On your wedding day, one could safely assume you'd rather walk up the aisle than renovate a house.
But Northlanders Matthew Baker and partner Alice Montgomery have chosen to take up hammer and nails instead so they can take part in television show, Mitre 10 Dream Home.
The young parents of two
were yesterday chosen as one of the show's top six couples in a public ceremony at Whangarei's Mitre 10.
Film cameras struggled to compete with drizzly rain but Whangarei residents kept the smiles on their faces as presenter Jane Kiely cracked jokes about "sun-drenched Northland".
Mr Baker said he and his partner have already set a wedding day in November but if they were chosen to refurbish one of two Whangarei homes, they would not hesitate to reschedule their special day.
"I'm so overwhelmed and humbled," Mr Baker said.
The pair, along with the five other couples, now have a week to design their dream home.
Two couples will then be selected to refurbish two 1950s weatherboard homes on the corner of Alcoba St and Pearce Dr, Tikipunga.
It is the first time for the seven-year-old TV2 show to be filmed in Whangarei. About 150 Northland couples applied to turn the run-down houses into dream homes.
Starting from the middle of next month, the two couples will spend 10 weeks working with a team of architects, designers, builders and budget advisers vying for television viewers' votes.
The winning couple keeps the house and the losers - usually offered a mortgage by one of the show's sponsors - have the option of bidding for their house at an open auction.
The show will be aired on TV2 in February.
Brent Old and Kylee Wyatt, Clinton Slade and Sharon Faulkner, Harley Norton and Tracy Rainbow, Doug Dunn and Katrina Hirst, and Joe and Kerrianne Rameka are the other five finalists.
