A year ago, an excited bride-to-be contacted me about a Central Hawke's Bay wedding. There would be a farm that had been in the family for generations...an ancient swing bridge spanning a gully filled with native trees and a woodland dell where lilies grew head high and light motes played in the shade like Tinkerbell.

It's not often a sneaky little tear escapes me at a wedding. After being part of more than 500 of them, love seems like a fairly common currency (what a great world I live in!). But sometimes, something just gets ya. At Israel and Sharon's wedding, just about everything got me.

The first of the winter weddings is always a treat for me. The bright colours of summer have been stripped back to reveal the delicious warm hues of the empty vines, which beautifully mirrored the tones inside the Old Church Villa, where Sarah and her bridesmaids got ready.