Hugh met Carlijn when she was working as a waitress at The Tea House in Lincoln.
“I first met Carlijn when I was painting the storage garage out the back of the restaurant, she came outside to clear some tables. I called her over and asked her if she wanted to come and clear away all the spiders for me, she declined.”
Hugh proposed during a weekend away in Banks Peninsula. “I had just been away in Perth for two months for work and said we needed a weekend away. I had planned to propose on a hill or walk somewhere during the trip, but it pissed down with rain for three days straight, so I had to improvise. I ended up hiding the ring in a bag of board game pieces while she was in the shower. Then I suggested we play the board game; this actually took some convincing, as she didn’t really want to play it. This went down doubly bad when I said that she had to set it up, as I wanted her to tip out the bag of board game pieces and find the ring in the parts. Eventually, she tipped the bag out and found the ring. Then I went down on one knee and proposed.”
The couple wed on November 4th, 2023 at Waipuna Estate. Hugh says their theme was “happy and colourful”; they chose shades of bright pink and yellows for their florals for a pop of colour, and their bridal party wore a complimentary sage green.
To add special touches to the day, the couple made some of the details themselves with clever DIY. “We used a Cricut machine and a laser cutter to make our own wooden signs for the wedding, and my mother turned one of our engagement shoot pictures into a format the laser cutter could engrave into the wood.”
Hugh says they loved having a first look before the ceremony. “First look was brilliant; you get to settle the nerves and knock out a bunch of the photography before the ceremony starts; this means you get to spend way more time at your own wedding. We did all our bridal party photos on the hill behind the venue before the ceremony.”
When it comes to planning a wedding, the newlyweds recommend giving yourselves plenty of time. “Give yourself time to book things out in advance. Get a well-organised venue; Sarah at Waipuna was brilliant. She made sure we had crossed our T’s and dotted our I’s.”
