Love was the winner on the special day
Awedding at Waikanae Park at the weekend gave new meaning to the term “rugby union”. Former Horowhenua-Ka¯piti hooker Keith Milligan and his wife Mandy exchanged vows under the goalposts immediately after a game of senior club rugby.
Milligan was still in his rugby boots, shorts and black-and-red striped Waikanae jersey when they said “I do”.
Waikanae had just won the match 40-32 against Foxton. Both teams performed a spine-tingling haka as Mandy was walked onto the field towards her husband-to-be.
“It was mind-blowing. There wasn’t a dry eye,” she said.
Surrounded by players and a large gathering of family and friends, they exchanged vows underneath the goalposts.
The couple, both aged 46, had been together for more than three years. Mandy knew Keith was rugby-mad, and loved that about him.
He had proposed with a rugby tackle on the couch at home. It was a legitimate tackle. There was no offside call. She said yes.
Keith said the idea of getting married under the goalposts after the game was his.
“It’s just something I had in my mind: under the posts in front of family and friends,” he said.
The couple had six children and four grandchildren between them. Mandy’s nephew drove her to the ground just as the fulltime whistle sounded.
Phil Butler from Toitoi Photography said he had captured many special weddings but none underneath the goalposts at a rugby ground. He said it was a wedding he would never forget.
“It was really neat. The haka made me jump,” he said.
Celebrant Hogan Gill from Happy Anchor Marriages was in his fourth season as a celebrant and said the ceremony went exactly as planned.
The couple flipped a coin to see who would say their vows first; Mandy vowed to have a cold beer in the fridge for Keith after practice.
Gill finished by saying “every one of us here wishes nothing but the best for your marriage and your futures and just as we are here today, your friends, your family and your teammates are here for you, will stand beside you, and will be behind you always”.
He said weddings seemed to becoming more personal as celebrations special and unique to the people involved.
Recently he dressed as a Jedi knight and married a couple who
were Star Wars fans.
“I was Hogi-Wan Kenobi,” he said. News of the Milligan wedding had spread on social media. It was filmed by Grass Roots Rugby, too, and would soon air on television.
Milligan had played rugby since the age of 5. He initially made his debut in the senior club competition for neighbouring club Paraparaumu in 1996 at halfback, in the absence of a senior side at Waikanae.
But he joined Waikanae with a resurgence of a senior side in 2001 and had played senior rugby every season since. He also played 104 games at hooker for HorowhenuaKa¯piti.
Early in his career he had a bad run of injuries. In 2000 he had a knee reconstruction and the next season ruptured an ACL ligament. Since then his body had held up remarkably well.
He planned to keep playing rugby as long as he could.
Milligan was a former wrestler who represented New Zealand at the Oceania Championships, and also qualified for the Olympics in 1996, but New Zealand didn’t send a team.
Mandy admitted to not knowing much about rugby before meeting her spouse “but I do now”, she said.
“I have become very accustomed to the yelling on the sideline.”
One item that was non-negotiable, though, was the wedding cake. The suggestion that it be shaped as a rugby ball was quashed, and it took a traditional form with white icing.
They honeymooned in Wellington. “It was absolutely amazing,” she said.