Amy and Julio

Q & A WITH THE BRIDE
Who
Amy Silva, 32, TV Publicist & Julio Silva, 30, TV Operations
Location
St Brendan’s Church, Annandale & The Atrium, The Grounds of Alexandria
Guests
75
Theme
“DYI vintage glam”
The Wedding dress
“Beautiful. It was the Augusta Jones Lois gown from Brides of Beecroft. Relaxed chic, stylish bias cut lace wedding gown with a V neck that is mirrored front and back. Soft tulle wraps around from the front to become flowing ties on the back (one of the main reasons I feel in love with the gown). The neckline, hem and train are all edged with a lace scallop. It was the only dress that I didn’t want to change a thing on. I also changed into a gold sequin floor length dress half way through the ceremony. This was my party dress. I toyed with the idea of wearing a gold sequined wedding dress but didn’t want to regret not wearing a more traditional gown. My mum found my gold dress while I was changing out of my wedding dress. I fell in love with it and was lucky enough to be able to wear both.”
Bridesmaids’ dresses
“They wore the Cinzia dress in turquoise with gold accessories – gold sandals (from Wanted and Forever New) and heels (from Wanted), gold bangles, facet bezel stud earrings from Mimco and a Samantha Wills Bohemian Bardot Ring – Turquoise/Gold”
Invitations
“My self-taught sister created our invitations for us. We used inspiration from online to create a gorgeous chalkboard invitation. The chalkboard invitations were printed professionally to capture the chalkboard look and feel. The map, RSVP card and wishing well were printed on gold card stock. We tied them together with gold and white twine and sent them out in kraft brown envelopes.”
Flowers
“Florals by Silva put together our bouquets and floral arrangements at the reception. They were beautiful. They were a mix of beautiful white and bright colours flowers, ferns and succulents. I loved the dahlia’s and David Austin roses. Julio had a white rose and succulent buttonhole and the groomsmen’s had an orange rose with succulents. We also had corsages for our mothers and my grandmothers and buttonholes for our fathers and my grandfather. The floral displays on the tables included similar flowers as well as gumnut flowers which I feel in love with. Julio gave me a gumnut tree for Valentine’s Day so I can always have a bunch.”
Ceremony
“The ceremony was at St Brendan’s Catholic Church in Annandale. Julio looked handsome and I almost ran down the aisle I was that excited and anxious. I can still remember everyone smiling face as I passed them; it was such a great feeling. As the priest didn’t say the traditional phrase of ‘I know pronounce you as husband and wife’, it took me a few minutes to realise he had just married us. It was surreal. I couldn’t stop looking at Julio throughout the service to see his reaction. My sister, cousin Emma and our good friend Enzi performed the readings and Sister Dorothea (who is in her early nineties) play the organ. We then had photos outside the church with all our family and friends. I really liked that the Priest called our parents, along with our bridal party, to come up to the alter as we signed our marriage certificate. And our Priest, Father John, also had a little joke with us during our vows about Julio cleaning as I had joked about this during the rehearsals. He was a very lovely, sweet Priest who was Julio’s priest as a kid.”
Reception
“The reception fabulous! I was blown away with how amazing the venue looked. The florist and events team at The Grounds of Alexandria did an exceptional job pulling it all together. The floral displays, candles and my decorations came together beautifully. I love photos booths and had to have one. We went with Love Photo Booth and it was a huge hit. We used this as out guest book – guests got two copies of their photos – one for them and one for the guest book. We had a blast wearing props and doing crazy faces and poses. Each print also included a customised design of Julio and my and the date. It was in the same style as our wedding invitations. Our musician/DJ Anthony Hughes was incredible! During canapés he sang and played the acoustic guitar and then turned DJ when it was time to dance. Our first dance was too Bob Sinclair’s ‘Love Generation’ which Anthony sung acoustically for us and it was magic. My father daughter dance was a fun one; it was to Sweet Child of Mine by Guns N Roses. I loved that we all got up and danced at some point. There is a great photo of Julio’s mum dancing, and one of a friend and I singing out hearts out. We enjoyed raspberry caprioska’s and canapés on arrival in the laneway out the front of the Atrium. It was filled with lots of greenery and seats and wine barrels. People were also able to relax outside during the night. For the mains, we went with a shared feast rather than alternate serve. Barramundi, pork belly and beef fillet, plus delish sides, were placed at each table for all our guests to enjoy. This ensured there wasn’t any food envy as we all got a taste of the amazing food. For dessert we had wedding cake as well as mini lemon meringues and a gluten free chocolate and strawberry cake.”
Decorations
“I went with a DYI vintage glam theme. My sister, mum, dad and I had created all the decorations – table numbers, seating chart, card box, table runners, place cards and signage. The seating chart was a gold glittered frame with everyone’s name pegged on gold rope. The tables were decorated with a gold sequin table runner and gold sequined table numbers which my dad glues and drilled together than glittered. My sister created the place cards which were flags stuck into succulents. She also created the menu which was placed on each guest’s plate with a sprig of Portuguese Rosemary from my garden. She also created the drinks sign, the sign for the Photo Booth and the card bunting which went across and old suitcase of my grandmothers.”
Favours
“I wanted something each guest would keep, so 5-6 months prior to the wedding I began growing over 100 succulents. I planted these in mini pots and tied thank you cards around it with gold and white twine. My sister created the thank you cards. The succulents doubled as place cards.”
Wedding cake
“Jose, my brother-in-law, is a chef and created our 3 tiered naked coconut and raspberry cake, which he and Julio delivered on the day of the wedding. It was decorated with fresh raspberries and flowers. It looked unbelievable and was delicious! We had leftovers which family and friends were more than happy to enjoy for days after. Plus, I’ve already told him I want him to make a mini version of this cake for our anniversaries. The cake topper was from Grain & Co’s Love Marquee Light Up Cake Topper which I wanted after seeing at a cake show.Also, our hair and makeup was done by fabulous Sabrina and Tunya from Makeup Boudoir. They came to our parent’s house and made my mum, sister (matron of honour), bridesmaid Lauren, grandmother, aunty and I look absolutely beautiful! We travelled to the church, to photos at Sydney Park, and then to The Grounds in a gorgeous vintage champagne royal limousine from 7th Heaven.And Dale from DC Images was our photographer. He shot my sister’s wedding and did such an incredible job that we hired him as well. I’m absolutely in love with my wedding photos!”