Welcome back to Jaime and Ben’s mega wedding post! The next part of Jaime and Ben’s wedding was their traditional western ceremony.

Jaime chose a gown by Lusan Mandongus. Her wedding day hair & makeup was styled by Hayley Mac. Jaime wore a mantilla veil she made herself, vintage style earrings from Body Art and wore her mother’s diamond bracelet as her “something borrowed”. Jaime also made the boutonnieres for Ben, his groomsmen, her dad and father in law.

The ceremony was held in the garden marquee at Butleigh Wootton. Jaime made boxes of rose petals of guests to throw as well as the ceremony programs. Jaime says “We chose colours of white, chocolate, purple, fuchsia and green, applying it suitably across all stationery and décor so that everything didn’t look too matchy-matchy. Using the dove as a symbol of God’s love for us, I designed our placecards and wedding programs but also included elements of Butleigh Wootton in our invites with illustrations of a chandelier and one of us taken in a garden”

Handcrafted ceramic bird bowls acted as ring bowls and were a nod to the couple’s bird theme. Jaime walked down the aisle to “I Believe In You” by Il Divoa & Celine Dion. She says “Il Divo and Celine Dion’s I Believe In You. We had originally planned for an instrumental number by The Secret Garden but one night we were in the car and I Believe In You played on Ben’s iPod tracklist. We knew that was the song for us. The words were meaningful and the length of the song perfect for all my girls and I. It’s a wow song and an emotional piece.”

Ben’s favourite moment was the classic walk down the aisle “I guess the biggest thing for me was watching Jaime walk down the aisle. A few other friends of mine who recently got married got quite teary eyed when their brides walked down the aisle towards them. They teased me that I would cry as well. I told myself I wouldn’t and that I would keep my cool. I guess I kept my cool throughout the whole planning process but when Jaime walked down the aisle, what can I say, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, the crowning moment of one and a half years of planning and I just gave in! I was bawling my eyes out and it’s in the video and photos!”

Jaime’s bridesmaids wore the million ways dress from Kookai. The flowers were by Flower Temple.

There was never any doubt that Jaime would wear a fantastic pair of shoes “I chose my wedding day to wear a pair of purple Jimmy Choos. Like him, I was born in Malaysia and I’m constantly inspired by such talent, having won a shoe design competition before. After trying many pairs of shoes elsewhere, this pair felt right and I’m happy to announce that I didn’t suffer from sore feet the night of my wedding and kept my shoes on the whole time even when I swapped to my dancing shoes!”

A three tier cake was created by Kat’s Cakes and topped with wooden cake toppers painted to match Jaime and Ben’s outfits (including their accessories!) from Etsy.

The guest tables were decorated with Jamie’s handmade placecards (from The Bridal Gene) and black candelabras with crystals from Centre Of Attention Centrepieces, Jamie says “Preet is so lovely she’s become friends with us after the wedding! Preet provides quality products and services and goes above and beyond to create a stylish setup. She is willing to help in every way, customising to suit colours and themes AND most importantly, budgets! Sweet, friendly and just fabulous!,

As bonbonierres, we gave out a pair of wooden chopsticks to each guest with the inscription “Jaime & Ben 25 09 09” on one stick and “When Two Became One” on the other stick, to symbolise how you can’t use one stick without the other and also as a representation of our Asian background and our love for food.”

The head table was decorated with wooden letters, glass tealight holders and the bridal party’s bouquets in glass vases.

For the reception, Jaime changed into a gown by Maggie Sottero with a fascinator from Edna Mavis. Ben found his drum pin brooch on etsy. Jaime says “Accessories aren’t just for the bride so we searched high and low for a subtle yet fitting one for Ben and found this beautiful diamante drum pin on ebay. He swapped his boutonierre for the brooch for reception and our wooden caketoppers were painted to match our reception ensemble with details of both my hair fascinator and Ben’s drum lapel pin. ”

Jaime and Ben chose elements that really reflected them- like their choice of “Strawberry Fields” by Coldplay playing as they entered the reception.

Jaime and Ben’s first dance was a highlight of the night (see the video here) “Oh, we had such great fun! Our dance was something we really looked forward to! We had never danced before so going for bridal dance lessons was one of the things we got to learn together as a couple. We didn’t want the traditional ballroom dance or the other extreme of something too hip-hop R&B. So together with our choreographer (Anushka Ranasinghe at The Secret Garden of Dance), we came up with a routine to suit our song, Hey! by Leeland which isn’t a famous song at all so it was going to be a surprise to our guests. The lyrics really told our story and words cannot describe what a pleasure it was to dance to that song. It was a mix of Rhumba, ballroom and a whole lot of fun. Our weekly dance lessons was something we looked forward to.”

Jaime made some extra special treats for guests “It’s very common for Asian weddings to have a big projector screen with a slideshow of childhood images of the couple. Instead of hiring one and due to the lack of space in the reception area, I decided to print our childhood pictures and wrap them around chocolates we had bought in bulk from Chocolate Box – milk chocolate for Ben and dark chocolate for me. Little did we know it would be a big hit at the wedding with people snapping them up like collectors’ items and not actually eating the chocolates till this day!”

Jamie’s bouquet tossing provided a highlight of the evening, it caught the chandelier and promptly did a ninety degree fall to the floor.

When asked about her favourite moment, Jaime said “Till this very day I feel so thankful that the day was really and truly special. It rained, our friend who was performing an item for us during the ceremony was stuck in traffic, I had to run through a quick rehearsal with the girls that very morning as they missed out on it a few days before (also due to traffic!), but despite all that the whole day still went so smoothly and just having my family and friends there knowing that they were all truly happy sharing our joy is the best thing to sum it all up.”

A big thank you to Jaime and Ben for sharing their wedding day on Polka Dot Bride! Congratulations on your marriage (Jaime it was such a joy to see all your words come to life!) Thank you also to Rodney Hobbs Photography for allowing us to share today’s photographs!

Photos by Rodney Hobbs Photography.

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