‘Worth the wait’: Former PM sums up big day

Arden shared an image to her 1.7 million Instagram followers on Monday of the newlyweds with the caption “13.01.24 ❤️ Definitely worth the wait.”

The couple of just about 10 years tied the knot on Saturday in a ceremony on the unique Craggy Vary vineyard on the outskirts of Havelock North the place they exchanged vows earlier than a reception filled with laughter, cheering and dancing.

The couple started relationship in 2014 after Gayford, a marine fanatic and host of Fish of the Day and Transferring Homes, contacted the then-Labour checklist MP about proposed laws in 2013.

Gayford popped the query 5 years later along with his grandmother’s ring on Mokotahi Hill in northern Hawke’s Bay, as Diplomatic Safety Service officers stored watch close by and a neighborhood canine tried to eat the chocolate he’d packed for the event.

The cliff-top proposal got here 10 months after the delivery of the couple’s daughter Neve and 18 months after Ardern grew to become the nation’s second youngest Prime Minister when the then-Labour Social gathering chief fashioned a coalition with Winston Peters’-helmed NZ First.

They’d made no plans “in any respect” for the marriage, Ardern advised media after information of the engagement broke virtually two weeks after the Easter proposal, when a hoop was noticed on her left center finger throughout a ceremony at Pike River.

Lower than a yr later the Covid-19 pandemic kicked off a spherical of restrictions that included lockdowns, border closures to these with out citizenship or residency, and an at-times oversubscribed managed quarantine system for Kiwis coming dwelling.

The couple’s marriage ceremony would finally be booked for the 2022 summer time, the venue understood to be the farm homestead at Nick’s Head Station, 25km south of Gisborne.

However the arrival of the Omicron variant in late January 2022 and subsequent transfer to the purple visitors mild system – which restricted gatherings to fewer than 100 – spoiled the pair’s plans.

When she resigned as Prime Minister virtually a yr in the past, citing exhaustion, the bride-to-be included a particular message to Gayford alongside guarantees to attempt to discover methods to “maintain working for New Zealand” and take Neve to her first day of faculty.

“And to Clarke: let’s lastly get married.”