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A Surprise Wedding in Paradise
A Surprise Wedding in Paradise
Auckland, April 18 2012 – A fun-loving travel agent and her partner decided to take the plunge with a spontaneous wedding while on holiday in Niue recently.
Andrea Livingston of Motueka’s Wildside Travel and her partner of eight years Shaun Atkinson visited Niue as part of the Island’s ‘self-famil’ program for travel agents.
Unbeknownst to Andrea, Sean wanted to take advantage of their romantic holiday in paradise and was planning not just a proposal, but also a wedding. He made enquiries to Niue’s registry office, and designed two stunning wedding rings.
Two days into their holiday, Shaun proposed and to Andrea’s surprise suggested that they marry just days later on her birthday.
Andrea said, “Yes” and three days later the laid-back couple were married at Niue’s registry office in a private ceremony.
“It was such a fun and relaxed day,” says Andrea. “Luckily I had packed a dress, so I wore that along with a smidgen of make-up and jandles.”
After the casual ceremony, the couple strolled down to the wharf and took some wedding photos – using their camera’s self timer.
“Not very glamorous, but we don’t care!” joked Andrea.
The rest of the day was spent hiking on Niue’s spectacular bush tracks before purchasing up a bottle of champagne from the island’s duty free store which they enjoyed with some other couples they had met while on holiday.
“Everyone was amazed when we announced what we had been up to that day,” says Andrea.
Andrea looks forward to returning to Niue for a work trip in June during the Rally of the Rock mountain biking competition and is also planning on returning soon with her new husband.
“It’s such a beautiful island and there is so much to do. We were there for a week and it still wasn’t time to see and do everything we wanted. We will definitely be back.” says Andrea.
On their return to New Zealand, Andrea’s mother surprised the couple with a champagne breakfast and cake with their close friends.
ENDS
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