Laura and Brayden
24 APRIL, 2021
‘
B Brayden and I met through the new-age “romance” of Tinder. I was living in Auckland and looking at jobs and planning the move to Christchurch and we got chatting. We finally met up and after a few dates we both thought we had friendzoned each other, but kept chatting. Then Brayden took me to lunch for my birthday and suddenly everything just clicked into place.
‘During a visit to our favourite café for our traditional tea and banoffee pie that we have shared since forever, Brayden had the staff hide the engagement ring in one side of the box of tea so when I opened it I was surprised. We joke that I never actually said yes because I was in such shock! We were building our first house together at the time and I knew that there would be no ring until the concrete was poured for the foundation, but suddenly it appeared so much sooner! We used the tea box it was hidden in as our ring box for the wedding.
‘Brayden had the staff hide the engagement ring in one side of the box of tea so when I opened it I was surprised. We joke that I never actually said yes because I was in such shock!’
‘As we’re both teachers, we knew we had to get married in the middle of the school holidays. Given we had no flexibility on dates, we looked at venues almost straight away. We wanted somewhere rustic and a bit more intimate since we were inviting just close friends and family. We decided on Langdale almost as soon as we pulled into the car park and walked over the bridge. ‘Our favourite wedding photograph was actually a total fluke! I was a bit worried about our first dance and wanted to test it out in my dress. Mel popped off to take a random few photos of the sky and snapped some sneaky photos of us practising the dance in a field and we both fell in love with it!
‘Our reception was super family orientated. So many inside family jokes and one-liners (some that shocked a few guests) and laughter, mostly at Brayden’s expense. My dad got his own back on the last 28 years but I thought I got off far more lightly than
Brayden. We also had plenty of advice from Brayden’s class at school and loved sharing this with everyone; now I’m Mrs “Jayjay” to them! The kids even made us a decorated B& Land their take on a horseshoe (a beautiful Marvel Avengers-themed heart since Brayden loves a superhero or two).
‘Thinking about the best moments of the day – I loved our first look. I had no nervousness about getting married whatsoever but I was terrified of being the centre of attention with 55 people staring at me and I felt that first moment was really private for us. Brayden’s first reaction and rawness just gave me so much confidence and put me totally at ease. Brayden says his favourite moment was when a horse neighed just as I was about to lose it part way through my vows which was the most perfect timing! Saved my emotions from getting away from me ◌ and was just hilarious!’
‘We decided on Langdale almost as soon as we pulled into the car park and walked over the bridge.’