Organising a wedding can be a trying experience at the best of times but when you're a native New Zealander living in London trying to plan your big day back in your home country then those stresses are bound to get ratcheted up a notch or two.

Looking at Jo and Blake's big day however and listening to what Jo has to say about the whole thing, you'd never have guessed that the whole shebang was planned from thousands of miles away. Because it is wonderfully perfect, filled with big smiles and the sweetest of rustic details; the beautiful result of a collaborative team effort.

I'm particularly drawn to the cliff top shots of the bridal party with the waves crashing in the background and the loving laughter shared between Jo and Blake in the nearby woods.

Everyone is so blinking happy and it shows.

Jo The Bride:As Kiwis living in London, organising a wedding back in New Zealand was a bit of a daunting task! We did the majority of our planning from London and were lucky to have friends and family back home willing to do a lot of the leg work for us. We like bright, fun and happy weddings so when we were looking at colours for the bridesmaids dresses the deep tangerine, coral colour of the strapless dresses we found fit the bill - it really stood out in the photos.

Blake wore a light grey suit to keep a summery vibe with dark brown shoes and belt to match. Finding accessories to match the colour of the bridesmaids' dresses was really hard so instead we utilised deep coral flowers as a "pop" of colour for the guys that tied in with the dresses.

My dress was found after many visits to different boutiques in London. I was looking for something light and a little bit different but still a proper wedding dress. The neckline, lace and detail of the Sincerity dress gave that wedding feeling without being too heavy and tied in beautifully with the vintage style of the wedding.

For our venue we knew we wanted to bring our guests to Raglan in New Zealand for our wedding as it is one of favourite spots. There are so many talented local people there so we were able to get most of our suppliers without going too far.

We collected many of the table flowers from my parent's farm and supplemented this with some bought flowers from the Hamilton Flower Market. My very talented and patient mum made all the bunting using old sheets and the beautiful curtain behind the cake using strips of leftover material. We collected old jars to hold candles and flowers on the tables and stood these on blocks of wood from the farm. Stems of rosemary accompanied the mismatched cutlery on the tables and we used Raglan Roast coffee from down the road for favours. We had lots of great nights catching up with family and friends while making the various components of the decorations. It's amazing what you can achieve with a bit of creativity and research!

We never had a set theme, just focused on things which we liked and reflected us as a couple. It all came together beautifully with a lot of happy helpers along the way. Guests were able to stay locally and everything they needed was in walking distance which gave the weekend a great relaxed feeling.

The Raglan District Union Church created an intimate ceremony with afternoon tea on the church lawn afterwards in the sun. We hosted the reception at the town hall, which we decorated from scratch. My sister Deb had spent six months researching and practising naked wedding cakes and produced the beautiful cake for our day - a carrot cake with mascarpone icing between which was a huge hit.

We kept the evening very relaxed with lots of delicious food, craft beer and New Zealand wines. Our first dance was based on ceroc moves which we choreographed ourselves and luckily pulled off without a hitch thanks to lots of cheering from the crowd. The evening moved on into lots of mingling and dancing and the dance floor never emptied which is always a good sign!

Photography by Anne Paar
Church Raglan District Union Church, Raglan, NZ | Dress Sincerity Bridal | Boutique London Bride | Shoes Rainbow Club | Groom's outfit Crane Brothers | DJ DJ Chris | Flowers Hamilton Flower Market.