You can't forget an anniversary like 1.1.11 - Waipawa's BJ and Teresa Moleta were the first people in Hawke's Bay married in 2011, probably the first in the world.
"We've been together 14 years and we always forget our anniversary," Mrs Moleta (nee Sims) said. "We wanted to get married at
a special time."
They had considered 10/10/10 but decided they were not financially ready and the first of the first was a good alternative.
Before the ceremony Mrs Moleta said: "We're hoping to finish at exactly one minute past midnight." And they were close to it.
"We'll never forget that date, right down to the time."
The couple's five children, aged 5 to 21, were home for the wedding and helped with the preparations.
"They were all here and they cooked, cleaned and baked; it was beautiful," she said.
The wedding was medieval-themed and the late-night timing had the extra advantage of avoiding the heat of the day.
A wishing tree would fund the couple's honeymoon, which might be held until the kids were back at school. "We've got everything we need, the house and things, so we set up a wishing tree and we wrote a little verse asking guests to help us with our honeymoon."
