Elegant and simple. Two words the bride used to describe her wedding day, and two words we overwhelmingly agree with. But I have a few more to add. Breathtaking. Permagrin inducing. Butterflies in the stomach beautiful. Modern but soft. And phenomenal. The entire wedding, as seen by 39 East Photography, is awe-inspiring and gorgeous. The ENITRE wedding.
Click here to see the entire soiree in the full gallery!
Sam and I met in London in our first year of university while I was visiting my friend who studied there. It was an instant attraction and we bonded quickly over a bottle of wine. It was four and a half years of long distance relationship before Sam finally decided to pop the question. Sam had just arrived in Singapore and decided the best time to ask me to marry him was that night itself. He was very nervous and didn’t realize that I was in the middle of changing when he got down on one knee and presented the ring to me. The first thing that came out of his mouth while I stared at him in front of me was: “Shoot I didn’t know you were changing!”
At that moment my Jack Russell Terrier stormed into the room, excited to see Sam, and began jumping at his face, trying to lick him. So I was in the middle of changing, my dog eagerly smothering him, when Sam (with his head tilted back to dodge the licking) asked: “Will…you…marry…mee?” And I cried “No! I mean yes! No Jackie! (my dog) Yes!”.
When we started planning our wedding, we wanted to be able to have a blank canvas to create an intimate and personal wedding. When we saw Monu, a completely empty space with glass windows, black floor, and white beams, we knew we had found an amazing venue.
We love elegant and simple. Even though we didn’t decide on a black and ivory theme from early on, as the journey progressed black and ivory quickly became the dominant colors. We wanted to make our wedding special and got involved in every aspect of the planning. Our wedding planner, Caroline, made the whole preparation easier and enjoyable because she understood exactly the style that we like. We also took inspiration from our story together e.g. paper airplanes represented our long-distance relationship and the amount of traveling we did to see each other.
Traveling has always been an important part of our relationship, and we incorporated that not only through the paper airplanes, but also through the table names (inspired from the cities that we have vacationed to together). Since we made our own save the date video, we wanted to make sure the invitation was special, too. The idea was that the invitation itself could become a souvenir from our wedding day. It was special because it was a family collaboration to design the invitation. We even sewed the binding ourselves!
Our wedding favor was cake in a jar. We wanted something that seemed home-made and personal, presented elegantly. Caroline introduced us to a very talented pastry chef who created the beautiful and delicious chocolate cake in a jar. Caroline then incorporated the color theme into the favors by tying black and ivory ribbons on them. The ribbons also held the wooden spoon in place. We then designed a simple tag and attached a comical quote on it.
On the wedding day, I remember arriving at the church and seeing my dad and four bridesmaids standing outside the door. I thought they all looked so beautiful and I felt so happy that I could share our special day with the people I love. It was very quiet and everyone was a little emotional because at that moment we all realized that this was it!
According to Sam, “the most vivid memory for me must be the moment I saw Stef (my bride!) and her father walk around the corner, ready to enter the church. My heart must’ve skipped a beat and I was very emotional. I had to joke with my best man to keep my composure. Everything was beautiful, everything was perfect.”
Photography: Aloysius Lim, 39 East Photography / Flowers: C.C. Lee / Wedding Planning: The Wedding Stylist / Venue: Monu / Catering + Drinks: Marmalade / Dessert bar: Antoinette / Bridal + Evening Gowns: Love, Yu / Hair + Makeup: Joanna Koh / Groom’s Suit: Kingsmen