Anyone that knows me, KNOWS how I feel about Hello Kitty. Translation: I LOVE HELLO KITTY. So clearly, this wedding is my new absolute favorite, kawaii to the core. With Natasha Hurley Photography behind the lens capturing every culturally significant detail paired with elegant whimsy to the max, we’ve got it all waiting for you to favorite via The Vault!
From Natasha Hurley Photography… I am thrilled to share this beautiful and heartfelt wedding set in The Queen’s House in Greenwich, London. The day maintained Chinese traditions whilst also incorporating an elegant, classical English wedding feel. The couple opted for a Tea Ceremony in the morning (prior to which there were ‘games’ which had been dreamed up by the bridesmaids and which the groom and his groomsmen had to pass before being allowed to see the bride). After the Tea Ceremony the bride and groom tied the knot in the opulent Queen’s House with its black and white tiled floor and classical columns. The couple included summer English garden games for guests during the drinks reception and a gumball machine with lucky dip toys which also doubled up as favors. The bride decorated the gardens of the Queen’s House with giant tea-cups and saucers as seating. The bride wore a beautiful full length gown and cathedral veil for the ceremony changing into traditional Chinese dress for the Tea ceremonies and toasts in the evening.
From The Bride…We envisaged a very classic, traditional and elegant wedding with subtle hints expressing our playful personalities set our home of London.
One of the reasons we chose The Queens House as our venue was because we fell for the beautiful architecture from the black and white marble flooring to columns outside to the history of the building it definitely was a classical setting. We are really lucky to have such a beautiful, charming venue local to us, it was the perfect location in Greenwich Park with a view of the River Thames. In terms of color I particularly love the blush pinks and wanted to keep it quite neutral but also adding touches of gold and black to give it a slight hint of a luxury feel and sophistication.
Origami Heart Wishes – My brother is very creative, I gave him a sample of an origami heart I really liked and wanted to incorporate into the wedding as as wish for our guests to write on so we could keep forever. After a few days he changed the design to suit what we wanted, made a batch and taught all my aunties, uncles and cousin’s how to make them. It was a fun session with all my family and 6 hours later 250 gold and pink origami hearts were made, thank you to all my family!
I have a big love for flowers and have always had an idea of what I wanted my bouquet to look like – blush color tones with my favorite flowers and natural looking. My wedding planner (Mark Tilley from Palette) and I had our initial meet and he understood exactly what my thoughts were, we looked through my pinterest boards and it was confirmed that my bouquet would consist of blush peonies, blush and sand colored roses and white turning green hydrangeas that I would use as my substitute for foliage. The first time I saw my bouquet, it was a feeling of love for the most perfect union of flowers and admiration for Mark. The bouquet was much bigger than I anticipated but I secretly loved that it was.
The 1st time I ever tried on a wedding gown, it was the Alcanar by Pronovias. Lace, simple, strapless with a small sweetheart neckline, princess cut that was light, fluffy and had a big train. It was everything I wanted & when I put it on it made my maid of honor Leekim cry. I spent another 6 months trying on lots of other dresses in all designs, shapes and materials which were all stunning but nothing compared to that vey 1st dress. So it was decided with a matching veil and pearl covered peep toe Gina’s, a pair of simple rose gold diamond drop earrings I would walk down the aisle in the Alcanar gown.
We wanted something different, something unique and we spent a long time brainstorming lots of ideas. We wanted something for our guests to associate with us, with the wedding, with happily ever after as after all that is what a wedding is all about. We hired a giant gumball machine and put this outside the orangery in the garden where the string quartet was playing classic Disney songs with everyone singing the words off by heart. We had made personalized tokens for each guest with their name on and put it on their seats. After the ceremony they could then use the token to redeem a giant gumball. Once you received one and popped it open, out came a Disney Tsum Tsum with a little personalized thank you card from us. Along with the Disney music in the background and with the Disney Tsum Tsum it was a little bit of magical surprise and happily ever after for everyone.
I was initially unsure with how I wanted the cake to look as there are sooo many amazing cakes out there especially after visiting all the wedding exhibitions and seeing all the displays, the cakes were simply out of this world. I did lots of research and of course put together a pinterest board with designs, colors, and details I liked about each cake. I met with Maria-Antonia from Villa Dolce who advised me from her experience what would work best. I then took what I liked out of each cake on my pinterest and sketched them onto a bit of paper, it was an all white 5 layer cake. Our logo on the middle layer with beading, lace detailing, and ribbon on all other layers. On the day the cake was decorated with flowers matching my bouquet and cutting into the cake revealed a yummy bright red velvet flavored sponge.
Photography: Natasha Hurley | Cinematography: I Wedding Visuals | Wedding Dress: Pronovias | Cake: Villa Dolce | Bride's Shoes: Gina | Bridesmaids' Dresses: Bespoke (made In Hong Kong) | Catering: Palette Events | Hair + Makeup: Julie Cooper | Groom's Attire: Dress 2 Kill | Groomsmen Attire: Burberry | Venue: The Queen's House, Greenwich | Event Planning + Floral Design: Palette Events | Tea Ceremony Venue: Ardoe House Hotel