Hoppily ever after: Beervana nuptials
Raise your glasses and take a swig of beer for the first couple to get married at one of Wellington’s biggest beer events.
Lower Hutt couple Dan Smith and Judy Horsburgh swapped rings yesterday afternoon, surrounded by the clinking of beer glasses and the chatter of happy punters at Wellington’s annual Beervana festival.
‘‘When this came up, we said why not?’’ Smith said. ‘‘It just seemed right.’’
Getting married at the festival made perfect sense for the couple. They arrived back in New Zealand after living in Australia on August 8, 2015 and looked at Beervana as their anniversary.
The couple had attended the beer festival for the past few years and it made perfect sense to roll straight from their wedding ceremony to a reception with hundreds of beer on offer.
Horsburgh, who will be keeping her maiden name, said the two met 121⁄2-years ago in Antarctica. She was working as a marine biologist, researching seals, while Smith was working as a builder.
Marriage had been on the cards for a while, with Horsburgh saying she knew it was only a matter of time before she got the proposal.
It turns out that proposal was less than a week ago on Muritai Beach in Eastbourne.
‘‘She knew what was happening when we drove to the beach,’’ Smith said.
He didn’t have a ring ready, so he proposed with a piece of shellfish shaped like a ring he had been carrying around for a while.
Both Smith and Horsburgh admitted having a beer or two before the actual ceremony, to calm their nerves. Their wedding itself went off without a hitch, though.
The couple were married at brewery Garage Project’s stand. To celebrate the reimagining of their discontinued beer, Death From Above, the brewery decided to go all in on love and offer vow renewals and wedding ceremonies at Beervana.
Garage project co-founder Jos Ruffell said they wanted to celebrate all things love, as they renamed the beer Demus Favorem Amori – which roughly translates to ‘‘we choose love’’.
He also said the brewery had lined up one or two wedding presents for the couple, with some drinks, as well as a cake.
Smith and Horsburgh won’t be the only ones living in wedded bliss by the time this year’s Beervana festival is over.
Three more couples signed up to get married over the weekend and another five couples were planning to renew their vows.