Real Wedding – Michelle & Luke, Melbourne VIC
Michelle and Luke wanted a wedding reception that captured the essence of an elegant, at-home dinner party; a warm atmosphere, delicious fare and free-flowing conversation.
Their decision making centered the guest experience, focusing time and attention on the floorplan and of the flow of the event. Sentimental musical performances and an interactive audio guest book courtesy of Off the Hook were among the many memorable moments.
The hero of their moody, romantic aesthetic was statement blooms by the creative minds at Anatomy of Flowers, spanning a stunning gradient from deep red to burgundy and blush.
Explore all the beauty and emotion of their long-awaited union, which featured three bridal outfits and two moving ceremonies, all captured in one epic gallery by the team at Why So Generic? (who are anything but!).
The meeting.
We met on Tinder in 2016 while we were both studying for exams. We went on many dates until I asked when it would be official. Luke said, Um, on Thursday?’ The date was December 1, really easy to remember and keep track of anniversaries!
The ‘one’.
From the time we started chatting, things just flowed naturally, and we didn’t have to try hard to make it work. We both have similar hobbies and interests, and got along with each other’s friends. We integrated quite deeply into each other’s families, so it’s funny to remember there was a time when we didn’t exist in old family memories.
The proposal.
It was around the six-year mark, and I (Michelle) was driving home from work on a Sunday, thinking about how we’d been together for a while. Being engaged wouldn’t have changed much, but my Grandparents were coming to visit from Vietnam, and since they were getting older, I thought it’d be nice for them to attend an engagement party while they’re here. When I came home and brought it up to Luke, he said sure, but also asked ‘will you regret not having a surprise?’, after tossing back and forth between the fun of a surprise and the benefits of designing the ring together, we went with no surprise and had our first consultation at Oval & Pear the following weekend.
Planning process.
When it came to picking a date, we considered a few things – round numbers, even numbers, the weather, the wedding season and off-peak prices. We originally booked a different venue with Nudo Events for earlier in the year, but then saw they opened a new venue, The Trust. We went to have a peek and loved the architecture of the building so much that we moved to The Trust. The new date marked our eight-year anniversary together, and in Michelle’s culture, the number eight is very lucky.
Over time, we realised that vendors can only do so much depending on how much you communicate with them. The planning involved mock-ups, drawings, mood boards, and presentations for the venue and vendors. It felt easier to describe what we didn’t like rather than what we did like. For family and friends, there was a ‘holy binder’ with all the details about the wedding, so no one would ask Michelle on the day. There’s only so much you can do leading up to your big day, so we planned as much as we could, and we were mentally ready to accept that if something was to go wrong on the day, we just had to let it go.
When planning our wedding, we wanted to make sure our guests had a good time, but also that the wedding reflected us as a couple. We visited the venue, took photos, and considered the flow of the event, rearranging floor plans multiple times.
The food selection was really important to us as we both love to host and both love to eat. We’d chosen to go with Refresh Catering (Nudo), the tasting was delicious, and they were flexible with alterations to the menu.
Michelle’s the first in her generation to get married in Australia, so reading through blogs really answered a lot of questions on wedding traditions from different cultures, roles within a wedding, why are there so many parties? Ones that focused on real weddings really reiterated that the wedding day is about you, pick what you want and do what you want.
Style inspiration.
The style of our wedding centred on the feeling of a late-night dinner party – the warmth of being in a home, having guests over and enjoying food together. Our moodboard involved many deep reds and burgundys with blush and muted pinks to transition from dark roses to the white of the dress. Candlelight and strikes of gold brought in the warmth we were looking for, and the green added a lush and fresh feeling.
The ceremony.
We had two ceremonies: a traditional Vietnamese tea ceremony on the Saturday and your typical white wedding dress ceremony on the Sunday. It was really important to me (Michelle) that traditions of my family culture were continued and passed down to the next generation. Luke and his family were so welcoming to the idea of a tea ceremony. The procession included the bridal party carrying gifts from the couple’s new house to her mother’s house next door, signifying the union of the families through lighting candles and serving tea to the elders to show respect.
On the Sunday, we opted to do a first look, orchestrated by our photographer, followed by a trip on the tram with the bridal party to Kudo Bakery, a place Luke had been meaning to bring Michelle to visit. We spent some alone time as soon-to-be husband and wife, doing a first look of the venue and reading our vows to each other privately. We got all of the tears out of the way as much as we could. We’re both introverts and prefer to stay away from the attention, so spending time together beforehand really helped.
We connected a lot through music, and it became really important to us. Michelle’s been studying music from since she was a little girl and all the way through university. When we first started dating, we’d go see the orchestra together, so we made the decision to have the Invictus String Quartet involved in our ceremony. Our special moment was watching them perform Amore mio aiutami and taking a moment to sit in the reality of our wedding. We wanted to share the love we have for music and having their performance really made our ceremony feel like us. We commissioned them to play a few of our favourites including pieces from Michelle’s favourite films, Pride and Prejudice (2005) and Barbie’s Princess and The Pauper.
We asked both our mothers to be our witnesses, two women who spent so much time with both of us and have done so much for us.
The outfits.
The wedding attire was designed by Michelle’s uncle as a gift, which led to two trips to Vietnam and many fittings. Everything flew back with us in our suitcases three months before the wedding. We initially had no idea what style we liked. Michelle went to multiple wedding boutiques with the bridal party to try and understand more about what she wanted. She’s always been a bit self-conscious about certain looks on her, particularly spaghetti straps and strapless, but to her surprise, the strapless options really worked. The wedding dress brief was: A-line, flowy, more structured fabric, but still a soft look with a veil. The reception dress was to be non-white, short, and possibly consist of a big bow. The tea ceremony dress we left for her uncle to design so he came back with options to choose from and we got measured on our first trip to Vietnam and did a fitting in the second trip.
If you ever consider getting your dress made overseas, there’s a lot of trust and mental prep required. It’s a weird process, trusting a dress to show-up exactly as pictured in the drawing.
Our traditional clothes were the Vietnamese traditional Ao Dai and designs were based-off imperial wedding attire. The detailed embroidery was hand-stitched, and one of our favourite elements was Luke’s tassel.
The groom’s attire was left to her uncle’s choice. Two suits, one black and one off-white in the same fabric as the bride’s wedding dress. These came with different collared white shirts, matching vests, waistbands belts and CongTri signature buttons. Safe to say that our uncle was really excited for this occasion, he offered to make the bride another outfit. We are very grateful to have been blessed with our uncle’s generosity.
Favourite moment.
Luke: The private vows.
Michelle: The quartet’s performance during the ceremony.
Meaning of marriage.
Marriage means celebrating that you found someone who knows and understands you – a best friend who’s there with you along the ups and downs of life.
Wedding soundtrack.
Aisle: Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy & Stars and Butterflies from Pride and Prejudice 2005
Ceremony performance: Amore mio aiutami by Piero Piccioni
Signing songs: If You Love Me for Me from Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper & Bewitched by Laufey
Walk back: Love by Nat Cole King
Reception entry: Silver Scrapes by Danny McCarthy
First dance songs: Le Festin by Cami le from Ratatoui le
Last dance: Die with a Smile by Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga
Funny stories/near disasters.
Two weeks before the wedding, we had just settled into our new home right next door to Michelle’s mum’s place. We had Luke’s brother cut a path through the back fence between the houses and moved A LOT of furniture over to make space for the tea ceremony. Would not recommend settling a house and moving furniture a week before the wedding. We really leaned on our friends and family for support, something we will always be grateful for.
During the rehearsal, two weeks before the wedding, the heel of Michelle’s wedding shoes broke, so leading up to the wedding day, she bought a new pair and brought nine pairs of shoes to the hotel just in case.
Planning surprises.
Luke was taken by surprise by how much planning there was and how many decisions needed to be made. Michelle was surprised by how much strain wedding planning can put on your relationships, including your relationship with yourself, but also how much your relationship with your partner will grow if they’re involved in the process.
Words of wisdom.
Is it worth the money? For us, yes. This is completely up to you, your personality, and what you value. We love to entertain and host, we love to eat and want everyone to have a good time. There have been times where we considered using the money to travel instead but we thought of how much it would’ve meant to our families and also our future family. Looking back now, it was really nice to celebrate our love, as tacky as that may sound, and we learnt to appreciate each other more.
Should I do an unplugged ceremony? We’re divided on this, Luke says yes to unplugged, Michelle says no with certain conditions. We did have an unplugged ceremon,y and we didn’t have a videographer for a full video. Honestly, the whole time walking down and standing up there, we just had our eyes on each other. One of our relatives didn’t understand the no phones situation entirely, and from the front row, he filmed the performance and a lot of other parts of the ceremony, like the signing. Watching it back, we really loved seeing everything from someone else’s perspective and kind of wish we had more. We wish we had more recordings of the performances from the quartet and videos of us in general. So, assuming your guests are respectful to a certain degree, I think having their phones out for photos and videos is alright.
Other quick advice:
● Trust your gut instinct. If you don’t want something, don’t do it.
● Involve your family more, extended family too, they’re excited too (only if you get along).
● Have the ceremony space in the same space as the reception; it’s so much easier.
● Don’t have the bridal party walk down the aisle, save the money on the bouquets.
● You don’t have to have a dance party if you don’t dance. Do karaoke like we did!
MICHELLE & LUKE’S SUPPLIERS:
Ceremony & reception venue: The Trust Melbourne
Celebrant: Marry Me Mantle – Alex was absolutely fantastic, so easy to work with, informative and clear. Everything was so smooth and very little things to stress about when it came to the legalities.
Photography & videography: Why So Generic – We’ve used Brandon for multiple shoots now, he shot our engagement photos, our engagement party photos, and now our wedding photos. He brings the vibes, understands the drama, cuts the crap and gets the job done.
Styling: The Goodsmiths – Olivia was great, so patient with our modifications and her mock-ups really met our vision.
Florist: Anatomy of Flowers – Followed the brief wonderfully, it was a very specific brief and all the flowers were beautiful. We got so many compliments from everyone.
Hair: Hair by Jenn Chan – Really helpful and informative, taught all the ladies how to put the veil in and take it out. Great vibes, so good at what she does and great to chat to.
Make-up: Jane Kingsavanh Makeup Artist – Absolutely blessing. The trial is so important, and she wrote out every single product that was used, the shade and now my make-up bag is full of these items. She was also so lovely to chat to and was so open to teaching people about make-up.
Suits and dresses (tea ceremony, wedding ceremony and reception) & veil: Congtri
Shoes:
Tram trip shoes: Twoobs
Red ceremony shoes: Congtri
Wedding ceremony shoes: Atmos & Here
Reception shoes: Charles & Keith
Party shoes: Alohas
Rings:
Luke & Michelle’s engagement ring and Michelle’s wedding band: Oval & Pear
Luke’s wedding band the couple made together in Japan: Mitubaci
Accessories: The wedding earrings were Swarovski shells with pearls. Michelle’s always been one to wear pearls and Luke would buy her shell accessories because of her name.
Catering: Nudo
Vake & favours: Luke’s mother
Entertainment: Invictus Quartet – The best part of our wedding, during the ceremony and cocktail hour. We wish we had more time with them. They are the sweetest people and so professional. We are so honoured to have them perform at our wedding.
DJ Frnkie – Frankie was our MC and DJ for the night. So easy-going and open to changing plans. He has a diverse range of music and was really adaptable on the night. Even though he was ready with a set, he saw that everyone was enjoying karaoke and let it go on rather than playing the set. We really appreciate him keeping up the vibes and looking out for us on the night as well.
Karaoke hire: Melbourne Karaoke Hire
Audio Guestbook: Off The Hook
Minimoon: Daylesford
