Edwina and Ben

Classic, romantic weddings never go out of style and today’s wedding of Edwina and Ben, who married at the university where they met is nothing short of a classic romance story.

Edwina tells of how they met. “We met at Sydney Uni in our first chemistry lecture”.

Photos are by Welsch Photography who captured the classic romantic style of today’s wedding beautifully.

Edwina and Ben held their ceremony at The Great Hall, The University of Sydney the very same place that the couple first met! The couple chose their 12 year anniversary as their wedding date.

Edwina walked down the aisle to Handel’s ‘Arrival of the Queen of Sheba’.

The weather was beautiful for their wedding day. Edwina recalls, “We were so worried about the weather as rain was forecast. The day before was very wet and on the morning of the wedding it was overcast. We were certain it would rain on our day. Luckily the weather cleared in time and the whole day was sunny. The weather held until just after we got to our hotel suite that night and then it started to pour. We stood at the doors to the Juliet balcony watching the rain and thinking how lucky we were to have had such a wonderful wedding day, and all with the sun shining on us!”

The couple even revisited that chemistry lab that held the story of their first meeting.

The reception at The Tea Rooms At QVB followed the classic style of the wedding. Edwina notes “The Tea Room staff were highly professional and accommodating.”

Faye Cahill styled the cake and Edwina’s sister designed the stationery and invitations, Edwina explains “My sister did all the graphic design work, designing the invitations etc and even a monogram as a theme for our wedding.”

The wedding was styled by Raymond Ware, The Styling Company. Petals with Passion created the floral arrangements. Each guest received a customised matchbook from Mi Bride and Groom.

Congratulations on your marriage Edwina and Ben! Thank you for sharing it with us! Thank you also to Welsch Photography  for sharing today’s images!

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Mythili & Luskasz

A wedding always melds two cultures, two backgrounds, two stories. But when weddings, like today’s have cultural melding so evident, so colorful, so beautiful you can’t help but be swept up by it. Mythili and Lukasz brought together Hindu and Polish traditions to form their very own unique and incredible wedding day.

Making their Polka Dot Bride debut (sort of! You’ve seen them before!) are Wanderer Photography who have captured today’s wedding beautifully- from the rich colours, to the evident love and candid moments.

The bride wore orange! Mythili purchased an orange sari from The Saree Shop. Mythili recalls, “I wore an orange silk saree shot through with gold thread and covered with gold beads. My mother was with me at time and we both knew it was perfect the moment we saw it. It wasn’t a very traditional choice, but it was just the right mix of modern and glamorous”. Mythili wore vintage jewels from Utharika Jewellery in India.

The bouquets and floral arrangements were styled by Best Buds. Mythili explains “Best Buds did our beautiful bouquets and centrepieces. I had asked for lots and lots of colour, and they delivered on this! I loved how the bouquets turned out, they were eclectic garden style posies which included roses, anemones, red hypericum berries and dusty miller foliage tied together with antique gold ribbon. For our centrepieces, we had vibrant spring blooms in ceramic footed urns, which really popped against our simply decorated venue.” Rani styled Mythili and her bridesmaids hair and makeup.

Lukasz wore a suit from Country Road and his groomsmen wore suits from Zara.

Mythili and Lukasz met before the ceremony. Mythili recalls “I loved doing a first look, which was a very special moment for me. While a lot of the details of the day are starting to get fuzzy, I still remember the anticipation building up as we got closer and closer to doing the first look, and my heart racing as I walked towards my future husband. We just looked at each other and kept laughing and expressing how crazy it was that the big day had finally arrived.”

.”Our photographers chose a very cool spot at the Four Seasons Hotel, which looked great in the photos.  My heart was racing as I walked towards Lukasz, and the anticipation was overwhelming. The moment that I tapped on his shoulder and he turned to face me was absolutely surreal… we just kept looking at looking at each other with big silly grins, not quite believing that we had made it to this moment. It was definitely one of the highlights of the day. From there, we went on to take photos with the bridal party.”

Of their photographers, Mythili says “It was very important for us to get the right photographer for our wedding, someone who would really capture the mood of the day and do it justice. When we stumbled across the work of Wanderer Photography, we immediately fell in love with their style and with how the world looked through their lens. Lukasz and I flew them to Sydney and they were so lovely, organised and professional and made all our family and friends feel comfortable. We had lots of comments throughout the night from our guests on how great they were! ”

Mythilli’s bridesmaids wore pink saris made in India.

The wedding celebrations were held at WatersEdge. Mythili explains “We chose the Walsh Bay room at WatersEdge because it was small, intimate and we loved the view of the Sydney Harbour and Harbour Bridge.  The weather behaved on the day and we had a lovely ceremony out on the pier underneath blue skies and lots of sunshine, moving inside for the reception later in the evening. I highly recommend the venue, we were well taken care of and our guests enjoyed wandering out to the pier throughout the night to mingle and enjoy the view. Having both the ceremony and reception at the same location made things so much easier, as our guests didn’t have to worry about moving from one location to another and the evening just flowed.”

For her walk down the aisle “Our friends performed a special acoustic version of Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World on the alto sax and guitar.”

Behroze Bilimoria  married the couple in a ceremony which included a traditional “Garland Ceremony”. Mythili explains ” As part of our wedding ceremony we incorporated a Hindu custom of exchanging garlands of flowers, the custom signifying our acceptance of each other and unity into one soul.”

The couple paid homage to the groom’s Polish heritage with a bread ceremony. Mythili explains “We kicked off our reception with a traditional Polish Bread ceremony, a nod to my husband’s heritage. The ceremony symbolises the union of the bride and groom and their families. Lukasz’s parents greeted us with bread and salt, and this ritual illustrates their hope that we would have a life of good health and cheer and share the company of many good friends. ”

A two tier cake was made by Simmone Logue. Mythili remarks “We decided to go with a Simmone Logue creation, a rustic Hummingbird cake with fresh mango and passionfruit cream cheese icing, topped with soft pink fresh flowers. The cake was absolutely yummy and gorgeous to boot! For those looking for an alternative to a traditional wedding cake… Simmone Logue is highly recommended!”. For favors, Mythili’s sister made each of the guests biscuits using a secret recipe.

For their first dance, Mythili recalls “Our first dance was to Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald’s rendition of Cheek to Cheek. Choosing a song for the first dance turned out to be surprisingly stressful as we realised we didn’t have a ‘special song’ as a couple and I couldn’t dance! We chose this song because it was romantic and didn’t require much coordination from myself!”

The couple ended the night with a sparkler send off before photographs in front of the Sydney Opera House. Mythili recalls “I had always loved the look of sparkler farewells, and we ended our night walking through a tunnel of sparklers to Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World’, which was also the song I walked down the aisle to. Walking past the sparklers was both hilarious and magical, there was a lot of joy in that moment… it was the perfect way to wrap up the night!”

Mythili says “They day wouldn’t have gone as smoothly as it did if it wasn’t for all the hard work and generosity of our family and friends. It was overwhelming to look around us and see our nearest and dearest, many of whom had flown from all over Australia and around the world to be with us on the day, to share in our joy and celebrate with us as we became husband and wife.”

Congratulations Mythili and Lukasz! Thank you for sharing your special day with us! Thank you also to Wanderer Photography for sharing today’s photographs!

Want More? Check Out These Posts:

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2. Marlinna and Josh’s Multicultural Sydney Wedding
3. Carol and Chris’ Romantic Sydney Wedding

Jennifer & Cameron

A wedding in the vineyard always calls for romance. I’m never quite sure why I love winery weddings as much as I do, but the atmosphere of romance never fails to leave me. Especially when such beautiful weddings like Jen and Cam’s hop across my desk!

Jen explains how she & Cam met. “Funnily enough we met back in 1998 at a nightclub and dated for a little while. Then a series of events made our paths cross again eight years later. Fate definitely stepped in and we’ve been making each other laugh ever since!”

Photography today is by The Follans. Clean, classic captures with a lot of personality!

Jennifer recalls “Our florist – Stacey Harrison of Wedding Flowers By Stacy who did such an amazing job with our flowers. I was fairly vague in that I just gave her a mood board of flowers that I liked. I didn’t specify any flowers, just a loose theme of romantic, rustic country. I was blown away with how perfect they all were. I think they really made the venue come to life.”

Jennifer’s makeup was styled by Tracey Dixon with hair by Milton Hair Design (02) 4455 1875  Jennifer remarks, “I turned up on the morning of the wedding an absolute nervous wreck. Of course in hindsight it was absolutely ridiculous but I had spent the night before the wedding vomiting through nerves! But the very lovely women at the hairdressers somehow made me breathe normally and calmed me down.”

Jennifer chose a strapless, sweetheart neckline gown from Karen Willis Holmes with Gary Castles Sydney and a vintage diamond solitaire pendant. She remembers “I loved the first moment my 2 year old niece saw me in my wedding dress and pointed up to me and said “princess, princess” and asked me to “spin around like a princess”.”

The couple chose the South Coast for their wedding. “We decided we wanted to get married out of Sydney and down on the South Coast. We have spent many holidays down that way, swimming, camping and riding our bikes so we wanted to find a venue and a town that allowed us to have a weekend down there with all of our friends and family.

We stayed at Bannisters in Mollymook for a couple of days prior to the wedding and afterwards. It’s such a nice spot and was a great place to get ready before the wedding.

The venue for the service and the reception was Cupitts Winery in Milton. It’s a stunning location set looking over the rolling hills of the Budawang Ranges. We knew the moment we arrived to look at it that we had to have our wedding there.”

Jennifer handmade many of the decorations for the wedding, including a look back at their history together. She explains, “I printed on cardboard a load of photos of Cam and I at various ages and our family wedding photos and hung them up with string and wooden pegs.”

As to why they chose Cupitts, Jen says, “As we weren’t getting married in a church we wanted to get married somewhere that has a bit of history and that we knew would be standing for many years to come. The premises of Cupitts is an old buttery and creamery, that has been lovingly restored, it has an old world feel and feels like it belongs in the surroundings.”

For her walk down the aisle, Jen recalls “We had a local musician Roddy Reason playing his acoustic guitar and singing Jack Johnsons ‘Angel’.”

The wedding had some very special guests, Jen explains “My elderly grandparents flew over from the UK to be at the wedding and signed our marriage certificate as our witnesses. It was the first wedding of any of their grandchildren and it meant so much for me to have them here for it.”

There was, however, one unexpected visitor. “Everything went exactly as planned! I think the crazy amount of planning we had put in and all the little details that I spent months agonizing over actually paid off. The only thing we didn’t expect was the thunder & lightning show we got as we were saying our vows! It was very dramatic and made it even more memorable.”

Of their photographers, Jen remarks, “From the first conversation I had with Andrew who was completely relaxed on the phone, to meeting up with both of them. They just seems to ‘get us’, they  weren’t pushy or over the top. We wanted an extremely relaxed wedding, and it was important to us that our photographers aligned with that vibe.

Because of my career, I knew I had potential to be a pretty horrendous client as I had a pretty clear idea about pretty much everything about the wedding. I had mood boards for every single detail – I’m a bit of a perfectionist. But The Follans have always been so patient with me, and I honestly couldn’t be happier with the photos. They have captured every moment so perfectly.”

Jen’s handmade touches continued to the ceremony with her handmade photobooth, tissue paper pom poms, invitations & stationery- even down to draping the marquee! Jen’s old high school teacher made the couple’s beautifully decorated wedding cake. Jen recalls “She was so worried about getting it to be exactly what I wanted, I think she was worried I had really high expectations. It was absolutely beautiful and exactly as I had pictured.”

Jennifer loved, “Watching all of our guests dancing all day and night! Music was such an important part in planning our wedding and more than anything we wanted to throw a big, fun party. Celebrating with all of our friends and family. It was exactly as we had envisaged, the best party we have been to!” The Baker Boys provided the music for the reception.

There were plenty more musical moments that Jen loved too. She explains, “We asked a dear friend of ours to sing ‘When I see you smile’ by Bic Runga at the reception. It was a very beautiful and personal moment.We weren’t particularly keen on a ‘first dance’ but we had a favourite song, which our brilliant band learned – Ray LaMontagne’s ‘You’re the best thing’. I think we only had about 2 seconds to ourselves on the dance floor before all of our guests were dancing along with us – it was perfect.”

Congratulations Jennifer & Cameron! Thank you for sharing your wedding day with us! Thank you also to The Follans for sharing today’s images!

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Bec & Sean

I love Bec and Sean’s wedding. Not only because Bec wore a gown I have loved for ages (and it’s so much better seeing a gown on a real bride in a real wedding!) but because of all the nostalgic, family driven touches. Bec wore the same polka dot gloves her mother did on her own day. Her grandmother made her veil, her mother dreamt up the wedding cake, Bec & Sean made their wedding stationery and Bec wore the same necklace her grandmother was married in 50 years ago.

Bec explains how she met her husband. “Sean and I actually met at the age of 3! We both grew up on opposite sides of a park in the same tiny suburb and as our mothers were both nurses and were friends we became playmates. At the age of 5 we decided we should be boyfriend and girlfriend and shared our first kiss! When my parents moved to Tasmania a few years later we lost contact and by the time my family had moved back again we were at different schools and Sean’s family had also moved. 12 years later I went out one night with my sister and met Sean again through a mutual friend of my sisters. We recognised each other immediately and I just remember thinking how tall, confident and good looking he had become! We met up the following afternoon for a catch up and ended up finding so much in common and talking the entire night. By the time the sun was up we hadn’t slept a wink but were head over heels in love. Sean was in the Navy at the time and living in Wagga Wagga so we spent a lot of time apart for the first few years together but we look back on that time fondly. It was hard but it slowed that magical time at the beginning of a relationship down and we got to know each other better through long phone calls and old fashioned love letters.  After 7 ½ years together and a trip around the world living in each other’s pockets, Sean proposed. He took me to a waterfall where we both used to play as children and means a lot to both of us. Sean proposed as the sun was rising with a beautiful ring and bottle of Moet. Sean is my closest friend and together with my father, brother and grandfather, is one of the best men I have ever met. I love his playful nature, his intelligence, his confidence and his old fashioned manners (he still opens doors for me, gives me his coat if I’m cold and never lets me carry anything heavy!).”

Photography is by Welsch Photography who have captured the day with the intensity and grace it deserves. Beautiful, classic captures.

Bec wore the  Watters “Escalante” wedding gown. She remarks “It’s an ivory silk taffeta gown with a hand embroidered v-neck bodice, capped sleeves and full skirt. It also has pockets. Pockets! In a wedding dress! Genius! It’s a bit of a vintage style dress which wasn’t what I was looking for but it’s the one that felt right and the one that I felt amazing in. I  didn’t know what I wanted when I was looking for a dress. I was very open minded and tried on everything. When I saw this one I thought it was beautiful but only tried it on because my mum wanted to see me wearing it. As soon as it was on and I looked into the mirror I just knew it was the one, especially after I saw the beautiful lace back and the way the skirt fell out behind me. The give away was when my mum, the sales assistant and I all began tearing up at the same time and I knew that the search was over!”

Bec wore pink shoes from Wittner called ‘Jingle”. She remembers “Sheer Pink leather with a tiny leather bow on the front. I wanted something cute with a bit of colour that I would wear again and fell in love with these shoes! I also needed a bit of height as Sean is a little over 6 foot 2 and I’m just under 5 foot 5! Because they were leather they also stretched to fit my feet and despite the heel, were quite comfortable to wear all day.”

Bec and her bridesmaids had their hair styled by  Nikki from Franck Provost Hair Bec says “She is so talented and was such a great energy to have around us on the morning of the wedding. I really wanted it up but soft and girly with a braid incorporated into it. Nikki came up with this style and I loved it” and makeup was styled  by Nicky from Inner Sense & Beauty (Engadine) 02 95486949. “She did an amazing job and is so professional. Although it did get a bit confusing having Nikki the hair stylist, Nicky the makeup artist and Niki the bridesmaid!”

The bouquets and button holes were made by Flower Factory Neutral Bay. Bec explains ” I had actually planned to make 5 bouquets and 6 button holes myself the day before the wedding with the help of Sean’s mum and sister. Thankfully Sean talked me out of it a few weeks before as I ran out of time and it really is something best left to the experts. Sean actually organised the flowers himself! He found the florist and armed with a description and some pictures I had collected arranged it all! I put my full trust in him and when the bouquets were delivered on the morning of the wedding I was in shock as they were absolutely perfect and exactly as I’d imagined them in my head! They were colourful, whimsical and the colours complemented our dresses perfectly! I was just sad I couldn’t keep them forever. I fixed an antique blue scarf clip of my mothers to my bouquet as my ‘something blue’.”

The nostalgic touches started with Bec’s hands. “I wore my mother’s gloves that she wore on her wedding day 30 years ago. My dad says that one of his strongest memories of his wedding day is holding my mothers tiny hand in these gloves. It was so special to hold my dad’s hand wearing the same gloves. I also wore my Nan’s pearls around my wrist that she wore on her wedding day over 50 years ago. She passed away 7 years ago but she and my Pa had an amazing marriage and the kind of love that has always been an inspiration to me. I’m a big fan of the vintage and feel that there is so much history and energy in old pieces as opposed to the new.

My other Nan used to make wedding dresses and made my veil for me as a gift. She hand stitched the lace around the edges and did such a beautiful job. It was a great thing to be wearing something made by her just for me.”

Bec’s bridesmaids wore pale lavender gowns from M-Label. Bec says “The design was found online and the colour and fabric chosen by me but made by M-Label.  It was really hard to find the right dress that fit all the girls and didn’t cost the earth so we had them made. M Label makes the dresses onshore in Sydney which was reassuring. There are a lot of designs on the website to choose from or you can find your own. Choose your fabric and colour, send through all the measurements and the dresses are made and delivered within weeks. I gave the girls Tilkah pink swarovski crystal stud earrings. The dresses had some crystal beading around the waist and the girls were so beautiful that they really didn’t need more than that.”

The couple chose a traditional chapel for their ceremony. Bec explains “We were married at Monte Sant Angelo’s Chapel which is in the grounds of Mercy College in North Sydney. I was visiting various churches in Sydney and when I walked into this one I just felt completely at home. It’s a very feminine church with natural lighting, colour and was just the right size. It wasn’t until afterwards that I found out my 85 year old grandfather used to serve as an alter boy here when he was a young boy!”

Bec and Sean hired Alchemy A Cappella for their ceremony music. Bec notes “Alchemy is a beautiful A Cappella choir with 12 -14 members lead by the very talented Ronelle Knowles, who is a friend of my mothers. With their help we chose some amazing gospel style music full of joy and energy. They were so professional and you can see in every one of their faces that they love what they do. They sang a few songs as the church was filling up and then began their own arrangement of Ben Harpers ‘Beloved One’ sung A Cappella as I walked down the aisle. Alchemy doesn’t use any instruments except their voices and this just sounded incredible in the chapel. At the end of the ceremony they burst into ‘Oh Happy Day” full of clapping and dancing. Even I couldn’t help having a little groove on my way up out of the chapel!”

Bec says “Our wedding was intimate, joyful and a true celebration of love in every way.  Visually it was a bit vintage, a bit colourful, a bit traditional, and lots of fun!” . The couple were married by Father Patrick Vaughn. Bec remarks “Patrick is a good family friend and has watched our relationship grow from the beginning. He kindly donated all his time and it was an amazing experience to be married by someone who we call a friend and who knows us both really well.

Bec recalls one of the moments of the ceremony. “Our priest forgot our first kiss! I didn’t notice but Sean sure did! He whispered to me as we were preparing to sign the register “when do I get to kiss you?” I was doing my best not to laugh and realised we’d missed the part in the ceremony where it was supposed to happen. We signed the register and Sean whispered to Fr Patrick that we’d forgotten it. He looked at us with a smile in his face and said “well we had better do that next”! We walked back to the front of the altar and Fr Patrick announced to all our loved ones that Sean had just reminded him that he hadn’t kissed his bride! Everyone cracked up as we had our long awaited first kiss!”

Bec recalls “One of my happiest memories is Sean and I walking arm in arm out of the chapel followed by our bridal party and the choir singing ‘Oh Happy Day’ at the top of their lungs! They followed us up the corridor outside the chapel and into the sunlit garden. I just remember holding my new husband’s hand, surrounded by the choir singing to us and thinking that it couldn’t be possible to feel any happier than I did at that moment. Oh happy day indeed!”

Of their photographers, Bec says “Bec and Karl Welsch are so talented and highly professional without being overbearing or pretentious. They were a perfect fit in every way with us and our wedding as they really understood what we were looking for, had a sense of humour and shared a mutual dislike of ‘table shots’! Their photographs and the way they use light is incredible and they were such a pleasure to be around all day. They somehow found a way to disappear most of the time. I can hardly remember seeing them!”

Bec and Sean chose the Royal Automobile Club of Australia (RACA) for their wedding reception. Bec says “We though this place was a bit of a hidden gem and was first and last place we looked for a reception venue! It’s got such a classic old vintage charm to it and the walls are covered in old war and car memorabilia. It’s a beautiful sandstone heritage listed building and the club has been there since 1903. There are two rooms available for receptions and we booked the Macquarie Room. This is a grand old ballroom with high arched windows, chandeliers and wood panelled walls. One of the best things about booking the RACA was that we were given an entire floor to ourselves which meant we had three very different rooms. One which was smaller and more intimate for our guests to enjoy pre dinner drinks and canapés and the other was a cosy little room with couches and books that the bridal party used to relax before the reception began. We had some time here to sit down, enjoy a glass of champagne and really just catch our breath before the reception started.”

The gorgeous floral centrepieces were styled by Designs by Boo Shi. Bec recalls “The cost was included in the wedding package with the RACA. This was great as they coordinated everything directly with the RACA and all I had to do was tell them what I wanted! They were amazing to work with and were happy to help work within the budget that we had. The centrepieces were 3 different glass vases filled with a variety of country garden style blooms in shades of white and lilac/pink.”

Bec remembers, “Our gift table had a collection of framed pictures and two custom made posters that I had ordered on Etsy. The first said “having a place to go is a home, having someone to love is a family, having both is a blessing”. The other said “this is our happy ever after” and really is how we feel about our marriage. Also on the gift table was our “guest book”. For this I had a big empty jar and a box full of coloured squares of paper. Beside this I had two sundae glasses filled with pens and coloured pencils. Guests took paper and a pencil and wrote a message for the bride and groom before placing it in the jar. I liked this idea as it means guests could write their messages seated at their tables and not have to stand at the gift table. I later scrap booked these messages into a photo album.

I also had framed photographs of my parents and Sean’s parents wedding day and a picture of my Nan and Pa’s wedding day. This was great because you could see my mum wearing the gloves and my Nan wearing the pearls that I was wearing. Sean and I are lucky enough to have parents who are still very much in love and have been married over 30 years. Theirs and my Nan and Pa’s marriage of over 50 years is what Sean and I aspire to have and we have both learnt a lot from observing our own parents love for one another.”

Bec remarks, ” One of the things I loved about our wedding was having all our dearest loved ones in the one place at the one time. The love and positive energy around us on our wedding day was something we just were so blessed to experience and just added to the overwhelming happiness we felt. I can remember taking a few minutes during dinner when everyone was busy eating and chatting away to just look around and take it all in. I could see a room full of all the people Sean and I love most in the world, and sitting next to my new husband I just felt like the luckiest girl on the planet.”

The sweet treats were handmade. “My mum made the cake. She dreamt it up, practiced and made it not only look beautiful but taste amazing! She made a 3 tier French Vanilla Gateau iced with vanilla butter cream icing. She decorated it with silk flowers and ribbon and surrounded it with tea lights and the beautiful Vera Wang cake knife and champagne flutes she and my dad gave us as an engagement present. There was a whole lot of love in that cake!

Our favors were brightly coloured old fashioned hard boiled lollies I bought from Goody Goody Gumdrops Sean and I bought striped and polka dotted fabric which we sewed into small bags. My bridesmaids and I filled these with the lollies (and taste tested them of course)! My mum, sister and Sean’s mum and sister then helped to tie them all with lilac ribbon and attach tiny silver bells and the name of each guest so they doubled as the place cards. They looked adorable and added a pop of colour to the tables! We also scattered edible conversation heart lollies all over the tables for added colour and a bit of fun.”

Bec says, “The speeches at the wedding were incredible. They were each so different but so personal and touching. It was my husband’s speech though that absolutely took my breath away. I could have exploded with how much love I felt for him in that moment! I was so proud of him for his raw honesty and emotion in talking about his feelings for his family, friends and for me. A few people have said afterwards that it went down as the best grooms speech they had ever heard and I’d have to agree. ”

For their first dance, Bec recalls, “We danced to ‘Angel’ by Jack Johnson played by the band. Sean and I were camping a few months before the wedding and while listening to this song in front of our campfire, Sean said that if he had a musical bone in his body and could write a song about me then this one would be it. I was so touched that our first dance was decided there and then. We didn’t plan or practice our steps as we wanted it to feel natural. It’s strange but we have no recollection of anyone else in the room while we danced to this.”

Congratulations Bec & Sean! Thank you for sharing your wedding day with us! Thank you also to Welsch Photography for sharing today’s photographs with us!

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Misha & Craig

A modern Sydney celebration is on the cards today – choosing an urban Sydney location with a dramatic black, white and purple colour scheme led Misha and Craig’s wedding to have a modern, fresh vibe to it. Misha and Craig met in Melbourne years ago, but managed to plan their wedding from the UK!

Photographs today are by SugarLove Weddings who captured the modern essence of the wedding with their soft elegant grace they’re renowned for.

Purple and green invitations set the mood for the day from The Love Tree, while beautiful bouquets in shades of purple and lavender were styled by In Bud Florist. Misha says “Beth completely understood what we wanted for our flowers. She has a great eye for colour, brilliant style and nothing was ever a challenge. ”

Misha wore a strapless gown from Art Couture with shoes from  Zara. Misha explains “I created my headband with a black beaded hairpiece I found when we were in Munich and turned it into an alice-band with black ribbon. I wanted something non-traditional that also had a vintage feel so this was perfect.

To continue the vintage theme, I found some crystal epaulets from a haberdashery store in London and added clips to turn them into hairpieces for the bridesmaids. We also added some sparkle to the bridesmaid’s peep toe heels by taking a pair of diamante earrings and attaching them on the top of each shoe.”

Misha’s bridesmaids wore gowns from French Connection. Misha explains “I really wanted both my bridesmaids to feel individual and comfortable on the day and knew it would be hard finding one dress they both liked when we all lived in different cities. So I sent them a colour palette that worked with our theme for them to choose something they liked to match. I loved the dresses they chose – the purple was vibrant and tied in perfectly with the flowers and the black continued the black detail in the waistband of my dress and the ties of the groomsmen.”

Misha says “I walked up to the landing to Etta James’ At Last played by our good friend who is a saxophonist (Jack Beeche).”

Misha and Craig chose a modern location for their ceremony. Misha recalls “The foyer of Sydney Theatre on Hickson Road was a unique location for the ceremony with its modern architecture. We decided to say our vows on the middle landing framed by the arched atrium windows with friends and family standing on the levels above and below us.”

Misha loved “Spending the day together – we wanted to remain as relaxed as possible in the nervous lead up to the ceremony so we decided to take the non-traditional route and stay together beforehand. It meant we could have a celebratory glass of champagne with the bridal party altogether before the ceremony which was a nice way to start the day. We also took advantage of the sunlight by doing group shots before the ceremony.”

Of their photographers, Misha says “Sugarlove perfectly captured the excitement and colour of the day, while putting everyone at ease. Bradley and his team were completely adaptable, particularly in The Sydney Theatre foyer which was a challenging layout to work in.”

Misha and Craig held their reception at The Wharf Restaurant, Sydney Theatre Company. Misha explains “We chose our reception venue first. For this we wanted a venue with a truly impressive view as a backdrop, to celebrate our day with friends and family, and the Wharf Restaurant was ideal for this. Even guests from Sydney were in awe of the incredible views of the Harbour Bridge and out across the harbour. The staff were amazing and the food was brilliant.”

“We wanted flowers to fill the day with colour and our florist did not disappoint, with rich purple pansies and sweetpeas used in the bridesmaid’s bouquets to the vibrant clusters of anemones, ranunculus and lavender in the mis-matched vases for the table centrepieces.”

In lieu of a wedding cake, Yael’s Cakes of Distinction created a cupcake tower. Misha remarks “Without doubt the best cupcakes in Sydney. We chose a combination of cupcake flavours – Chocolate Mud Cake, Strawberry drizzle, Mango and the best was Raspberry Cheesecake.”

The reception was decorated in hues of magenta, purple and white. Misha notes “For the reception décor, we found some vintage-feel white frames from a store in London to use for the table numbers. We also painted three ornate birdcages which became part of the floral centrepieces with a mixture of colourful flowers in mis-matched vases and tea lights dotted throughout.”

The speeches were one of the couple’s favourite moments of the night. “Traditionally the father of the bride speech can be pretty dull, but I think my dad may have changed all that. His speech was 25 minutes of pure entertainment (22 minutes over his allotted time) which sounds impossible but true. It was filled with lots of laughs, a few quite embarrassing, and thoughtful anecdotes. Even after the wedding, friends are still saying how much they enjoyed it.”

Each guest received a personal note. ” Misha explains “We wanted a personal touch for the favours so we selected individual London themed postcards for each guest and hand wrote a message of thanks to them on the back. These also doubled as placecards with the guest’s name on the back of each postcard. We were pleasantly surprised how well they were received.”

The first dance was not a usual choice, but beautiful all the same. Misha remembers ” We had lots of trouble finding a song for our first dance, until we heard The Cure’s Friday I’m In Love. Not a traditional first dance song but when we considered that we were getting married on a Friday, it made perfect sense. We took dance lessons for a few weeks in London to get our act together and help choreograph the dance. ”

Congratulations Misha and Craig! Thank you for sharing your story with us! Thank you also to SugarLove Weddings for today’s photographs!

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