Ying & Kourosh

Imagine having, not 1,2 or 3, but 4 gorgeous outfits to wear at your wedding. Well that's exactly how many Bride Ying had for her traditional Chinese wedding in Taipei in Taiwan. She started with a gorgeous red red Qi Pao for the tea ceremony, then changed into a white Chapelle Charlie Brear gown for the wedding ceremony, followed by a gold dress during the reception and finally a dreamy powder blue tulle skirt. Now that is some gorgeous bridal inspiration if ever I did see some. Also that bouquet and those red lips. (insert multiple heart emoji's here.) The couple are simply adorable, and RMW faves Navyblur have captured all the love, all the tradition and even a lonely tear streaming down Ying's face. Simply B.E.Autiful. Don't forget to watch the film by Firumu Studio so you can pore over even more wedding day emotion too. Enjoy.

The Dress

Ying The Bride: We wanted this to be a more traditional Chinese style wedding so this means multiple wardrobe changes for the Bride. I had four dresses in total, starting with a red Qi Pao for the tea ceremony, then a white wedding gown for wedding ceremony called Chapelle Charlie Brear, followed by a hired golden princess style dress to send off guests. After the party I did one last change into my favourite outfit (a Dusk Blue Gretta Tulle Skirt from Alexandra Grecco for some photos on the roof terrace of the wedding hotel! I spent about two months looking for wedding gowns and must have tried at least 10 shops (including some in Paris) and a total of 40-50 gowns! Some of the shops allow you to take photos which are really helpful since my mum is in Taiwan but she really wanted to participate in the process. Brides in Taiwan normally hire someone called a ‘Bride’s secretary’ who will follow the bride all day taking care of makeup, hair and accessories. I hired a girl called Lindsay Liu in Taipei - all the accessories were borrowed from her. I bought my wedding shoes from a Taiwanese brand called Desire.

The Grooms Fashion

Kourosh had a suit from Hugo Boss which was bought from Moss Bros in central London.

The Venue

We held the ceremonies at the Royal-Nikko Taipei hotel in central Taipei. The decoration was quite traditional which suits our Chinese theme really well. We spent a lot of time trying to find a suitable wedding venue - we had around 170-180 guests and it turns out that is an awkward number for a hotel wedding in Taipei as most of them cater for 250 or more. The roof terrace had an empty swimming pool which was a genuine surprise - our photographers found it on the wedding day - and it turned out to be a brilliant photo spot together with the sunset.

Colour Scheme/Decor

I hired a Taiwanese Decoration company which is owned by a friend. They were so brilliant - they designed this traditional Chinese door coloured in Dusky blue with hanging and overflowing yellow flowers with lighting that gives some gold glow. When they made the proposal to me I just thought - interesting idea - but on the day when I see the decoration being setup there were just no words to describe how happy I was.

Flowers/Florist

The bridal bouquet was done by the decoration company as well. Originally I wanted to use peony, but there was a typhoon which destroyed all the delicate flowers! I asked the company to improvise and it was done beautifully to match the lip stick colour.

The Wedding Party Fashion

I choose my bridesmaid’s dresses from David’s Bridal, it was White by Vera Wang.

Ceremony

I have six flower girls - they were all my nieces - I let their mums coordinate the dresses. They also offered to dance a lovely routine which was super sweet. Somehow in Taiwan it becomes a trend that when bride and groom re-enter the party there should be some dance performance but Kourosh rejects this idea so hard! Luckily my flower girls stepped up for this challenging task!

Food

The hotel provided an 11 course menu, of which we ate roughly 1 mouthful of before being whisked away to toast all the tables and take photographs. I’m sure it tasted fantastic though!

Photographer

Our photographers are the stunning NavyBlur, we actually found them on Rock My Wedding for featuring one of the weddings they have done in Paris. They must be the first supplier we decided - we are just too excited to see their pictures. And ever since we started this journey they’ve been amazingly helpful and receptive. Despite the Chinese style wedding being a very different type of experience for them, the photos speak for themselves. We can’t thank them enough, and look forward to bringing them along for the final part in Norfolk this year.

Videographer

Our videographers were Firumu Studio. The video they put together absolutely blew me away, and everyone who watches it says how impressed they are.