tiara | real life bride
Cultures Combine Michelle and Carwyn mixed their Welsh and Cypriot roots for a culture-packed day that was truly unique…
Civil engineers Michelle, 27, and Carwyn, 30, got married amidst a swirl of happy cultural differences, after meeting by chance through mutual friends 00
A Welsh proposal After watching Wales play Ireland in the Six Nations at the Millennium Stadium, we went down to Cardiff Bay and I was surprised that Carwyn wanted to go for a walk, as it was a freezing cold night. As we walked, he stopped, held my hand, looked at me, and asked me to marry him. I think I froze first and then said Yes! We started planning within a few days, and though we didn’t really have a theme in mind we wanted to incorporate both our cultures and traditions into the wedding, as Carwyn is Welsh and I’m Cypriot.
tiara | real life bride The Rings Carwyn chose my engagement ring from Crouch in Cardiff, so we decided to choose our wedding rings there too and had a very friendly and professional service. We were both keen to have matching rings, and went for white-gold double bands with a neat square diamond in the centre.
Outfits Carwyn chose grey suits with lilac waistcoats and violet cravats from Moss Bros for himself and the groomsmen. My dress was a Justin Alexander gown from Perfections in Cardiff. It was the third dress I tried on, on the first day I went to look - I just knew it was the right one. My bridesmaid was in tears when she saw me! The bridesmaids’ dresses, hand made by Alison, a private dressmaker from Troedyrhiw, were classic long gowns in lilac, with a slight fish tail at the bottom and a violet band around the waist. My maid of honour wore the same style but with reversed colours. My two flower girls wore delicate offwhite fairytale style dresses from Monsoon, with purple butterflies in their hair.
Hair & Make-up I wanted a classic romantic look so I had my hair swept off my face and romantic curls trailing back. I bought a simple double band diamante tiara to complete the look. My make up was kept fresh and simple, with soft lilac and purple colours on the eyes. I had it done by Joanne in MAC, as she’s previously done my makeup for photographs and pays great attention to detail.
Cypriot Send Off On the morning of the wedding we had a traditional Cypriot ceremony in my house, where the bride’s close family and friends gather to perform a ‘giving away and dressing of the bride ceremony’. It becomes very moving when your family are around you singing and blessing to give you away. We also had a Greek reading at the church, which was very special, while a close friend of Carwyn’s family sang How Great Thou Art. In Greek tradition the father only walks the
bride to the church, so it was lovely that we could break away from that tradition and have my father walk me up the aisle - he was very proud.
Venues Our marriage ceremony was held at the Church of the Resurrection in Cardiff, with the reception at The Vale Hotel and Spa resort in the Vale of Glamorgan. We fell in love with the beautiful setting at The Vale and the service we were given was exceptional.
Cars Carwyn was driven to the church in one of the groomsmen’s cars which was a white Honda Integra Type R – it looked great with a purple ribbon on it. I arrived at the church with my dad in a white Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, and we had a classic white limousine to chauffeur the bridesmaids.
The Cake The cake was a surprise for Carwyn, and looked amazing in the large hall at The Vale. Made by Lesley Caviel at Cakes for All Occasions, it was a white four-tier cake with violet ribbon trimming, small butterflies and a castle on top with a waterfall underneath.
Flowers Joy’s Florist in Aberdare made my bouquet, top table arrangement, and the men’s buttonholes. My bouquet was made up of peonies, orchids, lisianthus and roses, then Joy was able to carry the theme through to Carwyn’s buttonhole using a matching orchid, while the groomsmen had roses to match the bridesmaids’ bouquets.
Tables & Favours As we had so many tables I knew it would be expensive to make flower arrangements for each one, not to mention time consuming, so I opted for white planted phalaenopis orchids in white ceramic pots, and decorated them with butterflies and lilac feathers. We attached short thank you notes to each one and then gave them as gifts at
the end of the night, to people who had helped put our day together. As favours we had traditional Cypriot cakes called pasticha from a Greek bakery in London - my bridesmaids and aunties all gathered two days before the wedding to help wrap and decorate them.
Entertainment On arrival to the reception hall we had a Greek band made up of some of my relatives playing traditional Greek-Cypriot music, which continued as the guests ate. We also did the traditional Greek Wedding Dance where guests pin money onto the bride and groom’s outfits great fun for guests who hadn’t witnessed this before. We then had a short break where all our guests were invited out onto the balcony to watch a fireworks display set up by Carwyn and his friend from Fireworks International, before Juan Lozano, a professional singer and Elvis impersonator, sang a mix of Elvis and Motown records.
Photographer Once we met Andy and Sacha of ALS Photography and saw examples of their work, we knew we wanted them to photograph our day. They were lovely to work with and it was a pleasure to have them there, as they were very professional and great people to be around.
Anecdotes The only hiccup on the day was when the chauffeur got lost taking Carwyn and me from the church to The Vale Hotel - we ended up in a farm! Thankfully with Carwyn directing we eventually got to our reception.
Special Touches What made our day special was having our family and friends with us to celebrate. We were able to provide both our families with something different by sharing elements of our cultures.
00 Photographs by: A.L.S Photography www.alsphotography.co.uk Tel: 01446 795280