Mei and Troy – The Celebration

Welcome back to part two of the beautiful wedding of Mei and Troy! I love the thought Mei and Troy put into making their wedding as eco friendly as possible!

They actively made decisions to suit their beliefs in every aspect of their wedding. They asked for no gifts as they didn’t want to have to take anything back to New York with them. Instead, they set up a website with a  “give registry” allowing guests to donate to one of Mei and Troy’s chosen charities (Diabetes Australia, Oxfam’s “Close The Gap” program, Australian Wildlife Conservatory and Animals Australia).

The couple held their ceremony in Victoria Gardens in East Perth. Mei walked down the aisle to the acoustic version of Amorphous Androgynous (aka Future Sound Of London) – Divinity, played by a good friend Ben Sheridan and his bandmate Jeff Ramage (who play together as Twelve). During the ceremony, they played a rendition of Depeche Mode’s “Somebody”.

As the ceremony came to a close, they played “Divinity” fully – it was meant to be played as people milled about after the ceremony, but guests were transfixed by their playing!

Mei and Troy practice the Buddhism so didn’t have a lot of structure to adhere to with their ceremony. Their celebrant Barbara Walton helped them create a ceremony that matched exactly what they wanted.

Afterward, the newlyweds and their guests walked over the bridge to Lamonts, where they feasted on vegan cuisine. After venue hunting for months, Mei & Troy finally found the venue of their dreams, requiring no decoration, they then challenged head chef Anthony Le to make an exquisite vegan tasting menu. Living in new York, Mei & Troy have dined at some of the best vegan restaurant in the world and Nathan stepped up to the challenge. The couple’s favourite part was a dessert of strawberries with sorbet and dark chocolate lattice over it.

Jenn of The Original Wedding Company sourced wooden deck chairs and decorated them with olive branches from her neighbour’s garden. For the reception music Troy had a perfectly pre-programmed iPod mix, including songs from guests who had been asked to pick a track when they RSVP’ed. Everything from Dean Martin’s “That’s Amore” to Underworld’s “Born Slippy” .

The wedding cake was made by Troy’s childhood next door neighbour Ida McLeod. She’d been making wedding cakes since Troy was tiny and was asked to make the couple’s cake. They chosen a red velvet cake (as a nod to their life in the USA and Mei’s favourite cupcakes from Billy’s in Chelsea) vegan style adapted from a traditional recipe. Originally, the couple were going to forgo cake- neither of them being cake mad, but after reading about the red velvet wedding cake of Ellen Degeneres and Portia De Rossi they were inspired!

The wedding stationery was made by the couple was simple and sweet with a cute motif of a vintage hot air balloon (signifying their travels) and great typography.  Place cards were made using recycled card and rubber stamps.

Mei and Troy used an antique typewriter of Mei’s family to hold the seating chart.

A highlight of the day was the speeches, with Troy commending the vegan meal and mentioning it contained no meat, milk, ovulations, vomit or semen, to which his aunt screamed “I should hope not!”. Troy’s 94 year old grand mother was also acknowledged as the most important person at the wedding- without her there would have been no wedding! Troy’s brother had everyone in tears with his emotional speech about family and life.

Mei and Troy wanted a photobooth, but didn’t have room for one. Instead Samm Blake set up a white backdrop and took happy snaps of the guests all night.

Troy says “Our family on Mei’s mum’s side did a traditional Chinese ‘Yum Seng’ where people ‘charge their glasses’ by yelling ‘yaaaaaaaaaaam’ until everyone is blue in the face, followed by a bellowing “Seng!” and then slamming down your drink (normally done with brandy).  My mum’s family table asked what all that was about, and after the explanation, were not to be outdone!  They had to do theirs, louder, than the first table!  Naturally this snow-balled, and ended up in the normal tradition, where the newly weds must go around to every table to yum seng, each table trying to top the one before it (and usually resulting in a pretty drunk couple!  but it was only wine, and i had baby sips since i don’t drink!).  At the end, the whole restaurant did one massive YAAAAM SENG!  fabulous!”

The restaurant had no room for dancing, but the couple had planned to perform an ironic and silly rumba to Jean-Michel Jarre’s “Les Chants Magnetiques, Pt. 5“.  Troy admits his only dance move is the running man, while Mei is an amazing dancer. Instead, the couple purchased a small USB mixer and with Troy’s laptop, they snuck speakers and guests into their hotel room and danced like mad! They played everything from Michael Jackson to Steve Lawler for the official wedding after party!

Mei and Troy spent three days after the wedding on a mini moon in Margaret River at Hidden Valley Retreat, nestled in amongst masses of trees.

Thank you Mei and Troy for sharing the amazing details from your wedding day! On behalf of Polka Dot Bride readers, I wish you all the best in your lives together! Thank you also to Samm Blake for sharing the photos with us!

Photos by Samm Blake