Have you ever met someone for the first time and felt like you have known them for a lifetime? That was the feeling Lauren and Ben gave us as we initially chatted to them over zoom about their wedding plans at Bangor Farm in Darfield, but honestly, after that Zoom call, we were counting down the months, weeks, days, and seconds for the beautiful wedding of Lauren and Ben!

We have always found it funny, maybe call it fate, how two peoples lives can cross paths without knowing many a time before they finally meet, Lauren and Ben’s family told the funniest stories of how Lauren and Ben initially met after knowing of one another for the longest of times as Ben often worked on Lauren’s families farm from time to time but they never quite had the courage, nor excuse to cross paths until one special day, I think there was a lot of people just waiting for that moment!

It was a moody sky kinda day in Darfield but perfect weather for some clay pigeon shooting with the boys on the couple’s Darfield farm, both Ben and Lauren come from farming backgrounds in rural Canterbury so it was only fitting for Ben to start his wedding day wearing a pair of his clearly much loved, red band gumboots which had had some kiwi ingenuity custom work done to make them the perfect pair of ankle-length gummies for a morning of casual clay pigeon shooting and day to day rural fashion at its very best! We think Ben might be onto a new trend in the rural sector that’s for sure!

Just down the road from the farm, Lauren however was minus the gumboots for today only and spent the morning with her parents and bridal party getting glammed up ahead of the wedding. Lauren was honestly the calmest bride ever, no nerves, just that trademark big smile she shared with the world. Upon arrival at Bangor Farma and just ahead of waking down the aisle Lauren shared how special this wedding venue was to her, her grandparent’s farm neighboured the wedding venue’s grounds which brought back a lot of special childhood memories, we love these little tidbits!

One of our favourite highlights from their wedding day at Bangor Farm, other than the utterly gorgeous wedding venue itself, which is now one of our favourite wedding venues in Christchurch was all of the little details that went into their day, we’re not just talking the amazing table settings or the yummiest looking cake just screaming out to be eaten but the fact that Lauren and Ben even surprised their guests by somehow rehearsing a choreographed first dance with their whole bridal party, were telling you now, they must be pretty good farmers to have rounded up the bridal party for what was a “you have to be there to believe it” kinda dance!