In our industry, the longer your deadline is, the longer you’ll take to write the story. But that would probably apply to most aspects of life – homework, a work presentation, getting the lawns done, fixing stuff round the house.
So while it’s usual for a couple to take a year or longer to plan their wedding, if there was a compelling reason to organise it in one day you probably could – like this Kiwi couple…
Michelle Dickinson, known to most as Kiwi scientist Nanogirl, married her partner, Joe Davis, in a wedding ceremony in Auckland on Monday night – after waking up and deciding only that morning to marry that day.
As reported in the NZ Herald, Michelle explained, “Joe and I chatted this morning about getting married. Never ones to do things by halves and thanks to some incredible people around us we pulled it all off in under 9 hours, getting married after a full day of work with me getting dressed in the car.”
Now that’s impressive.
In a Facebook post sharing the couple’s happy news, Joe revealed, “Tonight I married the love of my life, the incomparable Michelle. It was the most incredible day, surrounded by family and some of our dearest and closest friends – and it all came together in just 9 hours!”
With Michelle’s family visiting from overseas, the couple chose to make the most of the opportunity to tie the knot surrounded by those they loved most in the world.
Joe said, “Michelle’s dear mum, brother and sister-in-law are with us in New Zealand from the UK and China – we decided we couldn’t miss the chance to celebrate and share our love with them, alongside our wonderful family and friends here in New Zealand.”
So how easy would it be to pull off a wedding in a day? Venue, marriage celebrant and guests would be the obvious elements to secure first.
You need a council permit to marry in a public place like a beach, and that would take longer than a day to organise. And hiring a hall or wedding venue might be tricky at such short notice, so your best option is a garden wedding at your place or at the home of friends or family.
Marriage celebrants you can find easily enough online and as long as they’re available and up for it, we can’t imagine why they’d turn you down.
Guests – well, Michelle and Joe only gave theirs two hours’ notice, and they were able to make it.
Now for the cake, wedding rings, food and beverages, photos and what to wear…
With a little imagination and creativity it’s amazing what you can do with a cake from the supermarket.
Wedding rings – use shells or buy cheap ones from the $2 Shop and replace them with the genuine thing later. Or you may already have an heirloom piece of jewellery that you’ve been waiting to bring out for this very occasion.
Ask a trusted friend or family member who has an eye for a good image to take your wedding photos.
Food – dial in pizza and make a stop on your way home from work at the bottle store or supermarket for a few bottles of bubbly to celebrate. Don’t forget to buy extra glasses or at least plastic cups.
What to wear – it’s called power shopping in your lunch hour, unless you have something in your wardrobe that you already have earmarked.
Flowers, that’s a quick trip to the florist in your lunch break too. Yes, it will be a busy lunch break.
There’s just one hitch – the marriage license. According to instructions on the NZ Government website, you need to get your marriage license at least three days before you want to get married. So a little thinking ahead is required after all.
But you could definitely get married within a week – and it would probably take months of stress and overthinking the details out of the planning.
