Tom and Pearl
Tom and I met in Sydney Eastern Suburbs on a sunny Sunday while I was out to lunch with quite a few of my girlfriends. Being the cheeky guy he is, he walked straight up to me and introduced himself to me and then greeted all my friends. To me, that was a bold move as I was with a big group of girls and sometimes we can be intimidating. He was not phased and did it was ease and charm. On the other hand, I was taken aback, flattered and just trying to concentrate on not saying anything silly. You could say it was love at first sight
From that day on my friends and I frequented our Sunday lunch spot regularly to bump into Tom. As we met more and more we swapped numbers and became an item.
A few years later Tom popped the question in a way any girl would dream of. I received a phone call one morning from Tom asking me to pack an overnight bag and a nice dinner dress. He would be picking me up that afternoon. He arrived home in a beautiful navy blue suit and yellow long stem roses and he took my breath away. He then whisked me off to the executive suite at Shangri La with a magnificent view of the harbour. On the bed was a love heart of rose petals and a letter that we had dinner booked at Aria. We had our private table with harbour views and french champagne and I felt like a princess with her prince. As I couldn’t imagine anything else more perfect Tom had arranged a water taxi to take us across the harbour to Luna Park where we had our very own Ferris wheel ride. It was like something out of a fairy tale. As the Ferris wheel reached the top it stopped and Tom got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife! It was a magical moment and one that I will never forget. Of course, I said yes and we both cried. As we were descending we heard claps and congratulations from down below… we had drawn a crowd.
Tom and I held our wedding at The Seminyak Beach Resort & Spa in beautiful Bali. I wore a La Sposa Barcelona Fashion Gown Igartua Style, collection 2014 from Penrith Bridal Boutique.
I had my gown altered slightly to suit the Bali climate. I fell in love with my gown due to the delicate fine beading on the bodice that shimmered in the sunlight with fine lace detail that trickled down my waist and disappeared into the fairy floss like tulle that made up the bottom of my dress. I liked to call it the Tinkerbell dress as the tulle floated away when I walked and made me feel like a fairy princess. My headpiece was Bo & Luca and I wore Paspaley pearl earrings with diamonds. Hair and make-up were by Stacey of Bali Edge- Hair & Makeup.
My bridesmaids wore the Anabel dress by White Runway in dusky pink to go with the romantic vintage bridal theme. Tom and the groomsmen wore Tarocash suit pants in light grey and white long sleeve fitted shirts. Tom had beige suspenders and bow tie while the groomsmen had light blue. All tied in well with a very vintage feel.
We had our ceremony in the Purnama Chapel which is made of glass afloat and an infinity pool that meets the water’s edge of Seminyak beach. It was truly magnificent. We went with an all-white crisp theme for the ceremony. My mother did me the honour of giving me away as my dad had passed away a few years earlier. He was never far away though. In my vows, I read to Tom ‘If my father were here today he would be so proud and he would approve, he would be honoured to call you his son” there was not a dry eye in the chapel during our vows. It was such an emotional time full of happy tears and love.
We had sunset wedding photos by the Photo Factory Bali on Seminyak Beach as we both love the water and sunsets. It was nice to kick our shoes off and bury our feet in the sand. We liked it so much that we kept our shoes off and it turned into a barefoot wedding.
Our photography company was brilliant, they had our photos edited and printed into a beautiful hardcover box, which was lined and two hardtop sleek silver photo albums in a turnaround of two days. They gave us two copies of the photos on disc free of charge to give to our families. It was excellent service and quality photos.
Photo Factory Bali was recommended to us by our wedding planner Chris Goulding owner and manager of Dream Weddings In Bali. He has over 19 years of experience in weddings and was a pleasure to work with. He made our wedding a Dream Wedding. The entire day from start to finish ran seamlessly. Tom and I got to sit back and take it all in. Nothing was ever too hard for Chris and his team. They were there for the entire day, coordinating and double-checking. I was able to enjoy this special time with Tom, our family and friends without worry.
Our reception was held in the Sanji Sunset lounge next to the chapel where we said our vows. The infinity pool ran under and between the reception area and chapel. We had both ceremony and reception in the one spot so our guests didn’t have to travel anywhere. We had a string quartet playing in the background to set the mood. Our guests were invited to the buffet area where they could choose from fresh fish or meats cooked whichever way they preferred, we had a carving station, a salad bar and table service for beverages.
Our first dance was to City and Colour “we found each other in the dark”. The song has quite a lot of meaning to Tom and me. Tom first asked me to be his girlfriend for this song. I softly sang the words to Tom as we danced as he is the one who usually sings to me. It was a special moment that will always play over in my mind.
After all the eating, speeches and cake cutting Tom and I wanted to treat our guests to something a little different. We had fire dancers enter the reception on the floating stage to perform. They were spectacular to watch and our guests were blown away. It was a real surprise that nobody expected. What better way to party than with fire dancers and to top it off fireworks! People’s faces lit up with the fireworks. It just made our dream wedding into more of a fairy tale.
Tom and I had our dream Bali wedding thanks to all our wonderful little helpers on the day that made it all come together. Thank you and special thanks to all our family and friends who made the trip to Bali from Sydney and New Zealand.
Images by Photo Factory Bali
Ms Gingham says: Destination weddings are truly the stuff dreams are made of. Divine.
Pearl says: Originally from Sydney now living in Broome at picturesque Cable Beach. I work for Paspaley Pearls and my husband Tom works as a high dependency clinical nurse for Broome Hospital. I love travelling, being married and living in paradise where it’s beautiful one day and perfect the next!
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