Tradition, tiramisu and a rolling band: Inside Lucciane and Ryan’s Auckland wedding

“Try to plan your wedding so your date doesn’t fall within your luteal phase.”

Here at Fashion Journal, we make no secret of our love of weddings. We’re suckers for a bit of romance and have a soft spot for weddings that do things differently, whether it’s a Las Vegas elopement, a tropical getaway or a Town Hall celebration.

For Auckland-based Lucciane Surtees, it was love at first sight. She’d heard of composer Ryan Hobbs, and her colleague often talked about how well she’d get along with him. However, she never thought much of it, until she downloaded a dating app and there he was. “I knew it would become something before even speaking to him,” she says.

Interested to hear how others navigate the world? Head to our Life section.

Six years into their relationship, the couple were eating fish and chips on Point Chev beach when Ryan got down on one knee. Although marriage was always the plan, that didn’t stop Lucciane from almost fainting. Even with no brief, Ryan nailed the design, proposing with a dainty gold ring that later became Lucciane’s wedding band.

Lucciane and Ryan gave themselves 10 months to plan the wedding. The goal was to curate their perfect day. For them, it was essential to include their Tongan and Rarotongan traditions in the celebration. Their wedding brought both their families’ cultures together for the first time, creating what Lucciane describes as a moment of “pure, unfiltered hype and joy”.

The pair went on to wed at Kāhui St David’s, a deconsecrated heritage church in Central Auckland, surrounded by 125 friends and family. It turned into a bluebird day, as everyone headed to Pah Homestead for their reception, where they ate tiramisu, enjoyed live music and danced the night away on the ballroom floor. The newlyweds ended their night at the hotel, kebab in hand, reliving the day into the early hours of the morning.

Fashion Journal: Hi Lucciane! Congratulations on your beautiful wedding. Can you walk me through how you and Ryan met, and your engagement?

Lucciane: One of our friends, Tom, accidentally set us up. I worked with Tom, one of Ryan’s best friends. Tom would often talk to each of us about how well we’d get along, probably not really thinking anything of it. At some point down the track, I downloaded Bumble and Ryan was one of the first faces to come up. I knew it would become something before even speaking to him. 

Six years later, on a random Sunday, we went for fish and chips on Point Chev beach and Ryan got down on one knee. I was so surprised, I went into total shock, lost all feeling in my arms and nearly blacked out. 

He worked with Holly, from Marbeck (who luckily is one of my best friends), to organise a perfect little gold band to propose with as a placeholder, and then we designed the official ring together. The placeholder band he proposed with ended up being my wedding band, so it’s very special to me.

How did you approach wedding planning? 

We managed all the planning and gave ourselves about 10 months to pull it together. We went through phases of smashing it out and then doing nothing for a few months. 

Ryan is creative and has such a good eye, it’s thanks to him that everything on the day felt intentional and like a direct reflection of who we are. I’m more of a make-things-happen kind of person, with spreadsheets and project management. We’re a great team that way.

Tell me about the day itself. Where was your ceremony and how many guests did you have?

We got married in front of 125 guests at Kāhui St David’s, which is a heritage church in Central Auckland. It’s deconsecrated, which was perfect, because both Ryan and I grew up in families that were heavily involved in church, but as individuals, we’re no longer part of that. So a deconsecrated church felt like familiar, neutral ground. 

We had the reception at Pah Homestead, which I was obsessed with as soon as I saw it. It’s a beautiful Italian-style building in Hillsborough that’s lived plenty of lives but is now an art gallery. By the time we got to the reception, there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky and it was a perfect afternoon, with everyone eating and drinking in the sculpture garden before moving inside to dance on parquet floors in the ballroom.

How did you find your wedding dress?

The amazing Alice from Hayes Bridal made my dress, I was so fortunate to work with her. It was fully custom – I gave her a brief with some dresses from Pinterest, noting exactly what I liked about each. From there, she made up a few bodice options for me to choose from. The one I picked was a wildcard that didn’t match my brief but Alice knew I’d be into it. 

I wanted to be able to run around and dance freely, so it had a train which I could pick up on my wrist, and the whole skirt could be gathered underneath so it sat above my ankle with a cute bubble hem. I find shopping in general a bit triggering because I’m used to not always being able to fit into the clothes I like, but I felt so comfortable and confident every time I visited Alice. 

My family also made a beautiful kiekie, a Tongan skirt that goes over clothing as formal wear, for the ceremony. The only other things I wore were some pearls my Uncle had thrifted for me years ago, some cute little pink satin ballet slippers (which I still wear all the time), and my beautiful Marbeck rings.

What about Ryan’s outfit?

Ryan has excellent taste but is a pretty relaxed guy, so a suit wouldn’t have made much sense for him. Instead, he ordered a beautiful oversized off-white shirt from Róhe, an Amsterdam-based atelier. It had a camp collar and this beautiful white stitching detail all over the shirt that looked like pleats in the fabric from far away. 

He wore it tucked into some classic black trousers, his everyday gold chain, and Clarks Wallabees. Then, of course, his wedding band was also custom-made by Marbeck. He went for a signet band with a beautiful emerald cut stone in the centre, an Australian Sapphire to match mine.

What was your beauty look on the day?

It was important to me that I felt like myself, so I leaned into a more natural look. I wasn’t taking any chances with the glam and managed to get the incredible Alexandra Stanworth-Brown for my hair and makeup. 

I asked for a soft, natural look and for my hair to be styled in relaxed, loose curls, which I wore down. She executed it perfectly. At the venue, once the band was on and the party was going, like any other night out, I quickly pinned my sweaty hair into a loose bun in the bathroom. Ophelia, our photographer, had gone home by then and the way the dancefloor was going, I was past the point of no return anyway.

What did you do for food and entertainment? Did you have a cake?

No cake for us! We found the idea of cutting up a cake in front of everyone for a photo opp sort of awkward and knowing ourselves, we wouldn’t feel like eating cake after a few drinks. Instead, we had the venue wheel out huge tiramisu trays made by Coffee Pen, so people could serve themselves. Tiramisu is always an easy sell after a boozy dinner, so we felt safe putting that out.

Entertainment was one of our favourite parts to organise because Ryan works in music. He pulled together all his friends into an informal rolling band and they tag-teamed in and out throughout the night. It was a good hack to keep everyone on the dance floor, and the process of pulling it all together and rehearsing in the months leading up to the wedding was a nice excuse for all of our friends to hang out. 

After the band wrapped, another friend of ours jumped in and DJ’d the rest of the night. We’d briefed him on some songs we love but trusted his taste, so got him to play whatever he was genuinely loving at the time – just no cliche wedding classics!

What did you two do after the ceremony? 

We said goodbye to our friends, whose nights were only just starting and got an Uber to the hotel. When we got there, we ran into a huge group of drunk uni students on the road who were just as happy for us as our families, then ordered a kebab and sat up in the hotel, riding out the adrenaline and retelling stories from the day until about four in the morning.

Were there any specific cultural traditions incorporated in your ceremony or overall day?

Yes! I’m Tongan, and Ryan is Rarotongan, so we made sure to incorporate each of those parts of ourselves into the day. Ryan’s family organised an Ura Marie performance in the sun while we were all seated for dinner, which was the perfect start to the reception. 

All my extended family performed after dinner, the men doing a mako before the women did a tau’olunga to my all-time favourite Tongan song, ‘Funga Sia’. Afterwards, during speeches, my family gifted out ngatu (tapa cloths) with my family kupesi (design) on them to each of our friends who had contributed to the organisation of the wedding in any way. 

We were so grateful to them for lending their creativity and time to help us make the day so special, so I was proud we were able to thank them in the Tongan way.

Tell us about the photography. How did you capture the wedding? 

Ophelia at Poet Pictures did an amazing job capturing everything on film. We briefed her on a few specific family shots, which we did before the ceremony to take pressure off the rest of the day and asked her to use the rest of her film to capture candids of our guests and us. 

We’re not naturals in front of the camera – we really wanted to prioritise capturing how the day felt and who was there without feeling obligated to spend lots of time taking photos! We didn’t commission a wedding video, but we ended up with so much footage from our friends that we just edited it all down into little cutdowns ourselves, which was a fun project.

Looking back, what was the best part of your day?

Both of our families brought our cultures together for the first time and saw how much our friends loved it. My sisters led the tau’olunga and the Tongan custom at weddings is for guests to stick money on the dancers as a token of appreciation and love for the married couple. 

Seeing our friends frantically running to the card box, ripping open their cards and running up to take part in something totally new to them was so funny and iconic. There was so much pure, unfiltered hype and joy in that moment.

Do you have any advice for future brides planning a wedding?

Just accept that you don’t have control over unexpected things and they won’t bother you. As Polynesians, we unsurprisingly had about 15 to 20 (not invited) guests from our community rock up to the reception. Rather than fight it or try to manage it, we just let them take care of themselves, and it wasn’t a big deal at all in the end. 

Also, if you’re fortunate enough to have a regular menstrual cycle, try to plan your wedding so your date doesn’t fall within your luteal phase. This was actually how we ended up picking our wedding date.

For more wedding dress inspiration, try this.