From schoolmates to soulmates, this perfect pair wed amongst the beautiful shores of Bali. And when the Bride just so happens to be the creative force behind Jonquilla Decor, you know it’s bound to be good. Think elegance meets ease, with fuschia, Legos and lace sprinkled in along the way. Want even more? Andry “Dre” Sander Of Axioo has it all waiting for you here!
From Jonquilla Decor… Who would have thought that once a schoolmate would be a soulmate? Nathania and Ryan met when they were in High School, but Ryan was the senior in the school and Nathania was just a new student. To Nathania, Ryan was that arrogant, loud and obnoxious guy while to him, she was nerdy. After multiple lost and found contact, they decided to meet for a casual lunch at a Japanese restaurant in Jakarta and part of the chase was he going to Bali to see her seven days later. The rest was now a beautiful history.
From the beautiful Bride… I have always wanted an outdoor and casual affair, rather than a ballroom reception. Living in Bali, the event stylist of Jonquilla Decor & Florist, and working among people who are in the wedding industries is a total advantage for us. It makes the planning process went so much faster and smoother as we received a lot of recommendations and tips from each vendor. I chose fuschia and lime green as my color and I wanted wood and glass elements and no-frill centerpiece as the dinner was served family style.
When I was traveling to San Francisco, I managed to look for bridal gown. I had a specific model that I wanted but when I tried it on, it did not “wow” me. Suddenly the shop assistant showed me a beautiful ivory of previous season’s Alvina Valenta gown with a key hole on the back and after putting it on, I knew it had to be my wedding gown. It was a strapless mermaid style gown, perfect for a beach side wedding.
Finding the perfect venue was the initial challenge. With a lot of families from both of our sides, we wanted a big space without the feeling of too grandeur (ballrooms were definitely crossed out from the start). Besides, a wedding in Bali meant vacation for most of our guests who flew in from out of town and country. After searching high and low for the perfect venue, we put our heart in W Retreat – Seminyak, The Starfish Bloo restaurant to be exact . The beach view was perfect, the atmosphere was fresh and the interior was new, funky and chic. The most important thing for Ryan was the food. He is big when it comes to yummy food and he wanted that the guests were served with good food. On the day of our wedding dinner, the food was mouth-watering. We had the perfect fusion of Asian and Western food and the guests said that the dishes were absolutely fantastic.
I thought wedding was all tiring and busy, turned out the pace was slower than we thought before. I had the time in the morning to do my own wedding bouquet of roses, spray roses, carnations, and cymbidium orchid and finished it just in time just before Paul, my make up artist, came and started my make up and hair do.
I was raised Catholic and I wanted to get married in a Catholic church. Thankfully Ryan and his family were agreeable and understanding. The Cathedral of Holy Spirit (or Gereja Katedral Roh Kudus) has a unique architecture of blending the Balinese design and European style. The exterior was a red brick wall, which was typical of Balinese temples and houses and our date was available. One of the Priests who officiated the ceremony was a family friend whom we felt very close with.
When it came to selecting the wedding party, it was sort of a rule in our family that only the unmarried can become the bridesmaid ( and I was the only left single girl in my circle). So I picked my sister to be my Maid of Honor. Ryan’s Junior College’s friend, Jack, was his Best Man. We wanted a slightly unconventional matrimony so instead of the usual church choir, we had a saxophonist, a singer and a guitarist to sing in our church.
We also did follow some traditions of a Peranakan Chinese wedding. Peranakan means “descendants”, so we observed some of the Chinese tradition, for example a Chinese Tea Ceremony. Instead of my father gives me away to a marriage, Ryan picked me up at my house with a hand bouquet. My grandmother told me that in the olden days it symbolized the respect the groom had to give for the bride’s family before marrying the daughter. We also followed loosely a part of Javanese tradition where Ryan was showered with flower petals, coins, and yellow rice grain before entering my house in the morning to symbolize prosperity that he is bringing to the new family.
After months of planning the wedding decorations, of course while in the middle of planning other couples’ weddings, I delegated the job to Deasy, my partner at Jonquilla Decor. I wanted to enjoy my day as a bride so I handed over all things I had done to her about a month before and trusted her. Deasy was not only handled all logistics well, she understood what I wanted immediately and mesmerized us with the creative touch for our wedding. My best friend,Wita, was a great help too. She designed our wedding invitation and the rest of the wedding stationery, and later wrote down all the escort cards two days before the D-day.
The guests arrived for the cocktail reception by the lawn overlooking at the Indian Ocean at 5pm. It was bright and sunny the entire day, so when the sun set, the scenery was truly breathtaking. A lot of our guests took the opportunity to watch the beautiful sunset while savoring the small bites and sip our favorite cocktail selections specially mixed by the bartenders at W Retreat for our wedding. Guests could walk around and saw the display of our engagement shots, as well as our parents’ and grandparents’ wedding pictures.
Growing up in the 90s and listening to music in that era, we wanted a list of songs that express love from that period of time. So we picked several music for the acoustic band to play, and we put a little card for our guests to request songs to play and our wedding planner helped to collect those cards to pass it on to the band to play. So we got songs like Lee Ann Rimes’ “I need you” and Ronan Keating’s “When You Say Nothing At All”.
Ryan’s sister and my sister gave a lovely speech describing how we were their best friends ever since childhood and complimented how perfect Ryan and I are for each other. We were so happy that a lot of our relatives came in for the wedding and friends who live abroad came to celebrate the day with us. It was the wedding that we both dreamed of, a simple and intimate celebration, surrounded by our closest.
Approaching the end of the reception, we danced to the tune of Elton John’s “The Way You Look Tonight”. It was a song we picked together that brought us to the memory of our first dinner at that Japanese restaurant. Soon we were joined by our friends and our best man led a “Yam Seng” Toast.
Photography: Axioo Bali | Cinematography : Wedding In Motion (WIMO) | Wedding Dress: JLM Couture, Inc | Stationery: Wita Puspita Design | Reception Venue: W Retreat Bali | Bridesmaids' Dresses: Dessy Collection By Vivian Diamond | Makeup & Hair: Make Up By Paul | Florist & Decorator: Flora Botanica Designs | Wedding Organizer: Bali Chemistry Wedding