Do You Take This House?

While planning his own wedding, our correspondent contemplated a commitment of a different kind.

My partner and I have decided to get married. Until recently this has been one of life’s rituals that had passed us by. However, the time suddenly seemed right and the question was asked appropriately – albeit casually – on the street outside Auckland Art Gallery. With this, a whole lot of things we’d never really contemplated came into play – most pressingly, where would this event take place? Hawke’s Bay, where we live a lot of the time, is overflowing with glamorous wedding venues, all requiring significant notice to secure a booking. After exploring a few options, we decided to get married at home.

Mention a home wedding and most people assume you mean a garden ceremony and reception at the house. The benefit of our house is that it includes a room, once a painter’s studio, that looks like a small colonial chapel. Getting married in a church-like space within our home, and dining in the garden in the first days of a Hawke’s Bay summer, seemed too good an opportunity to pass up.