A N N M A R I E & A D R I A N
{The Tea Room, Queen Victoria Building}
F R O M T H E B R I D E …
The Meeting…
Four years ago, I fell really ill and took some time off work for bed rest. I decided to pick up a new skill, intent on making sure my brain wasn’t too inactive – something radically and creatively different from my corporate marketing day job – and ended up choosing photography lessons on a whim. Adrian was the teacher assigned to me. We lasted roughly five lessons.
Love…
Embarrassingly we knew it was love quite early on. We used to spend my lessons laughing over everything; looking back I don’t think I learnt much during that period. Then suddenly Adrian had to go overseas touring with his band in the UK for an extended period and I found myself missing his company. I became unwell again around the time he returned and told him perhaps it was best we part ways as I didn’t want to be a burden to him. I don’t think he took me seriously though as he basically ignored my request and carried on where we left off, but to this day, in his own quiet way, he watches my health unassumingly, taking on the role of designated chef in our home so he could monitor my nutrition & wellbeing.
The Proposal…
We both knew quite early on we were going to spend the rest of our lives together; it was a matter of making it official with a wedding. Adrian sketched the ring design with our jeweller months before popping the question. He didn’t really have a plan, but deduced that anything too elaborate would alert me. He decided to propose the day he picked up the final design of the ring, over a quiet dinner at a little local French Bistro near his parent’s place.
Wedding Style…
Unstructured, whimsical, powered by joy and unadulterated fun – these were probably the ‘rules’ we kept close to. I wasn’t wild about the idea of a stressful wedding planning experience so we went about it with ease and grace. This really set the tone of the day and I ended loving the entire affair from start to finish. From day one I was excited about styling our wedding, workshopping ideas with our brilliant and talented vendors. We played with swatches of colour and settled on a palette of neutrals, berry and sangria reds, set against dusty and lush vibrant greens. This wild forest concept was carried through from my bridal bouquet, ceremony to the décor and styling of the reception venue.
Ceremony Venue…
St Mary’s, North Sydney
Wedding Reception…
The Tea Room, Queen Victoria Building
Pre-wedding Celebrations…
Yes! Our bridal party had travelled from various parts of the world to be with us and we wanted everyone to spend some quality with one another away from the larger crowd at our wedding. A few weeks prior to the big day, we hosted a ‘Bridal Party Party’, drank some awesome wine and feasted on gorgeously sumptuous Italian fare at Piato Restaurant, McMahon’s Point. It was such a beautiful way for everyone to reconnect away from the wedding planning flurry.
The Dress…
I ended up being a bit indulgent and wore the three gowns I had fallen in love with. As I would be wearing a flower crown, I decided to wear a simple, pared back fish tail gown to get married in at the church. At the reception I changed into a Venetian red floor length lace gown by Tadashi Shoji which was a nod to my Asian heritage and finally a creamy, floaty lace dress by Alice & Olivia to dance the night away in.
Bridesmaids…
This was probably my favourite part to style! Our 3 bridesmaids were very dear to me, I wanted them to look and feel as beautiful as they could on the day. After months of searching, we picked out matching pale blush high neck gowns with lace detailing. I wanted everyone to choose their own make up and hair so the girls individually briefed their stylists. To round out the look we arranged baby’s breath through the girls’ hair.
The Flowers…
The very brilliant and talented Sophie from Dusty Miller designed oversized bridal bouquets and flower crown consisting of a mix of cream and berry toned David Austen roses, peonies, dahlias set against berries, luscious ferns and foliage. It had a real rustic unstructured elegance which I really loved.
Decorations…
We were intent on creating a warm, inviting space for our guests. The QVB Tearooms encouraged us to personalise the ballroom and we decided to bring in a burst of rich florals and potent colour to juxtapose against the grandeur of the crystal chandeliers and gold detailed high ceilings. Our floral stylist and I worked off a palette of neutrals, creams with accents of warm reds and berry tones. This was all set against lush greens and foliage spread across the tables; we topped this all off with almost 300+ lace covered tealight jars positioned all around the room which added a rich, caramel glow to the overall ambience. We had guests commenting on how it felt like we had migrated to an enchanted forest into the ballroom!
And then finally because we didn’t want the whole affair to be too formal, we hired a slow motion video booth that became extremely popular on the night (and produced some hilarious results especially after a few drinks).
Wedding Photography…
Tom and Michelle from Thomas Stewart Photography are not only our favourite photographers but hands down two of our favourite people. We met them a few years ago and became fast friends; Adrian and I fell in love with their photographic aesthetic and style and often joked we’ll need to get married just so we could hire them.
Tom and Michelle are fun loving, hilarious, joy ‘cranked-up-ten-notches’ souls and have this innate ability to relax and lift everyone they meet. You can’t walk away from them without a wondrously big smile plastered on your face (and if not that, then you’re fighting a fit of giggles from their wicked sense of humour). I loved how our wedding photos was a documentation of raw emotion of the day, but also predominantly showed us laughing and giggling which is such a true representation of us and our loved ones.
Memorable Moments…
My father daughter dance with my dad set to Val Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl. My dad is one of those understated, unostentatiously quiet characters whom I thought would be very shy dancing with me in public; in the months prior I managed to gradually coax him into practicing. The funny thing was he was quite happy (perhaps equal parts of joyful fervour and good wine) by the time he came onto the dance floor, we ended making up our dance moves ad lib, which made for some awesome photos. My dad means the absolute world to me and hilariously chaotic as it was, it was such a precious moment.
Wedding Night…
We reserved a few rooms at the Hilton hotel Sydney which came in very handy as we danced until the early hours. Our guests and we could literally cross (read: exhaustedly stumble) the road for some hard earned rest eventually.
The Future…
After the hiatus with preparing for our own wedding, we can’t wait to jump back onto photography projects: I blog and photograph weddings and love stories over at annmarieyuen.com which I absolutely adore doing and can’t wait to immerse myself into client weddings again.
Photography Thomas Stewart Photography Ceremony Venue St Mary’s, North Sydney Reception Venue The Tea Room, Queen Victoria Building Bride’s Dresses Tadashi Shoji (red dress) + Alice & Olivia (floaty lace dress) Makeup + Hair Martha M of D Makeup Station Bridal Bouquet + Flower Crown Dusty Miller Floral Studio Reception and Table Settings Bianca’s Florist Master of Ceremonies MC Pro H.O, Voice for Hire Services
MW x