JENNY + REGAN by Hellojanelee Photography - Together Journal

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you do, what you love, what is unique about you and your relationship:

Regan and I met over 17 years ago at a friend’s birthday party in high school. I definitely wasn’t looking for a boyfriend at 15 years old and I never imagined him becoming my husband. We’ve watched each other grow over the years and we’ve seen every version of ourselves in the process. I tell my friends that I’ve dated many guys before…all of them just happen to be Regan.

I work in Financial Services and Regan is an Architect. Completely different career paths however, we’ve been very fortunate that our jobs have led us to many opportunities in Sydney and abroad. We’ve spent the better half of our lives travelling together and we love a good adventure. We’ve gone through the pain of living apart while trying to maintain a long distance relationship followed by us moving in together when we both moved to London for a couple of years.

Two years ago, while travelling through Morocco, Regan proposed on our 15 year anniversary in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Despite the years we’ve been together, Regan was still a nervous wreck and myself a crying mess.

Tell us about your special day, was there a specific theme or style? Tell us a little about the setting, the styling, and some of your favourite details:

Our theme was ‘modern oriental’. A theme that would resonate with our parents and one which would also reflect the individuals we’ve become today. Regan and I both grew up in Asian immigrant families. I was born in Sydney and Regan in San Francisco. Both of our parents migrated to Sydney in the late 80’s and have since called Australia home. Despite us both barely being able to speak our own mother tongue, we’ve always been really proud of our cultural heritage and saw our wedding day as the perfect opportunity to pay homage to our traditional roots.

We planned our wedding on our own with the generous help of our friends and family. We spent months sourcing our own decorations and styling pieces, collaborated with our amazing vendors, created countless run sheets and floor plans and managed logistics up until the night before our big day.

For the reception, we worked closely with the restaurant manager at Mama Mulan to design a menu which suited our theme for the night. We integrated a ‘dumping station’ upon arrival which served freshly steamed dim sums and dumplings followed by a generous 10 course banquet meal which ensured everyone left with full bellies. To this day, we still have guests reminiscing the food from our wedding and this makes us eternally happy.

When we got engaged, Regan and I actually pictured ourselves running away and eloping as a way to continue fulfilling our love for travel however, we realised how integral our friends and family have been in our long-standing relationship. They’ve supported us through our ups and downs and have waited patiently for this day to come. For us, this was our opportunity to say thank you in return.

Tell us about your main outfits:

I wore a second-hand dress by Lover the Label. I remember seeing (and loving) the dress years before my own wedding and was reminded by my sister when I began searching. The dress was no longer in production so my only option was to buy second-hand which I was lucky enough to have found one online at stillwhite.com.au just 4 months before the wedding.

As for Regan, he rarely wears a suit for work so he took the opportunity to get a custom made suit for the day. He wore a bespoke tailored suit by Institchu and we made the decision to not reveal our outfits until the wedding day.

What were some of the most memorable/unique moments from the day?

We absolutely loved our wedding day however, the hiccups and the unexpected surprises made it that much more memorable. Some of our highlights were, Slipping into our traditional tea ceremony outfits and making our parents cry within seconds, slipping into our traditional tea ceremony outfits and making our parents cry within seconds, watching my dad slip on a t-shirt (on top of his formal suit) to prepare a roasted pig using a cleaver knife for our guests, Regan’s dad going AWOL and driving away in the car which was carrying all of the groomsmen and groom’s suits before the wedding ceremony, our bridal party going barefoot into a local lake for our location photos and almost slipping, our groomsmen recreating a scene from ‘Titanic’ (one of my favourite films) and entering the wedding reception in a handmade cardboard Titanic ship, finishing off the night at 1:00 am with a round of tequila shots with the bridal party and our remaining wedding guests.