YVONNE & VIYASAN
YVONNE TSE and VIYASAN ARULRAJAH’s day was a colourful celebration which reflected their love of food and adventure.
Viyasan and I grew up knowing of each other as we had the same piano teacher and shared classes in high school. However, it wasn’t until we found ourselves in the same lectures at university that sparks flew. In 2017, he surprised me with a helicopter ride and then got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife.
A year and a half later, we tied the knot in front of just under 80 of our closest friends and family at St Patrick’s Church in Makara, followed by a reception at Makara Community Hall. It was a simple wedding with lots of personal touches throughout. We were hoping the Wellington weather would be pleasant as we had a lot of outdoor space, but still made sure to have two indoor venues.
Our mutual love of travel influenced our celebration, with ‘boarding pass’ invitations, themed décor and an ‘itinerary’ instead of a timeline. We really like the aesthetic of Wes Anderson movies like Grand Budapest Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom, so we tried to achieve the same warm feeling that he creates in his colourful, whimsical films. We chose rich, warm autumnal colours for our florals and decorated the ceiling and cake with bunting. Keeping with the travel theme, we had our talented woodworker friend, Tim Lee of The Offcut, create beautiful bamboo coasters with a world map and the location coordinates of our wedding on them as our wedding favours.
asked Jess from Table Flower to be creative and non-traditional with seasonal flowers in shades of maroon, orange and warm yellows. The resulting bouquets and boutonnières were beautiful. Our bridal party helped us arrange more flowers from the Central Flower Markets in recycled brown glass bottles for our tables.
In the lead up to the wedding, we provided our guests with
“I’d really recommend cutting your cake after the ceremony. It means that it doesn’t feel like a rushed activity in the evening, and everyone has a chance to eat and enjoy the cake.”
infographics on the journey of our relationship and an introduction to our bridal party, including how we met them and why they are important to us. Typically, wedding guests know either the bride or groom, so telling our story and introducing our bridal party meant that the whole guest experience became a lot more intimate and personal.
The bridal party had breakfast together before getting ready. It was nice to spend some time together before the day started. Before we left for the ceremony, we had a small Chinese tea ceremony (where the bride and groom serve tea to elders), and Viyasan’s family also conducted a simple Hindu blessing for him before the boys left for the venue. It was nice to acknowledge both of our cultures with our closest family.
Food is super important to us, and we wanted to give our guests a lot of variety. We’ve been obsessed with Beat Kitchen ever since they started their food truck, and we planned our wedding around having them. They were incredible in helping us create a truly global menu, with Japanese, Korean, Greek and Italian-inspired dishes. The Gochujang beef brisket with kimchi croquettes, pumpkin gnocchi and Kaarage fried chicken were particularly popular with our guests.
Our good friend Vicki has a cake business, Vicki Eats, so it was a no-brainer to have her create our two-tiered cake; one lemon layer and the other chocolate. The filling was vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream and the finish was semi-naked with seasonal blueberries and raspberries. We cut the cake right after the ceremony. It was an awesome afternoon tea option for our guests.
The highlight of the day waswhen we were both standing in front of our guests, the moment just before our ceremony started. It was incredible to see everyone we cared about in one place to share in the most special moment of our lives.