Victoria & Ryan's Dubai Wedding…

Victoria & Ryan got married legally on the 18th February 2014 and had their white wedding two days later. It’s pretty common to do that in Dubai, and really it’s kinda cool because you get to have two weddings… with two dresses 😉 They had a blessing and a wedding reception at One and Only Palm Jumeirah, which was executed by the bride perfectly. This thrifty bride made me smile when she got in touch a few months back to hand over all of her wedding accessories. I added large glass vases, gold glittery bottles and boxes of candles to my wedding inventory. I admired her skills for DIY and only wish more brides would do the same. Yes it’s hard work but it’s so personal… and fun too!
Their vision for the day was to ’embrace the Dubai climate & have fun’. So now, before I babble on too much it’s over to the bride…

My Lovely Accessories…
I love hats & knew Karen Hamilton would be able to make something to complete my outfits. Karen made some improvements to the sash on the Church dress as well as producing a matching hair slide and then created a small fascinator / veil piece for the Blessing dress. I didn’t want traditional looking wedding shoes and the spiked Christian Louboutin Shoes I found in SAKs were just perfect. The jewellery was a Small heart locket with a Bride & Groom inside, along with earrings & bracelet set from Les Nereides, London. Both of my rings were custom made in Lebanon and the rough diamond took almost a year to source.
Finding My Wedding Dress…
The Church dress was easy, I bought it online from BHLDN & it was love at first sight. Selecting a more traditional white dress was always going to be a challenge as I am not really a fan of wedding dresses. 13 shops (Sheffield, London & Dubai) and 70 fittings later I found something I was comfortable with and called it a day!

Groom’s Threads…
So much easier to arrange than the ladies! All of the outfits were purchased locally or online. Ryan got his Suit and shirt from Reiss. The Ushers bought their suits from Reiss  and teamed them with Sacoor Brothers Shirts.

The Planning process…
Lots of Pinterest & Etsy sourcing beforehand. Selecting the venue was easy as it’s our favourite hotel in Dubai, we then just let everything else fall into place over a 12 month period. Despite wanting to have everything organized by the end of 2013, we were still cutting out fans & confetti the night before the wedding.

My Details + Décor….
A Beach & Vintage feel, the décor was very simple and clean, we tried to match the location & setting for each area. We wanted dinner in the courtyard to feel intimate and the use of lots of candles created a really lovely atmosphere at dusk.

Budget…
Whilst I love spreadsheets, I soon got to the way of thinking that if I loved it, just buy it. We have a rough idea of the spend but stopped counting after the basics were covered.

The Cake…
We had a lovely sweet cake and also a & cheese wheel cake too. Both were made by the Hotel.

Our Honeymoon….
To be decided! We enjoyed planning the wedding so much that we’ve decided to throw ourselves into another project and renovate the house that we bought in Dubai, the honeymoon is currently on hold until that’s completed.

Favorite moments…
Both days were just amazing, we really enjoyed the church service with our immediate family and then it was a real treat to have a 2^nd day with more family and all of our closest friends for a bigger celebration. Watching the videos back for the first time was really emotional but we both agreed that the videos made our wedding.

Advice for other couples…
Give yourself as much time as possible and don’t panic if you can’t find what you need in the UAE. So many things are available online and we set up an Aramex shop & ship account for any items where UAE shipping was not possible. Lastly, we didn’t think we were that bothered about a wedding video but friends persuaded us otherwise and we were so grateful we went ahead with it as the videos absolutely made our wedding.

Credit for friends, family & suppliers…
Stationery:Hatty Pedder – Hatty produced the artwork for our ‘save the dates’, Wedding Invitation & Thankyou Cards. In addition to this, we now have an amazing set of artwork to frame for our new house 🙂
Photographer: Christophe Viseux
Videography: Goldfish Photography & Video – This super talented company produced 2 videos for us and we are still playing them over and over again.
Make-up: Angelique Turner – Angelique has done my Make Up for a number of special occasions and I was really pleased to have her involved in our wedding.
Hair: Samantha Goddard
Bridal Hairpiece: Karen Hamilton
DJ: Sister Rock – Ananda is a super fun DJ and did an amazing job for our evening reception. She also brought feather boas and tambourines with her much to the delight of our friends!
Graphic Design: JK Creative Design & Advertising LLC – Kenn did a great job in assisting us with our fan graphics, place name tag stickers and props for the Video Booth. The Polaroid Frame Cut Out was a huge success and looked brilliant in the photographs.
kenn@jkcreative-design.com
A final shout out to both Families for their amazing support and contributions towards making the wedding happen.
And just because I can… here is the gorgeous wedding video by Goldfish Photography & Video.

Victoria and Ryan from Goldfish Dubai on Vimeo.