Kitchen, who offer a very broad and detailed experience from their family catering business. We had canapés that were served shortly after the ceremony. The main wedding meal was sharing-style bowls for everyone to enjoy what they wanted. We incorporated an element from our Greece trip – stuffed vine leaves. Our evening food was another opportunity to incorporate something symbolic – chilli beans to reference when we started our relationship while making burritos. Wild Seed Kitchen did a great job to impress our guests who were initially a bit sceptical about a fully plant-based menu.” DRESSED TO IMPRESS “I donned a dark, embellished suit with navy elements from Rich & Famous,” says Artis. “It was a difficult choice between several suits that were amazing in their own way. My suit had a bit of a regal style, making me stand out as the groom, and it looked great with the jacket as well as without the jacket for dancing in the evening. I had cufflinks with shiny stones in a circle surrounding the hammer of Thor, which added a special symbolic meaning for my wedding. “Marite had two dresses,” adds the groom. “For the ceremony, she wore a pre-owned dress by Ronald Joyce, which was purchased from Bridal Reloved. Selecting the wedding dress was one of the most difficult parts of planning. After nearly giving up on finding the right dress, we finally chose it at the salon together. For accessories, Marite had lace gloves and long earrings. As the ceremony dress was quite restricting for movement, Marite had another dress for the evening. It was quite a simple dress in a nude colour with white lace that made it very easy to dance and enjoy the evening, which was very important as she loves dancing.” The couple asked their bridesmaids to choose their own style of dress. “The only thing we asked was that it was navy,” shares Artis. “Each of them had a corsage with burnt orange flowers and some decorative blueberries, which was a lovely accent.” TIME TO CELEBRATE “We hired garden games from Finickity Fayre for guests to play with at their own leisure,” explains Artis. “For the ceremony, we had The London Bagpiper, who also played during the canapés and that really impressed our guests. Hearing our chosen songs on the bagpipes created very special memories for us. “Ramona, a Celtic harpist, played beautiful melodies in the background during the meal,” continues Artis. “Some guests expressed that it made them feel like they were in a fairytale. For the evening, we had Ceilidh band, Bowstring, which was a great way to get our loved ones on the dancefloor. We had the idea to have a Ceilidh band so that everyone could get involved because it wasn’t necessary to be in couples. The band had a caller to keep everyone engaged.” MEMORABLE MOMENTS “From the early morning I was kind of anxious, realising that this amazing day will only last a few hours,” recalls the groom. “I enjoyed every minute of the day and I was oozing happiness from having my closest friends and relatives all meet each other and be there for us. The entire day was unexpectedly easy and relaxed for me, except for one moment just before the wedding meal. I was very stressed about performing my own original song about our relationship to Marite in front of so many of our closest people. I was so stressed that it made me mess up the guitar chords and I could barely sing, but I tried my best to bring out the story from the lyrics. “We were worried about having some drama on the day, but it turned out to be far from that – seeing so many of our people happy and immersed in the emotions of the day and their love and joy was what made our wedding truly magnificent,” adds Artis. “We all had a good laugh when we received the pictures and videos! All of our supplies were excellent and contributed to making our day special. The day would not have been as great as it was without them.” 43 REAL WEDDINGS
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