Vanessa & Dylan: A Personalised Dubai Wedding With Video & Images By Goldfish Photography & Video
Written by Fairy Bride Mother on August 16, 2018.
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Vanessa & Dylan: A Personalised Dubai Wedding With Video & Images By Goldfish Photography & Video
Today we are thrilled to feature the wedding video of Vanessa and Dylan, which was submitted to us by our vendors Goldfish Photography & Video. With so many personal elements created by the couple, we thought we’d get in touch with Vanessa in order to ask her some questions about her big day.
Vanessa and Dylan, who both currently live in Dubai, were married at The Ritz Carlton, JBR, in March of this year. With an Indian background, Vanessa was born and raised in Dubai, whilst Dylan is from the UK and came to Dubai for work in 2015. After meeting by chance one evening, it wasn’t long before Dylan realised that Vanessa was the girl of his dreams, and he proposed shortly before he flew home to the UK for Christmas in 2016. They had decided to celebrate and exchange gifts before Dylan left, and so Dylan spent the day whipping up an amazing lunch, popped some champagne and even baked Vanessa’s favourite, a rocky-road cake.
After exchanging ChristmasĀ gifts, Dylan ushered Vanessa out onto the terrace of his apartment, which was lit upĀ with lanterns and candles, overlooking the restaurantĀ whereĀ they firstĀ met and at exactly 6.10 pm (the exact time they first met), he asked, “Will you marry me?”.Ā And of course, she said “Yes!”.
Read on to see Vanessa and Dylan’s gorgeous wedding video and to hear all about how the couple planned their big day. Enjoy!
Tell us about the planning process…
When we started out planning, we had very little idea as to how many hours of āwedding adminā weād be putting in and how many spreadsheets we would end up with by the end of it all! For Dylan and I, we put in a lot of effort into the small minute details ā as we are both quite detail-oriented people and believed that every little detail (no matter how small!) counts!
So we started out with our pre-wedding photoshoot, which took place in Sintra, Portugal. We landed in Portugal as we initially hoped to have a destination wedding in Portugal ā but we realised it wasnāt feasible for us, so we started venue scouting in Dubai in June/July.
We finally found the perfect venue around mid-August, started putting together our guest-list and sent out our āsave-the-datesā by the end of August. The next step was putting together the content for our website and invitations. We chose to have a limited set of printed cards and instead went digital and emailed our e-invites to the wedding. These were all done and completed by October.
After this, the focus was on finding a venue for our second-day event. We had found and selected a venue for this event by October, however, unfortunately, had to look for another venue in December. In early January we finally chose our second-day venue for sundowners and dinner, which was at The Agency at Madinat Jumeirah.
Between November and February, we managed to complete everything in the middle, such as Locking in Goldfish Photography, placing the order for the bridesmaid dresses and flower girl outfits, and finding a ālead up to the dayā planner in the form of Rock your Wedding (Liesel Papke). RYW took care of everything dĆ©cor related, conceptualised our theme and worked with our amazing floral team, The Flower Market.
We also found our sound and light suppliers, Crimson Events, as well as furniture and dancefloor suppliers. We opted for Delux Studio to design our personalisedĀ items and entertainment came in the form of Jaymie Deville and DJ Andy Swift.
My wedding planner, Liesel Papke from Rock Your Wedding played a key role with managing the entire wedding on the day, plus the lead up to the wedding, completely taking over, preparing a time plan and dealing with all suppliers a week prior to the wedding itself.
Did you decide on a wedding theme? If so, talk us through your choiceā¦
Dylan and I, whilst weāre both very similar, do have quite different tastes (in terms of design, style, and art). When we started conceptualising what the wedding would look like and what our over-arching theme would be ā my mood board had a lot of vintage, classic, fairy-lights and chandeliers, āmidsummer’s nightās dreamā type of theme going on. Whereas Dylan envisioned something a little more simplistic, minimal, contemporary, modern yet chic and elegant.
Eventually (millions of Pinterest moodboards, Google searches and brain-storming sessions later!), we decided on a geometric rose-gold colour them. The geometric shapes fit well with the contemporary, modern look-and-feel, whereas the rose-gold and addition of flowers and lights, still gave it a fairy-tale like look.
Tell us about the wedding cakeā¦.
A five-layered Fudge Brownie with Chocolate Ganache and Caramelized Almondsā¦
Letās talk wedding gowns. Where did you buy your dream gown?
Luckily enough, I started wedding-dress hunting in Dubai around mid-July and by the end of July, I had found the perfect dress! I guess I had one of those āit was love at first sightā moments. My dress was Avenue Diagonal by Pronovias and I purchased it at The Wedding Shop in Jumeirah. I knew it was the one, even before trying it on!
Tell us about some of the ways you personalised your big dayā¦
ā”Ā Photobooth Van
We wanted something unique besides the regular photobooths and came across this amazing VW camper van that had been converted into an all-purpose photo van by WeShareDXB.
ā”Ā Welcome bags
One of my bridesmaids took the lead on this and helped put together the most wonderful little welcome bag ā it was a jute bag which consisted of scented candles (which my bridesmaid hand-made!), lavender sachets, oud perfume in a Burj-Al-Arab shaped bottle, āhis & herā favourite snacks (which were cashew nuts for me and BBQ-roasted almonds for him!), and personalised caps (which had a custom-made āVDā logo), plus a mini-bottle of sunscreen to prepare guests for Dubaiās summer heat!Ā Each of these items had personalised tags and the logo which Delux Studio designed for us.
ā”Ā Favours
Personalised candy in a jar by Pappabubble.
ā” Wedding advice cards
We also designed/personalised our own wedding advice cards (which we used as an alternative to a guest book ā designed by Delux Studio) and also created our own photo-memory wall which showed pictures from our childhood).
Most enjoyable part of the planning processā¦
The dance class lessons! We had so much fun that we even said that weād go back and probably learn a new dance as a hobby!
Also, Iād have to say, just planning and doing this whole thing with my fiancĆ© together as one team. Of course, we had a lot of invaluable help and support from our family and friends ā however, every little decision was taken together by us as a couple. We learned so much about one another during this whole process, throughout all the ups and downs, drawing us even closer ā the whole planning process felt like such a whirlwind of a rollercoaster ride! But we clasped our hands tightly together through it all.
As for how we felt on the day seeing it all come togetherĀ – it was surreal, overwhelming, and felt like something out of a dreamā¦it all felt so magicalā¦we had never felt more grateful in our lives.
Most testing part of the wedding planning process as an expat brideā¦
Being born and raised in Dubai, Dubai is pretty much my home so my support system is here and knowing the city inside out helped a lot! However, for Dylan, having 90% of his guestlist fly in from the UK was certainly a challenge in managing so many people and making sure their stay here was comfortable and hassle-free.
Top three tips for a bride-to-beā¦
ā”Ā Create a timeplan from the outset, have key milestone dates and work backwards from it to know how much time is needed for each element and what is to be prioritised. Make sure to also have a check-list.
ā”Ā Assign and delegate ā aside from your planner, make sure to assign one key member from your bridal team or family members on the day, to each be in charge of something (this will free you from having to take calls, answer messages or deal with any mishaps on the day!).
ā”Ā No matter how much or how well in advance you plan ā there will always be a mishap. The important thing is to never lose focus on the bigger picture. You may be a micro-manager just like I was! However, at some point (in order to actually enjoy the day), you will need to let the reigns go so you can just sit back and relax. Donāt forget to take a minute out on the day to just pause, look around and soak it all in!
Did you use Bride Club ME in the planning process? If so, how?
Yes, I definitely did! I referred back to the site all the time and particularly found the vendor section very useful. In fact, I selected my hairstylist for myself and my bridesmaids from Be Bar, which was a recommendation on BCME!
I was utterly thrilled with them, to say the least, so thank you so much Bride Club ME!
The Bride’s Little Pink Book
Ā Venue: The Ritz Carlton, JBR /Ā Flowers: The Flower MarketĀ /Ā Wedding Planner:Ā Rock Your WeddingĀ /Photographer: Goldfish Photography & Video /Ā Photobooth Van:Ā WeShare DXBĀ /Ā Make-up artist: Nina /Ā Hair: Be Bar DubaiĀ / Cake: supplied by The Ritz CarltonĀ / Sound & Light:Ā Crimson Events Ā /Ā Wedding stationery: Delux StudioĀ /Ā DJ: Andy SwiftĀ / Live musician: Jaymie Deville /Ā Dance Class Studio:Ā Dance Studios Dubai DowntownĀ /Ā V&D Backlit logo sign: Rodzina EventsĀ /Ā Furniture:Ā Right Click Events /Ā Starlit Dancefloor: Space Tune Events / Personalised candy: PapaBubbleĀ /Ā Other dĆ©cor & rentals: Innovative HiringĀ /Ā Pinch Me Rentals /Ā e-walls studio /Ā The Balloon ShopĀ
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