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Tell us a little bit about yourselves and what you do…


Chris and I both work in the glamorous world of finance; Chris is an investment banker and I work in insurance. We’re pretty standard yopros; enjoy eating out, fine wines, travelling, working out and keeping up with the cultural zeitgeist.

Chris has gotten pretty serious into golf this year, so spends most of his free time on the course with his friends. I love cooking, so I’m usually in the kitchen all weekend trying out different recipes, or preparing to have friends over for a dinner party.

 

How did you meet?


We met on Bumble, which isn’t a particularly novel way to meet nowadays. However, it was fairly exciting for me at the time as I’d moved to New Zealand within the last year and Chris was the first person that I matched with one rainy Sunday evening. I informed him that he was my first ever match, and he suggested we celebrate with a drink, it was pretty smooth.

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Tell us all the details about the proposal…


We got engaged looking out over Little Oneroa Beach on Waiheke. It was a really beautiful and emotional moment, there weren’t too many words except the all important one, yes! We celebrated with a long lunch at Mudbrick, which was a romantic touch because we’d eaten at Mudbrick for our first Valentines Day together a couple of years earlier. On the final day we checked out, I thought we were heading back to Auckland, but instead we went to Tantalus where Chris’s family were waiting to surprise me. We had a lovely wine tasting and long lunch to cap off the weekend.

 

We need to know about your engagement ring. Tell us what this process was like for you and how did you go about finding the perfect ring?


It’s an oval solitaire diamond ring on a gold band with a hidden halo of diamonds. I love that it is simple, elegant and classic, all things I aspire to be sartorially. Chris was very confident with the ring design, as he knew that I was fan of both yellow gold and oval diamonds. It turns out that he had been taking note all of my observations about engagement rings during the months leading up to the engagement. The process was easy and Glenn was fantastic in helping to put it all together.

 

Finding the dream engagement ring can be a little daunting. What advice would you give to anyone who’s currently searching?


There are so many different possibilities with an engagement ring, it can get quite overwhelming. If in doubt, it’s best to go with something a bit more classic rather than the latest trend.

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Tell us all about your wedding…


The wedding was simply the best weekend of our lives. Almost a year to the day we got engaged we were married at Mantells Mount Eden. We had a few guests from overseas as I’m British, so again we made a full weekend of it to make sure we got to spend plenty of time with friends and family.

We started the evening before with a private dinner at The French Café for the bridal/groom party, and our close family. This was such a special evening and allowed all our nearest and dearest to connect before the big day, it made the atmosphere of the wedding so lovely because those relationships between the two families had started to form.

We had a small wedding of 65 guests, and what made it really special to us is how involved all our friends and family were. Harry one of Chris’ oldest friends married us and my best friend and maid of honour played us down the aisle on the Viola.

We had a small day after at Chris’ parents house the next day, mainly for the out of towners who had travelled far to attend the wedding. It was such a relaxed and fun day, definitely the perfect end to a weekend of formalities.

After all the celebrations we had a few nights booked at Huka Lodge, so we were able to get away and reflect on our happy memories.

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As for your wedding band Laura, how did you find the perfect piece to complement your engagement ring?


I knew I wanted something a little different for my wedding band, but still sophisticated. I wanted to keep the oval motif of my engagement ring in mind, and had thought about going for a diamond band with ovals, rather than the more traditional square or round. We went in to speak to Glenn at Partridge and as I was describing what I wanted he pulled this ring out and it was perfect. It’s a statement but doesn’t detract from the engagement ring, if anything I think it makes it stand out more! The band is 8 stones, in a mixture of pear, round and marquise shapes. The lack of symmetry in the band is a beautiful juxtaposition next to the simplicity of my engagement ring. I’ve never considered the symbolism of an engagement ring and a wedding band together, both beautiful in their own right, but together, so much more dazzling. I hope that’s true for Chris and I too.

 

What did Chris look for in a wedding band?


Chris wanted something both simple and personal. His wedding band is a simple yellow gold band with some small diamonds imprinted along the band. He wanted a yellow gold band to match my jewellery and the diamonds are a nice way of adding a little personal touch.