you might be able to use them for, I cannot recommend these amazing people/businesses enough.

In no particular order:

• Venue: Castaways

• Photographer: Lionel Tan

• Hair Stylist: Sherrie of Messy Bun

• Make Up Artist: Bess of Bessie S

• Musician & DJ: Jon Pickford

• Wedding Dress: Natalie Rose Bridal

• Flowers: Dellrian Gardens

If you’ve made it this far in my recap of the greatest day ever, well done and thank you!

I already felt like the luckiest girl in the world because I got to marry my favourite person on the planet. To celebrate our marriage with the best people in a magical setting and have so much fun was more than I could have asked for.

That’s all for now,

Jordyn

“A wedding is an event but a marriage is a journey.”