The Wedding Series.

Not only am I obsessed with baking yummy things but even though mine is now over I'm also still completely obsessed with weddings.  So much so that I have started a correspondence course to become a wedding consultant. I couldn't think of anything that would be more fun, challenging and exciting. Hopefully as I make my way through my course I will learn how to run such a business successfully. I already have many ideas for what type of business I want to run, and I certainly already have the organisational skills. I just need the business fundamentals and the communication skills.  

Anyway the reason I wanted to start my Wedding series was to give guidance for other brides out there who are also organising their own weddings. Although a lot of people were keen to tell me how stressful it is trying to organise a wedding, it can also be so fulfilling making your own wedding dreams a reality!

The first and most important decision for me was the wedding Venue. We had some criteria that we wanted met:

• Could fit around 100 people for a seated dinner
• Preferably somewhere where we could have the full ceremony and reception
• Had plenty of photo opportunities
• Had a decent sized dance floor
• Had some unique qualities
• Would fit within our budget

I researched many different places and they were all very nice, however nothing was really grabbing us. I had been to a wedding of a friend of ours a few years earlier and although it was important to me that we have as unique a wedding as possible, I decided to go and have another look at this venue just for comparison if nothing else.  

• The venue can fit up to 140 people seated at a dinner - certainly more if you are just after a cocktail evening. 
• It certainly has plenty of photo opportunities, we certainly didn't run out of ideas on the day. 
• It can cater for indoor or outdoor ceremony or just the reception if that's what you would prefer. The major decision on having both at the same place for us was more time to mingle with our guests and play with all the areas for photos.  
• It was definitely unique with the beautiful indoor setting and the dance floor was brilliant. I've been dancing since a very young age so its always been a dream to have an amazing wedding dance. Although my partner isn't a dancer per say he is definitely a mover and we had great fun learning/choreographing (with the help of the NSDC) our dance. 
• Finally fitting our budget - it probably was slightly more than we initially intended on spending however this venue was definitely the best for what you paid. The per head price included your main dinner, canapes/nibbles, dessert, cutting of the cake, all the beer and wine you could drink (responsibly) and the resident DJ.

The minute we walked into the gardens though we both had the same thought 'This is it!'. The venue had been hugely improved upon in the years after our friends wedding and was just perfect for the atmosphere we wanted to create. It is called 'Markovina' and is based in Kumeu.  

Their website doesn't quite do the justice to the venue as it should. Usually you look at venue pictures and they are 100 times better than the venue itself when you go to view it in real life. This is the opposite.

I have some photos here but again they really don't do it justice - hopefully you will get a better idea of the potential of this venue. They are also available for corporate or other private functions.

This is the area where our ceremony took place. There are several other options around the venue however this is the most common as it is already well set up. In the centre is a platform which sits out over the pond.  The pond has a wine barrel waterfall and several fish. 

This is another area with a larger pond, has a lovely Nz style sculpture in the background. This is another area you can have the ceremony - I was quite keen on this in the beginning however for ease of organisation we decided to go with the previous area. This area was not built when we came to our friends wedding several years earlier.

 A closer shot. 

 There is a little path that goes around this pond area and great for some photos over the tiny waterfall.

The garden walkway going around the new pond.

 Another pond with lovely lamps that can be switched on at twilight for some gorgeous photos.

 An old horse cart 

The front walkway - this is where the guests get their first impressions - its just lush with beautiful trees, plants and birds singing away.

Finally a picture of inside the venue. Again this photo does not do it justice at all. It has not been set up for a venue so is looking a bit bare but you can see the beautiful vines (real) as well as the fairy lights wrapped around the poles, which also make their way through the vines. It created an absolute magical atmosphere - I will eventually post some pictures of our actual night so you can see the difference.