Wairarapa Bride of the Year winner Charlotte Osborne (on left), with runner-up Chloe Frederiksen, third-placed Emily Ireland, and fourth-placed Jessica Terry.
HAYLEY GASTMEIER
[email protected]
Charlotte Osborne’s wedding party spent a portion of her special day picking tomatoes and cucumber from their bouquets, which fell victim to a platter of Subway sandwiches that went rogue.
It’s something to laugh about now for Osborne (nee Stuart), who was named Wairarapa Bride of the Year 2018 on Friday night.
Osborne, 31, of Masterton, said “the pressure was on” as two of her aunties and one of her cousins had won the title before.
Plus, her nana was one of the original organisers of the competition, which launched 49 years ago.
She and her husband, Wiremu, were married at Rathkeale College in April.
The couple had been together for nine years before tying the knot, and were best friends to start with.
“He literally pursued me for a whole year,” said Osborne, who works at Ten O’Clock Cookie Bakery Cafe.
“He used to get lots of flack all the time. They’d say ‘bro, she’s not into you, just give it a rest’, but he was like, ‘no’.”
Osborne said she was happy he had been so persistent. They finally got together at a Masterton party.
“I’m stoked. It was nice to build our relationship on being friends to start.”
Both were the first of their siblings to be married, so a lot of effort went into the wedding which had 200 guests.
The couple had five bridesmaids and five groomsmen, who all shared a red double decker bus to the wedding venue.
The women were downstairs and the men were upstairs. She did her “reveal” to her husband-to-be by walking up to the top floor.
“It was quite nice to get that out of the way so it wasn’t so emotional when walking down the aisle.”
Osborne said after some questionable moments by the driver, who brought down some branches and hit some kerbs en route, the day was “heaps of fun”.
Married life was more or less the same, Osborne said, except she felt she was taken more seriously now.
Her wedding dress was a slim sheath gown, with swirls of beading, pearl accents and embroidered motifs creating a V neckline.
It had capped sleeves and a low illusion back with dainty crystal buttons.
The Aldora crepe skirt flared to a chapel train of illusion lace appliques.
She wore her mother’s favourite earrings as her ‘something borrowed’ and her ‘something old’ was her nana’s vintage marcasite brooch which was worn as a hair clip.
Runner-up, or Highly Commended, went to Chloe Frederiksen (nee Stevens).
Emily Ireland (nee Norman) came in third place, as Commended.
The fourth place Special Award went to Jessica Terry (nee Davies).
The judges were Tararua District Mayor Tracey Collis, Aratoi Regional Trust chairwoman Barbara Roydhouse, and Solway Primary School principal Mark Bridges.
Collis said deciding on the winners of the Masterton Plunket hosted event was a tough gig.
She joked that at one point the judges “did consider heading for the door”.
