True love rarely cares about interrupting your life plans. That was certainly the case for Harri Burrell, a Taranaki-born educator, who met Courtney Rodgers, a photographer and editor from Tāmaki Makaurau, in 2022.
It was set to be a big year for Harri, who was planning on uprooting her life and moving to France to fulfill a lifelong dream of learning French. “I was certain that no one would stop me! I never thought that around this time I would meet someone, and after falling in love with C, there was no doubt - they had to join me,” she says.
“I was completely captivated from the moment I first saw C. I remember saying to a close friend of mine soon after we met that I was in love, something that sounded ridiculous at the time and was said lightly, but somehow I knew that this person was going to drastically change my life.”
Courtney felt the same, and realised there was no other sane choice but to go too. “We weren't together for very long before we moved across the world, however we had this deep knowing that it would only bring us closer. We had such a beautiful connection since the very beginning of knowing each other, definitely one that wasn't worth letting go of,” says Courtney.
The couple expected to spend the year in France, but after seven months, their lives dramatically took a turn as they received news of Harri’s mum’s cancer diagnosis. After visiting some family in the Netherlands, they were on the next flight home to New Zealand.
“It wasn’t long after being back, amidst the chaos, that we started thinking about getting married while my Mum’s still well enough and able to be present,” says Harri. “We had talked about it for a long time, and to bring it forward under the circumstances felt right to us. For us, getting married was an opportunity to bring people together to celebrate life and love.”
“There’s something non-conventional about getting married as a queer couple,” adds Courtney. “It hasn’t always been accessible for us and our community, it almost feels like rebellion.”
Like most things the couple embark on, Courtney and Harri worked seamlessly together to bring their shared vision of their wedding day to life.
“My parent’s garden was such a grounding place for me to return back to after spending time away,” says Harri. “We got married beneath a pear tree with everyone standing around us. Our ceremony felt really intentional and calm. It was essential to us to begin by acknowledging the land around us, and for every person present to really connect to this feeling and moment of being together.
"It was also really important for us to contribute to the garden, so we planted our vows with a kōwhai tree into the earth, which served as a symbol to us of our growing lives together.”
The couple worked with a local florist to make small centrepieces for the tables, they borrowed plates and cutlery from parent’s homes and gathered vintage tablecloths that both of their Mums had collected over time. “On the day before our wedding, we foraged native foliage from the reserve behind Harri’s parents property - this was a really grounding piece for us to do together,” says Courtney.
Having an outdoor ceremony meant they were at the mercy of the weather - and it bucketed down just a few hours before their 40 guests arrived.
"We thought an outdoor wedding at Harri’s parents house would be a safe idea, as Taupō generally has amazing summers and since arriving back from winter in Europe, it had remained warm and dry… quite literally until the day of our wedding,” says Courtney.
“The community here is close and some neighbours came together to install an outdoor shelter for our dinner. But the rain was so heavy that it broke through the shelter, drenching our efforts on the beautiful tables.
“We had no choice but to move our dining setting to my parent’s garage, which at the time, was filled with storage, motorbikes and old posters. We didn’t think it would be possible to make the space feel right, however within the hour, thanks to some wonderful help from our family, the garage really did look beautiful,” says Harri. “What really mattered most to us was the ceremony, which we still had beneath umbrellas in my parent’s garden.”
Both wanted to support the work of local designers and makers. Harri wore a Wynn Hamlyn dress, while Courtney had their dress made by emerging designer Emma Cornall (Emma Jing), who’s work they’d both admired for a long time.
“I got in touch with Emma within three weeks of the wedding day. Following her last show in Tāmaki [a wedding show, in ode to her late father] before she left for the UK, she was incredibly receptive to the circumstances of the rushed situation and created my dress based on a few reference photos and my vague idea of what I was hoping for. As someone who has spent a long time not wearing dresses very often, I was super happy with the way it turned out, and couldn’t be more grateful.”
Harri also wore a custom veil with a bow by Emma Jing as a link between their looks. Courtney wore earrings by their friend, Auckland jeweller Holly Marbeck of Mars, and the engagement ring was made by Taranaki jeweller and friend Olivia Day.
“I was learning to make jewellery in Auckland and I decided to carve an engagement ring for Harri out of wax,” says Courtney. “Her finger is so tiny I had to use the smallest size and then cut it smaller once it had been casted! With the wedding rings, we carved these for each other on the front step of my old flat in Mount Roskill.”
Music also played an key role in the stormy ceremony. Their quaint playlist included Aotearoa based musicians Womb, Aldous Harding, Tiny Ruins and Recitals. 'Dried Roses' by Big Thief was the soundtrack to their wedding video, shot by Harri's sister's best friend and edited together by Courtney.
For dinner after the ceremony, the pair enlisted the help of family and friends, allocating a selection of vegetarian recipes which resulted in a well thought-out potluck. “This turned out far better than we could’ve imagined, due to the effort everyone put in, and was much more exciting and cheaper than the catering options available in Taupō. There isn't anything quite like a meal cooked by a loved one,” says Courtney.
Their wedding cake - a mascarpone poached pear cake - was made by Fundraiser, based in Morningside, Auckland.
When it came to choosing a photographer, the couple knew who they wanted to work with long before they had a wedding date. The beautiful, moody images from their ceremony were captured on film by photographer Ally Lase, an old friend of Courtney’s.
“I knew I wanted to have our photos taken in analogue - although it’s a somewhat daunting idea too - you definitely get what you get with film. We collectively had ideas that fit really well with each other, Ally made a mood board which included some reference photos we sent too. She was a wonderful presence to have around on the day as well. We asked for no photos to be taken by guests at the ceremony, just Ally and a friend with a polaroid camera.”
For Courtney, an essential part of feeling calm and grounded on the day came down to the people they had around them. “It felt so special to have our families come together and share in this experience. Such a privilege to have my grandparents around, for them to bear witness to our love in such a vulnerable way. Having all of our siblings come together was incredible too. Harri’s sister played the most beautiful song on the piano, it was so emotional and raw and made us all feel even more connected than we already did,” says Courtney.
“We talked a lot about what that day would mean to us," Harri adds. “Of course, we were together to celebrate our love and share our words for each other, but for us it was about so much more than that.
"It was about all love, about connection and honesty, about groundedness. It was as much about our family as it was about us. It was about being together and really bringing a sense of awareness to the fragility and preciousness of life.”
