Hi there! 

Well lets see, about the wedding. It pretty much all started when Sharon & Steven arrived from South Africa. Now it just so happened that they were coming to
NZ around the same time as the wedding, so decided to time it to come to our wedding. They stayed in our spare room which we have kitted out for the possibility
of guests in the future. Sharon was my boss at one stage and ended up becoming my Johannesburg Mom. I lived with them for 6 months before I went to the USA.
They arrived here on the 16th and I spent a few days before the wedding showing them around - it was fun.

Well, as you might know we got married in Russell in the Bay of Islands. So on Thursday 24th, I took Sharon & Steven to get their rental car and later that morning
we met up with Warren & Kim and all drove in convoy up north to Russell. It took about 3 hours. To get to Russel we had to take a little car ferry over from Pahia.
It’s a funny flat pan-like boat that takes about 15 cars (that’s its sole purpose). Once in Russell we all signed into the Russell Bay Motel which I had booked
beforehand. The following day the other guests arrived at the motel. So in total we had 10 guests, they were: Sharon & Steven, Linda & Dieter (SA friends living
in NZ), Rachel & Matt (Rachel is a Kiwi girl who works with Ingrid and Matt, her husband is Australian), Richard & Kayo (Richard is a Kiwi guy I used to work
with and Kayo, his wife, is Japanese - funny, they were not going to come because Kayo just had a baby, but then his mother came to visit and looked after the
baby while they came up on the last minute just for the wedding and drove back again afterwards) and then there was Warren & Kim (my cousins).

So on the day of the wedding, you guessed it, it was raining. We were there for 4 days and they were all hot, blue-sky, perfect days….. except the day of the
wedding! But, that was a blessing in disguise as an hour before the wedding, it stopped raining and during the wedding it was semi overcast making it cooler for
me, who was in 3 layers (Boston suit, waistcoat and shirt) and also, it was better light for photographs. The wedding itself was held in the Pompallier gardens, out
in the open on the grass (in NZ you don't have to get married under cover) … it was great. Ingrid looked absolutely stunning & gorgeous! Sharon gave a little
reading and was a witness and Warren (my cousin) held on to the rings and was the other witness. We were married by a celebrant (woman) who is lawfully
empowered to marry people and that is all she does. After the ceremony, we were announced as Mr & Mrs. Seegers and went over to a table and had some
Champaign and snacks with our guests. After that we did the photos…

From there we went off to the Kamakura Restaurant, which is considered the best in Russell, on the waterfront overlooking the bay and had an awesome meal.
Although not planned, I gave a little speech and we thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the evening. At 8pm we went and got some photos of us in the sunset - the
photographer had long since gone, so it was just the guests doing it. We were glad we did because we got some nice ones there. From Kamakura we went off
to the Russell Bay Lodge, a luxury lodge where we spent the next two nights. It is up on top of the hill overlooking Russell and the Bay. On the Sunday we traveled
via the west coast and met Linda & Dieter, where we stayed the night in an old farmhouse, which was great fun. The next day we made our way back to Auckland. 

And that’s all there was to it really. All in all, it was a very special day and I am glad we put just a little more effort into it than originally planned. Debra Shand from
Bay Of  Islands Weddings was our wedding organiser and she did a great job in arranging most of the important bits, which was a huge help. A big thank you goes
out to her.

It would have been great to have a nice big wedding in SA, but this was the next best thing we could have done. We really enjoyed the weekend and everything
went according to plan, so we can't ask for more than that.


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