Shortland Street: The Weddings
A survey of SHORTLAND STREET weddings: Anything can happen, and it's bound to be memorable!
Chris Warner and Alison Raynor planned to marry in
1993
after an earlier false start.
On the eve of the wedding, the villainous Darryl Neilson drugged
Chris, and locked him in a barn. Left at the altar, a
distraught Alison then left the country.
Gina and Leonard's wedding was the
Shortland
Street
event of
1993.
They tied the knot in great New Zealand/Italian style and
continue to live happily ever after - although mostly off
screen.
There was not a dry eye in the house when Kirsty Knight walked down
the aisle to marry Lionel Skeggins. Things were going
swimmingly until Stuart Neilson (prompted by uber-villain Darryl)
interrupted the wedding to declare his love for Kirsty.
Lionel stormed out of the church, but was reunited with his
bride-to-be and they got married that evening on the deck of the
Toroa.
Chris tried again, marrying Tiffany Pratt in a beautiful and
romantic wedding, at which, for once nothing serious went
wrong.
The honeymoon was a different story, when Chris was headhunted for
an important job in the States. They were about to depart
when Tiffany gave her ticket to Chris' brother Guy whose daughter
Tuesday needed an operation.
It took longer than the couple expected for Tiffany to join Chris
overseas, and when she did she discovered Alison Raynor was back on
the scene. She returned to Ferndale and filed for
divorce.
Nick Harrison and Rachel McKenna's marriage of convenience (so that
they'd be eligible for student allowances) struck a chord with
students around the country.
The wedding put paid to Nick's relationship with Rachel's cousin
Waverley, but it all (eventually) ended well, and Nick and Rachel
remained best friends.
Donna Heka and Rangi Heremia had a surprise wedding beside a
waterfall, having being taken there under false pretences and
surprised by a marriage celebrant.
It was a beautiful ceremony, and they had a deliriously happy
start to their marriage, but it didn't last.
Daffy Waverley Wilson and bad boy Fergus Kearney were an unlikely
couple but it was true love and they did make it to the altar in
2001
.
But before the couple could exchange vows the police interrupted
the wedding - and Fergus fled! He resurfaced to
interrupt Waverley's first attempt to marry Nick.
She turned him down, and a month later married Nick in what was
dubbed the TV wedding of 2002. They are still happily
married.
When mad Jack Hewitt was dumped by Rachel McKenna he kidnapped her,
and forced her to wear a wedding dress and take part in a mock
ceremony in a memorable
2001
Christmas
cliffhanger.
Chris Warner arrived in the nick of time, and Jack threw himself
in front of a car and was fatally injured.
Anne Greenlaw married Victor Kahu in a memorable
2002
wedding that blended Maori and
Pakeha rituals. The day was ruined when Victor was arrested
on a trumped up charge and the honeymoon had to be
deferred.
The couple's happiness was brief and the marriage came to an end
when Victor discovered that Anne had been sleeping with his son,
Nelson.
In
2003
, Toni Thompson and Matt
McAllister surprised everyone by taking a day trip to Rotorua - and
returning married. But Matt never truly believed that Toni
loved him.
Thinking (wrongly) that Toni was seeing an old flame, Matt slept
with Li Mei. Toni forgave him, but he couldn't forgive
himself and left the country abandoning his marriage at the same
time.
Judy Brownlee also found love with Max Henley in
2003
. They were well suited in
every way, and blissfully happy, until they discovered that Max had
an inoperable brain tumor.
They married in a moving ceremony at his hospital bed, and Max
died moments later.
2003
also saw villainous Dominic Thompson
(Shane Cortese) marry heiress Emily Bredican (Sarah
Sommerville).
This was a wedding that shouldn't have happened - both the bride
and groom were marrying for all the wrong reasons - but did.
Dom's true love Delphi Greenlaw (Anna Hutchison) did everything she
could to stop the wedding but was no match for his scheming mother
Ngaire (Ilona Rogers) who locked her in a cupboard.
Delphi managed to escape and arrived at the church just as the
ceremony concluded. The marriage didn't last and Dom and
Delphi did eventually get together, before he was unmasked as the
murderer of her brother Geoff (Andrew Laing).
2004
ended on a high with the romantic
Christmas Day wedding of childhood sweethearts Tama and
Shannon. They tied the knot on Cheltenham Beach in a ceremony
with contemporary Maori elements.
Nick Harrison was the best man and old favorites Donna and Mihi
were among the guests. Their wedding screened as a special one-hour
episode on Christmas Day.
In
2004
, Fiji worked its romantic charms
on colleagues Chris Warner and Toni Thompson during a working
holiday. Fiji was the beginning of a relationship that would
lead to one of the show's most successful marriages.
This culminated in
2005
with a lavish
marriage that was dubbed the TV Wedding of the Year. The couple
tied the knot at Auckland's Wintergardens with best friends Craig
(Renato Bartolomei) and Sarah (Amanda Billing) as best man and
bridesmaid.
The marriage of Sarah Potts (Amanda Billing) and Andrew Solomon
(Paolo Rotondo) may go down as the shortest
Shortland
Street
union ever. In
2006,
after weeks of uncertainty Sarah
put her doubts (and her attraction to Craig Valentine) aside, and
was radiant as she and Andrew tied the knot.
But moments after the words 'I do' had passed the gorgeous couple's
lips, their happiness was blown apart by the arrival of Robyn
Stokes (Kirstie O'Sullivan).
As friends and family watched aghast Robyn announced she was
pregnant with Andrew's baby! And she was having twins. It wasn't
long before that marriage was well and truly over.
Valentine's Day
2006
was the date of
Shortland Street's first civil union - between Jay Copeland (Jaime
Passier-Armstrong) and Maia Jeffries (Anna Jullienne). Their
romantic (and very pink) ceremony was held in Auckland's Parnell
Rosegardens.
Unfortunately, Maia and Jay's union was picketed by Destiny Church
protesters.
2006
also saw the arrival of Maia's
sister Libby Jeffries (Fleur Saville) to Ferndale announcing her
engagement and expecting her family to organize the perfect wedding
- in four days. This Bridezilla had a very unhappy day when
her (gay) husband-to-be absconded on the wedding day, leaving Libby
to take her feelings out on her mother and sisters.
There were more than a few people surprised when the third Jeffries
sister, Tania (Faye Smythe) arrived home from a holiday in
2007
with fiancé Mark Weston (Tim
Foley) and announced that they had eloped!
Their on-again-off-again relationship had always been volatile and
Mark had constantly had to fight his feelings for Tania's lesbian
sister, Maia.
When Tania discovered that Mark was the donor for Maia's much
wanted baby, it was the beginning of the end and the marriage
didn't last past the middle of the year.
TK (Ben Mitchell) had often played second fiddle to Sarah's
obsession with Craig Valentine, but had patiently waited for his
moment with the neurotic Doctor Potts. That moment finally came in
May
2007
when they tied the knot in a
moving ceremony on the Auckland waterfront.
The Bride wore Red and the Groom had his best mate Alice Piper
(Toni Potter) as his best man.
There was a tense moment when TK thought that Sarah wasn't coming
as she debated her feelings for Craig yet again, and he almost
called it off, but she dashed down the pier at the last minute and
the rest is history.
The
2008
traditional Indian four day
wedding of Scotty (Kiel McNaughton) and Shanti (Nisha Madhan) was
an elaborate affair that took over six full production days to
create.
To make sure that the traditional and cultural values of a modern
day Indian wedding were done justice, a cultural advisor was
brought in to help out.
Of course, a Shortland Street wedding wouldn't be right unless
some type of hijinks ensued and there was no end of those! Kip
Denton played his part by sleeping with Shanti's sister, both
families quarreled and Tania and Scotty's sister, Rebecca spiked
the punch at the non-alcoholic reception!
The
2009
marriage of Gerald and Morgan
was a surprise in more than one way. Firstly it was as a surprise
that the couple were getting married at all given that
Gerald's self proclaimed asexuality and Morgan was pregnant
with triplets for another couple.
But the unlikely couple, who did have a genuine affection for each
other, decided that in order to strengthen Morgan's case for
keeping the babies she was acting as a surrogate for, they should
tie the knot.
With Libby in charge of the preparations, it was planned to be an
extravagant affair, but due to money issues, and a desire to get it
all done as quickly as possible, Gerald and Morgan surprised
everyone when they secretly got married at the wedding rehearsal
with only Chris and Libby as witnesses.
Another wedding is now on the cards as Sophie McKay and Kieran
Mitchell begin to make wedding plans, following their recent shock
engagement!
