Christchurch newlyweds Phill and Raukura Beattie were prepared for their wedding speeches to be littered with puns, but they had no idea they’d be walking into their reception to Carole King’s hit I Feel the Earth oove, as sung by their guests!
It was a lighthearted moment in a wedding day full of surprises, not least of which was the fact that the ceremony was still able to go ahead on the very same day as one of the biggest quakes in New Zealand history.
The bride’s biggest worry in the lead-up to her day had been the possibility of snow, but she woke instead to find a massive earthquake had destroyed her hopes of a church wedding.
The couple, who have been together for almost five years, had spent the fateful night apart and after reassuring each other they were safe by phone, they listened to reports of the destruction as they filtered through.
“We were totally freaked out by the quake but at that stage we didn’t know how big it had been. But when we realised, we immediately began freaking out about the wedding too!” Raukura (25) explains.
They quickly discovered that the old stone oethodist church they had planned to marry in had been condemned, but were thankful they were able to move their ceremony to the reception venue at the Christchurch Netball Centre instead.
But there were still many other details to attend to. It looked unlikely that the bride could collect her bouquet of spring flowers from a florist at a shopping mall that had been closed.
“But the best man went down there and managed to sweet-talk the security guards into letting him through to collect our flowers,” Raukura grins.
A lack of electricity meant the hair and makeup artist had to style the bridal party’s hair without straighteners or curlers, but the happy groom says it made not a jot of difference to him.
“She looked beautiful – just amazing,” says proud new husband Phill (29).The biggest disappointment came when Raukura and Phill learned that 15 of their guests would be unable to make
it due to the disruption, but they were relieved to discover that those who did come had suffered only limited damage to their homes.
And the newlyweds were particularly touched by their guests’ determination to ensure the day was still as special and memorable as possible.
“That Kiwi ‘can-do’ attitude came through so strongly,” Phill says.
And although Raukura had dreamed of a traditional church wedding since she was a child, her fiancée Phill, who ironically studied geology at university, was able to reassure her.
“I said it didn’t really matter where we got married – she was the girl I wanted to marry and the setting was irrelevant.”
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