Yulia and Julian

I wanted to end this week off with a festive wedding, a wedding that makes you want to kick your heels up, toast to the couple and perhaps join them in dancing to celebrate their marriage. Our bride Yulia says, “Our wedding was unique – there’s no other word for it. Two big, loud, crazy families with more characters than the Cannes film festival. Unsurprisingly, this posed a few logistical difficulties, most importantly for us, how to cater for such a large crowd while retaining the quiet and intimate feel that we both wanted for our wedding day. After many months of thinking, negotiating, planning, and more thinking, we (more or less) concocted a brew to meet all of the demands of our unique wedding”

Photographers It’s Beautiful Here captured the happy, festive feel to the day, right down to the spirit that infused the dancing.

Yulia and Julian got ready together and walked to the ceremony together through the streets of Melbourne.

Yulia remembers, “We got married standing on aunty Bernadette’s beautiful big, blue living room rug, and underneath a chuppah (a Jewish altar) that was hand-made for us by Julian’s brother Titian and uncle James.”

Mid ceremony downpour? Guests sheltered under a nearby marquee, umbrellas and buckets.

Yulia says, “The wedding itself was all hands on deck – having a wedding that was personal and spoke to us was most important to us, and to give it that personal feel, we put the wedding together in the most personal of ways.”

In an oh so Melbourne way, guests took a tram to the reception.

Yulia and Julian celebrated with their guests at Mission To Seafarers.

Projeto Inesperado entertained guests. Yulia remembers, “The live music and the photography was provided by friends. It felt like one big (very big) family garden party. We couldn’t have been happier with how it all turned out. And, needless to say, we were all exhausted afterwards!”

The food, of course, was also hand made. Yulia explained “All of the food was hand-made by a team of super-women, led by our mothers and aunts, and with lots of help from our cousins and close friends. We designed the wine labels on the wine we served (which matched the wedding invitations, which of course we also designed by hand and printed and cut ourselves, too.”

Of their photographers, Yulia remembers “The photographers operated like stealthy cat burglars – but talented ones! We never once felt like there were cameras in our faces, yet they somehow managed to catch beautiful personal shots of intimate moments and really capture the feel of the day. And, to our utter surprise, they weren’t scared off by the chaos of it all! In fact, they fit right in and even appeared to be having a good time with our guests! The photos couldn’t have been any lovelier.”

Yulia explains “Everything that made up the wedding was either made for us by members of our families or close friends, or it was borrowed and reinvented as part of our wedding day.”

Yulia remarks “The wedding cake was hand-made for us by Julian’s cousin (we were lucky to have a creative and skilled chocolatier in the family!). The flowers were all bought and arranged by our team of helpers, and the vases were all borrowed from family members, as were the tablecloth. Our cousins sewed together fresh flowers for flower wreathes worn by our flower girls.We did all of the setting up ourselves so that it was all laid out just as we wanted it to look.”

Congratulations Yulia and Julian! Thank you for sharing your wedding day with us! Thank you also to It’s Beautiful Here for sharing today’s wedding photographs!