the café courtyard
Sophie & Andrew
In planning their perfect ceremony, Sophie and Andrew took care to stay true to themselves at every turn. The result was an intimate celebration at Auckland's French Café, replete with signature details — from bespoke chocolate boxes, stationery designed by the bride, and bow shoes she'd loved long before walking down the aisle. Read on for Sophie's story behind her dream day now.
Photography by Keryn Sweeney
"It was really important to me that I felt like 'me' in my wedding dress. I wanted something very simple but in a beautiful fabric, that I would feel comfortable in — I’m a very casual dresser normally. I had seen images of this Juliette Hogan dress online a few years prior, but at the time I was dress shopping, Juliette Hogan had closed her bridal line. I emailed asking if there was anything they could do, and luckily they had a sample of the dress I was after. I was worried that it would be a disaster as the dress looked like a potato sack on me when I first picked up the sample, but luckily I found a very talented seamstress, Christine, who did a beautiful job altering it. She had buttons made with the excess silk from the hem, which went down the back and were something I loved about it as that made it feel really bridal and special."
"The Camellia heel was the only wedding shoe I was interested in — I’d always wanted an excuse to buy them. As my dress was so simple, I wanted to have some more detailed shoes, so they were perfect. The knotted bow is such a beautiful feature without being too twee, and I loved how they’d just peep out from the bottom of the wedding dress."
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"We chose the French Café as our wedding venue for a few reasons. It’s one of Auckland’s best fine dining restaurants, and had always been a special occasion restaurant for us. Food is very important for the both of us, and we didn’t want to choose a venue where the dinner would be an afterthought.
"We didn’t want a large wedding, rather something intimate that was more like a small wedding ceremony followed by a dinner party. Choosing the French Café meant we could have a very intimate wedding ceremony in the beautiful courtyard, followed by a tasting menu in the private room which has its own kitchen, which meant that it had a slight chefs-table feel. It was perfect for what we wanted from our day — relaxed, simple but still elevated and special. "
"The florals were a real highlight for me, I was so lucky to have Ainsley from Floralcentric in Auckland to do them. As the wedding was in early spring, I just wanted some beautiful spring flowers. She did the most perfect selection on a very vague brief.
"We had chocolates as wedding favours which I designed custom boxes for, which doubled as the name cards for the place settings. As a nod to my late mum, who had a huge sweet tooth, we picked the flavours that she would have loved."
"It was perfect for what we wanted from our day — relaxed, simple but still elevated and special."
"Wedding planning allowed me to get back in touch with my creativity, as I am a nurse I don’t often get to be creative in my daily life. I designed our wedding stationary, which was probably agonising to my friends as I sent so many options to them, but I was so pleased with how it turned out.
"A secret I learned along the way is that you just need to do what you want, not what people say you should do on your wedding day. While there are lots of traditions, you don’t necessarily need to follow them as they may not be right for what you want from your wedding day. The thing that I loved most about our wedding as that it was perfect for us, super relaxed, with no extra traditions that didn’t actually suit us."
"Having a first look was so special, and it was one of our favourite parts of the day. It was such a relief to be able to have a quiet hour together, just chatting with some glasses of champagne, and made us both feel a lot more relaxed heading into the ceremony."
