Weddings

Erin Simpson and Zac Franich have shared their wedding video and it’s absolutely gorgeous

Complete with smoke bombs, a serenade and the offering of a red rose, it really was a glamorous event.
Erin Simpson Zac Franich wedding video

Erin Simpson and Zac Franich have shared their heartwarming wedding video and if you don’t have tissues at hand, we suggest you find some before you watch it.

The video, created by New Zealand Wedding Films, follows the besotted couple on their big day from their mornings spent preparing separately for their nuptials through to their tear-filled wedding ceremony, held at the historic St Patrick’s Cathedral in Auckland, and swanky reception party afterward at Auckland Museum.

There is an especially moving moment where Zac can be seen in bits as his new wife sings to him. The song was Lady Gaga’s Look What I Found from the movie, A Star Is Born.

Both cried through their vows, with TV presenter Erin, who is well used to memorising scripts, revealing to Now To Love that her vows were the first piece of writing she hadn’t been able to hold to memory because she was so emotional.

The entire congregation had a giggle when Erin presented her new husband, who failed to find true love on The Bachelor NZ, with a red rose.

Behind the scenes, the build-up to the big day had been a particularly stressful one. The couple had feared they would have to find a new venue and caterers at the eleventh hour after Auckland’s SkyCity Convention Centre broke out in flames a matter of days before their wedding. The inferno, which took three days to extinguish, was a just a couple of hundred metres from their venue, and SkyCity was doing the couple’s catering.

“They cancelled all their events for two days and they were unsure about our wedding,” Zac told Woman’s Day. “We’d left $10,000 worth of alcohol with them and they didn’t know whether they’d be able to get it out!”

Fortunately, the blaze was put out on the day of their wedding and all went ahead as planned.

In her vows Erin told Zac that he was the tall, dark, handsome man she had wished for as a little girl, when she and her sister had stood over a “cauldron” (a fire in oil drum) and created a magic potion to conjure up their perfect partners.

In turn Zac told Erin that he saw “so much to love’ in her. “Here , today, I solemnly swear to take you into my tender loving care, through laughs, cries, whatever future we create, I want to do it all, only with you, my best mate.”

In a phone interview with Now To Love, Erin revealed that watching the wedding video for the first time on the weekend, and seeing the day unfold all over again, was very emotional for her.

“Yes, I cried all the way through it. I actually watched it with Zac’s cousin Macy in Whangamata,” she said.

“It was an amazing day. But I wouldn’t say just that one day was amazing… Zac and I have been on cloud nine all year. I’d say this whole year has been one of the best years of my life!”

Zac, a surf lifesaving coach, wasn’t able to get to it until Sunday night as he’d been “busy down the other end of the beach running a surf lifesaving carnival”, Erin giggles.

As okay as the TV presenter is with the fact they were unable to watch the video for the first time together, Erin shares that being in separate places has been an unfortunate reality for the beginning of their marriage.

During the build-up to the couple’s November wedding Erin had been filming a new adventure show, Adventure All Stars, which will air on TVNZ in 2020 “and so as soon as the wedding was over I was back filming in Christchurch and Queenstown”, she says.

“I was away for 10 days and then he was away and now he’s in Rotorua for a kayaking course. We never fight because we’re never together,” she quips.

Despite the time apart, she reports that being married is “awesome”.

“People say it’s not any different but it’s so different and Zac and I both feel this. We feel more of a team, more confident, more stable, less vulnerable and we’re way more protective of each other.”

The couple is looking forward to taking a few days off together over New Years in the Philippines.

“And then next year Zac is working in Italy in September so we’re going to tack on as many days as we can after that [to stay on for a holiday],” Erin shares.

Over the next 12 months the couple hope to restructure their lives so that they’re both in one place together more often.

“We would love to have children,” Erin reveals. “But not in this environment. It’s okay for us to be doing these massive hours and running all over the country but it’s not okay to bring a baby into that so we’ll think about it over the next 12 months and try and restructure things. Zac really wants children so we’ll be putting a lot of thought into changing things.”

In the meantime, the couple live by two quotes that they’ve had stencilled on to the walls of their home in Auckland.

“You make me better than I ever thought I could be.” And, “The only lie I ever told you is that I liked you when I already knew I loved you.”

“Zac really is amazing,” Erin gushes. “I noticed it the day I met him. I was like ‘you’re so normal and so caring of everyone else. He’s a breath of fresh air every day.”

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