We’ve come to discover here at PDW that low-key doesn’t necessarily mean your wedding day doesn’t look lush and exquisite. Just take Amani & Mark’s elegant city wedding at Glasshaus for example. As Amani explains, “We wanted a low-key, simple, intimate wedding that was also beautiful. We didn’t have a theme; we just knew we didn’t want all the bells and whistles. We wanted the atmosphere to be relaxed, natural, warm, simple, and modern. That’s why we went with Glasshaus, the lush green of all the plants and florals provided the perfect backdrop for our simple yet beautiful day.” Amani remembers how she and Mark fell in love, and all about their stunning wedding day – captured by Chloe May…

Mark is from London and was travelling through Melbourne, on holiday, when we met, in the summer of 2016. We had our first date at a rum bar, which I chose, and unbeknownst to me he was a rum enthusiast. We talked into the early hours of the morning, and this continued daily, long after he had returned to London. What we thought was a chance and fleeting moment turned into forever, when Mark decided to move to Australia a few months later. The rest is history!

Our original wedding date was set for 2020 and was planned to be in Bali, but COVID had other plans. With family abroad and border closures, we had to cancel our original wedding plans and didn’t think about it again for 2 years.

In June 2022 we decided that we wanted to have a simple wedding and set a date for 5 months later: 11 November 2022. So yes, we planned our entire wedding in 5 months – what were we thinking?! We are still not sure how we did it all, but we did haha! And the day came together as planned.

For the ceremony, Mark wore a custom-made, black, double-breasted tuxedo, by InStitchu. Being really tall, off-the-rack options aren’t as accessible, so custom was the way to go. The suit was divine, and he looked so handsome.
For the reception, he changed into a forest green dinner jacket, with a paisley print and satin lapels. The jacket was purchased from Soho Workshop and complimented my fringed reception gown.

I found my ceremony dress at The Bridal Atelier. I chose the “Caterina Gown” an off-the-shoulder balloon-sleeved dress by Australian designer Love Honor Bridal. With only 5 months to plan this wedding, my time to dress hunt was incredibly limited (with most dresses requiring 6+ months lead time). I only had one dress-buying session and that was with the Bridal Atelier. Like most, I was quite anxious about trying dresses, and the added time pressure didn’t help, but The Bridal Atelier made the process easy. It was perhaps a blessing not to have the extra time to be confused by endless choices.

We decided not to have a wedding party. It meant that people were free to assist us on the day, and could enjoy the day with us, without all the traditional formalities. It worked out really well and we don’t regret it at all.

There are too many incredibly memorable moments to count, but a detail that we and our guests loved was our beautiful floral arrangement for the ceremony. Paul from Glasshaus did all our flowers – we advised him that we wanted the ceremony backdrop to be comprised of white flowers and to be unique with a touch of whimsy, we left the creative direction entirely to him. The ceremony itself was the first time Mark and I saw his creation and we were blown away; it was truly unique and more than we could have imagined.

As Glasshaus is a plant nursery by day, we did have to do all the planning to fill the space. We didn’t DIY as such, but we did have to engage all the separate vendors for the day. One of the things we did DIY was our guestbook table, where we displayed pictures of our parents on their respective wedding days. This was to honour the commitments and journeys that have come before us and paved the way to who we are now – our parents loved it.

I was walked down the aisle by my mum and brother, to “How Deep is Your Love” by PJ Morton & Alex Isley, from “The Piano Album” – we are big fans of PJ Morton and when he released a piano version of this song, we knew it was the one. After we were pronounced husband and wife, we walked back up the aisle to “As” by Stevie Wonder, a favourite.

We loved seeing our mums in their cultural clothing – I am of Sri Lankan background and Mark, West African (Nigerian and Sierra Leonian), so it was special to see our union reflected in our families too.

The ceremony was conducted by celebrant extraordinaire Zee Scott, it was really important for us to be married by someone, like us, with a diverse ethnic background. Zee also happens to be from London, and through the planning process we found out she was born in the same hospital as Mark – it was fate! Zee brought a piece of Mark’s home to our ceremony, and she was a joy!

As we wanted it to be intimate, we only had 30 people at our ceremony, with more guests joining later in the evening, for the cocktail reception. During the ceremony, we had two readings, a bible verse, Ephesians 4: 2-3, and a poem by Rumi titled “A Moment of Happiness.” Instead of reading vows, we exchanged them in letter form – we read these the following morning and it felt like an extension of our wedding day, in the most special way.

To continue the relaxed intimate atmosphere, we had a cocktail-style reception, catered by Essential Catering. For seating, we had various cocktail-style tables, chairs, and couches sourced from Dann Event Hire. The cocktail setting allowed us to roam and mingle with all our guests and set the relaxed warm vibe we wanted – it also meant anywhere and everywhere was a dancefloor!

Less is more for us, so we didn’t do a choreographed number for our first dance. Instead, we did a lil two-step to “Find Someone Like You” by Snoh Aalegra.

I purchased my reception dress online, from Net-A-Porter, I wore the 60’s style “Mambo fringed dress”, by designer Taller Marmo. I love this dress, it was, glamourous, comfortable, and flowy, and captured my style and vibe perfectly.

Having our families together again was so special. After being separated due to the pandemic, for 2+ years it was so lovely having both of our families in the same country to celebrate our day. The pandemic made everything feel so uncertain, so having the day finally arrive was surreal and exciting and we are still riding the newlywed high!

Thank you to Amani & Mark for sharing their stunning day, and to Chloe May for the incredible images!