Hana and Yudy’s DIY Yarra Valley Winery Wedding

Hana and Yudy

Yudy and I met at church in November 2011, and whilst it was definitely not love at first sight, we believe we were supposed to be together. It was my Mum who actually thought we would be a cute couple. So she cooked every single day whilst she was holidaying with me – and continually invited Yudy for lunch! Our feelings towards each other began to grow from friendship towards partnership – and we have become closer every day since then. Huge thanks to my Mum, she is a real life cupid!

We traveled across Victoria – from west to east and from north to south  – to find the perfect winery for our wedding. Finally we found a beautiful Yarra Valley vineyard, The Riverstone Estate which sits on top of a hill.

It was like falling in love at first sight when I saw my lace mermaid gown at Raffaele Ciuca.  I was surprised how beautifully the design suited my petite shape.

My hair and make up, as well as my bridesmaids’, was done by the talented Felicia Sarwono and her team.

The boys, on the other hand, got themselves ready!

The result was just perfect – I loved how the groomsmen and bridesmaids looked!

We decided to have a rustic yet elegant theme for the wedding, with white flowers and fresh green foliage as our floral theme. And I loved the idea of having white dresses for my bridesmaids with white flowers and a bit of a pop of magenta in their bouquets! The colour combination was amazing – full credit goes to the talented Rhiannon from Flower Jar.

Yudy and I had planned our wedding for one year; we had plenty of time to find vendors and worked on every little thing we wanted to have on our wedding day. The day I finished making the rundown list for the wedding, I showed Yudy our Plan A and Plan B in case of rain, as most of our celebrations would take place outside.  Yudy rejected Plan B and believed that we would be blessed with the best weather on the day. So there was no Plan B at all!

One week prior to our wedding, I kept checking the weather and hoping our day would turn out as we wanted it to be. The day before we had our last practice at the venue with our families and it was indeed very windy and cold. I was getting worried!

The weather on our wedding day though was perfect. The afternoon was still and warm, whilst the evening temperature was so pleasant that our guests could still celebrate in our ‘Hangout Area’.

Yudy is a graphic designer, so he created our wedding logo and made himself a lapel pin from it too!  He designed the logo based on Bible verse “and the two will become one flesh”. Our monogram consisted of our first initials, Y and H, which he blended and layered together to form one.

Yudy and his groomsmen’s summery bowties were purchased from Etsy. 

Yudy also designed and made our wedding invitation and ordered a custom-made wax stamp too!

Our ringer bearer box was a DIY project made from a leather notebook.

The ceremony was held outside, with the beautiful winery as our backdrop.  Our very own pastor Jonathan Pattiasina performed the ceremony, in the presence of 100 of our closest family and friends.

We had a rustic arch decorated with white flowers and foliage to follow our wedding theme.  I changed my mind about the floral decoration a few times and Rhiannon from Flower Jar was very patient; she listed to my dreams and in the end turned them into reality.  I could have not asked for a better florist, seriously!

With the sound of a baby grand piano in the background, Hana and her bridal party walked down the picturesque aisle.

Our DIY  “Mr and Mrs” sign was also created by Yudy.

Instead of having our cocktails inside, we celebrated outside next to our marquee in a space we called ‘The Hangout Area’.

My reception dress was by Rachel Gilbert.

Yudy designed more signage for our reception; we wanted our guests to enjoy every moment and to talk to each other, so we made some rustic signs for them!

As we had quite a few children attending as guests, we came up with the idea to build a ‘bowling alley’ for them using hay bale stacks and pumpkins.

Our guest book was a photo frame with little heart-shaped paper cards for our guests to write messages on.

For our favours, we bought milk bottles from ebay and candle wax from our local candle shop – and we made our own candles! From melting the wax to pouring it into the bottles it was a long process, particularly as we were novices! In the end though, they turned out to be so pretty  – particularly with our rose gold logo on the front!

For our table number holders, we bought inexpensive animal figures from the local ‘$2 shop’ and sprayed them gold to match our colour theme.

Our delicious red velvet cake from Cake D’liciouz was decorated with flowers from Flower Jar.

Our first dance was to ‘Forever Mine’ by Marcia Hines. It is a slow beat love song, but Yudy and I added a few contemporary moves to it!

During our reception, Yudy and I made a quick run outside to capture the last moments of a sunset photoshoot; the result was simply amazing!

I made an important speech as I had an amazing story to share. Yudy has stuttered for 30 years. He is a leader of small church community and finds it difficult to read out loud when he is asked to lead and preach. He has given up a few times because he could not speak well.  Yudy has a dream to be a public speaker one day. I see myself standing next to him when it happens..

Our photographs were taken by the talented Todd Hunter McGaw. Yudy’s standard for photography is pretty high, as he is so into photography himself. We saw Todd’s work and we knew he was the one who was going to capture all our beautiful moments.  And he did!

Ms Chinoiserie Says: What a heartfelt wedding Hana and Yudy – I love your inclusion of all the creative, DIY pieces – particularly the ‘bowling alley’ for the kids!

About Hana: Hi! I’m Hana, and I recently married my best friend in the beautiful Yarra Valley in Victoria. Our wedding was a beautiful DIY celebration; my graphic designer husband created our own logo and included the design on pins, stationery, favours – and all of our decorations!