Our Auckland Forest Elopement
Why Elope in Auckland?
What is Eloping?
Eloping is when you run away, you escape and get married to the one you love, without telling anyone. Sometimes it is considered a cheap way to get married. It can be as cheap, or as expensive, as you want. With the way the Covid-19 pandemic is spreading across the world, there’s sure to be more and more couples choosing this option. The word, ‘elope’ originated with the Middle Dutch word, ‘lopen’, meaning, ‘run away.’
Sound romantic, and mysterious, yes! And, why Auckland? Because at the time we were planning on creating a beautiful Retreat, and for us, what better place to escape to - Warblers Retreat, except, we didn’t have to run away, or to escape for our elopement, because we were already here!
And a wedding, surrounded by nature; it was just what we wanted. A wedding that was simple and easy to organise, with no fuss and bother, yet was heartfelt and meaningful.
An Auckland Winter elopement Wedding?
Our timing wasn’t the best when we decided to marry, but that’s often the way with couples. When we decide on something, that’s usually it, we are not ones to wait around. It was winter 2015. We had initially decided a trip over to Rarotonga would be rather nice. Just the two of us, as that’s the total number of people in the relationship!
We were really busy with our landscaping work, and also in creating and building Warblers Retreat, so we didn’t have too much time on our hands. After we had mulled over the Island destination option, we decided that Warblers Retreat was just as beautiful as anywhere, and that we could elope to the bottom of the garden and have our secret wedding at the waterfall, without telling everyone.
After all, we both had been married before, we had ten grown up kids between us, a good number of siblings, and a tribe of grandchildren. And we did not want any fuss or bother!
A Birthday Wedding
We decided to get married on my birthday. Believe it or not, this is quite a common thing to do. One thing for sure is that it lessens the number of celebrations one has to remember throughout the year! From my experience, and I have a theory on this, it makes it easier for the male to remember, however I may be wrong there! In the middle of July, the weather can be rather inclement, so we were taking a bit of a risk.
Keeping it Secret
That’s normally the hard part, and after all, we were meant to be eloping! We just wanted to keep things really simple and easy, no fuss!
In New Zealand, it’s legally required to have two witnesses to sign the marriage licence, so we decided to invite a couple of local friends, then we decided another couple would be a good idea to make up a small, intimate party. Another friend decided she would come and join us for the weekend, as she wanted to catch up with me for my birthday. Just like many couples planning to have tiny weddings, they GROW! Ours ended up with eight guests, and it was perfect
Getting the Right Celebrant
How do you know who to choose when you want to get married? Sometimes it’s not easy. Dave had remembered he had an old mate from the North Shore Council, Norm Watson. Norm was a Professional Celebrant in his spare time. So, there it was, problem solved, Norm was invited to be our celebrant. Norm understood what we were wanting to achieve, which was slightly different to the norm, and he performed it beautifully!
The Blessing of the Creek
Having completed a diploma in celebrant studies, Norm understood the value of ritual and ceremony. We wanted the wedding to be a surprise to our guests, so upon great discussions with Norm, we decided to create a double celebration, and to invite our guests to a blessing of the creek.
Preparing for The Wedding Day
They say if it rains on your wedding day, you are lucky. Living in Auckland, the odds of that are pretty high, and that’s the way the 18th of July 2015 started out. But it wasn’t just a shower of rain here or there, it was torrential!
The skies finally cleared around midday, offering us a glimpse of hope that we may still be able to go ahead with our plans. There was enough time to blow the driveway down to make it look tidy, and generally make the place look respectable, before another heavy dousing of rain. Our Auckland climate can be wet, cold, warm, sunny, windy, and hot even in the middle of winter, so it can be the luck of the draw as to what you strike on your special day. I do recall having an abundance of white iceberg roses on the day, which does show you our climate is more on the temperate side than the cold.
Despite another downpour before 4 pm, we were lucky, as the skies cleared and there was sunshine. Quite unbelievable! Our guests arrived and we all made our way down to the waterfall area. By this time the water in the creek was creating a loud and exciting roar. We didn’t need any background music; nature provided its own magical sound!
The Blessing
Norm began the ceremony inviting us to connect with all our senses to enjoy the natural beauty of the surroundings. He then used the ancient prayer of the Seven Directions adapting it to our New Zealand environment, incorporating reference to Maori customs and to the land, water and sky, as appropriate. The Seven Directions are - east, north, west, south, above, below and within.
After everyone participated in welcoming the energy and Wairua of each of these directions, we all participated in the symbolic act of filling a small cup of water to throw back into the creek. A wooden sign, made by Dave, with the word “Waireka”, carved on it, was then uncovered. We chose the word Waireka as it was the closest, we could find relating to the creek water. “Wai” in Maori means water, and “Reka” means sweetness, and although it is not always interpreted as such, we, like Paradise Springs in Rotorua, associate the water as being soothing, soothing for the body, the mind and soul. We have since added an extension to this area in the form of a wooden deck, and our Forest Bath. This is where guests can now truly soak in warm rainwater, and enjoy the serenity and the magic of this special place.
The Wedding Ceremony
After such a deep and meaningful ceremony, which in many ways was an acknowledgement and appreciation of what we had created at Warblers Retreat at that time, no one would ever have thought that we were ultimately gathered there for another reason until Norm casually mentioned, “ and now, thank you for all coming here to witness the wedding of…
I don’t know who was more excited, our guests or us! There had been the anticipation of this moment for such a long time, and it was simply sheer delight and excitement from our friends. We therefore went into the ceremony on a high note, there certainly was no room for any nervousness, just pure excitement. Our ceremony was created by Norm based on our own thoughts and ideas, and was delivered beautifully, while the sun continued to shine. Fortunately, one of our friends had brought his camera along, funny that!
Wedding Celebration
After the wedding ceremony, we wandered back up to the Cottage which is where we had been living as we were, ‘doing it up’. The Cottage is perfect for a couple, and we have many fond memories of spending time in what we would often call our Love Shack. Just as we cracked open some bottles of bubbly, the skies opened up and down she came again! With that, we figured it was a great omen, and our wedding was simply, meant to be!
Our local restaurant, Avenue 28, was our only other destination. We went there for a meal with our friends to complete the celebration. It was a fantastic day, everything flowed very smoothly, and it was a lot of fun.
How did we tell our Family and Friends?
Family were obviously told first. My Mother had already known, and was the only one to know prior. Where we could, we would tell people in person, but if not, it was over the phone, then finally it was a Facebook post to catch anyone who hadn’t already heard. We had several meals out with various close friends to tell them, once again the surprise or shock treatment was quite a bit of fun! These were very enjoyable evenings. It helped to prolong the memory of our wedding day.
Towards the end of the year we thought we had covered everyone, however there was more to come. Before we had a chance to have a family gathering, we were set up by some friends who felt they had missed out. While on a kid’s fundraising trip with the Trillian Trek, our crazy friends set up a mock wedding while we were exploring the Stony Batter Reserve on Waiheke Island. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning in October. In true Trek style, the ‘so called Priest Peter’, started off reciting… earth to earth, ashes to ashes, whoops, sorry folks, I have the wrong ceremony… and then, continued on from there with a formal version of, do you David, Wilfred Tony Milina take you Barbara… The photo says it all!
BTW, the Trillian Trek seems to celebrate a lot of weddings, mocking style; they’re a pretty generous, crazy, fun loving lot.
Finally, a Wonderful Family Celebration
What about our family, you may ask? Between us we have a huge family, but we had another plan in store for our family. A special Family Wedding Celebration Day. When Dave’s eldest daughter and her family were able to come over from Australia, we held our Family Wedding Celebration at Warblers Retreat which was on the 16th July 2016.
Food as a wedding Gift
It was a great chance for the two families to come together in such a relaxed way. Everyone brought food to contribute to the feast, and it was certainly that indeed. In fact, this is such a great way to celebrate a wedding, as the time, love and effort people put into making the food is quite amazing and very special. It also makes it easy to say to everyone, “don’t give us a present, just bring along your favourite dish of food”. Dave’s youngest daughter Victoria made a beautiful wedding cake, in fact we were given a second cake as well by Dave’s cousins. Another daughter Nikki, did an amazing job on my face and hair! Dave’s girls all have a touch of their father’s artistic talent.
As well as celebrating our wedding, we also had a blessing of the Lodge. Once again, we invited our friend Norm Watson to be our celebrant for the day, we certainly weren’t going to rely on Priest Peter! It was our desire to have Warblers Retreat as a place that is always open and welcoming to our family and friends. We both have granddaughters the same age who cut the yellow ribbon at the beginning of the blessing, yellow being the colour of sunshine and happiness.
Planting the Kauri Tree
This was our symbolic act of commemorating our marriage and our special family day. A kauri tree was planted in the bush near to where the glow worms are. Our guests wrote messages and hung them on the tree. The messages stayed there for a long time, reminding us of the memorable day we had enjoyed together with our family.
This is how it all started…Weddings at Warblers Retreat
Our wedding was the first wedding at Warblers Retreat. It was so natural, it flowed very smoothly, and it was a such a memorable day that we decided it was something we could possibly do for others.
Our philosophy is when you are doing something, you need to pour your heart and soul into it, you need to aim for the highest mountain, and you need to do the very best you can. Warblers Retreat has been created with loads of love and passion from both of us!
We have worked hard to turn the grounds into garden landscapes that become great natural backdrops for couples wishing to marry. With the Auckland weather being an issue, not just in winter, but at any time of the year, we decided to create the Canopy, a large outdoor, undercover area especially designed for tiny green weddings. There are several beautiful places to get married in the gardens, however if it does decide to rain, there’s always good shelter in the Canopy. Many couples’ first choice is to get married in the Canopy, as the sound of trickling water, the ambiance created by semi-tropical gardens and highlighted by twinkling fairy lights, makes it a beautiful place for a wedding.
I went to Celebrant School to develop my skills and knowledge, and to gain my Diploma in Celebrant Studies, so we could offer the whole package to couples.
When you visit Warblers Retreat, you will notice the love and care that has been poured into the property. This is also reflected in our reviews from staying guests and in our Tourism NZ, Qualmark 5 star gold sustainable award.
We look forward to seeing you at Warblers Retreat someday soon, either as a friend, a guest, a Bride or a Groom.
- Barb Milina