When Erin Broughton and her partner Ben Fielding decided to get married, it wasn't so much a formal step-change in their relationship as it was “a ruse to have the best party ever.”
“We’d been together for such a long time that the formality of marriage wasn’t really going to change much,” Erin says. “We were really inspired by our friends Mickey and Marina who were married five years earlier and it was such a beautiful and loving day... We just wanted to get all of the people we loved together and celebrate them.”
The couple, who met when they were living in Ōtepoti Dunedin, had been together for five years before getting engaged. Erin had just moved to Ōtautahi Christchurch for a job and had been there for three months before Ben moved up. “After we had moved everything into the new house I popped the question - Erin’s hands were so swollen from moving and the heat that she couldn't get the ring on,” says Ben.
The couple returned to Dunedin and tied the knot at the Pukehiki District Hall after a three-year engagement. “I grew up always going to a community hall in Rosewill and have always loved the feeling of the buildings,” says Erin. “When we went to look at Pukehiki and saw the big beautiful stage we knew it was perfect — it was also super affordable which was a bonus.”
When it came to planning the big day, Erin and Ben focused on what would be meaningful to them, rather than fulfilling obligations. “Hosting was really important to us — it’s as much about celebrating the people who come to the wedding as it is about us. We had a lot of fun with the seating plan to pair groups of friends who haven’t met but we knew would have a rip-roaring time together.”
There were still COVID restrictions on gatherings when they were planning, which forced them to keep their guest list to around 100, a blessing in disguise to keep the wedding within budget.
“We invited mostly friends and then really special family members and we think it meant that there was more interaction between the two groups. At one point Erin walked into a very sweet scene of a high school friend putting gems on her aunt's face,” says Ben.
Showing their closest friends and family a great time was important, but so was keeping things as cost effective as possible. “We basically identified our restrictions and planned around that,” says Ben. “The ceremony was at the Botanic Gardens, and was about twenty dollars to book and made it really easy to get all the group shots when everyone was in one spot.”
“We had some good advice from a friend to pick three things that you really cared about and concentrate on those, which initially was food, music and booze, but Erin is a bit of an all or nothing gal, so the wedding aesthetic also had a lot of time put into it.”
The wedding aesthetic stayed within boundaries though - they picked two colours; light green and purple (based on paper stock they could get for their invitations), and built the scheme around that. The couple immediately knew who their key suppliers would be, enlisting the help of talented friends including florists, designers and jewelers, photographers and musicians.
“Music was huge for us. Ben has always played in bands and we’ve both been knocking around the music scene for a while, so we knew we wanted a live band to be a big part of the night.”
Friends Ben Woods and Ryan Chin took on the challenge of playing a covers set of their favourite songs, with Steven Marr (one of Erin’s best friends) doing a huge amount of legwork organising the final set list and getting De Stevens and Hamish Morgan on board to round out the band.
“We’d wanted more of a live gig environment than a typical wedding band and they more than delivered, with everyone up and dancing from the first song to the last. They also played our first dance song, Ben Woods’ ‘Romancy’ which is a helluva tune so it was very special to have Ben up there singing for us,” says Erin.
“For our first dance we spent hours watching silly YouTube slow-dancing tutorials and pieced them together, practicing over and over in our tiny lounge until we had something that lined up with the song and was uniquely ours. We ended up facing the wrong way when we actually did it (of course).”
“We had our friend Mickey as the celebrant, and he was amazing (even dressed vaguely like a priest), and it was so special having a great friend up there with us and not a stranger.”
It was also important to the couple that their guests had fun with the dress code, which they set as the ‘Met Gala of Dunedin’. “It was a little tongue and cheek but allowed for formal, funky, fun, sexy and conservative styles, and essentially encouraged people to wear the best outfit they have ever donned.”
There were no prescribed outfits for the bridal party and groomsmen, instead they gave them a loose colour palette (green for Ben’s side and purple for Erin’s) and encouraged them to pick something they would wear again. Erin’s maid of honour and bridesmaid both wore Layplan dresses, very appropriate for the Met Gala theme.
The bride had actually spun her wedding dress into existence on a drunken night three years prior, a bespoke creation by Rosette Hailes-Paku of Karaoke Superstars. “I’m such a fan of Rose’s work, construction, and vision. The fabric was all really inexpensive materials (shirting cotton and tulle) and then we sewed these cascading Swarovski beads to it on the very last fitting.”
Rose also helped Erin find the perfect veil and gloves on Etsy, and some platform brown stretch boots by Naked Wolfe (“I’m not really a delicate shoe type of gal.”) For something old, Erin wore her grandmother's pearls and vintage bridal clutch that Rose had fashioned into a “bum bag” to hold the essentials.
“It wasn’t till we put it all together that Erin realised she was kinda cosplaying Molly Ringwald — very over the top early 90s/late 80’s princess vibe.”
“Ben is the proportions of a model, so he essentially strolled into Barkers and picked a suit, shirt and shoes off the rack in one go,” says Erin. He chose a simple charcoal suit in a classic style “that (hopefully) won’t date!”
Wellington based artist and friend Turumeke Harrington made the couple’s rings; a simple yellow gold band with a little ruby hidden inside for Ben, and a gold signet with “a big ass ruby” for Erin.
In order to save some money (circling back to picking three important details) Erin did her own makeup and hair, “very much helped by a great haircut by Michael Rose and colour by Gabbie at Leaf a couple of days before.” As a final touch, the couple wore fragrances from Wellington-based natural perfumer Abel Odor; Green Cedar for Erin and Colbalt Amber for Ben.
To capture the special day, the couple asked good friend Alex Lovell-Smith to be their photographer. “We sent him the most unhinged photo brief which included pictures of the nurses outside Seacliff Hospital, Oasis band photos, and half of Mick and Bianca Jagger’s wedding album. The broad stroke instruction was for photos to either be super artificially posed or documentary style, with not much in between — which he absolutely nailed.”
“Alex also organised a second photographer, Amanda Konijn, for this idea we had around portrait photography at the reception — we wanted everyone to have the opportunity to get a really hot pic of themselves in their outfits and with their friends to kind of pay respect to the effort that everyone puts in for a wedding.”
As a sentimental touch, the couple dished out seven disposable cameras to different groups and plan to develop one on an anniversary, as a way to reflect on the day in years to come.
For the wedding flowers and bouquets, Erin worked with her friend Jacqui Margetts at Miss Reid florist, “We talked about the general vibe and some colours, and then we essentially left her to do what she thought was best. The flowers were so spectacular that thankfully we didn't have to do too much else in the way of decoration.”
“We had a couple of big puffs at the gardens for the ceremony that we used again at the hall. Jacqui and Frances made these incredible hanging floral balls that sat right in front of the stage at the reception and we had a bunch of vintage bottles for the tables that they arranged with little stems.” The bouquets included two miniature ones for the ‘Flower Children’ Lila and Smith, kids of the couple’s friends.
As a graphic designer, Erin did the invitations herself and mirrored the design with the name cards. “I always work with this amazing printer Gilbert May and he was such a hero printing all the ephemera for the wedding. We risographed everyone's names and then hand punched them with a die cut from Lincraft and placed them on each person's napkins.”
When it came to providing sustenance, the couple are “both pretty classic for not eating at big social events,” so they wanted to make sure the food was delicious and easy for everyone to grab - including their gluten free and vegan friends. “We worked with Precinct, who were amazing and developed a really lovely set of platters and flatbreads/fillings for us. They even made us pies to bring out late in the night to keep everyone a little more sober for the bus ride back into town. Our friends are still raving about the jackfruit ‘pulled pork’.”
Ben’s band mates worked the bar at the reception, serving Emersons beers and an assortment of wines. Once the venue curfew hit 11PM, everyone headed to the couple’s favourite bar Woof! to keep celebrations going until late. “It was really lovely for us to switch off the hosting part and have the time to catch up with everyone in a more relaxed setting. It’s easy to feel like you’re just saying ‘hi’ and moving on during the actual day,” says Erin.
Thinking back on their wedding day, they don’t regret leaving out some traditions, or putting extra effort into the little details. “We didn’t have a wedding cake or a flower toss, we didn’t even really think about them until people mentioned it after. We ended up giving the bouquet to Ben’s Nana — so maybe she’ll be married next!”
Despite people saying they were a waste of money, Erin was dead set on doing wedding favours, and had friend Daniel Blackball design a wedding image that they screen printed onto tote bags at home. “It’s so lovely seeing our friends and family using them in the wild, so we’d recommend that if you’re going to do a favour to make it practical.”
They didn’t stray too far from their budget, either - “We were very lucky in that our families were happy to help out, it ended up being roughly thirds split between our families and our own money,” says Erin. “We think it ended up being a little under 30K all up, which seems like a stupid amount to spend on one day — but we were really lucky to have talented, kind friends doing most of the supply work. It could have easily been doubled if we didn’t have such an amazing community around us.”
Ben and Erin’s favourite wedding day memories:
- Ben's dad getting up and playing the drums
- Friends not being able to believe how nice our other friends are
- Erin's dad destroying on the dance-floor (sorry Jo)
- The outfits! Outrageous, custom suits, runway pieces, hair dye especially for the night.
- Having all of our friends in one place and dancing to “All My Friends” by LCD Soundsystem right at the end of the night
- The speeches — We’ve never cried/laughed so much in one day. We had last minute asked our friends to film them and the ceremony and we are so grateful for it.
