It was a whirlwind wedding a year ago today, thrown together just before New Zealand went into lockdown.
And the year that's followed has been just as unpredictable for Rotorua couple Kate Badcock-Coutts and James Coutts.
Kate Badcock-Coutts and James Coutts finally got their dream wedding. Photo / Supplied
Since then, they've had a formal wedding, fallen pregnant with their "surprise" first child,James was made redundant and had to do labouring jobs before finding a new job, their baby boy was born 10 weeks premature and they've bought a house.
"How different do our lives look now than it did a year ago?" Kate told the Rotorua Daily Post.
When Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced last year New Zealand would go into level 4 lockdown from March 25, James and Kate knew the dream wedding they'd planned for 135 people on April 18 couldn't go ahead.
All Kate wanted to do was marry the man of her dreams, so they whipped around and organised a wedding to take place in their lounge in the hours leading up to lockdown.
Kate Badcock-Coutts and James Coutts tie the knot in their lounge just before lockdown last year with celebrant Peter Duncan. Photo / Supplied
Clutching her bouquet of roses from the supermarket and walking down the hallway as a makeshift aisle towards James and a Zoom link with invited guests, the besotted couple tied the knot.
Given the uncertainty around the Covid-19 pandemic, the couple decided to put off having a baby but in June they found out they were expecting.
"We weren't trying, so he was just a little miracle," James said.
A wedding was finally held when they could invite guests. Photo / Supplied
But then there was a "spanner in the works" when James was made redundant from his job at the Rotorua Lakes Council, forcing him to take on various labouring jobs to keep the money coming in.
Thankfully in December, he found another job in his line of work in the financial sector and things were back on track.
But in January, Kate went into labour 10 weeks early.
James was told to start driving to New Plymouth because the baby would be delivered at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit there because Rotorua couldn't care for premature babies and Waikato Hospital's unit was full.
All Kate Badcock-Coutts wanted to do was marry the man of her dreams, James Coutts. Photo / Supplied
But when James came back into phone reception at Te Kuiti, he had nine missed calls and messages telling him to get back to Rotorua as the birth was under way there.
"It's safe to say I may have gone over the speed limit a little."
James made it back to Rotorua Hospital with an hour to spare to witness baby Theodore come into the world, weighing just 1.945kg.
Kate Badcock-Coutts and James Coutts have had a whirlwind year. Photo / Andrew Warner
Father and son were then sent on a helicopter to New Plymouth, with Kate following the next day.
It was a rough start, with mum and son staying in hospital for six and a half weeks, but now everything had settled down and he was growing like a normal newborn.
"It's been like nothing I would have imagined. He's just an absolute blessing and has been since day one. It's made our year like it was all worthwhile. It was serendipitous."
