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