On Christmas Eve 60 years ago, rather than wrapping the last presents and touching up the decorations on the tree, Jurjen and Riekie Dykstra were tying the knot.
"We didn't have a clue what things were done here on Christmas Eve," Mrs Dykstra said.
The couple married in a Whanganui church in 1955.
The bride forgot her handkerchief and had to borrow the groom's as she tearfully listened to messages from family and friends in Holland.
"It was a lovely day," she said.