Will Johnston: Wedding displays reality of true love

Can we just talk about how terrible The Bachelor Australia TV show is for a minute?! I seem to remember writing something similar at about this point last year. A year on, this TV programme is still abominable.

My partner is a 30-year-old female, thus it's on our MySky... now I feel it's justified that I'm viewing it (forcibly).

Why would a female put herself in a position where she has to compete for a man, in front of a camera, with 20 other jealous, conniving sub-humans?!

It seems like you'd have more luck going to a bar, getting hammered and actually drunk-chatting to a stranger. At least that way you can walk away if they turn out to be a loser! Then you wouldn't be stuck with a dude who has a weirdly deep voice and be semi-forced to eat his face at the end of every TV 'date' you go on. Turns out I'm surprising myself now with my hatred for this show. So much so that I'm currently making vocal judgements on how those women look, to the actual television screen!

Let's move past all this negativity. I wouldn't want to say something offensive and get another complaint ... I'm two from two in the complaints-about-my-article stakes in the last few weeks! Apparently I've over-stepped the mark for some people when it comes to bagging Palmerston North AND guinea pigs. Okay, now let's move past the negativity. I got to witness real, unscripted, not a TV camera or producer in sight, love over Waitangi weekend. I did my first same-sex wedding as a celebrant.

It still kind of bothers me that it took so long for marriage for all humans to become legal in this country and that a same-sex wedding is anything different than a heterosexual wedding.

But if you believe in weather gods, then it could be said that they believe in same-sex marriage. It was a beautiful day on Mt Main Beach and it was one of the funniest events (let alone weddings) that I've ever had the pleasure of officiating!

If you have a wedding on a beach, it lends itself to being a little less formal than average.
We had some words and stories that I never thought we'd have in a ceremony, but who am I to question that.

It's their day, I'm just there to make it a bit more fun, oh and make it legal!
Everyone had some pretty solid laughs. I call that a success.

I also call the hundreds of kilometres of coastline, the weather and the people who work in the wedding industry in the Bay a massive success.

It's probably why so many Aucklanders want to get married here! Now if we can just stop them buying all our houses...

- Will Johnston is host of The Hits 95FM Day Show. Live and local from 9am-3pm, every weekday in the Bay of Plenty.