weddingfeature 27MahurangimattersMarch 2, 2016

whiteout FEATURE

More people than ever are making their way to the Mahurangi region to get married. Local wedding planners and suppliers say the boom in business reflects the fact that what this area offers in destinations, atmosphere and ambience happens to fit in perfectly with the way couples want to enjoy their weddings.At its simplest, that generally means less fuss, frippery and formality and, instead, there is much more emphasis on laid back, relaxed and country-style gatherings. The Stables restaurant manager Kim Wojcik says she is booking more and more weddings and country and rustic-themed weddings are increasingly popular.“People like using wine barrels – which is well suited as we’re in Matakana Coast Wine Country – and simple natural flora, like olive branches, ferns and tree stumps, accompanied by lots of candles,” she says.Wellsford-based chef Mark Townsend of iCater agrees. He says the marriage market is booming – he did as many weddings in January as he did in a whole season four years ago – and tastes are changing.“These days, things are more simple. Table settings are less cluttered, less

Region captures larger slice of wedding market

formal and less fussy, with more bold statements,” he says. “It’s all much more natural and rustic, which is quite localised. I see a lot more of it up here, there’s generally a more laid-back and cool vibe.”That feel extends to the food itself, with long table dinners and shared platters or bowls of food often replacing formal set menus with starched white linen.“People are getting wooden trestle

boards, wooden chairs, a lot more variety of items,” Mark says. “They want something tactile; the white tablecloths are disappearing and nice varnished tables coming in.” Ruby Lane Events wedding planner Nicola Jones agrees that the rustic, picnic-style country weddings are popular and will remain so, but says she is noticing new developments this season.“This year, there’s lots of metallics, continued next page

copper and rose-gold coming in for table settings,” she says. “The outdoor rustic will always be there, long tables are still really popular, with beautiful flowers, but people are trying to mix it up a bit more, with a candelabra, say, or rose-gold cutlery, or gold charger plates … it’s a bit of fun. People are also really getting into doing something fun with food, making their own cocktails and so on.”

Relaxed country weddings with a rustic feel, like this one at Matakana's The Stables, have become a regional speciality. Photo credit: I Do Photography

weddingfeature28 Mahurangimatters March 2, 2016

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One trend that seems to be well on its way out is wedding favours – those little handmade gifts for guests from the bride and groom. Mark Townsend said every wedding had them a couple of years ago, but few were bothering this season. “I think it’s because they simply get left on the table,” he says. “It’s quite heartbreaking to see all those nice things which must cost a fair bit just left behind.”When it comes to flowers, natural is the key word, from wild flowers in jars to swathes of greenery or olive branches on tables, and bigger, brighter flowers for bouquets.“Bouquets are more deconstructed, not the old classic compact bouquet, with lots of different types of flowers and colours,” Nicola Jones says. “And bridal parties are wearing a lot of mix and match colours too, so bridesmaids are not all in mauve, say, but different hues, picking up on colours in the bouquet – some groups are just a mass of bright colour. They look great.”Kim Wojcik agrees. “The new trend I’m seeing in bridesmaid dresses is each girl has the same dress style, but in a different colour. This looks so beautiful and a bit fun and different compared to the traditional bridesmaids wearing the same colour.”She says that, as for brides, each one is different. “But I guess if I had to sum it up from what I’ve seen, flowy lace is in, and the ‘poofy’ Cinderella-style is out.”

The one thing that everyone agrees on is that, while trends come and go, the most important thing for bridal couples is to be true to themselves.“The best weddings are the ones that reflect the bride and groom’s personalities, they’re the ones that really stand out, they’re the ones that feel real,” Nicola Jones says.“At the end of the day, people have really got to stick with what feels right for them – some of the ones they might see online aren’t even real, they’re photo shoot weddings – so you’ve got to keep your budget and your own style in mind.”

from previous page

Mixed flowers and colours are currently in.

Outdoor settings with a picnic feel are popular.

weddingfeature 29MahurangimattersMarch 2, 2016

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More couples are heading to parks, beaches and community halls to get hitched.Mahurangi celebrant Erin Sullivan says she has found ceremonies have become smaller and more couples are trying to cut down on costs, while having the ceremony in a place that is important to them.“I recently was at a wedding at Cotterell Street Esplanade Reserve in Leigh which was just beautiful,” Erin says. “The beaches at Mangawhai, Omaha and Tawharanui are also popular.“The average size is about 30 or 40 people, but I also have weddings of just a handful of people.”The informal setting doesn’t mean people dress down.“Flowers, hairdressers, and attire all still very important.”But alfresco weddings also have their challenges.“People don’t realise wearing four inch heels on grass puts stress on their legs. All I can do is watch as they sink into the grass during the ceremony.”Puhoi Centennial Hall has had a rise in wedding bookings, with an average of two a month and people are booking a year in advance to secure a spot.Hall bookings manager Maria Williams says couples often have the ceremony at the nearby regional parks at Wenderholm and Mahurangi West and even Puhoi Domain, and hold the reception and dance at the hall. The historic features of the hall are a drawcard.“The vintage-look is becoming

A wedding recently held at Matheson Bay Reserve.

Weddings a walk in the park

popular, with lanterns and candles, dried flowers and pearls, which works great with the matai and kauri interior,” Maria says.It costs $700 to rent the hall for a wedding, which has enabled the hall committee to do significant maintenance work in the community-run facility – the roof of the hall was repaired last year, costing tens of thousands of dollars.The Whangateau Hall is almost booked up during the summer months. Hall committee member Lynette Penney says they are fundraising to help extend the hall boundary so the hall can cater for more people more comfortably.“People aren’t allowed to drink in Whangateau Domain, so we need to extend the hall to give more room for celebrations.”It costs $100 a day to hire the Auckland Council-owned hall, but the hall committee has to fundraise to complete any work.Rodney Local Board has allocated $2000 towards the work, which will be finished by June.

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When immigrant ships arrived at the port of Auckland, young men would line the foreshore to view any single women as they came ashore. A wife was not only a useful helpmate and companion, she was also the means to acquire an extra 40 acres of land. The marriage of Henry Pulham (known as Harry) and Nicholas Darroch on 28th December 1854 is thought to be the first in the Mahurangi district. Marriage Bay, near Scotts Landing, was named to mark the occasion. The bridegroom’s father William Pulham wrote in his diary ‘Daldy (William C Daldy ) took Maria (Henry’s sister ) and Mr B the parson to Mahurangi to effect Harry’s wedding’. The marriage united two seafaring families and there are now hundreds of descendants. In colonial times it was usual for weddings to be held at the home of the bride’s parents. It was also usual for the bride to make her own dress by hand, delicately stitching tucks and lace insertions. A bouquet could be as simple as a bunch of white snowdrops with some fern. A coronet of orange blossom was considered to bring good luck and the throwing of rice over the couple was traditional. When Clara Grimmer married Evan Richards in 1876 she was the fifth

The Mahurangi wedding: a historywww.wwmuseum.orconhosting.net.nz

HistoryJudy Waters, Warkworth & District Museum

sister in the family to be married by Rev McKinney at Forest Home, Dome Valley. Clara lived to be 99 years of age and in an interview with the Herald she recalled her wedding day. The bridegroom had to ride 26 miles to get the marriage licence. During the ceremony the minister’s horse was frightened and bolted away down the road. Boys were sent in hot pursuit as Mr McKinney had another wedding to attend that day. Clara herself was undaunted by long horse rides and set off with

her new husband for Aratapu, near Dargaville, the site of their first home. Another intrepid bride was Eleanor Boler who married A N Steventon at Tauhoa in 1888. Immediately after their wedding the couple left to drive a mob of cattle to Auckland. The bride went on ahead with her brother and reached the destination in two days but the bridegroom took four days to complete the journey. By 1900 more formal church weddings were customary. In country areas a marriage was an occasion for

Double wedding of Olive Jackson and George Clark and Coralie Jackson and Arthur Coe at Mahurangi West, 1903.

You can read the full back catalogue of Judy’s columns

at localmatters.co.nz

celebration and the ceremony was often followed by a dance in the local hall, enjoyed by the whole community. Warkworth couples left for their honeymoon by the steamer or by train from Kaipara Flats. A decorated coach and four was considered an elegant way for them to be conveyed to the wharf or station. As time went by a shiny new automobile replaced the horse-drawn vehicle. The custom of tin-canning was widespread. Once a newly-married couple was settled in their new home their friends would arrive one night and make a deafening clatter outside by banging tin cans together until they were invited inside.PS I would like to thank all the people who have encouraged me to write the column over the last seven years. It is heartening to know so many share my interest in local history. Very special thanks to the staff of Mahurangi Matters who have always managed to make my stories look so good in print.PPS   Nicholas Darroch really was a lady, it is not a mistake.

weddingfeature 31MahurangimattersMarch 2, 2016

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With the feature of this edition being weddings, I thought I would focus on what a lot of newly married couple aspire to once the honeymoon is over. Kiwis have always been a nation of home owners. It’s a rite of passage to have the quarter acre paradise we call home, right?A quick glance at the statistics show home ownership rates have been steadily declining for the past 15 years and have declined more so in the past five years. In 1986 at the peak, 73.5 per cent of us owned our own home. This dropped to 53.2 per cent in 2006 and in the most recent census in 2013, this dropped to 49.8 per cent. As some commentators like to regularly quip “we are creating a generation of renters”.So how hard is it to get on the property ladder? Well, it is certainly has become harder, but not impossible. Like the major life decision to ‘get married’ requires some planning, so does the decision to buy a house. It requires some well thought out planning, some budgeting, some saving and some good financial advice to ensure you are on the right path. Over the past 27 years I have helped hundreds of couples achieve their goal of home ownership, but some don’t make it and give up on the dream far too early. The recent rises in our property market, the reserve bank rules requiring 20 per cent deposit, and the changes to the responsible lending code have made it more difficult than it’s ever been, but it still can be done. Getting a mortgage approved has become harder as the banks now look at your spending habits more closely than ever; you need to get your finances in shape before you apply! This is where a good financial advisor can help. We know what the banks look for and what they want to see. A local real estate agent tells me the average sale price for Warkworth in the last three months is $705,000. So to start with you would need a whopping $141,000 deposit to buy in our town! How long would it take to save this – years right! And you still have to pay rent while you save. The good news is that there are a number of ways you can reach home ownership sooner, it just requires some planning now, some creativity and perseverance. So if you want to get on the property ladder, here are the things you need to do. Sit down with a financial advisor and go over where you are now, what you want to achieve and set a path to get there. This will include things such as setting some savings goals, joining Kiwi Saver, paying off debt, reducing expenses, exploring if family can help with the deposit, be a guarantor or provide security for the loan (sometimes you can borrow 100 per cent with other security). Review your spending habits, conduct a bank account audit (find out where does your money go?), learn to operate without the overdraft or credit card and live within your means. If you regularly go overdrawn without an arrangement, miss loan or credit card payments, the bank will decline your mortgage for poor account conduct, so let’s get you in shape so they can’t say no! So what will it be, lifetime renter or homeowner?

Getting on the property ladder

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