The very talented Alex Davies contacted Rock My Wedding a while back saying how much she liked our blog, we in turn said how much we liked her photography and so this beautiful wedding arrived in our inbox….

Oh how we love eye-candy mail!

Emily and Dung married at Thornton Manor in Chester this October and actually planned their wedding over in England all the way from Hong Kong, only arriving in the UK 8 days prior to the Big Day.

Emily and Dung incorporated both Western and Eastern cultures into their fantastic affair including a vibrant Vietnamese tea ceremony.

Emily has kindly provided this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Vietnamese_wedding which explains in detail about this tradition and she has also sent us a whole host of interesting planning detail that I will post amongst the images.

Over to the gorgeous bride:

Time For Tea

We really wanted to include a tea ceremony. It was partly traditional and partly included what we wanted to do. We use the East meets West theme by having the ‘western’ bride in traditional costume while the ‘eastern’ groom in a tuxedo.

My red dress, called an ‘ao dai’ in Vietnamese (pronounced Ow Yai) was made in Ho Chi minh city in Vietnam. It was chosen for its traditional red colour but also its simple style. They can be very ornate and I wanted one that was as simple as possible

Make-up and Hair

We had a really early start with all of us needing to be ready by 10.30 am for the tea ceremony. Amy Lewis came to the house at 6.30 and somehow was bright and smiling when the bridesmaids really still wanted to be in bed. She worked super fast and we were all looking beautiful and ready to go in plenty of time she made sure my make up was very natural.

For my hair I decided on a simple up do as needed to last for the whole day and felt it would look better with my very high necked ao dai.

The White Dress

I had my dress custom made here in Hong Kong by a local dressmaker. It was based on a dress that I tried on during one of my very first shopping trips back in the UK with my Mum. It had beautiful embroidery which gave it that real wedding feel but wasn’t so ornate/ big that I didn’t feel like myself in it.

Wedding Party Attire

We had matching black tuxedo style suits tailor made in Hong Kong for the groomsmen. The silk Bow ties and cummerbunds were made in China. For the tea ceremony, the boys wore electric blue bow tie and cummerbund which is a traditional wedding colour for the groomsmen to compliment the bright red of the bride. For the afternoon ceremony, the boys wore bright orange bow ties and cummerbund.

For the tea ceremony, the bridesmaids wore golden ‘Ao Dai’ made in Vietnam. We wanted to have a sense of east meets west so the bridesmaid wore traditional Vietnamese attire while the groomsmen wore tuxedo. For the afternoon ceremony, the bridesmaid wore deep green dresses. They chose the design themselves (they all had different ones made from the same material) and again we had them made in Hong Kong.

Choosing our Photographer

Our photographer was Alex Davies……she was brilliant. There from our very early start in the morning right through the day. All of her shots were truly beautiful and her reportage style was exactly what we were looking for. Many of the times we didn’t realise she was there to capture a moment or a shot and it wasn’t until we got the photos back we realised she seemed to be everywhere at once. Alex made us feel completely comfortable from the start so we were able to truly trust her. This allowed us to concentrate on enjoying our big day. Alex completely repaid our trust with her amazing photos.

We have plenty more amazing details coming up in part 2 of “East Meets West” so stay tuned!

Big Love

Charlotte xxx

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