Third time lucky! BLOCK WINNER SAM'S PERFECT DAY

They had to postpone tying the knot twice, but the reality star and his bride finally celebrated in style on Waiheke Island

- Carmen Lichi

You could forgive The Block NZ's biggest-ever winner Sam Cable for thinking the universe was against him when it came to marrying his gorgeous fiancée Lydia Lawrence.

Not only did their 3 March Waiheke Island wedding day fall just weeks after Cyclone Gabrielle wreaked havoc on the North Island, but it was actually the couple's third attempt at getting hitched, with the pandemic forcing them to cancel their big day twice since Sam popped the question back in February 2020!

In the intervening years, the couple has bought a house and had a baby boy, Sebastian, who is now an adorable 18-month-old.

"It's crazy to think we've been planning our wedding since before Sebby even existed," marvels Sam, 36, now a bar owner and national operations manager for a gym chain. "And now the big day is finally here, nothing else can go wrong before the ceremony... Can it?!"

But this time, as 75 of their closest friends and family gather at stunning Spanish-themed vineyard and restaurant Casita Miro, beneath blue skies and a blazing sun, fate is well and truly on Sam and Lydia's side.

"It's like a scene from a James Bond movie with this crazy beautiful supermodel," says Sam of the moment his bride arrives - a vision in a silk, backless, slip-style Shona Joy dress, her long veil floating from an open-top silver Porsche, helmed by her racing-car driver stepdad Conrad Timms.

British-born Lydia, 27, whose family moved to Aotearoa when she was 12, then takes the arm of her mother Louise, walking down a picturesque pathway towards the restaurant doors as a string quartet plays one of the couple's favourite songs, Never Tear Us Apart by INXS.