Dyllen and Wella

There are just not enough words to explain how perfect our wedding day was. After being engaged for over a year and after months of tiring, stressful but joyous planning there was nothing I would have changed.

Dyllen and I met over 9 years ago and we now have two gorgeous boys. Getting married has always been a plan of ours but we wanted to make sure we got married when we were ready and when we had the time to do it right. Being a stay at home Mum, I knew it would prove difficult keeping to a budget as well as co-ordinating the whole event with two energetic and demanding kids. We are very simple and we knew from the get-go that we didn’t want a lavish wedding. I believe that your special day is a reflection of your love and your journey to commitment. I am also a massive DIY person and I wanted to do as much myself as I could.

Our photographer was a close and very good friend of ours, Louisa, who had just started a wonderful photography business called Reyna Designs Photography. Louisa and her team are just something else; apart from being so creative and professional, they allowed Dyllen and I to have so much input on how we wanted our images. We had the coolest pre-wedding pics ever!!! The day was cloudy and overcast and we got great shots against some of the coolest graffiti in Perth. The team was amazing on the day. They captured so many awesome pics and made sure it was all natural. I think my eldest son Hayden was the star of the day! He takes amazing photos!

We got married at Harold Boas Gardens on Wellington St, Perth and the weather was gorgeous!!! I was so worried that it would be too hot being in March but it wasn’t. 🙂 We were advised by our wonderful celebrant Sue Limbert to compile our ceremony music on a CD for them to play. I chose “Spend My life With You “. I had played the song over and over and over, imagining how I would walk down that isle and I used to cry!

I was freaking out because I didn’t want to be so emotional! But on the day there weren’t tears but a massive smile on my face (and everyone elses in fact!) because I was just so happy! We wanted to include our boys as much as we could in our ceremony, so when it came to the ring exchange, they each came to bring the rings on their personalised pillows I made myself. It was so special. Our finishing song was Stevie Wonder’s “For Once in My Life”. Everyone clapped and it was just so magical. 🙂

We took some amazing photos at the park and at the iconic blue boat house along the Swan River.

I was so ecstatic when I found my dress. I knew I didn’t want an over the top dress. It just wasn’t me. But having a background in fashion I was desperate to wear a designer dress. I was lucky to find a gorgeous Aurelio Costarella dress; I saw the dress tried it on and it was love at first sight.

The bridesmaids’ dresses was Maticevski and they complimented the boys’ cool suits from Roger David perfectly. Dyllen was very specific about the suits. He wanted them to be a little different, not just the common black suit with a tie. The kid’s suits and the flower-lady’s dress were from ebay, which was a major score for us because they were inexpensive but they looked fabulous!!!

We had our glorious reception at Golden Ponds Mundijong. We really wanted a summery, fresh, natural feeling wedding and Golden Ponds was picture perfect. We were surrounded with several large ponds and it was even better at night. Dyllen and I wanted to make sure our guests got a taste of where we both came from so we were allowed to bring a favorite dish each. Being from the Philippines it is custom to have a “Lechon” (slow roast pig) and my husband being South African – a wedding is not a wedding without a biryarni (spicy chicken)!!! I think one of the highlights of our day was the speeches.

Having so much history together and spending years of getting to know each others family we could feel so much love in the room. Everyone that did a speech was in tears and everyone in the room was so emotional, especially when Dyllen gave his speech! But we couldn’t forget the humour of our best man’s speech with advice on “how to get the most attention from your wife during conversation – talk to her while she sleeps!!” and the way he portrayed Dyllen and my “beginning” as a true love story. Our wonderful MC Frank is a dear and special friend who kept reminding us that the key to being in love was to always remain friends. We were so fortunate to be surrounded with the most amazing bunch of family and friends, which is half of what a wedding is about.

We continued our night dancing away to our favourite tunes mixed by one of Perths top DJs Rod Munoz from Kaviar Entertainment. Rod is so creative, each time a person walked up to do a speech he had a snippet of the song we chose for that person. My father-in-law is such a cool cat so we chose “Return of the Mack” and my sister had “Me and You” by Cassie because she totally looks like her! Our first waltz song was “So High” by John Legend. I coordinated the table arrangements myself and  had a lot of help the day before setting up. At the end of the day, this all wouldn’t have been possible without the help, effort and love from our wonderful parents, family and friends.

Our flowers were done by Dyllen’s beautiful grandmother the night before at one of my bridesmaid’s house. I remember sitting there the night before with my most important girls giggling and doing manis & pedis and trying to stay calm (which didn’t work at all).

I was so lucky I won my cake from Delicate Lee through a Facebook comp! I submitted my proposal story (Dyllen put a note asking me to marry him in our son’s bedtime book) and I was notified a week later that I had won!!! It was such an amazing cake and it tasted delish.

I designed the wedding invites and ceremony programs and printed them through Vistaprint.

For favors we had bride and groom boxes for each guests filled with sugar-coated almonds and each guest also got mini perfumes. I made my cathedral veil the week before with purchased bridal tulle and an old hair clip I had used for a friend’s wedding.

Photography by Reyna Designs Photography

Ms Gingham says: “What a little superstar Hayden is! It’s so gorgeous when kids get to be involved in such a significant moment. Thanks Wella for sharing your wedding with us.”

Wella says: Would I do it again???  YES … because the magic of the day is so worth it! 🙂