I come from a Greek/Lebanese family and Jamie has South African heritage so when it came time to plan our wedding, we did all the things that are traditional for our families, such as a church wedding and speeches, as well as Lebanese drummers who had the whole crowd jumping, but we put our own twist on other things.
We had our bridal table in the middle of the room with lots of guests besides our bridal party. We had a pink champagne tower instead of a cake, and our first dance, which was to Drake’s ‘One Dance’, wasn’t just the two of us, it was everybody on the dance floor together. The greatest thing we did was to hand over the styling and most of the finer details to specialists. We hired an incredible mix of people based on their aesthetic and had no input on the finer details and honestly, everything went to plan! And anyway, if something did go wrong, we didn’t know about it, so we were truly relaxed on the day. The theme was “Tropical Gay Bar with a dash of Dolce and Gabbana”. I still don’t know exactly what that means but our stylist totally nailed it! My dress was by Lover but I had sleeves added to it from a second dress and we used the excess fabric for the flower girls’ outfits. It ended up being exactly what I had envisioned for my wedding gown, despite having to buy two dresses, and my little flower girls looked pretty much perfect. Jamie and I dated for eight months and then were engaged for eight months before we married. We met at university and were part of a larger group of friends but it wasn’t until we really connected one night at a friend’s birthday that we started dating. (He didn’t think that first “catch up” was a date, but I did!) Jamie is calm and I am a bulldozer but we have amazing communication and are friends first over anything else so it just works. We are both designers — I work in magazines and Jamie works in digital. We both love the same things, except I hate sport and he loves it. Although we are both creatives and appreciate the same things, it’s our opposing traits of calmness versus strong will that make us a great partnership. A beautiful moment rounding out our wedding was when we received our photos from the photographers, they were amazing and it instantly took me back to the magic of that day. Being married is more than just being together, it’s sharing everything and communicating everything. We are basically one entity now and that is a wonderful feeling.
Photography – Damien Milan and Anastasia | Suits – MJ Bale | Bride’s Dress – Lover, with alterations | Bridesmaids Dresses – Bianca Spender | Ceremony Location – St Michael’s Cathedral, Darlington | Celebrant – Father Gerges | White Earrings – Ranjana Khan | Diamond Hoops – Melissa Harris | Styling & Flora – Dani Butchart at The Make Haus | Bride’s Shoes – Florsheim | Reception Venue – Ivy Sunroom | Hair – Sandy Farac at Hairbible | Makeup – Fern Madden | Groom’s Shoes – Vintage Tom Ford | Catering – Merivale Weddings | Special Song – ‘One Dance’ by Drake | Rings – Melissa Harris |