It was every bride’s worst nightmare when radio star Megan Sellers and her husband-to-be Andrew Papas visited their wedding venue the day before the ceremony amid a violent storm.
Pounded by torrential rain and buffeted by gale-force winds, the ZM host was in tears as she surveyed the water-logged West Auckland farm. “Everyone was trying to console me, but I was a bridezilla,” she confesses.
“When you’re planning the happiest day of your life, you don’t expect a severe weather warning.”
Fortunately, on the big day, the storm has blown over and by the time Megan, 33, arrives at the grove of kauri and rimu trees where she is to marry her singer beau, 23, the sun has emerged and there’s a clear view out to beautiful Bethells Beach.
“As we drove down the road, I saw the vista and a ray of light came out,” she tells Woman’s Day. “It was a sign. My only problem was managing my veil in the wind. It serves me right for being such a diva and insisting on a dramatically long one!”
Andrew blinks back tears as his bride, in a custom lace and satin Banks & Co gown, makes her way down an aisle strewn with white rose petals. He later admits, “I’m a cry-baby. She looked absolutely stunning. Even thinking about it now makes me get choked up.”
It’s Megan’s turn to sob as the pair recite their self-penned vows in front of just 52 close friends and family, with the brunette beauty snuffling and gasping as she declares, “Andrew, you are my favourite person. I love you more each day than the one before. Let’s be best friends and lovers, and hold hands until the end of our days.”
She explains later, “I’m not a very mushy person, so to say those words in front of everyone was really hard. Everything turned to custard.”
After rings are exchanged, the couple are pronounced Mr and Mrs Papas, and the newlyweds share their first kiss as husband and wife. They then walk up the aisle as a string quartet plays the Beatles classic “All You Need is Love” and guests throw rose petals.
“I got her right in the face!” laughs Megan’s ZM co-host Carl “Fletch” Fletcher, before confessing he got “a bit emotional” during the ceremony.
Her diamond wedding band and his plain palladium one are from Fifth Avenue.
His fellow radio star Vaughan Smith adds, “He first claimed he was sniffing because he had a cold, but I could tell it was an emotional sniff – those vows were heartfelt.”
Nelson girl Megan and South African-born Andrew first met five years ago, when she was working at The Edge and he successfully auditioned for the radio station’s boy band Titanium. The pair were warned it wouldn’t work because of the decade between them, but Megan insists, “Andrew’s like a granddad and I’m immature, so we meet in the middle, although one day, I’ll be haggard as and he’ll still be youthful.”
Andrew, who quit Titanium in 2015, was Megan’s nurse when she was bedridden for five weeks following a hip operation last year. His reward was a romantic trip to Rarotonga last July, when he popped the question over a champagne dinner on the beach.
Chatting to us after the ceremony, as the string quartet plays an instrumental version of Andrew’s new song “Troublemaker”, Megan smiles, “I was definitely one of those girls who fantasised about a fancy wedding with her Prince Charming, who was always a singer, so this is my dream come true.”
Nodding, Andrew adds, “It’s an absolute dream. We thought our big day was going to be ruined, but everything was just perfect. We couldn’t have asked for better.”
Love at first site: The pair knew Jonkers Farm was the perfect romantic setting for their nuptials.
The newlyweds with their bridal party (from left) Yoontae Choi, Ellie Smith, Holley Banks and Christopher Papas.
Megan’s co-hosts Vaughan (left) and Fletch showed their support – and shed a tear – on her big day.
“It all comes down to knowing I can’t live without Megan,” says her smitten husband Andrew.
