Caitlin and Liam tied the knot at the charming Uruti Church, surrounded by their loved ones. Their day was filled with love as they cherished every moment of their special celebration.
Caitlin looked stunning in Harlem by Maggie Sottero, a fairytale A-line dress adorned with whimsical floral lace over a sweetheart-shaped bodice and a dreamy full tulle skirt. The off-the-shoulder design adds a lovely touch of romance to this exquisite gown.
We hope you enjoy scrolling through their day and gain insight from Caitlin about her experience with us at Astra Bridal and her journey to finding the perfect wedding dress.
What was it that made this particular wedding dress catch your eye and fall in love?
I always knew I wanted something princess like, quite ballgown-esque. There are plenty of options out there, but none had the right feel. Some I’d seen on SO many other brides already or the quality didn’t feel great. Nothing seemed to combine all the elements I wanted - until I got to my gown. It had all the right things going for it, and it just looked amazing on. It wasn’t the big "YES" I expected, but in the following days, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Tell us about your search for the dress and the experience at Astra Bridal.
After looking locally and not really finding anything, Hamilton was the next obvious choice. After looking online, I booked an appointment with Astra Bridal. We drove up from Taranaki the morning of the appointment, and decided to head to The Base first for some shopping. Lo and behold, we got stuck in the carpark with millions of other cars trying to get out of the carpark! After half an hour, I was in tears and rung the ladies in a panic because we were now going to be late and might miss the entire appointment. Fortunately, this wasn’t a problem; we eventually made it, just half an hour late. Once I’d calmed down, the appointment went smoothly as I tried on many dresses. Khym was a whiz at finding dresses that had all the best features in the hopes of helping me find the right one. I didn't fully decide that day, leaving with two options but leaning heavily toward the one I eventually chose. A week later, we were going to be driving past, so we called in to try on #1 again, and my heart was set! From then on, the process was super easy, and the dress arrived a few months before the wedding. I travelled back up to Hamilton to pick it up when it arrived.
Tell us your story, how you both met, and the proposal.
We’ve been together since I was 16, and we've been together for 9 years now. We had known each other since we were 12/13, and we even ‘went out’ for three months, seeing each other maybe three times in total since I went to school in town and we didn’t live near each other. We didn’t have much contact until Liam messaged me in 2014, telling me he was going to be my new neighbour! We hadn’t seen each other for a few years, so this was out of the blue. We got chatting, and after nearly a year of messaging on Facebook, we gathered up the courage to meet again properly. There was no stopping us after that; we became boyfriend and girlfriend soon after, and we attended my Year 13 ball together.
I moved away for university, but we had no intention of breaking up. After three years of long distance, I moved back home and started working, living apart again for a year while I commuted to Hamilton each week for work. A couple of years later, Liam FINALLY proposed on my birthday, casually rolling over in bed after saying goodnight to ask if we should get married. I said something like, "Well, yeah, that’s the whole reason we're together, isn’t it?" (we’d had this conversation before) and went back to scrolling through Facebook, until I realised this time was different and he was seriously asking me to marry him! After confirming that he was indeed asking me to marry him, and of course saying yes, he said, "We'll go find a ring then, and then we’ll tell people." And that was that, really!
What was your favourite part of the day?
There were so many parts to choose from! A highlight would have to be walking into the church to find Liam already in tears, and then our reading, These Hands, which we’d chosen to be read by our minister, with everyone holding hands around us.
Tell us about your wedding day as a whole.
The day started off with rain, and it kept raining until after the ceremony. This made getting from A to B a bit more challenging, as I didn’t want to get my beautiful dress dirty or wet! The ceremony was beautiful - short and sweet, with lots of tears from everyone. We followed it up with family photos in the church due to the rain.
Heading off for our bridal party photos, the rain had somewhat stopped, but we used umbrellas whenever it got heavier. By this point, my dress was pretty wet, but there wasn't much we could do about it. When we arrived back to our reception, the sun had come out! We got some amazing photos after dinner and speeches, with the sun setting behind us, which was such a nice surprise after such a wet day. We partied with friends and family into the night and danced our hearts out until early the next morning.
Finally, what is your biggest piece of advice for brides to be?
Don’t stress about the things you can’t control, like the weather, traffic, people etc! We had lots of small disasters the morning of the wedding, but I didn’t let them get in the way of the big picture of the day! Nothing that happened was within my control, so it was best just not to worry about it at all.
