Introducing Kirsty and Mike

Stuff's wedding of the week

BY GREER MCDONALD

No amount of rain was going to dampen celebrations when artworker Kirsty O'Dowd, 31, married Mike Drummond, 44, at River Lodge in Reporoa. 

How did you meet? We worked together at a printing company in Wellington. It was a bit taboo because Mike was my boss, so we tried to keep it quiet for a while but once we told everyone nobody was shocked, so we can't have been hiding it very well!

Tell us about the proposal: Mike and I had only just faced a very hard decision which meant he moved to Northland and I stayed in Wellington. We were still very much in love so it was a hard thing to do and we weren't sure what the future held.

A few weeks later, Mike still came with me to my best friend's wedding, and later on that night he snuck some flowers outside to sit on a fence post and then came inside to ask me if I wanted to go for a walk "under the stars" with him. We ended up by the flowers, where he got down on one knee and told me he couldn't live without me, and he wanted to make me his wife.

It was very sweet and emotional, but we didn't tell everyone straight away so as not to take anything away from my friend's wedding!

Location of wedding: We got married at the River Lodge, in Reporoa. It's about halfway between Taupo and Rotorua, and it's right on the Waikato River. We have friends who manage it, and we went to their wedding there a couple of years ago.

We realised it was such a beautiful location for a wedding that we decided to have ours there. It meant everybody could stay the night and then all have breakfast together the next day too.

Describe your wedding day: Mike, along with his groomsmen and his son arrived by boat on the river, to where the guests were waiting on the jetty. Ten minutes later I was about to leave, with my bridesmaids and Mike's daughter, and it started raining!

When we could see it wasn't going to pass, we moved the ceremony inside, amongst a heap of flickering candles, and it was magical. We'd personalised our vows, and included Mike's three children in our ceremony. While we were getting our photos taken, the guests were given bubbles and canapés while they waited.

At dinner, we had very entertaining speeches, with many laughs. I was worried we had too many people doing a speech, but I had a lot of guests telling me afterwards that they wished the speeches went for longer! After dessert, Mike and I performed our first dance which went down very well with the guests (see highlights below).

We had a band (The Relatives - www.therelatives.co.nz) play for the next few hours, and I didn't see the dance floor empty once! They were so well received, and no one wanted them to finish, which they finally had to do at 1am, after several encores! Most of the guests stayed the night at the lodge, which was nice because it meant we were able to have breakfast with them the next day.

The dress: It's a Maggie Sottero gown from Astra Bridal in Takapuna and it was about the 20th dress I tried on! This one was a standout winner though.

It's a fitted A-line gown with corset closure featuring a notched sweetheart neckline and crystal beading. It included a very elegant bolero which I wore for the dinner. I did blow my budget on the dress however, which I did admit to Mike, and even he said the day after the wedding that it was worth every cent which surprised me!

I also wore a floor length veil, which is a drastic change from my initial idea of not wearing a veil at all. But it finished the look off and looked amazing. 

The flowers: Vicci and Sally from Bloomin' Flowers in Taupo spent a lot of time working with me and helped me decide on my flowers.

In the end the flowers were even better than I could have imagined. I had a teardrop bouquet of white roses with crystals as accents, and the bridesmaids were holding parasols so they each had a wrist corsage consisting of gorgeously deep red roses and black feathers.

Highlight of the wedding: When I was walking down the aisle towards Mike my heart was hammering in my chest, I was so nervous and excited. Then when I got closer to Mike I could see his bottom lip was wobbling and the tears in his eyes. I was so touched.

When I was by his side he leaned in and told me that I looked absolutely stunning, and he had such raw emotion in his voice, it was very sweet.

My second highlight would be when Mike's three kids stood up to do a speech together. Oscar (12) was so sweet and talked about how much fun we have together, then Baylie (9) said she couldn't wait until she could fit into and borrow my clothes, with a little help from some socks stuffed down her top! She was so happy she made everyone laugh!

Then Stacey, Mike's oldest daughter at 22, talked about how I was like her big sister and that she loved us both so much and was so happy that her dad had found someone he couldn't live without. She choked up at the end, and I was crying, along with most of the people in the room!

But I can't talk about highlights without mentioning one of my favourite moments, which was our first dance. It was a medley, starting slow, breaking into rock n roll, then finishing with Lady Gaga. The guests went crazy when we started dancing to the Lady Gaga part, the clapping was almost drowning out the music, and I couldn't stop smiling! Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvRHVWMvvV4

Was there any drama? The 22nd of January was the start of the rainstorms we had that lasted a couple of days and caused flooding around the North Island. In fact, our ceremony was at 2.30pm, with the boys arriving by boat, and the rain started at 2.40pm, just as my bridesmaids and I were about to walk down the field!

The staff at the River Lodge were brilliant and got everyone inside before they got wet and we waited ten minutes for it to pass. Obviously it didn't! So they set the ceremony up inside and lit candles and made it look absolutely magical. In the end I'm actually happy that happened because there was something more intimate and special about it being inside amongst all the flickering candles. 

My only other drama was the night before the wedding, instead of getting a good night sleep, I was up every hour with a tummy bug! The last time I woke was 6.30am and I had no idea how I was going to get through the day, I couldn't eat or drink anything and I could hardly stand up straight. I went to a chemist and the pharmacist there was my hero. He gave me what I needed and about an hour later I was feeling better! I can't thank him enough. I still wasn't up to celebrating with a wine like everyone else, so I stayed on the water all day! But at least I wasn't sick!

The honeymoon: On Sunday night after the wedding, Mike and I drove to Rotorua and stayed at WaiOra Lakeside Spa Resort for the night. We were greeted with bubbles and a cheese platter, and had a beautiful dinner. In the morning we had breakfast, then a divine couples' massage. It was the perfect start to our honeymoon.

A couple of days later we flew to Rarotonga where we spent seven blissful nights, drinking cocktails, reading on the beach and just relaxing and enjoying each others company.

Your photographer and favourite photo: Our photographer was Shay Hulsebosch from Tauranga helped by his lovely wife/assistant Kat. Shay is amazing, not only in his photography skills, but he was so friendly and patient, no matter what happened (ie bucketing down), and was an absolute pleasure to have there, as was Kat who was so lovely and helpful.

Now that I've seen the photos I'm surprised at the number of them where I had no idea he was even photographing us, he was very discreet and there are some lovely candid shots. Our favourite photo is of us with the wedding party on the jetty, where the umbrellas are all held high in the air. You can tell we were having a lot of fun.

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