Whimsical Wonderland Weddings readers Oni and Adrian found their amazing wedding photographer, the lovely Gemma via WWW, so I’m super excited to share their gorgeous wedding with you today.

Oni and Adrian were married in April at the stunning Iscoyd Park in Shropshire. They wanted to lend part of their day to their Chinese backgrounds, with a beautiful Chinese tea ceremony, followed by a Civil Ceremony.

Oni had not one but three amazing dresses, and she looked oh so beautiful… i love her red lip. Using a palette of purple, aqua and berry they crafted some beautiful details… loving the pom poms :-)

Thanks so much to Gemma Williams Photography for sharing her beautiful imagery with us today, here is what she had to say about the day;

“When I saw that Oni & Adrian had come across me on Whimsical Wonderland Weddings, I was really excited as I knew their wedding was going to be fantastic! With their traditional Chinese twist to the day, and with those three dresses (all of which were stunning), the day certainly was amazing from beginning to end. It was really interesting to learn about Chinese wedding traditions too, and to be able to photograph these meaningful moments. Oni & Adrian had thought of lots of personal touches and details to make it really special, and the sun even made an appearance for much of the day. Iscoyd Park is also a beautiful venue to shoot weddings at, with everything designed to be perfect. Oni and Adrian are such a lovely couple, it was a real pleasure to be a part of their wedding (and my second shooter Clare West was fabulous too!). Huge congrats to the happy couple xxx”

Names…. Oni & Adrian

Wedding Date…. 5th April 2012

The Proposal…. It was our third year anniversary and he planned a day trip for us. He didn’t tell me where we were going. He drove us to Leeds castle in Kent for the day and then onto our favourite Michelin star restaurant Chez Bruce in the evening. I remembered it was a starry night and he insisted on walking home along the common (park). He then proposed there and then under the stars.

The Vision for the day…. We’re both Chinese but are very westernised and preferred not to go down the route of a traditional Chinese wedding which is normally a 12 course banquet which is pretty much all about eating! Chinese banquets can be great with lots of delicious food but it wasn’t really for us. From our experiences after the meals there’s not much to do. There’s no dancing or a disco. We both love a good knees up so an english style wedding suited us better. Although, much of the wedding was english styled we wanted to do something that represents our roots. So, we had a Chinese tea ceremony at the Iscoyd followed by the civil ceremony afterwards. Then we had a sit down meal.

The Planning process…. It was a year of planning, as soon as I got engaged I started getting myself super organised from that
moment. I had spreadsheets, mood boards, calendar, scrap book and a journal to keep me organised! My biggest helper was the spreadsheet which I used religiously to keep track of my budget and spending. We went to see all the venues we liked the sound of and did it all in one hit – actually all within 1 weekend when I was back home up north.

The Venue… We fell in love with the Grade 2 Georgian house – Iscoyd Park in Shropshire. It is a stunning country house just on the border of Mid Wales and England. There’s a nice history to the house too – it is still privately own by the same family through many generations. Iscoyd have recently been renovated and have only been released to the public as a wedding venue. The decor was not ancient and stuffy unlike many country house/stately homes in the country. There was a good balance between the old and the new. There were original features such as oil canvas paintings and old fireplaces but there were elements of the new – contemporary features like rolled top bath in the luxurious bedrooms, newly built ceremony room (which turns into the dancing room) and the marquee. The gardens were beautiful and were amazing. Being out in the countryside it was nice and
quiet. No traffic and no noise.

The Dress + Accessories….. Dress: Lusan Mandongus. I bought a pair of open toes shoes with diamantes from Benjamin Adams; I even bought blue ‘I do’ rhinestone’ which I stuck to the bottom of my shoes to complete the feet attire. I bought a gorgeous pair of tear drop earrings from Emily Louise Accessories. My necklace and bracket were gifts given to me by my aunt and Adrian’s aunt. My hair comb was from http://www.chelseadollbridal.co.uk/.

Finding the dress…. It was the last bridal shop I went to called Teokath and they just had the most amazing selection of dresses. After trying 20 dress from previous shops I instantly knew I loved the Lusan Mandongus dresses as they are so feminine, romantic and just exquisite! The style fitted to my petite figure perfectly.The staff at Teokath were so helpful and I built a great relationship with my seamstress who did a wonderful job altering my dress for me. I tried on my wedding dress (the Paola) and the detailing was second to none. The dress was ivory and had a lot of beaded but the most striking feature was the delicate beading from the back of the dress all the way down to the train. The beading along the back was stunning and since most people would be
seeing the back of me walking up the aisle it really stood out! My dress have a gorgeous layer of french lace underneath which was so beautiful.

Groom’s attire… Groomswear were from IndoChino – made to measure individually.

The Readings + Music…. We had a non-religious civil ceremony and we my sister (chief bridesmaid) and one of Adrian’s oldest friend ‘Tommy’ doing the readings. My sister Tracey read ‘On your wedding Day’ by an anonymous author. Tommy read a very sweet A Lovely Love Story by Edward Monkton.

We had a string trio playing before, during and after the ceremony. I walked down the aisle to Pachelbel Cannon in D. A mixture of classical and modern music was played by the string trio including Take That ‘The Greatest Day’ and ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole.

Beautiful bridesmaids….. My younger sister Tracey and my cousin Kit.

The Flowers… The flowers were put together by the in-house florist. There was a mixture of purple, pink, white, yellow and green foliage. The bouquets for myself and the bridesmaid were made up of roses (Rose Ocean song, Deep water, Akito and Aqua, freesia and Limonium). The groomsmen and dads had a Green Tea rose as button holes. The centre pieces were Allium purple with Cool water roses in glass vases filled up with water with the flowers just peaking over the surface of the water.

The Cake… We had cupcakes and a top tier cutting cake. The cakes were made by a local cake maker ‘Simply Love Cupcakes’ who bakes the cakes in her farmhouse kitchen. We love the fact that she uses free range eggs from her own chickens. The cupcakes were sponge in 2 flavours – Lemon and Vanilla. I didn’t want a typical giant cupcake as the cutting cake and saw a design of a sponge cake with rose shaped piping and asked my cake maker to recreate this.

Your Photographer…. Gemma Williams

The Details + Decor…. The theme – my favourite colour is purple and although many of parts of the wedding were purple I didn’t want Adrian to feel overwhelmed with it all. And that it’s not too girly for him! So, I used a palette of purple, berry and aqua. I created the table numbers and menus using the same design as the wedding invites. Each table was numbered after an iconic place that we’ve visited e.g. Sydney, Maldives, New York etc. I bought plain place cards from ebay and individually wrote all the names on them. And I accessorised the place cards with heart shaped gems bought from ebay. Adrian and I have a special place card each at our table with the words ‘Bride’ and ‘Groom’. I downloaded the templates from this wonderful website: http://www.weddingchicks.com I made the table plan by buying an A1 mount board and cards. I used the gems I’ve bought from ebay and decorated the table plan with them. On the tables were scattered with purple and clear table gems bought from ebay. Also, I recycled the extra wedding invites we had left over by punching heart shapes out of them and using them as table confetti! I set up a sweet station for guests. We filled jars with Australian sweets such as ‘RedSkins’ and ‘Jaffas’ to honour Adrian’s heritage (a born and bred Aussie). At the station we had 2 large vintage photo frames filled with photos of us growing up and of our engagement photos taken in Sydney and the UK. I spent hours the night before with my friends making paper pom poms from tissue paper and hanging them in the marquee – the inspiration taken from Martha Stewart Wedding website. We didn’t want a standard guest book so instead we asked guests to write their messages on gift tags attached with a ribbon, which are then hung on a jewellery tree stand.

The Honeymoon…. Italy – we took a short break on the Amalfi Coast which was stunning. We went to Sorrento, Ravello, Positano, Capri and Pompeii. We had a perfect situated room facing the sea on one side and the Italian
mountains on the other.

Memorable moments… Wearing 3 dresses on the day! A traditional red ‘Kwa Qun’ (a two-piece red Chinese bridal dress with
intricate beadings of dragons and phoenix) for the tea ceremony, the ivory bridal gown for the civil ceremony, and then a red ‘Cheongsam’ (a long fitted dress with a high collar) for the evening. Plus, seeing my dad showing off his wacky dad moves on the dance floor, joined by the rest of my uncles! Highly amusing but embarrassing to watch!

Advice for other couples… Savour each moment and take some time out with just you and your hubby. The day passes by beforeyou know it. If you can afford it I would recommend a second photographer. This is available in Gemma Williams’s photography package – we had Clare following Adrian and it’s those moments that are just as precious such as him getting ready, practising his speech and watching him watch me walking down the aisle.

Credit where credit is due…

Templates – The Wedding Chicks
Groomswear - Indo Chino
Hair comb – Chelseadoll Bridal
My dress – Lusan Mandongus
Earrings – Emily Louise
Bridesmaid dresses – JJS House
Cupcakes – Simply Love Cupcakes

Thanks so much to Oni and Adrian for sharing their beautiful wedding with us today. Are you planning a multicultural wedding? XOXO Lou

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