Hannah & Clement's Dunedin Vow Renewal
- hannahlindcelebran
- 15 hours ago
- 4 min read
Firstly, yes - the Hannah of Hannah and Clement is me. This was my own vow renewal ceremony & party.
If you take nothing else from this post… here are the three most important things (that can be applied to a wedding as easily as a vow renewal) I can speak to from our Dunedin vow renewal.
Having the celebration that matters to THE TWO OF YOU is number one. Whether planning yourself or deciding on what a celebration means to you and passing to a planner.
Having a detailed timeline for the whole day gives you so much space and time to just enjoy the company of the people you choose to be with from waking up in the morning to going to sleep at night.
Atmosphere doesn’t just happen. You have to create it. Choose the spaces you’re celebrating in wisely, create playlists, tell people your expectations.
And the one I already 100% knew
A real authentic, truly enjoyable celebration requires choosing the businesses you work with based on a combination of factors, in order.
- Liking their vibe, are they your people?
- The end result. Do you like what you see online?
- Price. Can you fit their price into your budget? Remembering you can’t prioritise everything, choose wisely.
This year marked 20 years since Clement and I got married. Which seems impossible and yet 2006 + 20 is 2026.
Our wedding was wonderful - I'll recreate the 'our wedding ten years on' blog for our 20th anniversary soon.
But this time we’re much clearer about who we are and what’s important to us.
That’s how we landed here, a day that was a personalised mixture of just the two of us and a big party.
The practical bits:
For us Dunedin was always going to be the location.
We moved here to study in 2001 and spent 10 years here.
We both loved living here, we lived in so many parts of town and spent a lot of weekends exploring the beaches, parks, tracks, museums, cheap restaurants and a few pubs and bars.
We had time in our lives to throw and go to so many house parties, watch movies on friends couches, spend whole afternoons playing boardgames.
It represents a time in life as much as a location to us.
Where we stayed & got ready: The Terminus Apartments
Our ceremony location: The Gasworks Museum
Our dinner celebration: Papa Chou’s
Photographer: Andy Brown Photography (credit for all of these incredible photos goes to Andy)
Celebrant (do note she’s not currently available for legal wedding ceremonies): Marea Colombo
Dress: Pagani
Kilt Hire: The Scottish Shop
Barber Shop: Cabana Barber
The Tart Tin: Gluten Free cakes for the gluten free people
Frozen Direct: Goofy Chocolate Slab ‘wedding’ cake
Things done in Alexandra before we left:
Nails: Mac It Perfect Omakau
Braids: Bubbles & Braids
The how and why:
Our timeline included everything.
What time we had to be up
Where we were going for breakfast
Where we needed to be for our individual primping and preening appointments and how long those appointments would take
Where we were picking up Clement’s kilt
Travel time
Who was picking up lunch
When we would be back at the apartment and how long we had before our photographer Andy arrived.
It meant we could just enjoy our morning together. No decisions, no rushing. We even ended up with an extra 15 minutes to walk through the Otago Farmers Market - something we used to do often when we lived in Dunedin.
The playlist we opted for through getting ready and driving between photo locations was something we both love, that’s been with us from the beginning in every form from cassette to Spotify Playlist - the Triple J Hottest 100 1996.
We opted to start the afternoon with photos, ending with the ceremony, rather than the other way around. This was about building excitement for our ceremony - we were both excited to say our vows to each other.
It was also about having great makeup in photos in case all the crying wrecked it during the ceremony (spoiler it was still in great order after the ceremony, Kristen is amazing!)
We started with photos in our apartment at The Terminus then we set off on a photographic tour of a few spots with Andy (Kuri, the guardian of the harbour statue, the Ravensbourne Railway overbridge and Tomohawk beach - all of these spots were chosen in advance, with wet weather backups. Again no rush, no decisions to make).
Ending with our ceremony at Gasworks Museum - finishing the just us part of the day with all the emotions, the laughter and the tears..
I knew I wanted our ceremony to be just for us (yes there was a little gentle push back on this but I’m so pleased we held fast.)
The words we wanted to say to each other weren’t a performance for others.
They were raw, vulnerable and very personal. I knew I would cry, a lot (and I was not wrong).
We both wanted to be 100% in that moment with the person we’ve chosen to spend our life with. We barely took our eyes off each other. No regrets!
Then we joined our friends, the people we’ve been lucky enough to collect over a lifetime, to celebrate with them at Papa Chou’s. Our MC the lovely Janine shaping the evening with a few speeches, passing around the photo albums from our wedding and engagement parties.
This post has of course been longer than I intended and I still have so much more to say - especially about the businesses who played huge parts in making our day absolutely magical.
So… to be continued.
In the meantime here's some Central Otago package weddings I've planned for other couples
Or more about how you can celebrate with me
Or contact me for a chat about how I can help you celebrate your wedding your way!
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