Heart-stopper newlyweds to marry again

The Jondahls are planning to renew their vows.

Malcolm Jondahl looked up at his bride-to-be and said sorry. The 35-year-old from Whangarei was minutes from exchanging vows with his partner of three years when he collapsed at the creekside venue of their wedding in rural Northland.

The Herald on Sunday reported last weekend what happened next - Malcolm was revived by a nurse wedding guest and, lying down, married fiancee Tanya, 32.

Two weeks after their dramatic start to married life, the two are home - for a second time, after Malcolm suffered a second health setback. He had a stroke on Friday last week but with rehab and rest is expected to recover.

The Jondahls are already planning to renew their vows. Malcolm, who has a heart condition, was dressing when he collapsed. He regained consciousness to see the concerned face of his bride-to-be.

"I just said I was sorry."

Two weeks in hospital had not been the ideal start to married life, but other than that he was "loving" wedded bliss, Malcolm said.

For Tanya, nearly losing her husband-to-be wasn't as shocking as it could have been. "It was pretty freaky but I missed the worst of it. I arrived when he was starting to open his eyes and look around. He kept saying, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry', and I was like, 'It's okay, it's okay'."

Within 10 minutes they had decided to go ahead with the wedding. "People were saying ,'It will be all right. We'll do it another day. We'll come back ...'

"In our heads, this was our wedding day for months and months and the celebrant was there and everyone was there, so why not?"

They had written their own vows, but the ceremony was reduced to the basics, she said. "The celebrant just made sure we said the bit that you have to say to legally get married ... signing all the papers."

Rings were about to be exchanged when the Northland Emergency Services' Trust rescue helicopter paramedic arrived, so that was delayed a day.

Tanya - still in her wedding dress - flew to Whangarei Hospital with Malcolm and her attire was the focus of much attention. "I got a few looks."

Her dress remained in good nick and will be worn at their second wedding, likely later this year.

Bridesmaid Hannah Fraser has set up a Givealittle page to help the couple pay for a second wedding and honeymoon, and help out-of-town family members make the return journey.

"We will do the ceremony properly, walking down the aisle, do the vows in front of everybody," Tanya said. "We probably won't have the big shebang reception with everybody again. But we really want to have people there [who] put so much hard work and effort into helping us have our wedding.

"We just want to be able to thank everybody for everything they did for us."

They had loved the public response to their story, she said.

"All the nice comments people made, just seeing the good thing about it, that we're really happy to be married. That's the main thing for us, that we got married and we're together."