Andrew and Desiree

During the wedding preparation months, me and bridesmaids were joking around about the worst things that can happen on the wedding day (i.e missing rings, wedding cake toppled, catering drama, etc), and guess what, we could not find the rings until 1 hour prior to the ceremony and the priest had a flat tire and was 1 hour late! But after all of those “excitements” the day went smoothly and everyone had a memorable time. 🙂

We chose Bali because we wanted a wedding that was part family and a friends holiday too, and considering that Bali is close and I speak the native tongue, it was an easy decision for us. We chose Ayana Resort in Jimbaran Bay because the place is absolutely breathtaking and they can accommodate a large wedding group (being Indonesian, a big wedding is a must :)). None of our guests were local Balinese so we had people flying in from Melbourne, Sydney, Jakarta, Singapore, Switzerland and London and it was definitely an interesting time when I had to plan the wedding and play travel agent at the same time in helping our guests to plan their Bali holidays. Most of our guests stayed in Ayana and Seminyak, and we had parties and dinners prior to the big day which was a lot of fun.

My dress was designed by Pamela Usanto who is a good Indonesian friend of mine and she translated what I briefed her to be exactly what I wanted. Pam is so helpful and easy-going, and most of all, her attention to detail is second to none so I was over the moon with the result. For the after party, I changed into a dress from Collette Dinnigan Bridal. I am a proud Indonesian and I always try to wear Indonesian made products; so my shoes are from Niluh Djelantik and they are beautiful and very comfortable, I can run in those 15 cm stilettos! We got the bridesmaids dresses from Zimmerman and for the boys, we had the suits and shirts custom made by my partner’s Hong Kong tailor who comes down to Melbourne once a year. My make-up artist is an old friend of mine called Sugi Martono and the bridesmaids make up were done by New Melati Salon. We wanted to have a mix of Indonesian and Australian culture on the day so we had both mother of bride and groom wearing traditional Indonesian kebaya. The flower girls wore the same and they all look gorgeous!

I managed to stumble upon a local Balinese photographer called Gusde and I can’t recommend him highly enough! Gusde and the team were lovely to work with, professional but relaxed at the same time (they joked around with me on the day so I was not too stressed out during the missing ring episode) and they gave me the copy of all of the photos 3 days after on a USB, all organized in subfolders to take back to Melbourne, amazing!

Overall, we are both glad to have had our wedding held in Bali, it was such a memorable trip for us and our guests, and it gives us an excuse to go back there every year to celebrate our wedding anniversary. 🙂

Images by Gusde

Ms Gingham says: I just love following our couple’s wedding stories! We’ve seen Desiree and Andrew’s engagement party and e-session and it’s so lovely to see it all come together in such a beautiful wedding. Congratulations to you both!

Desiree says: “My name is Desiree Sutrisno, I moved down to Melbourne from Jakarta, Indonesia 14 years ago to study and ended up living in Melbourne until now. What can I say, every time I try to leave this country, it always pull me back in, I do love Melbourne.”