After returning from her fabulous honeymoon in Peru, my stunning bride Kimberly has shared with me some pictures of her recent wedding. She chose the 1950s style wedding dress "Ava" by Silver Sixpence but wanted a splash of colour so the contrasting sash and bodice inserts are in hot pink with an ivory duchess silk satin gown.
Kim & Milans story:
"Milan and I met in 2001 at work while going to university. After a few months of hanging out with our mutual work friends, we found ourselves alone as we had separated from the people who we were out with and that night we shared our first kiss. From then on that was it - we were together and it has been that way ever since. We are two quite different people who share some common bonds - mainly our sense of humor, our love of family and our unwavering wish for each other to be happy and to make each other happy. Of course, in the tradition that now holds much of our generation, we made a 30 year commitment before making the life long one - we bought a house together in 2006."
The proposal:
"There was never any question that we would some day marry, but Milan knew it had to feel like the right time (we don't want to rush into these things afterall :-) ). About midway through 2009 Milan started asking for hard details about the type of engagement ring I might like. After researching diamonds, he had decided that they were a good investment (I wise choice I might add, and very much the way to sell diamonds to a man...rather than for women where the "oh, it is just so pretty" thing works everytime!). Because Milan is not very good at hiding anything from me (a good trait in a husband, really), I knew almost every step of the way what was happening with my engagement ring-to-be. The real wait and the real surprise, however, was when he proposed. I knew that it was coming as he had become very quite on the ring front. After a couple of months I was growing a little impatient so started to say things like "It can't be on my birthday" and "Don't do it on Christmas day or New Years day" - he only said that it will some time that year. Milan took me for weekends away, romantic dinners, seemingly weekend after weekend...but still nothing. Then one night in December, smack bang in between my birthday and christmas, we went out for a lovely dinner and a walk along the waterfront at Kangaroo Point - still nothing! As we arrived home that night, I went ahead to open our front door while Milan locked the car. When I turned around to see where Milan was, he was behind me with a bunch of red roses, on bended knee with the ring in his hand. He said that he had thought about all the places that he could ask for may hand in marriage and decided that the only place that seemed right was the house in which we have shared our lives so far and the place that we would make our own family in the future. We married on 2 July 2011, 4 days short of being together for 10 years."
Kim is a gorgeous tall girl so there were no need for high heels - she chose a pair of really cute hot pink ballet flats in the same colour as the contrast details of her gown. They originally had larger bows which weren't too great so she removed those and replaced them with cute smaller bows.
I just love this picture! The good wife guide was a present from Kim's sister-in-law for her bridal shower as a joke and she had placed it on her bookshelf without even thinking that it was right next to a rolling pin!! Her photographer had a great sense of humour and couldn't help but snap the retro style book next to all of the kitchen bits and pieces!
Instead of having bridesmaids, Kim had two Maids of Honour and as a gift for them she made up boxes which contained some little gifts for them along with their shoes, jewellery, faux fur stoles and clutches for the day. One thing that she included, that they were appreciative of, were a pair of those little fold up ballet flats to fit in their clutches for later on in the evening (such a smart idea!). Kim also attached a tag with a message for each of them on the back.
The couple were lucky enough to have a fantastic photography package through Bonbon Photography where they captured the entire lead up to the wedding including all of her gown fittings with me and all of the other aspects of planning their wedding. This is such a great idea to not only have a momento of the wedding day but all of the special elements leading up to the day.
Instead of a guest book at the reception, the couple provided the guests with pieces of card and had the MC asked everyone to write a special message, then pop it into the wishing well. Since their photographer was there through the entire reception taking photos of all of the guests, they are then going to use these messages and scrapbook them with the photos of the guest/s who wrote them. "For us, our wedding was not just about us but also the memory of sharing our special day with our family and close friends."
The bridesmaids wore gowns by Alfred Angelo purchased from Brides by the Bay. The great thing about this line of dresses is that they have a maternity fit so that both of her bridesmaids, including one who was 8 months pregnant, could wear the same dress.
Kim & Milan's ceremony was held at the Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens - what a lovely location for photos!
In keeping with the 1950s style wedding dress, Kim's veil was a fun short flyaway veil (also created by Silver Sixpence).
On the invitations, Kim & Milan requested that each guest also RSVP with their favourite song to dance to (as they really wanted people to get up and dance at the reception). With these requests, they then formulated a playlist that incorporated their favourite party songs along with their guests - it also gave the couple a great excuse to drag people onto the dancefloor if they were not already there - "but this is your song!" Everyone had a ball and everyone got up to dance at least once! I think this is such a brilliant idea!!
The flowers, created by Jada Flowers, were hot pink tulips and added a little splash of fun.
Kim's art deco inspired rings were custom made by Jon Crosbie Jeweller, located in Mount Gravatt - such a gorgeous bridal set!!
I just love the old world glamour hairstyle of Kimberly's which was done by her very talented mother (if only we all had mums who could do our hair like that!!!)
Kim and Milan chose self drive London Taxi's by A Golden Roller.
The bonbonniere were gorgeous little brides and grooms by Kate Aspen that were filled with personalised candy from Candy Addictions - a Maleny based candy company.
The fantastic cake was made by the brides mum - how talented is she!?!?!... I love the detail of the pink bow to match the sash of the brides gown!!
The bride made all the menus and invitations herself (I love a crafty bride!!) Her very creative sister-in-law helped her design and create them and she got the paper, card and ribbon from the Paper Warehouse online.
The wishing well was from My Big Event and decorated by the bride with excess material from dresses and ribbons from menus and table decorations.
The couple incorporated some of Milan's Serbian culture to the wedding with traditional plum brandy (slivovitz) and also dancing the kolo (Serbian cirle dance) at the reception - all the guests got into it and had a lot of fun!
Photographer: Bonbon Photography / Reception Venue: Emporium Hotel / Brides gown & veil: Silver Sixpence / Brides hair & cake: Brides mum / Vintage car: A Golden Roller / Ceremony location: Mt Cooth-tha Botanical Gardens, Wedding Lawn 2 / Wishing Well: My Big Event / Bonbonniere: Kate Aspen & Candy Addictions / Make up: Reflections of Elegance / Flowers: Jada Flowers / Bridesmaids dresses: Alfred Angelo through Brides by the Bay / Rings: Jon Crosbie Jewellers / Invitations & Menus: created by the bride and papers through Paper Warehouse