Couple Praise Community Effort to meet Wedding Deadline

December 17 2013

Couple Praise Community Effort to meet Wedding Deadline

The countdown to Motueka couple Tanya Fuller and Kevin Bedford’s wedding has been much more nerve-wracking than most couples’ experience.

Their wedding will be the first function to be held at the Moutere Hills Community Centre since the devastating fires of January and April this year. Last week they got their first look at the venue – the Woollaston Estates Function room – and it was still a construction site.

“It was a bit nerve wracking to see all the scaffolding up and all the builders still here when we only have a few weeks to go, but we can see past that and we know the whole team involved in the rebuild were determined to make it happen for our wedding day,” says Bride-to-be Tanya.

The couple had booked their December 28, 2013 wedding at the Moutere Hills Community Centre over two years ago. “When we heard the news about the January 22nd fire it came as a bit of a shock to start with but after we called Katrina several weeks later she assured us it will all be ok and are wedding reception would still go ahead. So there was a huge sigh of relief. Then when the April 12th fire happened, we couldn’t believe it, all the hard work that had already been carried out was now all gone and they were back to square one - but we were still fortunate enough to have more than six months to go and we trusted they could do it,” says Tanya.

Moutere Hills Community Centre Manager Katrina McLean says they’re incredibly grateful that Tanya and Kevin kept with them through the thick and thin.

“We’d like to thank them for sticking with us and for believing we could do it. Because they were so supportive, we were always going to make sure this wedding happened at the centre.

“When they saw the state of the building after the fires, it must have taken courage to think we could get the function room up and running only 8 months later but thanks to incredible effort by the contractors and many local businesses and individuals we will do it.”

Katrina says the good news is the centre is now even better than it was, with a new state-of-the-art sound and projector system, as well as a fresh new look with brighter wall colours.

Tanya Fuller, who works at House of Travel in Motueka, hails from the UK and Kevin who is the Operations Manager at Skydive Abel Tasman is originally from Zimbabwe. The couple‘s family and friends from overseas have and will be travelling here for the wedding.

“We always knew that Community Centre as a whole would succeed and if there was another spanner thrown in they would find another plan. They’ve been fantastic and we know it will happen. It’ll be alright on the day, “says Kevin.

Tanya agrees and adds: “The fact that we’re the first wedding in the upgraded building is special for us. It’s all going to be brand new just for us.”

The Moutere Hills Community Centre would like to thank their principal funders – Tasman District Council, Canterbury Community Trust and Sarau Trust.

ENDS

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