Mitch & Lydia’s Markovina Wedding

Wedding Photography by Amber

Mitch and Lydia’s Markovina wedding ceremony was held in front of the beautiful stone fire place. However, they started their day by taking a moment just the two of them. They had a first look, and then said their vows to one another in private (see below). These moments together are so important, so we encourage taking as many private little moments together as possible. Lydia and Mitch share below some advice for our future couples.

What is your favourite memory of the day?

We don’t know if we can pick one! The whole day was amazing. We were really lucky to have everything go smoothly and we honestly wouldn’t change anything about the day. 

What surprised you on the day? 

How much joy everyone felt! It’s often said that a wedding day is YOUR day, and while that’s true in some ways, it was amazing to see how the day meant to everyone else. We were so lucky to be surrounded by all of our favourite people and seeing their happiness too!

What was one thing you wish you had known before planning your Markovina wedding? 

We were warned about how fast the day goes, but it wasn’t until it was happening that we understood! We think savouring both the moments of planning, and the actual day is important, and wish someone had told us that sooner. While planning can get stressful, it’s also helpful to think about how special being able to plan a wedding is. Once we realised that, we were able to enjoy the ride more. We also built some fun memories into the planning phase, like doing our cake tasting on Valentine’s day and taking a weekend trip to Nelson to visit Good Gold and choose our wedding bands.

What’s your advice for future couples? 

Do what makes you happy! We knew that having some time just one-on-one was important to us, so we stayed together the night before, and then got ready separately. We then did our first look, and used that time to exchange personal vows just the two of us (and our lovely photographer and videographer!). Having that moment really helped ground us before heading to the ceremony, along with the time spent taking photos. This meant we had quality time on the day. 

What is your favourite photo and why? 

It’s fantastic that our favourite photo came from a sudden change of plan. Due to the weather on the day, there wasn’t an opportunity for the sunset photos we had planned – but Amber, Jared and Zahn came up with a great alternative and we got some beautiful twilight photos instead. Our favourite photo is of us standing between two trees and illuminated from behind with a smokey background. It felt like such a private, cosy, content moment, and you see it captured in the photo so well. It was also just before our first dance – we even practiced our steps out on the field before heading back in – so the photo has a lot of great memories. 

Keep scrolling to see how Lydia and Mitch’s Markovina wedding unfolds, beginning with their first look in the gardens at the Vineyard Cottages.

Vendor Shoutout:

We were so lucky to work with such an amazing team of people!

A big shoutout of course goes to Perspectives! They not only captured all those special moments so wonderfully, but their advice for how to manage the day was invaluable.

The team at Markovina were so lovely and accomodating. We felt so taken care of, knowing they had everything under control meant we could simply enjoy the day.

Libby from Love & Liberty was the perfect celebrant, and we’re so grateful to her. She guided us on how things worked through out the day, and created the ceremony we wanted.

Big thanks also to The Lost Flower Shed, Good Gold, Alma J Bridal, Tailor Made Suits, Made-up by Ruth, DJ Si, and Sweet Bites Cakes, who made our day what it was.