For The Love Of Being Creative

Meris Brandram-Adams is celebrating 20 years in the wedding business. She owns Ohoka’s Rosemount Park Estate and Swannanoa’s Darjon Vineyard. Canterbury Bride was interested in the changes she’s seen in her time.

You’ve hosted over 600 weddings across your two venues. What is it about weddings that keeps you going back for more?

I’ve always loved giving and I realised that weddings were a way I could give of my time, experience and passion to make the couple’s day the best day of their lives. Having spent 10 years working in the mental health field, I wanted to stay working there, but I realised that to be able to do that I needed to balance my life with the artistic, creative part of me. So I started doing the weddings firstly as more of a hobby, which rather rapidly became my passion. Now 20 years later I have done over 600 weddings and loved them all.

One of your venues, Rosemount, is based on your home property. What’s it like sharing your private space with sometimes hundreds of people at a time?

It gives me enormous pleasure to share these grounds at my home at Rosemount. The wow feeling of living here is enhanced by sharing it.

What makes your venue so special?

Our business model is based around choice: you can have any caterer, any drinks, any photographer etc. – this enables the wedding to be more customised and budget-friendly for our couples. We have many extras like the horse and carriage and a huge free loan of wedding table decorations and wedding ceremony props like arches etc. which also allow for any creative theme.

How have you seen weddings evolve over the years?

Over the years I think the biggest change has been the development of what I call ‘Kiwi no fuss’ – clean lines and a rustic look which many Kiwis are more comfortable with. When we started out we tied bows around chair covers and the decorations tended to be lavish and set-ups more complicated.

Tell us some of the highlights you’ve seen at your weddings.

I’m not able to choose just one of the weddings because I live totally in the moment. I just get enormous joy from creating something unique for the couple that reflects their personalities and sometimes culture, as many weddings also include traditions, colours and themes from other countries.

What’s the best tip you would give any couple planning their wedding?

Hydrate the guests with water on arrival. Bottled water on ice works well which can be handed out. Have lots of good-quality food after the ceremony which includes carbohydrates while serving drinks for the afternoon, and hot savouries at supper are always popular. Choose the right length of the wedding start and end times and create an end experience which will help create memories of a lifetime, rather than the wedding just fizzling out at the end.