Perth Woman heard about Troy and Mei’s beautiful and very original garden wedding, and loved the concept. For a different view we asked the groom to share his side of the story, revealing how they managed to plan a wedding from the other side of the world, and how it turned into an (almost) perfect day!
Planning a wedding. Who knew those three words could cause a grown man so much pain! The thought alone is enough to make me draw a deep sigh. Let alone, the consideration of planning a wedding when you’re vegans and greenies. I can already hear my dad complaining about 'rabbit food'… We half decided to do a "city hall special" but knew this would cause a lot more disappointment in our family. Who are we doing this for again?
We re-focused and decided to get back to the basics, concentrating on what we wanted, and why. Getting friends and family together was really what was most important to us. Weddings after all do end up being a pretty good excuse for a party! Second to that was our wish for a day that was very laid back, enjoyable and simple. Currently living abroad, this is one aspect of Australian life we especially miss. Finally, we decided when planning a wedding, there is no reason to compromise our values or beliefs. A wedding ceremony is the outward celebration of the relationship between two people, and a representation of your actions in the world.
Having been in Perth the year before, we decided to start by trying to organize the major aspects of the wedding like the venue and/or food, and the photographer, ourselves. Finding a venue for the ceremony was particularly exasperating. Our religious orientation is primarily Buddhist, which considers marriage a secular matter, so there was no automatic choice of ceremony venue like a church. My brother is a conservation scientist, and my sister-in-law is a landscape architect, and they had a beautiful and inspiring outdoor ceremony in Yallingup, near WA's Margaret River wine region. We decided to follow suit, with Hyde Park and King's Park on the top of our list.
As for reception, we found that there was a real shortage of quality venues in Perth - all of the nice ones were either booked out, or too large to accommodate our "small" wedding party of around 75. The pubs that greeted us with sticky, beer-soaked carpet and accompanying odors seemed to becoming a foreboding reality. Then we had the food to consider. Being vegans, Mei and I knew that we needed to find a first class chef who was up to the challenge of making vegetarian food that would challenge the bland steamed broccoli and carrot stick clichés that our guests no doubt held (at least one asked if they should "bring their own beef"). So we started to consider some of Perth's high end restaurants instead of the more traditional reception venues. Lamont's in East Perth was a natural choice, being one of Perth’s premier dining venues, as well as a leading winemaker. We challenged the head chef Nathan Le to come up with a delicious vegan menu destined to sate even the most hardened, blood-thirsty guests, to which he happily obliged. As we weren’t too fussed on having traditional decorations, Lamont's restaurant also provided an interior which was attractively fitted out in a stylish manner that was perfect for what we were after. Furthermore, Victoria Gardens Park is opposite the Claisebrook inlet from Lamont's meaning no transportation would be required from ceremony to reception, save a hundred footsteps. To add to this, the spiffy Sebel Residences Hotel is a little further up the inlet, perfect for out-of-town guests to stay, and for us to prepare beforehand. A plan had come together!
As I am not much of a sweet tooth, and Mei largely maintains that vegan deserts are "crap". We decided we wouldn’t have a cake. No cake. We'd just have deserts instead. Despite this decision, however, there was still a niggling feeling about not having a cake. People like cake, what kind of wedding party doesn't have cake!? Around that time we read about the wedding of Ellen DeGeneres and Australia's own Portia de Rossi. They had a completely vegan menu, including a vegan red velvet cake. The red velvet cake is a traditional southern U.S. recipe, and totally delicious. It also happens to be Mei's favourite kind of cake - done! My mum got in contact with my childhood neighbour, Ida McLeod, who is a cake diva. While she hadn't had much experience with vegan baking, and had never heard of a red velvet cake before, there was no need to underestimate the alchemistic skills of a seasoned baker - my Mum assured me the sample was godly.
Weddings are such a beautiful occasion, and often one of the few times you will get everybody you love into a single location. I think it's important that photographs help you re-live all of the magic the day. We wanted a photographer with a beautiful style and sense of artistry, but not by sacrificing in any way how people are represented through the photographs. And it helps if you find someone that will make you look good, right? Scouring the web turned up Samm Blake, and we knew immediately that we had found our photographer. Her photos are so beautiful and poetic, yet personal and touching.
Instead of a traditional bomboniere, an idea we had was to get an old-style photo booth machine in which guests could take silly photos as keepsakes. Samm had arranged one that would not only print out photos, but keep a digital copy for us. Unfortunately it was too bulky to get into Lamont's premises. Instead Samm offered to set up her signature photo booth, and promised she'd get the silliest side out of our guests.
Navigating the politics of buying a diamond ring can be tricky even if you haven't seen "Blood Diamond". We're both a little antique obsessed, so it was fitting to look for an antique or vintage engagement ring for Mei. I was lucky enough to find a stunning 1920s French Edwardian engagement ring at Marisa Perry in New York, on a weekend when Mei was out of town. You've all heard of the "four c's" when buying an engagement ring, but for antiques there is a fifth - "character". Character is what we're all about, and so is this ring. Leading up to the wedding, we waited it out, and eventually found another Edwardian style wedding band that was in keeping with Mei's engagement ring at Du Mont Estate Jewelry. For myself, we found a vintage ring, probably from the 50's at Doyle & Doyle. When buying antique or vintage rings, patience is key; you may not find what you like in your size and some styles of rings may not be suitable for resizing, but its well worth the wait if you can find what you're after. As a gift for Mei on the wedding day, I also found some Georgian Portuguese earrings at Doyle & Doyle; which are about 300 years old!
We were unable to find a vintage dress for Mei, so she settled on a beautiful dress designed by Claire Pettibone through Klienfeld in New York. My suit was from Duncan Quinn - an ex-corporate lawyer from London who decided New York needed a Saville Row alternative to boxy suits. My shoes are 'Pensador Browns' from Bourgeois Boheme, a "compassionate fashion boutique" operating out of London. They aim to "run with an ethical business model that aims to facilitate an attitude of compassion towards humans, animals and the environment" and as such produce high quality vegan wares that are also fair-trade, organic, and support the workers.
After settling on the major details, we knew we'd need some local assistance for the rest, and we didn't want our family running around on the day setting up furniture. We found Jenn Veza of the Original Wedding Company, who is completely dedicated to helping you create your own original wedding in your own style. For the flowers, we wanted to get flowers that were local, native species to W.A., and within season. We didn't want the table arrangements to go to waste - we wanted the guests to take them home, and another requirement was that they don't interfere with cross-table-conversations! Again, we were looking for something stylish but simple. Jenn arranged Flowers by Michelle to supply the flowers. To decorate the chairs at the ceremony, Jenn sourced some olive branches from her neighbour; you can't get much more local than that!
And then there were the invitations to consider! Oh my word! The choice was astounding- multi-layered, multi-colored, multi-faceted, multi-dimensional, some with bows, some with bells, some with lace (probably made from elf hair or something), some beautiful, and many just garish. After some painstaking sessions in paper joints, (often with me contributing little more than drool and a vacant expression) we decided to strip it back. We got the cheapest recycled card we could find, used a classic font, and stuck a picture of a hot-air balloon on it - signifying our travels and our return home to Perth. I mean, it just ends up stuck on the fridge under the shopping list, right? Anyway, people seemed to like it. What was not covered on the invite was covered on the website we created, where people could R.S.V.P. Along with their response, we asked guests to pick a song to be part of the playlist on the day. For the seating cards, we simply bought some more recycled card, bought some stamps of 1920's style silhouettes, and made our own.
As part of the website, we set up a 'give registry'. Getting married as a 30-something couple, we are already very established, we have everything we need. We're not big on consumerism, and we were adamant *not* to cart anything back with us to New York. We recognized that an important part of a wedding celebration is for guests to generously give, so we aimed to funnel some of that goodwill into charities that would benefit far greater from this generosity than we would by having yet-another-salad-bowl. We picked four charities that covered various areas so that guests could pick something that appealed to them, but also meant something to us. For human rights issues, we chose Oxfam's "Close the Gap" program, aiming to improve the quality of health care for Indigenous Australians. For environmental issues, we chose the Australian Wildlife Conservancy which aims to conserve threatened wildlife and ecosystems. For animal welfare, we chose Animals Australia who have been an important organization at the forefront of protecting animals' rights. For public health, we chose Diabetes WA who provide important education programs and provide assistance to research programs.
On the day things went perfectly... mostly. First thing in the morning, Flowers by Michelle dropped off the lovely button holes and corsages to me at the hotel and Mei's bouquet which was absolutely splendid was delivered to her. Samm picked me up shortly thereafter to head around and collect Mei from her Mum's house, and do our location shots. Trying to get a shot of my surprise as Mei came down the stairs of her Mum's house yielded a different expression as Mei fell down the steps. Now that is an important tip people, place sand down the bottom of your shoes! After recovering from my heart palpitations, we had great fun taking shots in and around Perth and Northbridge. Samm then dropped us back at the hotel for a breather before the ceremony.
Not long after I walked down to the ceremony area to wait for everyone else. The setup for the wedding ceremony was lovely, and it was clear Jenn had everything under control and there was nothing I needed to even think about. Mei headed down later arm-in-arm with her father, followed by Ben and Jeff playing guitar. Our celebrant was Barbara Walton who helped develop a touching ceremony that was meaningful to us. My brother made a short speech, including an endearing reading from the letters of artist Vincent Van Gogh. Ben and Jeff played a great acoustic rendition of Depeche Mode's "Somebody", and saw out the ceremony with "Divinity" by Amorphous Androgenous (a.k.a. The Future Sound of London).
After the ceremony, we took some photos with family around Victoria Gardens while guests made their way over the bridge to Lamont's to enjoy canapés and drinks, which were obviously very pleasing telling from the rate they were vanishing! For the seating chart, we had set up an antique typewriter to hold the table placements, and people delighted in the campy seating cards we had created. The flowers on the tables were beautiful, situated in nice, raw, wooden boxes. The guests were chuffed to take home these lovely arrangements. Samm's photo booth was an absolute blast. Guests had a great time playing around in front of the camera, and we have such brilliant photos from it. The food that Nathan and the Lamont's crew had whipped up was fantastic, some guests seeming genuinely surprised at how much they could enjoy a completely vegetarian meal. I received many gushing reviews. The wine was up to Lamont's reputation (well apparently, I don't drink) and the service was absolutely first class. I'm always one for some vegetarian humor, and thanked Nathan in my speech for producing such a great meal without the use of any animal flesh, milk, ovulations, vomit or semen. My auntie shrieking "I should hope not!" still reverberates in my head. At least it wasn't the best man making the most inappropriate speech for a change. I was very grateful that with all this, we managed to raise some good funds for our charities. And the cake? Wow, it really was amazing and impossibly even tastier than it was beautiful. After a great day, we headed back around to the hotel where the revelry, dancing and partying continued. The day was total success, I couldn't have been happier with how everything went (save for my speech), and I feel indebted to the vendors for all being such artisans in their respective fields.
We enjoyed a brief honeymoon at Hidden Valley Forest Retreat in the Margaret River wine region, south of Perth. It was absolute bliss. Spending three days in the bush was a perfect remedy from the wedding, and all the relatives!
Vendors:
http://sammblake.com/
http://lamonts.com.au/
http://originalwedding.com.au/
http://flowersbymichelle.com.au/
http://yourhiddenvalley.com/
http://duncanquinn.com/
http://clairepettibone.com/
http://kleinfeldbridal.com/
http://bboheme.com/
http://doyledoyle.com/
http://dumontestatejewelry.com/
http://marisaperry.com/
http://www.perthweddings.com.au/ (Barbara Walton)
Ben Sherridan & Jeff Ramage - http://twelve.net.au/
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