Frances and Aaron’s White and Yellow Winter Wedding

Aaron and Frances

Aaron and I wanted to hold our wedding date as close to our anniversary date so it wouldn’t be hard for him to remember the date. And who couldn’t remember the first day of winter?

We met whilst working at Burswood Entertainment Complex (now Crown Perth) in the marketing department. I was a Marketing Executive and he was a Graphic Designer. I briefed work into him so technically he worked for me but he didn’t see it that way. As with most relationships we started off as friends but as we grew closer, we found that there were stronger feelings. As Aaron and I are both in the marketing industry and extremely creative a lot of love and thought went into the tiniest details of our wedding. I originally wanted a Vera Wang gown but instead chose to have a dress created and designed for me. That’s when I went to Kevin Raphael at Galleria Couture. From the moment I met him, I knew he was the one to help me. He was honest, straightforward and fabulous. We decided that I would have three looks for the day; one for the ceremony, one for the reception and one for the celebratory part of the evening. I love bows and we made sure they were incorporated into the design. The dress itself is a mermaid style gown with a removable train which made it look like a princess gown but you could still see my figure through the fabric. For the reception, I changed to a black sash and bow to add a touch of me and removed the train for the dance.  Bows were also featured on my bridal shoes which were Alan Pinkus.

My makeup was done by the amazing Kassy Wong from Creations by Kassy. She and her team also did the makeup and hair for all of my bridesmaids. My hair was constructed by Abby from Toni & Guy Perth Central. Jude McEwen originally was my stylist for the day but she had literally given birth to her first child a week before but Abby was more than capable. I gave all of my bridesmaids and my bridesman a present for all their help leading up to the day as well as all they will need to go through on the day. They each got their favourite perfume or cologne, a knot bracelet with a note saying “thanks for helping us tie the knot” and the girls all got a Hello Kitty bathrobe because I adore Hello Kitty.

Magic by Design created the bouquets for myself the bridal party as well as the centrepieces for the wedding reception. The flowers I chose were tulips as they are simple and gorgeous.

Each piece of stationery was personally designed by Aaron James Design and myself and maintained our colour theme of black, white and yellow (my favourite colours) with the style of simple elegance. We had custom stamps made which featured our Shiba Inu, Samurai (Sammi) who also featured in our wedding photos. Aaron designed our letterpress invitations which were printed by Whiteman Park Print Shop. I work extensively in events management so the organisation of this wedding was easy for me. I knew what I wanted and how I wanted it in less than a month and this was all arranged easily.

Aaron’s cuff links for the day were jigsaw pieces as Aaron always said that when he hugged me, we fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Jigsaw pieces were featured subtly throughout our whole wedding. I also bought him a pair of socks so he “didn’t get cold feet”. He wore his Tag Heuer watch that I gave him as an engagement present. The groomsmen all received a Sekonda watch picked by Aaron as well as groomsmen socks and pins which they all wore proudly on the day.

We arranged our transport for the day through Bellagio Limousines. As we had such a large bridal party, we had two white Chrysler limousines for the bridal party. My father and I rode in a Classic Vintage 1956 Bentley S as I felt he would keep me calm before arriving at the church. And he did.

We chose to be married at St Michael the Archangel Chapel in West Leederville as it was simply beautiful inside and out. And the light would shine through the windows just right at the time of our wedding which was 1:30pm. I walked down the aisle to Eva Cassidy’s Songbird played by a string quartet supplied by Dolce Ensembles and sung by Sam Nafie. My father was the first man I ever loved and it meant the world to me to have him walk me down the aisle and give me away to the man of my dreams. I was quite nervous walking down but as soon as I saw Aaron I could not stop smiling.

Our photographers were simply amazing. Stef from Off the Market is one my good friends so he knew my style and also shared my vision of how the day should be photographed. Stef and Jad captured every moment perfectly and even some we don’t remember happening. We were allowed to be who we were and weren’t asked to do awkward poses or anything too rehearsed. Our wedding day was also captured by Michael Jepsen at Inception Video. Our photos were taken at the University of Western Australia because we felt it had the architectural backgrounds we desired as well as the greenery and trees. The yellow balloons were my idea and I feel like they added that something extra to our photos.

I also could not celebrate my wedding with my beloved dog Samurai (Sammi). I found him a little collar and bow tie online and was very grateful to our friend who was able to pick him up and drop him off for the photos.

We had a large bridal party, fourteen all up. We love them all.

Prior to entering the wedding reception, our bridal party heading up to our suite at Crown Perth to relax. Aaron and I held our reception at Astral One in Crown Perth. For us, it was the only place we could celebrate our wedding as it was the place we met. The menu was specifically tailored for us by Executive Sous Chef Sean Marco and it was just amazing. Drinks were flowing all night and the service by the staff at Crown was fantastic. The bridesmaid posies were placed in vases on the bridal table and each centrepiece contained yellow tulips and sliced lemons at the bottom of the vase.

We asked our guests to “leaf” their fingerprint as a form of guest book although we also had a Vera Wang guestbook if they wanted to leave us a special message.  Cupcake Chic fulfilled my dream for the perfect wedding cake. A jigsaw bride and groom were hand crafted as the cake toppers as well as individual bride and groom cupcakes. The cutting cake had a hint of yellow with the ribbon at the bottom.

The bonbonnieres were handmade chocolates by Sue Lewis artisan chocolatier. Aaron and I chose our favourite flavours; sea salted caramel and kalamansi lime. The kalaminsi represented by Filipino heritage and well Aaron and I just adore sea salted caramel anything. The bonbonnieres were also used as place cards with each guests name personally written in calligraphy by the bride. We had a photobooth on the night which was kindly given to us as a wedding present by close friend of mine. Kiss Photobooths provided fun moments for our guests and was enjoyed by all. Our speeches were done early in the evening as we wanted to get the formalities out of the way so we could enjoy our night together. We spoke separately with me finishing. We both acknowledged each other’s families and our love for our close friends. I spoke especially about the relationship with my Dad. I was told that we made a lot of people cry that night.

My father and I danced to Sarah MachLachlan’s rendition of “The Rainbow Connection” for the father daughter dance. It is a song very dear to me and my father and it was quite emotional for me but he constantly made me laugh throughout it. Our first dance was amazing. Aaron and I went to Daele Fraser for lessons and she choreographed a routine especially for us. We danced to Lemar’s rendition of “Let’s Stay Together”.

And then we danced the night away!

Photography by Off the Market

Ms Gingham says: Oh that little pooch has just stolen my heart! Gorgeous images!

Frances says: “I am a perfectionist at heart and extremely organised so the planning and implementation of my wedding day came easy to me. It also helps that my professional work is a marketing and business development consultant whereby 70% of my work is events management.”