Amy and Hong

Today’s wedding is a beautiful modern mix of a classic ceremonies, plenty of cultural traditions, modern funky touches and a whole lot of love between Amy and Hong. From knitted toy favors to a piano duet- this couple truly did their wedding their way.

Amy recalls how the couple met. “(We) were high school classmates that met serendipitously again after 8 or so years of sporadic contact via email despite both being in NSW. It took the bride 57 dates to decide that she liked the groom enough to call him her boyfriend, and it took the groom 885 days since he first re-met her to pop the question to the bride.”

Today’s photographs are by Milk & Honey Photography who capture everything so beautifully every single time. Chelsea Hall from Chelsea Jayne Weddings planned the wedding day.

Amy wore a Lora Eliss Couture bridal gown and apple-green gown for the reception Her hair and makeup was styled by Amy Turner from Agency Hair & Makeup. Amy’s floral arrangements were “Orchids/green apples/gold covered leaves, and a large reconstructed flower made from cream English Rose petals to resemble one large peony (which wasn’t in season at the time)”

Amy and Hong were married at Star Court at Darling Park, Sydney. Amy explains “We loved the double staircase and the changing, twinkling constellations on the roof at the Star Court and knew it was the right place for our ceremony. We read our vows, which we had printed out and pasted, from a hand-bound wooden book from an Etsy seller msquaredesign that we customized with gold “double happiness” seals.”

The ceremony had a special guest. “We loved the fact that we got to incorporate one of our teddy bears (Sleepy Bear) into the wedding ceremony as our ring-bearer as sadly (or not, as he was a huge hit at the reception), he was the closest thing to a kid we had amongst our social circles. He carried our wedding rings in the Euricase digital ring box that the groom had used to propose.”

Vanessa Sciaccia from Creative Ceremonies performed the ceremony. “She was an absolute blast to work with! She kept us on schedule and helped us draft our ceremony. We loved that she was game enough to rhyme along with us, and impressed at her professionalism and dedication when she showed up to our rehearsal AND ceremony with a huge smile and happy red heels despite a sprained ankle!”

In lieu of a first dance, the couple did something rather special together. “We didn’t have a first dance. Instead, we had our first duet on the grand piano and played a medley of Joe Hisaishi songs. We couldn’t decide on one, so we mashed up a medley of each of our favourite tunes from his animated movies – My Neighbour Totoro and Howl’s Moving Castle. On hindsight, we could’ve done with more practice but our guests seemed to love the fact that we attempted the duet to begin with!” The piano was hired and set up by Overs Pianos.

Amy and Hong’s family and friends made the day incredibly special. “I loved having our friends and family in attendance – everyone who showed up was someone we had wanted to be there to celebrate our special day with. Am amazed at the effort  our guests made to attend, including coming in from overseas for a few short days just for our wedding. One was so determined to attend that he hopped on the plane the morning of our wedding, and was on a plane back that afternoon to attend previously-arranged commitments! Also amazed at the mingling of our different social circles, glimpsing conversations between people we never would’ve thought to see together!”

Something Amy holds dear to her heart is, “The knowledge afterwards that the groom was nervous as hell! It was a pleasant surprise for the bride to realize that beneath that cool, calm exterior, the groom was human after all and cared about the wedding/details more than he let on!”

Amy and Hong held their reception in the  Pavilion at Darling Park, “I was smitten by the round Pavilion with the double rows of windows circling the ceiling and the doors that led out to the gardens. Although our venue was an office complex during the weekdays, it was a lovely and unique wedding venue that was just offbeat enough to satisfy the quirky bride and groom. The bonus was that both venues were indoors to cater for any unexpected showers! It made all the hassle of securing the venue in the first place all worthwhile.”

Amy searched online how to make the paper pompoms and got tons of tissue paper off eBay. “I loved using a non-traditional space for the wedding ceremony, with our personal quirky touches and inside jokes at every turn throughout the day. Searching for all the knick knacks was half the fun!”

The wedding favors merged the couple’s quirky sense of humor with their heritage and love of life “Our wedding favors were handmade and personal. Our wedding favors were cute amigurumi chickens By missusD On Etsy), pears (by Elisha from elishacopeland and Alpha from ladypinkylee) and green alien blobs (by ilovebob on etsy) lovingly made especially for us by Etsy sellers. We glued Swarovski crystal hearts with baker’s twine ribbons and custom-printed strips of our chicken mascots (made by Helen from PapierLapin) with our wedding date onto them afterwards; the single guests got the chickens, the married/paired guests got the pears and the children got the green blobs. All stuffed animals were placed in IKEA cups we got for a bargain, along with Ferrero Roches and adorned with bonbon bags the bride’s mother had brought along.”

Amy and Hong hired a photo booth from  Flashback Photobooths. Amy says “We made our own moustache- and lips-on-a-stick for our photobooth, and converted an ornate photo frame into a prop photobooth chalkboard by buying vinyl chalkboard sheets. We also designed our own Moo business cards for guests to sign in, leave their mailing address (for us to send out thank you cards to later!) and give us their best advice regarding marriage.”

Amy says “All the DIY elements were very special and everything was done for a reason, even though it might have seemed like it was just another whimsical element. We wanted to make it as “us” as possible. The groom worked in a science lab, and borrowed (and cleaned very thoroughly) one of their lab incubators to house “petri dish” soap wedding favors (made by CleanerScience on Etsy) that glowed in the dark, resembling real bacteria-swabbed petri dishes for his lab colleagues. We also used laboratory glass flasks to serve the drinks in, instead of cups.

The bride worked in the medical field and we had syringe-shaped pens for the guests to use. The chicken theme was sprinkled throughout as we were both born in the year of the rooster according to the Chinese zodiac. The wedding favors were picked to suit each guest (and it was tough finalizing numbers when the guest list kept changing!). Our reception songs were a collection of our favourite songs.”

The reception was filled with treats. “We found all our glassware and candy bar candy ourselves, mostly from online stores. All the candy bar paper treat bags (for guests to doggy bag home) were hand stamped in gold ink with a customized wedding seal stamp (also from, surprise surprise, Etsy!) The paper tags and ribbons adorning the candy bar were all designed and printed from our home printer, and then handcut.”

Amy and Hong bought gingerbread men from Gingerbread Folk for their dessert table and found ” oh-so-cute chocolate-dipped and gorgeously green apple-flavored fortune cookies with customized messages inside” from Fortune Cookies New Zealand. Instead of a cake, the couple used a chocolate fountain.

Congratulations Amy and Hong! Thank you for allowing us to share your wedding day today in Polka Dot Bride! Thank you also to  Milk & Honey Photography for sharing today’s photographs!