Jade & Josh
I love the chic sense of glamour and Jade and Josh’s elegant modern Sydney wedding, and was smitten right from the first moment I laid eyes on Jade’s beautiful black and white ballgown. Jade and Josh chose Towards The Moon to capture their wedding day in all of its glory.
Jade and Josh tell us the story of how they came to be. “We used to work together in Sydney. Josh was one of Jade’s bosses and he went out of his way to make sure they could work together. After one Friday night out with the team, Josh walked Jade home and asked her out on a date for that weekend.
That was 6 years ago and many things have changed and happened in between that have made us who we are as a couple including some time apart, Josh moving to Hong Kong Kong, Jade getting us back together, Jade also moving to Hong Kong (a little later), living together in our Hong Kong shoe box of an apartment and Josh proposing to Jade in what Jade describes as a “very ordinary proposal” at a nice restaurant in Singapore. Now Jade is the boss.”
Jade wore two gowns, including her ceremony gown designed by Oleg Cassini . She remembers, “Because Josh had (actively) participated in choosing my second gown, I needed another dress to surprise him at the wedding ceremony. While in New York with my family, I tripped over a bridal boutique and (again) fell in love with the only dress I tried on because it made me feel like I was a fairy tale princess. Because it was so big and poufy, there was no way I could hide it from Josh in Hong Kong, so my family had to take it back to Sydney for me (it took up an entire suitcase).”
Jade’s bridesmaids chose their own gowns from Zimmermann and Vince Camuto. “We were going for a big party feel as we wanted a more informal relaxed atmosphere for the guests and for ourselves. As for the theme and style we didn’t really start out with any set ideas, but once I had the dress it naturally fell into place as I wanted my bridesmaids to have dresses they loved and picked themselves.”
The processional was played by Jade’s school fiend, the newlyweds remembering, “We chose Canon in D by Pachelbel – it was always one of Jade’s favourite classical pieces growing up. Jade’s childhood school friend was already playing the organ for us at the ceremony and when Jade saw that song on the list there was no question that that was the one.”
Jade and Josh chose the school chapel at Sceggs Darlinghurst for the ceremony, explaining, “It was really special and for Jade, a bit of a walk down memory lane. Her school friend (Nicola) played the organ for us and her school priest conducted the service in the chapel of Sceggs Darlinghurst. Given Jade had spent the entire 13 years of her school life there, the school had already seen a lot of her life achievements and it just made sense to celebrate our wedding there as well.
We were going for an intimate, relaxed service. It was relatively short and, as Josh calls it, ‘religion light’. We had one reading about love read by Josh’s godmother Liz (12: 1-2, 9-18). Initially only 9-18 but Liz decided to add 1-2 as James Middleton had done so for William and Kate.”
“Straight after the ceremony, we had drinks and canapés so guests could either relax and mingle there or choose to go their own way before the reception dinner. We also had free rein of the school grounds, so took a lot of pictures, both group and portrait, while we were there!”
Of their photographer, Jade and Josh remark, “Averie has this incredible eye for what will make a good shot and capturing the moment – that’s what attracted us to her photography when we booked her. Being a goofy couple, we were especially glad to have her instructions throughout the portrait shots. It was an especially genius idea for her to take us outside just before around sunset to capture even more amazing photos!
We had our portrait photos taken in the Botanical gardens and given it was a bright sunny day, the colours of the gardens and Jade’s dress just pop in all the photos. Given there is so much variety in the gardens it makes it feel like we went to 10 different locations. Averie also surrounds herself with an amazing team. Our second photographer Rachel was taking more candid shots during the day and it was great to have these contrasting shots. Kat was our photobooth operator and she was just pure fun and made sure everyone pulled out the funny faces and adorned all the silly props to capture some classic moments.”
For the reception, Jade changed into a stunning black and white Marchesa Notte gown, “I found the black and white Marchesa in Hong Kong while shopping in a department store. While it definitely wasn’t a typical wedding dress, it looked so glamorous that, even though I walked away from it initially, we came back and bought it the next day just because I couldn’t stop thinking about it! In retrospect it was an incredibly lucky find as the store only stocked the single dress.”
“Given our reception was at the Hyatt we knew it would be tastefully decorated and styled when it came to the table settings and room layout. As for the flowers we didn’t want to take anything away from the beauty of Jade’s dress so we went for natural stemmed white and cream rose bouquets with matching flowers for the bridesmaids and tables.”
Jade and Josh celebrated with their guests at Park Hyatt Sydney, telling, “We chose the Guest House in the Park Hyatt before deciding on anything else (including numbers, ceremony, etc), predominantly because of the location, the beauty of the Hotel itself and the amazing food and service that the Hyatt provides. It is a magical setting and the seating limitations (70 pax) meant we were focused on inviting only our closest friends and family. Ana, our events executive at the Hyatt was an absolute professional in organising the reception. She was able to answer all our questions, deal with any hiccups and make us both feel so comfortable that everything had been looked after. Ellie, our events leader on the night was incredible! Ellie was so nice and made all our friends and family feel so welcome.”
“Our favourite part of the wedding planning was probably seeing the execution of all the things we had organised over the past year (mostly from overseas) and watching everything come together so well. You hear horror stories of things going wrong at the last minute but we had none of that and the day itself was effortless, we just let the professionals do their jobs without pestering them.”
Andy Bowdy created a decadent wedding cake for the couple, Jade and Josh noting, “A special mention to our cake man Andy Bowdy. His cake was just ridiculous. It was a chocolate fudge cake with chocolate mousse, salted caramel, salted chocolate fudge, roasted peanuts, snickers and torched meringue. If you haven’t tried one of his cakes you are missing out. They are simply unadulterated goodness and not an ounce of fondant in sight. Luckily we had leftovers so got to repeat the cake coma.”
Of their first dance, Josh remembers, “We danced to ‘Thinking Out Loud’ by Ed Sheeran – not particularly original but an amazing song nonetheless. We chose to do a ceroc dance routine with spins and one or two lifts, after taking a couple of lessons back home in Hong Kong. Jade actually got cold feet just before we were going to do our first dance, so Josh pulled her outside the Guest House for a quick rehearsal – there we were in the corridor of the Hyatt practicing our spins and lifts!”
Congratulations on your marriage Jade and Josh! Thank you for sharing your day with us! Thank you also to Towards The Moon for sharing today’s celebrations with us.
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