A Thunder Storm Wedding in Dubai 

Following on from part one and part two of my real wedding feature ‘A Thunderstorm Wedding in Dubai’, I am now going you talk you through our wedding details and my wedding DIY. The images below, were captured beautifully by the lovely Shyrell at Enchante Studios.

The Details & DIY

I was a creative bride, choosing to DIY many elements of our wedding. I enjoy crafting, so it became a project I took on with enthusiasm. However, it wasn’t easy and at times I regretted taking on so many tasks. It was all worth it in the end though. I also worked with several creative suppliers on the finer details, who helped create wonderful signage and décor elements to complement our special day.

The Flowers…

First up, were our wedding flowers. I chose Vintage Bloom as my supplier. I had known vintage bloom previously as a client, and loved their style and forward thinking. I find some flowers to be a little overbearing and dramatic for my personal taste, but Vintage Bloom worked hard at listening to my ideas and applying them.

I adore shades of pink and my favourite flower is the ranunculus, so these appeared everywhere during the day. I also purchased bunches of dried lavender from l’occitane and placed  in lots of glass bottles that I had saved and up-cycled with lace and ribbon. I had a wooden ‘ceremony’ sign made and displayed at the seating entrance, adorned with flowers. I commissioned the lovely ladies at Kuki to make the sign for me.

We opted for a simple, but colourful wedding arch filled with green ivy and white and pink flowers, which we styled with an ‘I love you to the moon and back’ sign purchased from The Rustic Bead.

Our white chiavari ceremony chairs were supplied by Catertainmet, and I chose to have sporadic pops of coloured chairs placed in our ceremony seating area. The end aisle chairs were styled with baby’s breath and pink roses, and we placed wooden fans and my DIY confetti bags on each end chair. For our aisle décor, I kept it very simple with large storm vases and floating candles.

I wanted my bridal bouquet to be colourful, but not too large or small. I also accented the bouquet with the first valentines gift my husband gave me five years ago, a Swarovski dragonfly brooch. The bridesmaid’s bouquet was a mix of baby’s breath and soft pink ranunculus  flowers, wrapped in turquoise lace.

Ceremony Decor…

For the ceremony seating entrance, we displayed signature mocktail drinks, we chose our favorites ‘pink lemonade’ and ‘lemongrass tea’. I purchased lots of frames in the sale from Daiso, Ikea and Home Center and filled them with interesting signage in bright colours. My Bride Club ME designer Maha Ibrahim helped me with these. I tied glass mason jars with lace and filled them with multi coloured straws, from Creative Box and I Gifts JTL. The refreshing drinks were a nice welcome for our guests.

Guest Book, card tray and guest gifts…

During the cocktail hour, we displayed a vintage white table supplied by Celebrations Events. As a fun idea, I decided to print off pictures from our relationship, from the day we met until our engagement party, in mock Polaroid photos. These were displayed at the front of the vintage table and I used jute string and mini pegs from Daiso to keep it all together.

For the wedding cards, I placed two white trays, which I had brought from a craft store. I had painted them white, sanded them down and filled them with vintage wallpaper, placing large white letters to read out ‘CARDS’ alongside them. This was our wedding card card tray for guests.

And lastly, instead of opting for a traditional guest book, I decide to have a ‘finger print tree’. I purchased the design from etsy.com and had the painting framed. I placed the frame on a white easel board supplied by Celebrations Events and displayed  for  guests to see. The painting came with a gorgeous personalised wooden box and pen, plus the paints.

On the table, I placed small gifts for our female guests in the form of ‘Heel Stoppers’. Many of our female guests were wearing heels and since much of the surrounding areas of our hotel was grass polo fields, I figured  ladies in heels would appreciate the token.

Fun elements…

Another one of my DIY projects was our ‘Things you may not know’ prints. I had seen this idea on Pinterest and loved it. I felt it was a great little touch for guests on either side, who may not know either Adam or myself very well. I saw lots of people reading and giggling at them throughout the wedding, which was nice.

As expats living in the Middle East, we wanted to add a touch or Arabia to our wedding and decided to convert an area of the outdoor venue into a ‘Chill out Shisha lounge’. I put a spin on the English ‘Keep Calm’ prints and had a foam board ‘Keep Calm and Smoke Shisha’ design displayed on a white easel board.

The beanbags and furniture were all supplied by Catertainment and I had cushion covers made in our wedding colours by Barbaranne from Moirai Style. Many of my up-cycled glass bottles were scattered around the area for a touch of charm.

Dinner table décor…

Once the cocktail hour was over, guests moved along to our dinner area. We chose simple round white tables, covers and Chiavari chairs. The center piece flowers and candles were  low level and elegant, adding pops of colour to each table.

Being a fan of social media, but not such a fan of unflattering and fuzzy pictures from my wedding day, we requested guests not post pictures on Facebook. Instead, we asked them to #rioadswedding on Instagram. I brought lots of mini white frames from Daiso, filled them with Instagram instruction prints, and placed them on cute mini easel boards on each guest table.

On the day wedding stationery…

Our ‘On the day’ stationery was supplied by Ritu at Creative Box. I worked closely with Ritu on the design and theme, and she produced our table numbers, seating plan, guest name cards and favour bag tags. I chose to have our stationery made using our wedding colours in pastel shades, with a vintage touch.

Our seating plan was displayed using white frames from IKEA, surrounding by colourful candles and flowers, placed on a quirky wooden table owned by the wedding venue.

The cake…

The wedding cake, was designed and made by Gayu at SUGARolgoy, Gayu had come to my rescue when my original supplier cancelled on me quite close to the wedding (due to an emergency). The cake Gayu made, was completely different to my original choice, but I was happy with the end result.

We kept it simple and elegant, with a modern twist using a large cascading single flower as a feature point. The inside of the cake was filled with ombre pink sponge and vanilla cream.

Sweetheart Table…

Tradition at weddings usually dictates that there is a head table, where the bride and groom along with immediate family and/or the wedding party sit. However, we defied tradition and chose to have a sweetheart table instead. This option is good for those with divorced parents, who do not want to be seated on the same table, and it also allows a little time for you and your husband to sit down and enjoy each others company in the midst of it all.

Our sweetheart table featured a beautiful glass candelabra, a love sign surrounded by wild and colourful flowers and our chairs were decorated with large pink bling balloons and white/silver tassels. I also made my own ribbon and lavender garland to place on the back of my sweetheart chair.

Wedding favor gift bags…

Instead of choosing singular wedding favors, I came up with the idea of having ‘favour bags’ filled with small goodies representative of our ethnic backgrounds, and the place we now call home. I sourced the brown paper bags from I Gifts JLT and replaced the handles with jute string. Samera from I Gifts JTL then helped me fill them with the flowing:

• A thank you card designed by Bride Club Designer Maha
• Small wooden elephants from Sri Lanka
• Traditional Italian confetti almonds, placed in a mini bag with the word ‘Grazie’ printed on them
• Evil eye pendants brought from Dragon Mart Dubai
• ‘Tea for Two –the perfect blend’ packaged in cute pink boxes, supplied by Celebrations, Dubai

Our guests loved them and guarded them with their lives, lol.

The details don’t stop there, I also made signange, and brought glow sticks, whistles and more, for our rave themed reception after dinner, and you can read more about that in part two of a Thunder Storm Wedding in Dubai.

So, that concludes the third and final part of my REAL wedding update. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Below, I have highlighted some of my top wedding planning tips, most enjoyable part of my wedding and the most testing moments during the planning process.

My top three tips for brides-to-be

1.      PLAN EARLY –  I cannot emphasise this enough, don’t leave things to the last minute and risk disappointment.
2.     DELEGATE – Don’t try and be Superwoman, delegate small projects out, get your husband involved and if budget permits, hire a wedding planning or ‘on the day coordinator’ like I did, to alleviate some of the stress.
3.     ENJOY – Once the formal parts of our wedding was over, I really let loose, relaxed and enjoyed my wedding, I also took small ‘time out’s’ with my new husband to take it all in, the day really does go quickly.

Most testing part of my wedding planning

Aside from the weather predictions and rain on the day, I found dealing with divorced parents to be a challenge. In the end, I managed to involve everyone in their own unique way and resolved seating issues by having a sweetheart table and allowing each of my parents to host their own table. The evening before our wedding, my bridesmaids father died. This was extremely emotional and sad, but myself, my husband and our families were all there for her and she decided to still partake in the wedding.  We raised a toast to her dad,  which was a beautiful moment.

Most memorable and enjoyable part of my wedding

Marrying my husband was by far the most enjoyable part of the wedding, and a close second was having many of our loved ones all under one roof. Being expats, this is rare and we revelled in the moment. I absolutely loved all the entertainment elements during the day too, it really was the most wonderful day.

Log onto to Bride Club ME on the 6th February for my wedding video update filmed and edited by the talented ‘Morning Jacket Films’. I can’t wait to share it with you.

Rio’s Little Pink Book

Wedding Venue and Catering: Desert Palm Retreat, Dubai // On The Day Coordinator: Clare Ebbs from The Perfect Moment, Dubai // Main Photographer: Goldfish Photography & Video // Set-up/details Photographer: Enchante Studios //Wedding Videographers: Morning Jacket Films // Wedding Dress: Maggie Sottero from The Bridal Room, Dubai //Wedding Hair & Make-up (bride): Makeup by Dee and Dal // Wedding Make-up (bridesmaids): // Celebrant: Toni Bloodworth-Barker // Wedding Flowers: Vintage Bloom // Wedding Invites: Studio Sol Stationery, Dubai // On the day stationery: (name tags, table numbers, favor bag tags, seating plan): Creative Box // Other Paper Signage: Maha Ibrahim // Bridesmaids dresses: Moirai Style // Groom & Grooms Men Suit and Waist Coats: Collars and Cuffs //Grooms Men Cufflinks: Mr Beaujangles // Groom & Groomsmen Bowtie/ties: Moirai style // Wedding Cake:SUGARology DJ: DJ Sister Rock // Emcee: Young Roge // Cocktail Hour Singer: Ciaran Fox // Caricature Artist: Matt Ryder Caricature // Michael Jackson impersonator: Mike Jack // Guest Singers: Red N Pink Music // Photo-booth: The Social Booth. Wedding Rings: CARA Jewelers (The Gold and Diamond Park/Dubai) and GLAMOUR Jewelers (The Gold and Diamond Park/Dubai). Wedding Furniture rentals: Catertainment // Wedding Décor bits and bobs (White vintage tables, hanging lanterns, tea favors): Celebrations Event Management // Wedding favors: Sourced from various locations –  Favor bags from I Gifts JTL, Arabic favors from Dragon Mart, English Tea favors from Celebrations, wooden elephants from Srilanka, supplied by my grandmother, Italian favors supplied by my mother in law.