Dee & Rafal
Dee & Rafal certainly embraced their own respective cultures with their two day wedding festival! They kicked off with a traditional Hindu ceremony and followed the next day with a Polish Catholic ceremony – ending it all with an epic party. Each part of their culture and family represented in the smallest but most significant of ways. Elleni Toumpas Photography was there to capture it all.
Dee tells the story of how they met. “We met at the Year 12 formal, we always had a couple of classes together however became good friends towards the end of VCE ”
The bridal party wore custom outfits for the Hindu ceremony, the bride telling, “We wore gorgeous hand design Mehendi Colourful outfits – all custom orders and not overly traditional, we went with a more modern touch for the Indian outfits.”
Celebrations spanned two days, with the traditional Hindu wedding taking place at Arthur Wren Hall. Dee noting, “The community hall to enabled us to be able to complete the specifics of a Hindu ceremony.”
Dee describes the day as, “Timeless elegance with modern cultural twists – “interracial” was the word of the day.”
Dee explains, “Flowers represent positive blessings, the small fire represents the removal of bad energy and the white lines we stand in represent seven promises taken in front of witnesses.”
Of their photographer, Dee notes, “Elleni Toumpas was always our choice from the moment we met over coffee; she had the same vision and sense of humour that we shared. Her style of photography depicts the exact mood of both days.”
The night ended with plenty of dancing!
For the Catholic wedding, Dee chose a gown by Baccini & Hill. Hair and makeup artists Janice Wu and Andrea Michich styled the hair and makeup looks.
The groom and groomsmen met the bride and bridesmaids at the bride’s parent’s home for a first look.
Polish Catholic Church, Keysborough was chosen for the Catholic ceremony, a church which had connections to the groom’s family. For the Catholic ceremony processional, Dee chose “Ave Maria which was sung by the angelic voice of the nun from the church.”
In Polish tradition, the newlyweds were showered with coins and petals.
“NGV for our photo shoot was idyllic for us as it has an industrial and iconic look followed by the sheds at Docklands which is a favourite area of ours.”
The weddings culminated in a gorgeous reception at Sketch complete with gold, white and black chevron cake by Cherrytree Bakehouse. Dee noting, “The cake was fun and modern with yummy flavours like Salted Caramel.”
The bride handmade the favors for both weddings – a mix of Polish pickles and Bhuja mix!
Of their first dance, Dee tells, “The hardest decision was ‘what were we going to dance to’ something which wasn’t too slow, too fast and too cliché – we chose Quando Quando Quando by Michael Buble and Nelly Furtado as a modern version of a romantic song.”
“Speeches were kept minimal and light so there was more time to get on the dance floor. The sunset, indoor lighting and dancing was exactly how we wanted our night to finish – the dance floor kept breaking apart!”
Congratulations Dee & Rafal! Thank you for sharing your day with us! Thank you also to Elleni Toumpas Photography for sharing today’s wedding with us!
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