George and Emma

Our wedding a complete fusion of Catholic and Macedonian Orthodox traditions with personal hand made touches with a vintage feel.  I had originally envisaged a very different wedding day, one that was most likely to be a small intimate cocktail party by in my hometown of Lorne, Victoria.  The end result was a wedding in the city with 230 guests for a formal dinner with lots of Macedonian dancing alternating by rocking out with the Phil Ceberano band! Our engagement period was a relatively short 8 months and finding suppliers proved to be quite a challenge, particularly for our large number of guests however it all worked out perfectly. We really wanted the day to reflect our individual personalities, us as a couple and acknowledge our cultural backgrounds.

George started the day at his parents’ house where traditional dictated that the closest family and friends were invited for lunch (only about 50 of them!) and Macedonian traditions, while I got ready at our house with my bridal party and immediate family. My mum received a panicked call from George in the morning around 11:00am when he realised that he had forgotten his shirt! Luckily our super helpful C2Video offered to take it over to him. My dress was a made to measure by Gwendolynne who was beyond amazing throughout the whole process. She met with me at every single appointment and has an incredible eye for attention to detail and understood my vision perfectly. My headpiece was by Richard Nylon and my earrings from Stephanie Browne.

I had been feeling very relaxed all morning. Before I knew it, our car arrived and we set on our way to the church.  I then remembered that I had forgotten one important thing – to visit the loo! I didn’t get a chance until we arrived at the reception at 6:00pm! Opps!

Although George and I are not particularly religious, it was important for us that our service was held in a church so we could accommodate both traditions. The service was a highlight of the day held at one of the most beautiful churches in Melbourne, Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Middle Park. The church had personal meaning to me as I used to live a short stroll from the church and often went there for prayer and reflection.

We managed to combine our highly unusual full Catholic and Orthodox service into 45minutes with priests of both dominations working seamlessly together. It was important for us to have all of the immediate family involved, which included both sets of parents giving us away, 2 brothers and 2 brother in-laws undertaking readings, 2 of the grooms sisters crossing the church crowns over our heads, my sister as a bridesmaid and the groom’s 2 nieces as flowergirls. Our much beloved 3 year old pugalier Gracie could not participate, but she was an honouree “flower puppy”. She looked adorable in a floral print dress which I bought on impulse from a pharmacy in Hong Kong a month before the wedding. It’s fair to say that she was a major hit of the wedding!

After the church we made our way to the stunning St Kilda Botanical Gardens for photos. We loved the gardens as there were so many different compositions to take beautiful pictures. Even though the day was overcast and it was drizzling slightly, it didn’t affect the quality of the photos, in fact it enhanced them. Our photographer was Maree Demiris who is a cousin of George’s.  She was brilliant at bossing all of the family members around and getting everyone organised! She is a stay at home mum and only does photography for family and friends. This meant that we had access to every single image in high resolution, which was fabulous for compiling photo albums for family members.

George’s suit was from Soho Workshop and the groomsmen’s suits were from Opal Formal Wear. My beautiful bridesmaids wore dresses that were made by a family friend and shoes from Alan Pinkus. Our hair and makeup was done by Boutique Creative.

We held our reception at Brighton International Receptions where we started the evening off with a big bang by having individual music for our parents and bridal party entrance, such as “Daddy Cool” by Boney M for my in-laws and “Staying Alive” by the Bee Gee’s for my parents!

I remember I was so happy when we walked into the reception, I actually SKIPPED! To have so many people cheering and wishing us well was very moving. Following this we cut the cake and I surprised to see about 30 people on the dance floor taking our photo – talk about paparazzi!

 

Our bridal waltz was Fleetwood Mac’s “You Make Lovin’ Fun” which was sung by the Phil Ceberano band and incorporated our choreographed dance steps from our dance lessons! At the reception, the highlight was the speeches. George was initially a bit nervous about having 8 speakers, but the guests loved every speech as they were humorous and moving. My in-laws were surprised when I did a short speech in Macedonian, which I learnt a week before the wedding. Needless to say, my mother-in-law was in tears of joy! George’s speech was also a highlight, especially when he said “I often get asked by Emma ‘what do you love about me’ and my answer is usually ‘Get out of the way of the TV and leave me alone!’ But tonight I’ll give you that answer and if you want to hear it again, PLAY THE VIDEO!”

Ms Gingham says: What a beautiful wedding gown by Gwendolynne! Stunning! Thanks to Emma for sharing her story today!

Emma says: “I am a mid 30’s senior account manager for the world online leading trend forecaster, WGSN. I’ve never particually dreamt about a wedding, but since my wedding day, I have become wedding obsessed! I so enjoyed the creative side of my wedding and I now love looking at the care, creativeness and detail of other couples weddings and how they capture the couple spirit, personality and relationship.”