My wedding day proved a great chance for me to put my money literally where my mouth is and back local Wellington food businesses.
It was very important to me to champion Wellington businesses while I was preparing the food and drink for my wedding reception, from the cake through to the carafes of wine. Although we hosted a Greytown wedding, I always knew I wanted to mash up Wellington-Wairarapa food and drink suppliers for our big day. I’m fortunate enough to have interviewed almost 170 Wellingtonians over the years. In doing so, I’ve gotten to know some great small-to-medium-sized business owners and built up some wonderful, genuine relationships. Yet while I’d always enjoyed talking to these incredible business people, it felt important to honour those relationships and one day really support them in some big way.
Finally, the perfect opportunity arose to serve some of these great business people by ordering from them for my wedding. Naturally, I would have loved to have worked with even more businesses but I had to pick and choose (not an easy job!).
The original inspiration for our wedding vibe came from Matt and I discussing having the Greek Food Truck cater our wedding while we were visiting Mykonos in 2018 because we so enjoyed eating Greek food. I then toyed with the idea of having a wedding at a venue where we didn’t find ourselves locked into a contract with a specific supplier because it would let me mix and match food and drink, showcasing the best of Wellington’s amazing and creative wine, beer and treats. This proved to be perfect for us - and as such, I used the brilliant suppliers below.
JULIETTE FLORIST
Karen from Juliette Florist is someone I really love because she is incredibly easy to get on with. She also has an incredible ability to pull together a range of different flowers and make a gorgeous, eclectic yet cohesive bouquet. From the start, I knew I wanted Karen to do my flowers because she has always supported me and my blogging efforts. This meant a great deal to me and I knew we’d be able to come up with something stunning by putting our heads together.
Karen and I started with the central hydrangea theme that threaded through the whole wedding. I explained that I really wanted a country garden feel for my bouquet and to stay away from too many stiff, white roses. Karen completely understood and sent through a practice mock-up of the kinds of flowers she was thinking of. I immediately loved it and only had minor tweaks to suggest.
When our beautiful bouquets arrived while we were getting ready I jumped up and down I was so pleased. The bouquet embodied the perfect flower mix of my dreams. I also was thrilled with the bouquets for the church, the table and the groomsmen button holes (Matt wanted something more traditional). Our combs with sea holly were the perfect finish. I couldn’t recommend working with Karen highly enough. She is an amazing florist and a credit to her industry!
THE GREEK FOOD TRUCK
The Greek Food Truck was my number one choice for the wedding day. Back in 2016, I got to interview Sophie Kasoylides about their then reasonably new food truck, selling Gyros to the people of Wellington (also known as Souvlaki). Since then, Sophie and George have gone from strength to strength and now have a second truck which they use just for catering. You can normally find them on the corner of Taranaki Street and Dixon Street.
Sophie was so professional to work with. Her flexibility meant that we could provide our own plates, serve platters for our guests for while photos were being taken and we even were kindly gifted some delicious dessert of ice cream and baklava as a wedding present (huge thank you!). There were no hidden costs and the overall price was extremely reasonable for catering 80 people. Most important of all, the food was incredible.
George and Sophie made Matt and I feel so special on our wedding day. We personally loved the food and our guests enjoyed it even more. Having the Greek Food Truck at your wedding is incredibly magical. It really serves up an entrepreneurial, multi-cultural and delicious slice of Wellington life.
PARROTDOG BEER
ParrotDog is a Wellington brewery I’ve been a fan of for many years due to their quirky, chilled brand positioning and general love of craft beer. I was even lucky enough to interview co-founder Matt Stevens in April 2018. While today ParrotDog is located out in an incredible brewery in Lyall Bay, it originally started from friends experimenting with homebrewing at a flat in Aro Valley.
Parrot dog is a laid-back Wellington-style beer - delicious and perfect for celebrating with your mates. This made it the ideal bee to have at our wedding. Truly a beer I was proud to serve (it is arguably one of the most iconic of the craft beer capital of New Zealand).
We ordered a 50L keg of their classic ‘Nice’ larger, which served us extremely well. It kept our glasses full all night, and well into the next day when we had a gorgeous family barbeque, kindly organised by Matt’s family.
LUNA ESTATE WINE
Two precious parcels of land are home to Luna Estate’s Martinborough vineyards in the Wairarapa wine-growing region of New Zealand. Two distinct terroirs to create one magical wine selection - and plenty to choose from for our wedding day.
I’ve liked Luna Estate since I was lucky enough to stay at their winery a few years ago with Matt and sample a wide range of their wines. Their wines are genuinely delicious. Their rose and Pinot Noir, in particular, is superb. Luna very kindly put a wholesale order through for of pinot noir, pinot gris, chardonnay rose, and sauvignon, which we all greatly enjoyed. It was especially exciting going to collect the heavy cases from the cellar door a few weeks prior, stashing them away for the big day.
HAPPY BELLY FERMENTS
Both kombucha and water kefir are fermented probiotic drinks. Both are fizzy and both taste delicious.
Happy Belly Ferments is a company near Greytown which produces kombucha and keffir. Matt and I love these natural, healthy drinks so we ordered heaps of these for the wedding day.
Happy Belly Ferments water kefir is made with water and sugar which is fermented out, fresh lemon juice and fresh ginger. Kombucha is made with black tea and sugar which is fermented out during the fermentation process. I personally think the ginger beer kefifr is incredible! We bought
ANTIPODES WATER
Our table water was Antipodes! This water truly is the creme de la creme of water and is sourced from an aquifer 327 meters below the ground in the Bay of Plenty, on the east coast of the North Island. My mum Helen bought bottles on sale slowly over time and stockpiled these for our wedding reception.
MARIA’S CAKE
Maria, my amazing bridesmaid, made our beautiful wedding cake, which had three tiers. The top layer was made of fruit, one layer made of chocolate-mud and one made of orange gluten-free cake. Maria has been creating beautiful wedding cakes for years and I was so glad to finally be the recipient of one of her marvelous creations. I so admire her skill, creativity and incredible discipline in making these incredible creations for others!
MOORE WILSONS CHEESES
We had some wheels of cheese to finish from Moore Wilson! This was accompanied by loaves of bread, a few limoncello sweets, and a big bottle of limoncello.
VEUVE CLIQUOT
Well, Wellington can’t source quite everything, right? For our toasts, we had loads of delicious Veuve which lovely Mum Helen had been buying for months and months. This was so appreciated!
Photos by Ana Galloway - our amazing photographer.