After a decade of helping others walk down the aisle, wedding dress designer Trish Peng got married at the end of last year.
When someone who designs wedding dresses decides to get married, you'd expect the wedding to be of a certain calibre — Peng's wedding was exactly that.
She has been the go-to girl for elegant, fashionable wedding dresses for a decade, channelling her years of experience for her wedding for which she wore multiple gowns — four to be exact.
Nearly 100 guests were dressed in black tie, there was a champagne tower, and of course, four different outfits worn by the bride during the wedding at a private estate in Queenstown.
Peng's wedding encapsulates the glamour and luxury that some New Zealand brides are now looking for — going all-out on a glamorous event and making the most of their big day. But on the other side of the aisle, Peng says some Kiwis are moving away from a traditional wedding, instead embracing a bit of chaos and creativity.
Re-writing the rules
Yet, while luxury and black tie may be back in vogue for some, other New Zealanders are re-writing the rules of a wedding to better suit them and their budgets.
Trying to organise a wedding through a cost of living crisis is seeing Kiwis utilise what's around them to create unique, charming celebrations. It's these weddings that Ensemble columnist Lara Daly is seeking to capture, to inspire others on how love can be captured without the hefty price tag.
"The concept of a wedding is a very diverse thing, so we just wanted to platform that," said Daly who has been featuring some of these celebrations on the Ensemble website.
"We've had people that put a lot of money towards doing a carnival kind of music festival, [a] multiple day wedding, grand scale but in their own very different way.
"Then to people who spent less than $500 on a wedding and utilised say the local botanical gardens as their venue," she said.
One-of-a-kind experience
Cost-effective methods that are helping to create a one-of-a-kind experience.
"It's cool to see how people are doing it on a low budget. I guess younger couples having ceremonies in their flats and transforming the space.
"One bride had a beautiful garden wedding in her flat and had Turkish rugs all along the lawn as an aisle. People get creative."
For brides knocking on Peng's door, the white wedding dress is one tradition they're not walking away from.
Peng said since Meghan Markle and Prince Harry got married, she's noticed a lot of brides opting for elegant gowns with less detailing.
As well as shaking it up with shorter cocktail-style looks, brides are opting to wear multiple dresses.
Why? Peng has a theory.
"Maybe because the A-line ball gown style is coming back," she said.
No matter if it's multiple days of stylish extravagance or a loosely planned party, New Zealanders are still very much getting married in a bold fashion.
But they're saying goodbye to the rules and restraints of the past, and doing exactly what they want, in whatever style they want.
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