Bridget and Joel celebrated their love with their friends and family at The Old Church. Photos from the day show the couple full of smiles and embracing every moment of their special day.
Bridget looked beautiful in her scoop neck floral jacquard gown, featuring a sculpted Basque-waist bodice and a full voluminous ball gown skirt. Bridget made the gown her own by adding buttons to the back and customising it with straps for a personalised touch.
We’re so excited to share a glimpse of their beautiful day and to hear from Bridget herself about her experience with Astra Bridal and her advice for future brides-to-be.
What was it that made this particular wedding dress catch your eye and fall in love?
I fell in love with the fabric first.
The floral jacquard had this beautiful softness and texture to it that felt incredibly timeless while still feeling modern and fashion-forward. I loved that the gown had structure and drama through the silhouette, but still felt understated and effortless at the same time.
I also loved how balanced it felt: romantic without being overly traditional, elegant without feeling too delicate or embellished.
The longer I wore it during the appointment, the more it felt like it perfectly matched the feeling we wanted for the wedding itself: intentional, warm, timeless, and quietly dramatic in places.
Most importantly, I still felt completely like myself wearing it, which was really important to me throughout the whole process.
Tell us about your search for the dress and the experience at Astra Bridal.
I actually went into dress shopping convinced I would choose something completely different. I imagined lace, sleeves, a high neckline, and something much softer and more traditionally romantic.
But the more dresses I tried on, the more I realised I was drawn to structure, shape, and beautiful fabric instead.
I visited a few bridal stores during the process, but Astra Bridal immediately stood out because the experience felt incredibly personal and thoughtful. At my first appointment, my mum and future mother-in-law had travelled from out of town, and the Astra team very kindly stayed late so I could try on my two favourite gowns together again. That level of care genuinely meant so much and made the whole experience feel relaxed and special rather than overwhelming.
Once I chose the gown, Astra also helped me customise it to feel even more like me. I added the buttons down the front and ordered extra fabric so straps could be made, which ended up becoming one of my favourite details of the dress.
The whole process felt collaborative, calm, and very intentional from beginning to end.
Tell us your story, how you both met, and the proposal.
Joel and I met in Wellington in 2017 after our flats accidentally collided at a shared birthday dinner for a Swedish engineer. It wasn’t some huge cinematic moment, just a noisy room full of big personalities, karaoke, and chaos. But somewhere in all of that, Joel made me laugh, and he honestly hasn’t stopped since.
We’ve now been together for nine years. Over that time, we’ve built a life through hundreds of ordinary but meaningful moments: shared homes, long-haul flights, great food, music, travel, and the kind of everyday experiences that slowly become a life together.
Joel proposed in October 2024 in the Arctic Circle under the Northern Lights. It was about 3am next to a frozen lake in Finland, in -11-degree weather. He spent the entire night subtly trying to convince me to take off my giant Arctic onesie because he knew the photos would look better, which, in hindsight, should have been suspicious.
The proposal itself was a complete surprise, including to the photographer, who started frantically readjusting camera settings while swearing in Finnish.
It somehow felt both surreal and completely natural at the same time, which honestly sums us up quite well.
What was your favourite part of the day?
Honestly, it’s very hard to narrow it down because the whole weekend felt incredibly special in different ways.
One of the most emotional parts was looking around and seeing every part of our world gathered together in one place. We had guests travel from all over New Zealand, Australia, England, Sweden, Germany, and the USA, and there was something surreal about seeing childhood friends, university friends, family, and people from completely different chapters of our lives all connecting with each other.
But my favourite part of the day was Joel. There were so many moments throughout the wedding where everything else seemed to disappear for a second and it would just be the two of us again: standing together during the ceremony, walking back down the aisle, laughing during speeches, or catching each other’s eye from across the room during the reception.
We’ve been together for almost nine years, so there was something really grounding about the whole day. It didn’t feel like a performance or some dramatic shift in who we were. It felt more like a celebration of the life we had already slowly built together over time, surrounded by all the people who helped shape it. I also loved how the atmosphere evolved across the weekend. The welcome dinner felt intimate and relaxed, the ceremony felt emotional and meaningful, and by the end of the reception, it had turned into a huge party.
One of the very last moments of the night ended up becoming one of the funniest. The DJ set had finished, the lights were up, and only the final stragglers were still hanging around when my Irish best friend and Maid of Honour decided she was finally going to fulfil her dream of doing “Rock the Boat”.
Our DJ was completely convinced nobody would know what to do or actually want to participate, while my Maid of Honour was equally convinced she could somehow rally the remaining guests into it. Against all odds, she was right. What started as a small group quickly turned into people fully committing on the dance floor, and it ended up being chaotic, hilarious, and genuinely one of the best moments of the night. It felt like the perfect slightly unhinged ending to a very joyful day.
Afterwards, once the last guests had left, our bridal party ended up sitting together, having post-wedding drinks, eating leftover wedding cake straight from a shared tray, and debriefing the entire day together. It was messy, hilarious, emotional, and oddly grounding after such a huge build-up.
Tell us about your wedding day as a whole.
We got married in Napier at The Old Church and designed the wedding as a full weekend experience rather than just a single day. We had a welcome dinner the night before, the wedding itself, and then a relaxed poolside gathering the following day.
The overall feeling we wanted was elegant but warm: something that still felt formal and beautiful, but never stiff or overly traditional.
The morning of the wedding was actually surprisingly calm. As a very type-A person, I had spent months planning every tiny detail, but right before the wedding, Alicia from Elegant & Wild stepped in to coordinate the day itself, which allowed me to completely let go and simply enjoy it all.
The ceremony felt emotional but was also full of laughter. Our siblings all did readings during the ceremony, which made it feel incredibly intimate and special.
As the evening went on, the atmosphere slowly shifted from a formal celebration into a much bigger party, which was exactly what we hoped for. There was incredible food, music, speeches, and so much laughter throughout the night.
More than anything, the whole weekend felt less like a production and more like all our favourite people gathering together in one place to celebrate with us, which ended up being the most special part of all.
Finally, what is your biggest piece of advice for brides to be?
I think weddings can very quickly become about performing what a wedding is supposed to be, so throughout the planning process, we kept coming back to one question: “Does this actually feel like us?”
That question ended up shaping almost every decision we made, from the structure of the weekend to the music, speeches, styling, and the overall atmosphere we wanted people to walk away with.
One of the biggest things we learned is that weddings don’t have to fit neatly into one category. We loved incorporating certain traditional elements, but we also gave ourselves permission to reinterpret others or leave some behind entirely. Choosing one classic aspect doesn’t mean every other decision has to follow the same formula.
Some parts of our wedding felt very timeless and formal, while others were relaxed, modern, and a little chaotic in the best way. Allowing ourselves to balance both made the weekend feel much more personal, layered, and reflective of who we are as a couple, rather than what we thought a wedding was supposed to look like.
By the time the wedding actually arrived, all of those decisions had quietly shaped an atmosphere that felt incredibly natural and grounding. Nothing felt like we were trying to perform a version of ourselves. It just felt like us, surrounded by everyone we love.
And lastly, if you’re marrying the right person, the entire day feels surprisingly grounding. Underneath all the planning, flowers, seating charts, and colour palettes, you still get to end the night married to your favourite person, which makes all the chaos worth it.
