A GRAND COALITION
GO INSIDE THE STUNNING WEDDING OF CHRIS AND JENNA
Chris Bishop’s fairytale wedding
The MP for Hutt South, Chris Bishop, was taking in the picturesque Tuki Tuki Valley in Hawke’s Bay, nervously getting ready for his official wedding pictures when his gorgeous bride appeared.
Jenna Raeburn, his partner of nine years, simply said,
“Turn around”.
“I was like, ‘Really, can I do it now?’” says Chris (35). “I had no clues about what the dress would look like. We did the photos before the ceremony, so that’s when I first saw Jenna. She was just beautiful.”
Chris and Jenna (31) opted to get their official portraits done first, so they could bask in the glorious summer weather with friends and family.
“We were both like, ‘We want to be in the party. They can’t do it without us!’” laughs Jenna.
“After the ceremony, we had beautiful canapés and cocktails in the sun on the grass by the river. You could see Te Mata Peak and all of our favourite people were there.”
Both the National MP and Jenna, who heads regulatory affairs at Wellington Airport, wanted their wedding to really reflect them as a couple.
“My mum and dad’s wedding, although it was obviously a happy day, there are a few things that still rankle even now, 37 years later. So we were pretty determined to have our wedding done our way. So many have said about our wedding, ‘It was just so you two,’” says Chris.
Jenna adds, “That’s the cool thing about modern weddings. Quite a few people of an older generation say, ‘When we got married, there was one way that you did it. You just went to the church, got married and had a reception. Our day was exactly what we wanted and our parents were amazingly helpful!”
Chris and Jenna agree that the vows they wrote themselves were a highlight of the day.
“We both planned them secretly and hadn’t shown them to each other,” says Chris. “The only thing we’d agreed on was a bit of a structure – three things we love about the other person, three things they have changed in us and then three things we promised to do. It actually worked out perfectly. I just started crying.”
“We both did,” says Jenna. “We don’t talk about feelings a lot. So to really think about it and say it out loud in front of all those people was just overwhelming.”
The ceremony included the readings Why I Changed My Mind About Marriage, by Jill Filipovic, the lyrics to Somebody by Depeche Mode, and an excerpt from The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman, to reflect their thoughts on marriage and their own interests – media, feminism, alternative rock and fantasy literature.
As a special tradition, during the ceremony they nailed shut a box containing copies of their vows, the order of service,
the menu, wedding invitation and three bottles of wine. The three bottles symbolise places and years of importance to them, and they intend to drink the wines on their fifth, 10th and 15th wedding anniversaries.
The first bottle, a Torbreck RunRig 2006, has special significance. Chris intended to drink it with Jenna when he popped the question in Mexico last year. But he had to move the restaurant reservation as Jenna was suffering from an horrific stomach bug. When they finally went out to dinner, Jenna wouldn’t let him order it.
“We’d just had a big argument, I was really sick and I was like, ‘Why would we order this incredibly fancy bottle of wine?’ For some reason, he proposed at the end of the meal, rather than the beginning!”
The newlyweds, who met at a debating society in law school, obviously have a lot in common. They’ve both done law degrees and have a strong interest in politics. At one point, after making their relationship work long distance for a couple of years while Chris was based in Auckland, their lives existed within a 100-metre radius.
“We lived across the road from Parliament and we were both working on the seventh floor of the Beehive – I was working for Steven [Joyce] and Jenna was working for Gerry [Brownlee]. Our offices were 10 metres away,” he explains.
What makes their union work, says Jenna, is ‘we have a lot of the same interests but we don’t necessarily agree all the time’.”
“She’s really wise counsel,” Chris points out. “Sometimes I take her advice and sometimes I don’t, but I’m always better off for hearing it. She’s my best friend. Every day is better with her in it.”