This stylish London couple originating from Australia and Turkey managed to combine their passion for contemporary art and architecture as well as their love for the beach and their heritages by having a truly stunning coastal ceremony at Casa Dell’Arte Hotel in Bodrum, Turkey. Surrounded by modern sculptures as well as hanging lanterns, gold details, and THE MOST beautiful fuchsia pink floral arch and blooms, making it one utterly divine destination weddings in the sun. I am particularly taken with Bride Pru's bridal look. Mixing the most delicate lace Carolina Herrera.com gown with an intricate gold Jennifer Behr headpiece and killer Nicholas Kirkwood heels. And not forgetting her statement pink lipstick. Her groom Oner looks pretty dapper too in a suit designed by himself, as do her maids in neutral dresses designed to complement their personal style. With so many more delicious details designed & crafted by this gorgeous pair, we're #sorrynotsorry if you immediately want to pack your bags for sunnier climes or rethink your wedding plans.
Prue the Bride: Our inspiration was our backgrounds and our personal style. The wedding being in Turkey, as we love it there and it's Oner’s country of birth, and my family being from beachside Sydney in Australia. We all love the outdoors, the seaside, food, art and architecture. We wanted our family to be reflected in the wedding also.
We chose Casa Dell’Arte Hotel of Arts and Leisure in Bodrum, Turkey. This hotel is one of the most special places in Turkey. The collection of contemporary art and sculpture is amazing & we wanted all our guests to enjoy it as much as we do! Casa Dell’Arte combined our love of art and architecture with a beautiful beachside & garden location. Myself being from Australia & the Groom, Turkey, we both live in London, we wanted a venue that reflected our combined backgrounds. We really felt Casa Dell Arte suited our style perfectly.
The venue is so beautiful that we didn’t feel like we needed much additional decoration. We hung clusters of white and gold ribbon and gold tassels from the lantern strings. These blew in the breeze and worked really beautifully. I designed signs to direct people to things and had them laser cut in London by the Groom’s brother, Soner Ozenc. All decorations including the table plan, table numbers, menus were designed and made by us. I'm an architect so I really enjoyed designing the graphics for invitations, menus etc. We both designed the table theme & our wedding planner Nilyum put it together. Oner works in the fashion industry, so he designed a bespoke pattern for the pillows and table runner. We love the combination of white and gold, and also love contemporary ottoman patterns, so it was important for us to combine these into the overall decoration.
The flowers were chosen as a contrast to the white and gold. We wanted the dark pink flowers to really stand out. I guess you could classify our theme as Modern Ottoman. We love traditional Turkish patterns and Ottoman design so we wanted to rework that with a fresh modern twist. It was important to reference Oner’s background, the location of the wedding, but also our combined love of modern art, architecture & design. My wedding organiser, Nilyum, is also a florist, so she organised the flowers to my specifications. I wanted fucsia/dark pink coloured flowers and lots of bougainvilleas (as we were in Turkey!). I had dark pink peonies in my bouquet and roses in the bridesmaid’s bouquets. The table arrangements had lots of bougainvillaea (as did the aisle arch), lilac roses & white roses. Our theme colours (white and gold) were neutral, so it was important for the flowers to add a pop of colour.
We had a cake driven from our favourite patisserie in Oner’s hometown, Izmir. The bakery is called Reyhan. They did an amazing job with a selection of our favourite flavours in four separate cakes. The central cake was a chocolate pistachio mousse cake. The others a pineapple cream cake. We also served mini chocolate eclairs. The decoration was done specially for us to our theme of white and gold. The icing was fresh cream with edible gold leaf. I designed laser cut cake toppers for each cake that I made in London.
I designed the wedding favours which were jars of Turkish delight and also a Turkish tile with a laser cut inscription on the bottom. We also had pillows made for the guest chairs, which the guests were able to take home too. All favours were made beautifully by Vildan Nikah Sekleri in Izmir. See sends worldwide, too, and will make anything to your specification.
The gown for me was a perfect mix of classic & contemporary, which is what Carolina Herrera does perfectly in her bridal designs. I wanted a dress that was bridal but with a twist. As soon as I saw this gown I fell in love with it. It felt traditional but had an extremely modern silhouette. I felt like a bride, but I also felt completely myself. I wore a headpiece designed by Jennifer Behr New York. It was gold, with a central diamond piece with gold chains hanging on the side. I didn’t want to wear a veil so I chose a headpiece to keep my look contemporary. It also meant that I didn’t have to wear too much jewellery as the headpiece was a feature. I wore my mum’s diamond earrings (something borrowed), my Grandmother's ring (something old) and her blue opal bracelet (something blue). It meant I had a piece of her on me through my entire wedding, which was important to me. We both designed our own rings and had them made in Izmir at the family jeweller.
As a present to all my bridesmaids, I bought them all a piece of different jewellery (ring, necklace, cuff, earrings) which they all wore throughout the ceremony & reception, and hopefully, they will wear it forever! Their dresses were all by the same designer, however, they each were a different style and silhouette. I wanted all my bridesmaids to feel comfortable and individual.
For photography, I came across one of Yeliz’s photos by chance on Pinterest when looking for beach wedding inspiration images. Lucky for me, she was based in Turkey. I love the style of her photography. Her photos are so beautifully shot, each one has a story, each one captures that special moment whether it is a kiss or the way the light is affecting the surroundings. She captures people’s portraits so perfectly, therefore capturing the emotional moment between two people as well. She understands how to get the best out of her rather nervous and distracted subjects! We absolutely love our photographs. We also had a prewedding shoot the day before the wedding, which I highly recommend all couples doing, if they can. On the day we then felt completely relaxed in front of the camera which I think is reflected in our shots.
For Videography, we chose Dugme Film. Dugme and Yeliz work together on a few weddings each year, so they are friends and work well together. But this was just one of the reasons we chose Dugme. Again, we loved the raw, candid style of their films. They are in no way cheesy, which was our biggest fear when choosing a videographer to shoot our wedding! They captured the whole day so beautifully. They were so professional. The edits were amazing, they have a superb talent when editing and cutting together shots. It is seamless and lets us relive our day over and over. I don’t think we will ever get tired of watching it.
Our song for the ceremony was played by the string quartet, and it was King’s Of Leon – Use Somebody. It’s the bride and groom's favourite song. Our first dance song was ‘Turn me On’ by Norah Jones. Again, we just love the song!
A lot of brides told me not to worry about the detail as no one notices things on your wedding day. But for me, my favourite part of planning my wedding was designing the little details that made our wedding about us and true to our own style. I would say to any bride, focus on the part of the wedding that you enjoy planning, if you love the flowers, focus on that. If you put that extra effort into the part you enjoy, it will filter down through the rest of the wedding. And try and involve your groom as much as possible. A groom's perspective is sometimes invaluable!
Our wedding day was a celebration of our love for each other so it was special to have all our friends and family from around the world with us. Everyone travelled from near and far, so we felt very lucky. Seeing everyone we loved there in one place, in such a beautiful setting, enjoying their time in Turkey, was an amazing feeling for us. We owe so much to our families, so to see them enjoying the day as much as us was an amazing moment.