HALEY & LOURI

Q & A WITH THE BRIDE
Who
Haley Tcherkas, 26 and Iouri Tcherkas, 27.
Location
The ceremony was held at the Mosman Art Gallery and reception took place in The Loft room at the Doltone House, Jones Bay Wharf.
Guests
110
Theme
“Iouri and I were fortunate enough to have the help of the talented and delightful Lauren Harrison from Audrey & Angus Weddings and Events ( www.audreyandangus.com ) to help us refine our wedding theme, colour palette and all of our styling details. From the very beginning I had chosen dusty pink as my main colour and knew I wanted my bridesmaids in pink and neutral tones – Everyone was expecting me to be a “bridezilla” and I think I would have been if I didn’t have Lauren to help plan and guide me through most decisions. Lauren helped me refine my “dusty pink” idea into a classic and elegant dusty pink and grey theme. Because of the help from Audrey & Angus our wedding theme and colours all flowed from the invites right through to the ceremony and reception and every little detail in between. It came together beautifully with lots of candle light, glass and flowers and those personal touches that made it special for us.”
 
The Wedding dress
“I had a specific style in mind but could not find exactly what I was looking for when shopping for that perfect dress. So I had Lora Ellis from Lora Ellis Couture make my dream dress. It was a fitted bodice with a sweetheart neckline and a low back. I had an embellished belt built into the dress sitting at mid torso, flowing from that I had layers and layers of English Tulle with a slight train in the skirt. My veil was very simple, again being made from English Tulle sitting short at the front and the back flowing down being longer than the train on my dress.”
Bridesmaids’ dresses
“I had five bridesmaids and knew it would be hard to please everyone having the one style of dress so all the girls chose their own style of full length dresses Bridesmaids Only. At the last minute I decided (with help of Wendy from Bridesmaids Only) to have all different shades of pale colours.”
Invitations
“Audrey & Angus and her graphic designer Emma O’Donnell Design & Illustrations worked together and designed our invites and our entire wedding stationery suite. I had an idea of what I wanted and sent Lauren some examples I had found and asked for “a little bit from here, and a little bit from there”. I was after that perfect mix of “classic and traditional” but still be a little “fun and modern”. Emma designed us a wedding logo which was mine and Iouri’s initials and our wedding date – this logo we carried through on everything including the seating plan, menus, place cards, table numbers, wedding favours and on our personalised photo corner backdrop.”
 
Flowers
“My flowers were supplied from Harperwood Floral Design. Lauren and I met with the girls there and what we wanted was a mix of dusty pinks, white hydrangea, dahlias and berries. I was after that full look and not too structured. My bouquet had more white than my Bridesmaids and the same with Iouri and his groomsmen who had the dusty pink and Groom in white. For our reception centrepieces we had a mix of three square vases that were all different shapes and sizes – the tables at Doltone House were oval so these vases with glass candlesticks and tea lights around them really filled up the table and I was so happy with how it looked. For our ceremony we had two large pedestal vases at the top of the altar, which framed a nice backdrop and little posies were tied on the chairs down the aisle.”
Ceremony
“We had the lovely Pauline Fawkner as our celebrant who was fantastic on the day. Iouri and I wrote the ceremony words that Pauline would read. I really enjoyed sitting down with Iouri prior to wedding to do this remembering all the fun times throughout our relationship. The ceremony was beautiful with my cousin saying a reading, my little nephew walking down the aisle with a sign saying, “Here comes my Aunty Haley”, my Dad walking me down the aisle with us both fighting back tears and Iouri and I hearing for the first time our vows to each other. Once the ceremony was over we celebrated walking back down the aisle together to the song “Bright side of the road” that I found the day before on my Mum’s iPod.”
Reception
“The reception was amazing we had so much fun! After having our photos we had time to relax and freshen up in our bridal suite at Doltone House. Meanwhile the guest enjoyed champagne and canapés on the balcony of the reception room overlooking the harbour bridge. Once the bridal party arrived everyone sat down to a four-course menu and enjoyed the boutique wine and beer package we selected. Everyone mingled and moved around throughout dinner and we did the speeches early in the night, which were beautiful bringing me to tears! But the highlight of our reception was the Audrey & Angus styled photo corner – just behind the dance floor Lauren and her team set up a gorgeous area for our guests to come and have a bit of fun and a happy snap. This was a professional photographer with proper studio lighting and all so it really felt like you were at the scene of a studio photo shoot. We had a personalised backdrop that had the word “LOVE” in large dusty pink, our initials and the date. We had lots of fun signs, frames and chalkboards to use as props – you can see from the photos everyone had so much fun and I love looking back on the hundreds of images that were taken. We danced all night. My dress became torn from everyone standing on it but I didn’t care at this point I was having too much fun! When it was time to leave our guest formed a tunnel with their hands and Iouri and I ran through it to the song “We Go Together” from the movie ‘Grease’. I will never forget this moment when we were in our car taking off looking back at everyone still dancing to the song on the balcony.”
 
Favours
“For our favours, Lauren created for us personalised mini champagne bottles with stationery matching the rest of our wedding suite. We were able to write a thank you message for our guests on the label – that’s what I think wedding favours are all about, thanking your guest for being there to share the day with you. Instead of having these on the guest tables, Lauren created a display that looked like a wedding cake of mini champagne down by the dance floor. All of the guests took one at the end of the night.”
Wedding cake
“My wedding cake was a three-tier mud cake – we taste tested and picked chocolate, vanilla and marble. We chose the soft icing look and had it decorated with fresh flowers.”