Kallia Patching had been dating for long enough that she knew how the fairy tale usually goes. She smiles, “You’ve got to kiss a few frogs before you find your prince, as I always said.”
In response, her new husband, Ma-ori All Blacks legend Slade McFarland, grins. Turning to the Woman’s Day team, he jokes, “And she found a bulldog instead!”
The pair married on a stormy Auckland day two years after setting the date. Theirs has always been a relationship based on honesty, family and vulnerability, and those were just some of the values that shone through at the Awataha Marae on the North Shore, where they tied the knot.
The bride and groom both wanted the day to not only represent their cultural backgrounds – Samoan, Scottish
