Baby Boomers' Its never too late for Love & Marriage

Baby Boomers' Its never too late for Love & Marriage

As a New Zealand Registered Celebrant I am often asked to officiate many unions by couples from all over the world who have found true love later in life or want to re-affirm their love to each other once they find themselves re-evaluating their lives after parenthood.  

Their stories of struggle and expectations in past relationships through an ever changing world brings them to a time where they can now, freely celebrate their love in a simple and memorable way.  

Meadowbanks Homestead, Awaroa

Abel Tasman National Park

Each wedding I officiate is special in its own right to the couple getting married but I truly love being part of the baby boomers celebration, where experience means these couples really know what the reality and legal implications involved are balanced with the love and affirmation they have for each other.  A marriage or re-affirming their vows is a statement to each other and their family and friends that what ever they have faced together or faced in the future its not alone; their is no doubt in each others trust or friendship and speaking the official vows and expressing their personal vows to each other is testimony to that. 

Having visited New Zealand with my new husband from Plymouth in the UK back in 1994 and returning to New Zealand 10 years ago to build a new life with my family, I never expected to be so close to home in our little town of Motueka. One of my most memorable couples I worked with was a bucket full of co-incidence and laughs,  I was astonished when a lively gentleman named Dave cycled up the drive and bounce into my office, shortly followed by a puffed out lady called Jane asking for a celebrant, only to discover the couple had also come from Plymouth but even more strangely had friends and places in common with me, In fact they knew our best man.

Dave's first words to me were; " I hear your a celebrant and I want to get married next Wednesday, can you do that? Of course I replied, we only need three days to create the paper work in New Zealand. When I went to mark the date on my calendar the next coincidence appeared, it was my 20th wedding anniversary.

Dave and Jane love only the simple things in life and that was exactly what they wanted for their celebration, so a stony beach wedding was planned at the Motueka Sand Spit with two good friends as witnesses. 

  

Their story unfolded and I soon realized I was part of a true life long love.  They first met at 5 year old in a tiny town on Dartmoor in the South of England, it was the first day of school and they stayed firm friends through out their school life until school ended and they both headed off in different directions getting married and having children but sadly both their marriages failed and almost 30 years after they first met Jane heard through the grapevine that Dave was single again and she felt compelled to write Dave a poem with entwined words indirectly asking to re-affirm their friendship. 

                                         First Day at School                 Leaving school

Their lives then took on a real adventure as friends for two years sailing the world and eventually becoming a couple.  After 20 years of courtship Dave popped the question and Jane said yes and on the 60th anniversary of the day they met (My 20th wedding anniversary) they become husband and wife. 

                                    We cycled one day, to the jeweler to say "please make these two rings into one"

We asked Gabriella "d'you know a good fella could wed us on t'beach in t'sun?"

"Hasten to see, my friend Terri, she'll fix you guys up a treat"

So back on our bikes, we cycled with might, to find her away down High street.

With a degree of elation, and some trepidation, we entered her office so posh!

She quickly agreed, despite the great speed, she'd do it...and not for much dosh.

A maid from Dartmoor! well what a score, and down to the shore we did tak'er.

She layed on some sun, we all had such fun...memories are made by t'DREAM MAKER :-)

Terri will surely fulfil all your dreams whether simple or elaborate, a nicer person to "do the honours" would be very hard to find. Halfway around the world, and by pure happenstance, we found a maid from Devon. Thank you for sharing our perfect day, & on your 20th wedding anniversary. How cool is that?

B.t.w........ for us, love is even lovlier the second time around"

Cheers Terri....Jane and Dave Hender.

Dave and Jane have obviously become friends of mine and I often see them chugging along Motueka High Street in their vintage Morris truck. Read more here: North & South Magazine

Another wonderful story was one of my first experiences in organizing a wedding in the Abel Tasman for another delightful couple Mike and Julie with a similar story of failed marriages but in another chance moment Julie met Mike in a bus stop on the way back from work.  In a news paper Julie was reading was a story on New Zealand where Julie had just returned from a trip there, New Zealand was a place Mike always wanted to visit which sparked a conversation, as the bus arrived Mike quickly wrote his telephone number on the paper in the hope Julie would call him to continue the stories he was so enjoying.  Cutting a long story short Julie and Mike got engaged and their choice of location was easy, it had to be New Zealand.

Once again I become good friends and kept in contact with Mike who has always been so kind in sharing their story.

Read more here page 46 & 47. One Smile Magazine

"Planned a Dream Wedding and got a Dream Wedding, Fantastic service,boat, Celebrant and the food was excellent. all topped of with memories that will last for ever" Regards Mike & Julie

With every celebration I am part of I feel blessed, couples arrive as strangers and leave as friends. I get to be part of one of the most important days in their lives in the most beautiful place in the world. The choices are massive, from mountain tops to glistening beaches, hop fields and orchards, lime caves and rose gardens, the list is endless, coupled with a delightful picnic and captured in film for ever.  Thank you for choosing The Dream Maker.

We've enjoyed lots of unique and beautiful moments with our more mature couples

For further information contact  The Dream Maker

events@thedreammaker.co.nz

0064 (0) 27 5268771

Terri Everett

Award Winning Celebrant and Event Manager

Specializing in boutique Weddings in National Parks 

from the mountain tops to the sea and every where in between

Abel Tasman

Kahurangi

Nelson Lakes

Farewell Spit

and other variations. 

Qualmark for quality

Enviro Bronze Award

Wedding Industry Association Awards

Doc Concessions

Everything for the Perfect Wedding & Honeymoon in Tasman New Zealand.

Events in Tasman New Zealand

By Terri Everett.

If it is an intimate ceremony tucked away among our stunning National Parks like the Kahurangi Mountains with panoramic views across the Tasman Bay or a soft warm sandy beach affair in the aquatic blues waters of The Abel Tasman your imagination holds no limit.

Awaroa Inlet

Mt Olympus

The Dream Maker has put in the hard yards with years of experience and expertise building an abundant team of experts in their field and our customers can confidently agree that we deliver above and beyond all their desire and expectation.

Just like the unexpected journey of The Lord of The Rings our venues and suppliers can take you through an exciting labyrinth of discovery to new heights and experience, all encapsulated in images to wow and envy into the future.

Location of The Lord of the Rings movie

Romance for any occasion is easily found her in the beautiful Tasman hills and beaches, with old time Kiwi Heritage, boutique award winning vineyards and breweries, miles of quite cycle tracks along otherwise rarely seen New Zealand out back countryside; at every stage viewing miles of fruit growing splendor and bird life.  During your stay in Tasman you’re likely to meet a few cheerful and hardworking locals of the Tasman region who welcome visitors with a few amusing stories of times gone by to add to your experience.

Langford Store Golden Bay

Hobbs Hill Tasman

Any event from a birthday treat, proposal of marriage, wedding or anniversary, The Dream Maker team can create an event unique to you, with local tried and tested contracted suppliers, we endeavor to use as much local produce and providers as possible to support our local small businesses but more importantly to give our customers the true taste of Tasman food and hospitality.

Fisherman's Island 

Tasman & West Coats Hills

So what do we have to offer you?

Venues & Accommodation: Tasman is full of interesting and quirky venues and accommodations, offering all kinds of special experiences to suit every ones ideal from the simple to the more lavish. The Dream Maker works with a select few that we can confidently recommend and work closely with to blend all services under one simple booking.  If it’s a Fairy tale Castle setting, Eco surrounds, historic ambiance or lavish comforts, we have something to suit your preference. Most of our venues are exclusive to you which adds to your WOW!

The Venues range from 2 to 100’s guests.

Celebrant: Terri the founder of The Dream Maker is an award winning registered New Zealand Celebrant and Event Manager and has a team for all occasions from Baby Naming, Marriage, Civil Union, Family Bonding, Pet Ceremonies and Humanist Funerals.  Terri holds all the required Department of Conservation permits to hold and manage events in the Nelson & Tasman three National Parks; The Abel Tasman, Kahurangi, Nelson Lakes and has other variations such as Farewell Spit and Cable Bay.  As well as this accolade Terri is the first and only Celebrant and Event Manager to be endorsed by Qualmark, the New Zealand Quality Standards for Tourism and awarded the Enviro Bronze award for their efforts for the environment they work in.

Flowers & Styling: The Dream Maker works with local florists who as much as they can grow their own flowers and foliage, combining this with styling skills and Hire Items to create your personal style in what are often very difficult venues, due to their location.

Photography & Video: The Dream Team have a few in house photographers, as well as working with independent event and wedding photographers and videographers. Imagery is a very personal preference with so many things to consider, such as budget, style, value on investment and over the years we have found our customer’s reasons differ considerably and this is why it’s important we only recommend the professionals we do in the knowledge of their integrity and team work and great results.

Transport: The Dream Maker have a great independent team of Tasman transport providers, we are excited to share our unique variety of heritage and modern motors, from cars, buses, boats and helicopter’s, easily combining other services to make your event special.

Catering: The Dream Maker has its own local catering team and as a team we have created a great selection of menu’s to suit all occasions, diets and tastes.  We believe strongly that people who have a special diet should not be an afterthought and excite in offering great options. Our mission is also to use as much local produce as possible giving our customers and your guests a true taste Tasman experience.  Our region is one of the most prolific producing raw fresh milk and cheese, organic fruit, herbs and vegetables balanced with a great variety of award winning boutique wine as well as being the only region growing hops for our famous craft beer.

Event Management: Whether your local of from afar, its always going to be a massive job to manage an event or Itinerary.  The Dream Team have all the contacts of tried and tested suppliers available at our finger tips, knowledge of negotiation and budgeting, as well as systems to keep track of each step in the planning to insure a smooth seamless event. No one can guarantee the weather or eventualities out of our control but when you have all the information and contacts at hand, a manager can be worth their weight in gold.  Its your event, you should be enjoying it not stressing about it. On average a middle sized event will take at least 18 hours planning time, can you afford that?  We offer several options to help and advise or take complete control and its free to chat!

Holiday & Honeymoons: So when your planning your holiday you can combine it with your event or while booking your event you could consider staying longer and building your dream holiday or honeymoon.  Our region is a great package for all; offering excitement, relaxation and nature or even a combination of all.  The Dream Maker can help build your itinerary and make bookings on your behalf with the associates we have and can recommend.

For further information please contact Terri on 0275268771 or contact us here

Dream maker Instagram 

The Dream Maker New Zealand Wedding Promotions 2015

                         

The Dream Maker Vintage Wedding Promotion 2015

At The Langford Store

Bainham Golden Bay, New Zealand.

from small business, making a big impact

It was almost a year in the making and started from a chance meeting at a business net working evening in Golden Bay, where I finally got to meet Sukhita Langford; forth family generation owner of the oldest working post office in New Zealand.  EB Langford was the original entrepreneur who opened the store in 1928 and later handed over to his grand daughter Lorna who continued its legacy for 63 years until eventually handing over the reins to Sukhita and Will who now passionately continue to enchant their visitors, with memories captured in time, stories regularly exchanged when people recognize an old kitchen device that restores  emotion of happy childhood memories gone by. The store is a treasure trove of eclectic kitchen and hard ware as well as timeless souvenirs.   

I had heard of the store but as so many never quite made it, boy what a mistake that was!  When I did finally make the trip, with my sister Natasha, visiting from Australia, we realized how delightful the journey was through the country lanes of Golden Bay, hugged by the mountains and soft white clouds emerged the old corrugated building and a warm welcome of brightly painted mix and match chairs to enjoy a deliciously home baked New Zealand scone, home preserve and whipped cream, accompanied by a vintage pot of gumboot tea.

A living history

Langford Store & Post Office

Back in 2013 I had created my first promotion in the region, a massive undertaking, with 50 local Nelson and Tasman businesses offering free products and services in collaboration for a wedding and honeymoon package which was promoted on local radio More FM Nelson and Mainland Television.  Again a real couple got to enjoy the fruits of our labor for free in return for the use of photo's and video to bring attention to our region and services as a world class wedding and event destination for international couples to chose New Zealand but even better Nelson and Tasman as their perfect modern wedding destination and venue.  The event was very successful but did test my ability and energy levels but despite the hours, days, months of time I dedicated to the event we were happy to celebrate its success.  Watch the 2013 video here. 

We were lucky enough to have the award winning  Aly Cook write and perform a song she wrote especially for the "Dream Maker" which also show cased Kaiteriteri, Split Apple Rock and the Nelson & Tasman locations, giving the region a real boost.  The video was created by Jay from Pheye Creative  who continued to be further inspired to manage another successful promotion for The Spirit of Golden Bay video showing how collaboration of generally smaller tourism & wedding industry business can make a big impact on a small budget, when working loyally together in support of the big long term picture.

Announcement of the winners in the 2013 promotion

Conor & Louise at The Jellyfish Mapua.

Returning to the 2015 promotion, I wasn't in a mind to take on the challenge again so soon but having heard Sukhita's story while enjoying her cream tea and seen the difficulty she had endured to keep the store open due to the rural location and the increasing growing day to day business costs I couldn't put my idea to rest.  I approached Sukhita late one night over social media with the idea of creating a competition with the main prize being, to have a wedding held at The Langford Store. obviously taking into account its history and themed the event as "The Couple Behind the Mask" with a vintage style.  There I was again, energized to bring together another collaboration of Golden Bay industry businesses to offer a complete wedding for up to 30 guests.

Once we had the prizes cobbled together, we needed the couple, I wanted to have more control over the winners for this event, so we decided to keep it to Facebook and once launched, we found it incredible to see so many couples from all over New Zealand enter and the caliber of their stories was exceptional making it extremely difficult to judge.  The final three couples all had equally heart wrenching stories but one that really stood out was Jessica and Carl, see their application here:

On the day I made the announcement to them, that they had won the prize, I knew they were going to be at Nelson Airport to fly out to Christchurch to get the prognosis for Jessica's illness and I was delighted to add a little sunshine to their day.   

I presented them with their prize certificate and a vintage flower spry.

 

Planning a promotion like this is actually allot more than just a wedding, as not only must you keep the couple and all their guests happy but you also need to perform well as a promotion manager to make sure all involved see results from the investment of time and product put in the pot.  The other problem is because products and services are gifted I have experienced less effort from some in the past but on this occasion the group really pulled out all the stops to under the one umbrella and engage in the promotion as a tight team with the end result being a wonderful event all round, with extremely high standards, lots of laughs and excitement with those little extra touches and personal attention to detail our couple so appreciated.

Carl and Jessica were just such a pleasure to work with, I think through recent life experience they simply enjoyed every minute, without question but also engaged in the promotion by giving full attention to the fact this was a promotion for Golden Bay, The Langford Store and all involved, to generate more interest and a new revenue to the store and businesses involved.

It was so exciting to see their guests arriving for the wedding and all the effort they put into playing the 1920's era to celebrate with Carl and Jess in this perfect vintage venue.

Get into the 20's swing

I have received many congratulations for both my promotion and I am proud, as a self taught event manager who likes to put every little thing into a box, yet love stepping outside of it. However what I have been grateful to is my teams and without their loyalty, support, understanding, patients and dedication there would be no Dream Maker' Its congratulations to this latest event s team who in typical Tasman style seemed to come together seamlessly to provide a gorgeous experience for Carl, Jess, felix and their guests, while never loosing sight of the purpose to help and support another business in need and promoting Golden Bay as "The Wedding Destination" of New Zealand.

My thanks and appreciation to The Dream Team 

on the day

with Cloe the Clyde

Sukhita, Will & Tui from

The Langford Store

                                

 Carl & Jessica writing a post card with Sukhita                   Will making coffee

Cloe the Clyde, Barbel and Johanna from

Hack & Stay

Tracey at Zatori for pre-wedding accommodation.

Hair Revolution in Takaka

Kayla Nails & Beauty

Jay from Pheye Creative Video

Sophie our Dream Maker Photographer

Sophie is an artist, see her work here on Face book.

Its rare to get a picture of Soph but here she is at work

Amy from Twisted Stitches for the dress.

Thank you to Gina and Corina our NMIT students 

who helped throughout the day

 

 Thank you to Kim from NMIT Hair & Beauty student

for taking me back to the 1920's

Thank you To Paul Harris Jewelers and 

The Jewelers wife for Carl & Jess stunning rings

Thank you to Teresa from 

Golden Bay Flowers & Garden Center 

 for the beautiful flowers

Thank you to Zara who made the wedding cake at short notice. Zara is starting a new business called Golden Bake for more information contact The Dream Maker

Thank you to the children in room 6 from Collingwood area school for their beautiful art work on the masks, materials donated by Take Note Takaka

.

I would also like to thank Lisa for keeping the website up-dated from Steps Web Design  

Janis for posters from Find it & Do It Maps

The support for marketing from TEANZ 

Tasman District Council and Dave Myall for road safety advice

Fulton Hogan in Golden Bay for supply road signs

and

Golden Bay Golden Bay Weekly

Event article

Golden Bay Community Radio - Fresh FM

Mainland Television

For their support and publications

Well, not missing me (Terri) out as the event manager and Celebrant

from The Dream Maker  and this 2015 wedding promotion

All dressed up and playing the part

I was delighted to get a copy of the latest Country Trading Co Blog which high lighted the event in a beautiful account of the day as seen from a guests point of view and great friends of Jessica and Carl.

Before I close, I also want to thank the most important people in this adventure 

Carl & Jessica Champagne 

our wonderful couple who took a chance and won the competition to their astonishment

and of course all their family and friends

and Felix of  their son who did a wonderful job on the day too

Happy Ever After

Thank you to the New Zealand Wedding Directory for publishing Carl and Jess's story as told by them.

For further information on Langford Store, Golden Bay 

or any other weddings needs contact Terri

www.thedreammaker.co.nz