Real Wedding: Jade and Steve
Posted on
Saturday 26 August 2017
“Ours ultimately is not just a love story but one of growing up together, as most good love stories are.
We met on the second day of university, a fresh-faced 18-year old boy who thought that the girl with the cute American accent was not only way out of his league but also much older and more mature than he. Unbeknownst to him, she was equally fresh-faced at 19 years of age. It would be another 10 months of an agonising (non-romantic) friendship before he plucked up the courage to ask her out. Nine years of love and life later, we would get married but in the meantime, grow up together along the way.
From finishing university together, moving out for the first time, working our first full-time jobs, and becoming an uncle and aunty for the first time, there have not been many major life milestones we have not experienced together. Now hopefully, there won’t be any more that we don’t.”
THE PROPOSAL
I proposed right after finding out that we both passed our end of 3rd year medical school exams in 2013. I had first toyed with the idea of proposing earlier in the year, funnily enough because I got sick of calling her my girlfriend even though I knew that we were it for each other. I automatically knew which ring I’d wanted to get her; a few years prior in a completely non-engagement-related conversation, she’d shown me a ring that she was in love with from a jeweller in New York.
I started to make enquiries with that jeweller via email and matters just progressed naturally from there. The hardest part was keeping it secret; Jade has an uncanny ability to sniff these things out unintentionally. I tell her this is because she is a classic “sticky beak” which I first had to explain to her but a moniker which she has subsequently embraced. It was made doubly hard that year as I spent part of the year on a rural placement in Moruya, and I had to enlist the help of family and friends in regards to delivery and receiving of the ring itself.
I’d had the ring for maybe three weeks before I proposed. Originally, I’d thought about waiting till we were in Montreal in another month for an overseas medical placement. However, I was surprised at how much the ring felt like a hot potato – I just wanted to use it!
Therefore, when we got our exam results that afternoon I just decided to do it, completely unplanned and sort of making it up on the spot. Back when we were just friends, I used to walk her to her car in a uni carpark totally the opposite end of campus to me just so I could spend more time with her. For that reason, I thought that’d be a good place to propose (a carpark, romantic, right? Haha).
After getting our results we’d originally planned to go eat dinner in Civic to celebrate. I had to come up with some excuse to go back to my house where the ring was, at which point I needed to convince her to wait in the car while I quickly grabbed something I’d forgotten from my house (by now I’ve forgotten what the macguffin I’d come up with was). Then frantically I was using every red-light stop I could to buy time to think about how I could get us to that carpark. Eventually, I settled on forgetfulness at first before “coincidentally” driving past the carpark and suggesting that we stop in to re-live old memories haha. All throughout this process, Jade was getting more and angrier/annoyed as she was desperately starving and readily susceptible to “hangry-ness”.
When we parked in the car park she’d flat out refused to get out of the car as she was so hangry and couldn’t see why we were making this pointless detour, internally I was screaming in my head “My God just let me propose to you!”.
Eventually, I got her out of the car at which point she was almost in tears at the situation. Admittedly considering I’d almost brought her to tears, I was contemplating aborting the whole thing, but then she’d just be pissed at me for nothing! So I barrelled through and got down on one knee. Thankfully, the sad hangry tears then turned to ones of joy mixed with complete surprise and shock. The fact that I’d successfully kept it a surprise from her for a whole year is one that I remain proud of to this day.
GETTING READY
Both bridal parties got ready in their respective rooms in Hotel Realm. In addition to getting glammed/ groomed up, we were both last-minute finishing and transcribing our wedding vows (we only finished our first drafts around midnight, haha!).
THE DRESS
It was unexpectedly difficult to find a dress as I was looking for something more understated but classy, which was not a very popular style at the time.
After considerable online browsing, I came across this minimalist, contemporary and very elegant dress made by Badgley Mischka and ordered it online from BHLDN. With a bit of luck, it fit beautifully and required only a few alterations. It was not only stunning but also very comfortable (though unfortunately not very warm though for our winter wedding!).
The traditional Vietnamese red dress (ao dai) I wore for the tea ceremony was rented from Ceci Ao Dai in Sydney, who were absolutely wonderful and accommodating with same-day alterations.
THE CEREMONY AND RECEPTION
Our Vietnamese Tea Ceremony for close family members was held in our suite at Hotel Realm and our ceremony was held on the beautiful lawns of Pialligo Estate in the late winter afternoon and dinner reception within the elegant Pialligo Estate Farmhouse Restaurant.
After a round of wedding venue browsing, we ended up at Pialligo Estate which was a fairly new option at the time we booked (around February 2016). We were initially taken through the lovely Glasshouse and discussed the options.
Neither of us had actually ever been to the Farmhouse Restaurant before so we asked whether we could just have a look inside. Of course, they obliged, and as soon as we went past those glorious copper doors, we were in love. The warm wooden aesthetic, fireplaces, bar, kitchen… all of it just fit perfectly. We always wanted our wedding reception to feel like a cosy, classy house-party and the restaurant was perfect. We thought there was no harm in asking if we could have the reception in the restaurant itself, and our dreams came true when they said yes.
The other bittersweet part of this story is that our wedding was the first and last to take place in the newly renovated restaurant before the fire. The fire occurring so soon after our wedding made us reflect on how fortunate we felt to be able to celebrate our marriage in such a special and beautiful place.
HIGHLIGHTS
It was a jam-packed day from getting ready, going immediately into the Vietnamese Tea Ceremony, straight into our photo sessions and then to Pialligo Estate; however it was great fun throughout everything.
Our Tea Ceremony was intimate with our closest family members, and it was so lovely having everyone laughing and crowded in the single hotel suite room during the morning.
Our photography sessions from New Acton to the National Gallery were SO FUN, all because our photographer, James, was the absolute biggest legend. We are certainly not a cool vogue-posing couple and James totally rolled with that vibe, so most of our favourite photos are of us cracking jokes and laughing. He was so chill, a super joker, and an unflappable professional at what he did, and that was really appreciated through a super busy day.
The ceremony was beautiful and also hilarious, much of it due to our celebrant, Steven’s, great witty writing and delivery. There were lots of happy ugly blubbing-tears and my make-up held up like a champ.
Our reception was so warm and lovely, and the amazing food and drinks did not stop throughout the entire evening. Lauren, our florist and stylist, decorated the venue with stunning greenery and dainty fairy-lights hanging from the ceiling beams and elegant greens and candles across the tables, transforming an already beautiful setting into something truly magical.
There were plenty of memorable points during the reception: our DJ, Richie, dropped the best beats including the instant belt-out classic Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” which quickly evolved into an impromptu karaoke session with microphones and all, to an almost-medical emergency where bride, groom and many other guests had to jump into action.
It was overall a wonderful day and evening, and we look back on it now fondly (though we certainly don’t miss the lead-up craziness and stress!).
The absolute highlight for us and our guests was the food at the reception. Everyone was blown away – if we had one dollar for every “This is the best food we’ve ever had, especially at a wedding!”, it would’ve covered our entire honeymoon. We can’t thank Pialligo Estate and Chef Darren enough.
We also had a lot of lovely feedback from guests about how much they loved how our fantastic celebrant, Steven, told our story and led the beautiful ceremony.
ADVICE FOR FUTURE COUPLES
There was a bit of umming-and-aahing about our wedding invitations for a while. I initially wanted to design them myself but was so exhausted from work and studying that I was considering getting classy letter-pressed invites done instead to save time.
However, Steve really supported and encouraged me to draw, design and print our own unique invitations which ended up being a really enjoyable experience in the end.
They came out beautifully and will be lovely mementoes to look back on in the future. I don’t regret putting in the extra hours and always thank Steve for not giving up on me!
THE LITTLE DETAILS
PHOTOGRAPHER James (#1 LEGEND) from All Grown Up Weddings
CELEBRANT Steven Murray
BRIDE’S DRESS Badgley Mischka via BHLDN. Vietnamese ao dai from Ceci Ao Dai (Sydney).
BRIDE’S SHOES Nine West
BRIDEMAIDS’ DRESSES ASOS
GROOM’S SUIT Country Road
HAIR AND MAKEUP Captivate by Ellie
RECEPTION STYLIST Laurel and Lace
FLOWERS Laurel and Lace
CATERER Pialligo Estate Farmhouse Restaurant
CAKE Forty-Two Cakes
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