Getting married off-grid

After being together 15 years, and engaged for three years, Nicky and Andrew decided it was time to tie the knot at their lifestyle block at the foot of the Tararuas.

Why did you decide to have your wedding at home?It meant that we didn't have some of the constraints around a venue or have to be out by a certain time. We really just wanted to get our family and friends together celebrate and put on a good party for them. 

 Did you have to do a lot of preparation to the site? Our place is 20 acres,  we don't have a formal garden but we tidied it, pulled lots of weeds, and trimmed native trees. If you are planning a wedding in a paddock, my advice is don’t leave it to the last minute to pick up the cowpats!

 How did you get around being off-grid? There were a few practicalities to think about. The caterers (Blue Carrot) were super-chilled about it. They suggested all the things we would need. Once we had booked a celebrant, a tent from Stretch Tents, and had a generator big enough for the caterers and the music (Wedding Crashers)  we had the key factors locked in. 

 What style of wedding did you have?We wanted to keep it easy, relaxed and involve friends or family where we could. A friend took the photos, another amazing friend sang Nina Simone’s Feeling Goodduring the ceremony. The wedding car was a friend’s old Land Rover they decorated with a ribbon. And another friend has a cannon that he set off after the ceremony! Little things like that made it so special to us.

 What about the menu? Running off generators meant that food would have gone cold if we had a plate-and-serve meal for 120 guests so we had a buffet, including beef and paua provided by us. It worked perfectly running off gas burners. 

 How did you get guests around? We are out towards Mount Holdsworth, so we sorted buses through Tranzit to pick up people up from various motels. We had a bus bringing people up and two buses to drive everybody back. 

 The best thing about the wedding? The best thing about it was marrying Andrew. And it was really cool to get everyone together, you don't get many opportunities to get everyone together.

 Top Tip

Try not to get too hung up on the details or you could miss the fun, spontaneous things.