Misha and Craig's Modern Sydney Wedding

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. ”