Tue 15 Sep 2009 In: Weddings and Civil Unions View at Wayback View at NDHA
Their day: Amie GayNZ.com: How did you and your partner meet? Amie: Well it was one of those evenings when it hindsight neither of us really wanted to go out! I was out for a friend's birthday and Kim just wanted to be out of her house. We met playing pool... I was watching Kim play pool and was thinking "she's pretty hot..." I had a funny feeling she was watching me so I went up and said hello... I will leave the infamous pick up line private though! How long have you been together as a couple? The evening we met was the 20th of June 2007, we definitely had some chemistry to the point I was going overseas for a holiday two weeks later and when my house and dog sitter fell through Kim offered to look after my place; I never got my house key back… Did either of you propose? Where and how? Kim did the proposing; in the middle of last year Kim secretly entered the both of us in Wellington's Classic Hits 'Win a $30,000 wedding'; then over a nice dinner which just also happened to be my birthday Kim proposed. It was really sweet, Kim admitted afterwards she was so worried what she would do if I had said no. How did your families react to the announcement of your Civil Union? The first family member we told was my son - aged 11 - and he was really happy for us, Kim and Arran are very close which of course is great. Though we aren't overly close to our families we received nice cards or phone calls from our families wishing us well. What kind of ceremony was it? It was very laid back wedding with close friends and a few family members; we wanted a ceremony where we were basically having a great night out with friends and to have our ceremony in the middle of it. Have to say though both Kim and I were so nervous leading up to the ceremony; it all went great especially thanks to some wonderful friends who personally gave there time and skills to providing all the important parts the ceremony needed. We have to say a special thanks to Stacey for the wonderful food, Grace for the fabulous wedding invites and playing DJ for the night; Sam for the awesome photography... and can't forget the wedding party who spent the day running around for us and basically doing everything that needed doing at the last minute! Did you write your own vows? Yes we did... but... on the night it was so emotional we ended up ad-libbing our vows so have no actual written words of what was said that night. Joanne our wonderful celebrant made sure that we added the required bits into the vows so that it was all official! What was the best part of your civil union day? Kim: "Seeing Amie for the first time when she arrived at the ceremony; we had were booked into the Langham hotel and I was with my friends Linda and Megan getting ready in Linda's room. So I only saw Amie when she arrived for the ceremony and it was like WOW that's when the thought of trying to read the vows I had written went out the window." Amie: "There were many parts of the day that were very special. I guess the most emotional part was when we were at the ceremony and seeing Kim and all our friends who had come to share our moment. It was then that it really sunk home of what we were doing and struck me how lucky I was to have a wonderful woman in Kim to spend the rest of my life with. The rest of the evening was just a wonderful blur." Was there a worst part of the day? Any stress? Not really any worst parts, but while I was getting ready Kim rung me a few times and I have never heard her so nervous. Kim was all ready by 3pm and the ceremony wasn't until 7pm. I wasn't ready until around 6pm so for me the afternoon was busy getting ready... but after I was all ready to go to the ceremony that is when the nerves kicked in! Did you have a Honeymoon? Yes. We stayed at the Langham for a few extra days after the ceremony which was lovely to have the time to ourselves after a couple of days socialising with friends we hadn't seen in a while and of course to recover and enjoy the fact we had really finally had our day which we had planned for so long. We then spent the next week travelling around the North Island visiting and staying with good friends. Do you feel any differently now you're Civil Unioned? Yes we feel totally like family now; we have committed to each other in front of friends and knowing that we have made that commitment gives us a nice feeling inside. Are you coupled up? GayNZ.com would love to share your Civil Union day with our readers. Contact: editor@gaynz.com. Matt Akersten - 15th September 2009