The peaceful, idyllic shores of Lake Taupo hold a special place in Emily Naylor’s heart. Sixty years ago, the Black Sticks star’s late grandmother Beryl and grandfather Jack fell in love with the sleepy, small-town paradise and visiting became a lifelong holiday tradition for three generations.
It was Beryl’s dream that her granddaughter marry there, so it’s fitting that on her scorching-hot February wedding day, the 30-year-old hockey player has chosen to honour that wish, surprising her fiancé, Hawke’s Bay farmer Harry Gaddum, with an unforgettable lakeside arrival. Excitement ripples through the 188 guests – including Emily’s Black Sticks teammate Gemma Flynn and her fiancé, All Black Richie McCaw – as the umbrella-shielded bride and her proud dad Brian make their way across the sparkling waters in a beautiful vintage dinghy. Radiant in an intricately beaded fishtail gown by Spanish label Pronovias, Emily is helped from the boat by her father as her bridal party – with matron of honour and fellow Black Stick Kayla Whitelock, and adorable flower girls, Farrah, four, and Olympia, two – arrive at the picturesque hillside altar.
Despite being sheltered from the relentless rays, the normally unflappable former captain and New Zealand’s most-capped women’s hockey player, admits, “I was pretty nervous and the sun was so hot! It all suddenly became real when I saw everyone standing there.” Choking back tears, the 30-year-old groom, handsome in a grey suit finished with a polka-dot blue bowtie, waves excitedly at his wife-to-be.“I had no idea that’s how Em would be arriving, but it was magical, like something out of a movie,” Harry later smiles. “She really was my dreamboat!” To the strains of the Tracy Chapman song “The Promise”, father and daughter make their way up a blue and white hydrangea-strewn pathway dotted with pumice stones from the lake. His eyes still teary, Harry shakes Brian’s hands and gently kisses his bride on the cheek as she joins him before celebrant Anne Fortune, the groom’s former boarding-school chaplain.
Reunited at last!
In a short ceremony honouring the pair’s love and commitment, Harry’s youngest brother George, 28, reads a hand-penned tribute to the couple. “Today, we gather here under these manuka trees to celebrate my brother Harry and his gorgeous almost-wife Emily having re-found each other at last,” he says.
It’s a nod to the lovebirds’ fateful reunion two decades after they first met as babies. Harry’s late mother Kirsty and Emily’s mum Sarah were best friends from school days. Although the duo lost touch in the intervening years as Harry travelled the globe and Emily pursued her hockey career, fate – and Facebook – eventually brought them back together in Hawke’s Bay in 2012. The pair instantly clicked over a love of music and DIY. It’s fitting then that after they both say “I do”, guests are invited to sing along to Louis Armstrong’s feel-good classic “What a Wonderful World”. “We’re both big music lovers and we wanted an element of quirkiness, our own spin on the ceremony,” explains Emily, who was also in charge of the heartfelt vows. The crowd laughs when the smiling bride, gazing at her groom, pledges, “I promise to be your partner in all things. I will embrace your crazy adventures and ideas – even living in a tent!” It’s an acknowledgement of the couple’s year-long stint in a luxury festival-style tent high in the hills of Havelock North while they build their dream home. Despite busy schedules, the ambitious couple spend most of their free time working on the two-storey, four-bedroom, solar-powered property, where they will live with their faithful golden Labrador Franky. Rings exchanged, the couple are pronounced Mr and Mrs
Gaddum, then there’s laughter as a lippy-covered Harry gratefully accepts a handkerchief from his new mother-in-law, who frantically wipes his mouth. While the emotional newlyweds sign the registry, Emily’s dad and family friend Maryanne Scott serenade them with a rendition of Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight”, before they walk triumphantly, hands aloft, beneath a storm of confetti. The waterside wedding is the ultimate celebration with specially made “H & Em” flags flying outside the bridal bach, festive bunting, hand-painted kayaks, Persian-style picnic
rugs and a magnificent flourless chocolate cake crafted by Harry’s talented stepmother Raewyn. By the time the bride and groom are welcomed to the head table in the beautifully decorated marquee, fun is well and truly in the air.
Guests dine on platters of leek and pistachio-wrapped chicken, scotch beef fillet and salmon in lime hollandaise sauce, and drink wine by Hawke’s Bay favourites Sileni at long trestle tables. Later, the music-loving newlyweds will delight guests with their first dance, switching from John Legend’s “All of Me” into Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel”, a homage to “massive fan” Emily’s love of the King of Pop. “We left it pretty open to spontaneity,” confesses Harry. “Though we did have a couple of practises under the moonlight in our undies!”
As the sun goes down and the relentless heat finally dissipates, Harry wades out to light the lakeside lanterns, and the couple’s fathers acknowledge the long-standing bond between their two families and the significance of the location. The previous day, Harry’s whanau was officially welcomed into the close-knit community, with the groom delivering a heartfelt, word-perfect mihi
in te reo at the nearby marae. “Harry did such an amazing job,” recalls Emily proudly. “It was a really special powhiri. About 50 or 60 of the local iwi were there.”
Matron of honour Kayla, here with her husband, former All Black George Whitelock, 30, and nine-month-old daughter Addison, also pays tribute to her close hockey pal as the pair gear up for their biggest challenge yet. The Black Sticks are Rio-bound for the Olympics in August, with Emily anticipating a move up to Auckland as training intensifies. And soon after the wedding, the bride and the Black Sticks will jet off to Argentina to play six tests against the South American team, which ranks number two in world hockey. “We’re hoping for big things in Rio,” tells Emily. “But after a year off from hockey, and the Argentina games and Olympics, I’ll need to keep running on our honeymoon to maintain my fitness!”
The new Mr and Mrs Gaddum are stealing some alone time in the Bay of Islands, returning to their glamping roots and immersing themselves in the natural beauty of the country they call home. “Today has been magical,” Emily concludes. “It’s the next chapter in our lives and we’ve tried to savour every second. It means so much that we are sitting here at Lake Taupo now as husband and wife, looking out over all the flaxes my grandmother planted along the beachfront.
“It’s going to be hard to top getting married in this truly special place.”
Here comes the bride!
Emily makes a spectacular entrance with her dad Brian and brother Tom.
“It’s the next chapter in our lives and we’ve tried to savour every second.”
Picture perfect!
Signing the registry
After signing the registry, the newlyweds are showered in confetti
Special guests George and Kayla
Gemma and Richie
“Today has been magical,” says Emily.
The couple with (from left) Stacey McKerchar, Hannah Ross-Taylor, Jess Wilson, flower girl Farrah, Kayla, Alice Naylor, Richard Bousfield, Patch Reynolds, page boy Rafferty Ormond, Rupert Gaddum, Jack Castle and Willie White.
The unique table settings list. Harry painted this fantail for guests to put their thumbprints on. Harry’s band complements Emily’s platinum-silver, gold-trimmed ring, adapted from grandmother Beryl’s vintage piece. Blissful blooms in blue. Mmm …the heavenly chocolate cake.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
