Nina and Zharn

I never tire of the iconic location  of Sydney Harbour. Today’s couple married right between the two icons of Sydney – the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. A simply sweet day peppered with flavours of their culture and of course plenty of love.

Nina tells the story of her and Zharn’s relationship. “We met in December 2007 at “A Day On The Green” Concert for Lionel Richie down at Centennial Vineyards, Bowral.

Two girlfriends and I had booked our tickets months in advance because we were so excited to see Lionel sing (being from the UK, he is huge with our age group)… Zharn however had been at a wedding the night before in Berrima and had no intentions of going to see Lionel Richie… Truth be known he had no idea the concert was happening and even if he did, he couldn’t have cared less. Zharn you see, is actually in to Heavy Metal bands, some of them pretty hardcore like Slayer and Kyuss… both bands that I have never heard of before meeting him… so love ballads were probably far from what Zharn would usually choose to see BUT when he heard a couple of his friends from the wedding were going to see Lionel he decided to tag along and continue the party. All very impromptu!

So as it happens we were sitting near each other on the grass… and when Lionel came on stage and started his show, Zharn spent most of the first songs videoing his friends on his mobile phone!!! I just couldn’t bare to watch him ignoring Lionel so I made him dance (little did I know that he didn’t like to dance especially when it isn’t heavy metal or rock!)… anyhow, he danced and then when I left him alone, he’d get back to taking pics with the phone.

Being a little tiddly I insisted that he put the phone away and enjoy the music – Lionel was amazing! So, we got talking and dancing and then that was pretty much that at the end of the night. Well it was until my friend who was sober and driving saw him walking out of the hectic car park in the vineyard all by himself… we thought his name was “John” so in our best British accents we called out “John” to him and lo and behold he answered… we invited him to come with us to find some food. We just made it to Chinese take-out before it shut up for the evening in a nearby town…. and during this time before dropping him back, we had a sneaky kiss, exchanged phone numbers and then dropped him off.

After dropping him off, we noticed that he had left his jacket in our car…. and being girls we all thought that this may have been a deliberate ploy to have an excuse to see me again! Well it worked, he did call and we did catch up again and the rest is history! Funny thing is that now that I know Zharn and was corrected on the John misunderstanding on our first date (!), I quickly realised that he is possibly “THE-most-forgetful” person I know. He leaves his stuff everywhere so leaving the jacket in our car was definitely not premeditated…. although it may have been a little helpful hand from cupid. He insists that regardless of forgetting one of his favourite jackets, he definitely would have called!!! 🙂 we’ll never know and I suppose it really doesn’t matter anymore.

So that is how we met. He actually quite likes Lionel Richie now and Lionel played a big part in our wedding songs… we are actually went back to Bowral to see him on 27th March 2011 for another day on the green event with the same two girlfriends as when we met, just for old time sake. I also attended my first heavy metal festival at Soundwave in Brisbane… whilst it didn’t rock my world, it’s meant to be all about give and take and sharing right?!”

Photos today are by Matthew Mead. I love the warmth and relaxed beauty Matthew has captured in today’s wedding!

Nina wore a gown with accessories by Jean Fox. She paired her look with shoes from Suna.

Nina’s bridesmaids wore blue gowns from Bridesmaids Only.

The couple held their ceremony overlooking the harbour. Nina says “Our ceremony was held at iconic Campbell’s Cove, the boardwalk in front of the Restaurant strip, The Rocks waterfront. We enjoyed looking out on the water with the Harbour Bridge to the side and facing the Opera House.” Nina walked down the aisle to ‘Annie’s Song’ by Jesse Younan.

Zharn and his groomsmen wore suits from Roger David. Nina recalls “Roger David were the friendliest, most accommodating store. We had to buy suits from measurements for our groomsmen who were not located near us. Roger David organised for the suits to be delivered to the groomsmen for us. Just fantastic and friendly people.”

The couple chose a simple theme that matched their surroundings. Nina says “Our wedding theme was nautical. We decided to keep this very simple however.The bridesmaids wore sapphire blue dresses and co-ordinated groomsmen ties, blue wedding cake ribbon, blue chair covers resonated the simple nautical theme. The location was obviously nautical, with various nautical themes inside the venue and outside (like the ship hanging off the front of the venue). We were lucky enough to have a tall ship sail in right at the end of the ceremony as well.”

Nina remarks “We only had 40 guests, so each person was very special to both of us.”

Mother Nature came up with a special plan to make the day extra magical. Nina remarks “We had not realised, but on the morning of Friday, 13th May 2011 – four planets aligned… something that hasn’t happened for a hundred years.  There had been cold and wet weather all week, but I think the planets helped bring out the best winter sunshine for the day and took the chill out of the air for us. This set the location off perfectly.”

Of their photographer, Nina says “I rated our photographer, Matt Mead, as the best supplier of my whole wedding.  Matt was generous with his time, providing a pre-wedding photo shoot as part of his package so that we get to know each other and so that we also got used to the camera. He was available by phone and email any time.

On the day, he was the most calming influence. Capturing precious moments, despite the chaos. One of my favourite shots is of Matt doing up the Groom’s tie as the Groom and his groomsmen had no idea!!! I thought this was very cute.

Matt has great ideas and really listened to what sort of photos we wanted, the important shots and then used his creativity to deliver what can only be described as breathtaking photos which we both feel truly capture the essence of the day.  From the emotion of the ceremony, to fun& iconic pics with the bridal party, staying on till the bitter end to get heartfelt emotional photos from the speeches as well as hilarious shots from the fun on the dancefloor. Every guest is represented.”

Nina and Zharn celebrated with guests at Trawler & Heritage Rooms, Wolfies Restaurant, The Rocks (Dockside Group). Nina explains “We booked a Winter Package deal which made the reception one of the most affordable parts of the day without compromising quality or ambience. The wedding team at Dockside were very accommodating to our needs, including a back-up, indoor wet weather option (which thankfully we didn’t need), ceremony set up of chairs and champagne after for free.”

The stationery was designed by Paper Candy. Nina sealed each invitation envelope with a red wax stamp featuring an anchor.

The speeches were a brilliant highlight, Nina explains. “One of the most memorable and special moments was the father of the groom speech which was undertaken by the groom’s grandfather. Instead of  a speech, Pa had spent months re-writing the lyrics to Frank Sinatra’s – I did it my way… he changed each verse especially for us with the chorus – “you’ll do it your way”. He didn’t read it BUT sang it…. Providing copies for guests so that everyone could join in and sing to us….. absolutely magical. I don’t think there was one person, male or female that didn’t have a tear in their eye at this gesture. He then presented us with a framed copy of the song as a keepsake! Ingenious, personal and special and totally in-keeping with the intimacy of the whole day.

For their first dance, Nina and Zharn chose ‘Kiss Kiss’ – Tarkan. Nina explains “Our first dance was something that we had overlooked in the hectic-ness leading up to the big day, so we chose a song that we could improvise to and have a bit of fun with. It was a Turkish song which incorporates a bit of my Persian heritage.”

Nina says “Our wedding was heartfelt (vows), intimate (in number) and iconic (in setting), eclectic (in music) but fun for all.”

Congratulations Nina and Zharn! Thank you for sharing your wedding with us ion Polka Dot Bride! Thank you also to Matthew Mead. for sharing today’s photographs with us!