Cassandra & Thomas' Stunning Melbourne Wedding at Crown Melbourne!
Real Weddings: Modern Wedding + Chinese Tea Ceremony
Wedding Date: 23rd May 2021
Meet Melbourne couple Cassandra and Thomas, who tied the knot earlier this year with a beautiful ceremony and reception at Crown Hotel Melbourne!
Read all about their fun wedding details below including: a 3am start; their gorgeous wedding video; and how they used to technology to bring their guests together during the Coronavirus pandemic.
You can also learn about the couple's brilliant wedding vendors who helped to make their day incredibly special.
How did you meet?
We met through church in March 2015, but it was only after my birthday dinner that year that we started chatting a lot more after Thomas took a snapchat of me (we are still debating on who technically made the move first lol!)
How was the question popped?
The question was popped on 30th December 2019, on our 4th anniversary. We first went to Eureka 89 for dinner and Cassandra was already suspicious that something was going to happen with the messages constantly lighting up on Thomas’ phone and the ring box that Thomas so tactly placed in his back pocket (to Thomas’ defense, it was a 41 degree day and it was just way too hot to be wearing a coat to hide it!)
We then went to the Eureka Skydeck, where he booked out The Edge and that is where he popped the question!
Where did you get married?
We got married at Crown Melbourne! Ceremony was in Crown Aviary and Reception was in Crown River Room.
Tell us about your wedding day.
For our wedding day, Crown had a few set themes for us to choose from and so we chose silver/white for the theme of the whole day.
The rest of the styling and theming was organised by my sister and she was AMAZING at it.
We hired Melbourne Event Florals and worked alongside with them in terms of styling and colours of the arbour and the welcome stand, and we were in awe with it all on the day itself. Crown did the rest of the theming and we just made sure that everything else suited well with the set colour theme.
The girls and Cassandra’s makeup were done by Makeup by Elly Liana. Our day started at 3:30am and Elly was amazing! The girls absolutely loved their makeup and pretty much lasted the whole day!
The ceremony happened in Crown Aviary on the morning of 23rd May 2021, Sunday. During the ceremony, everything went so smoothly, we had Ivan from ITZstudios doing our livestreaming (he did our pre-wedding shoot as well!). This allowed our grandparents, extended family and close friends who were overseas and not able to attend due to COVID to witness our very special day, and this meant so much to us.
We had close friends helping us to coordinate the decorations, ushering and music, and we are so grateful that we were able to have so many loved ones around us to celebrate with us. Paris - our Crown Wedding Manager, was impeccable with her timing and coordination during the whole ceremony, as well as the whole wedding process. She took care of every tiny detail and was ready with a backup for any possible scenario especially with COVID constantly looming over our heads, we could not recommend her enough, she was the best!
For our bridal party shoot, we went to Fitzroy Gardens. We had so much fun taking ever-lasting photos with the ones we specially chose for our big day and Cassandra had fun walking around with Crown slippers instead of heels, what a comfort!
We then had the traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony conducted by a close family friend in the Crown Garden Room. In the Chinese tradition, the tea ceremony is done as a sign of respect to the elders and in turn, their acceptance of the marriage. To us, it was also a way for us to show our appreciation and gratitude to our parents, siblings and extended family for all their love and energy put into us throughout our lives.
The evening reception was phenomenal, the Crown managers and staff who facilitated the whole evening coordinated so well with our MCs and the night went so smoothly! Encore Events (AV Company) was also amazing in the lead up to the event and throughout the ceremony and reception, they knew exactly when to play the different items and went the extra mile to cater to our every need perfectly!
Our whole wedding day was everything we wanted and more, and I could not have imagined it going any more perfectly than it did!
What were your favourite details of the wedding?
Everything was so PERFECT! Our favourite parts of the day were the fetch-the-bride games in the morning, making the boys work hard to get to the bride, seeing Thomas tear up as Cassandra walked down the aisle, the intimate tea ceremony we were able to have with our families and the reception was our ultimate favourite!
What was most important to you both on your wedding day?
There were quite a few things that were very important to both of us for our wedding day. In regards to the guests, it was of utmost importance to us that there was good food! For us personally, photography and videography were our utmost priority as those were things that we would keep and look back on for the rest of our lives.
Who were your favourite wedding vendors and why?
All our vendors were absolutely amazing! But there were a few that we wanted to give a big shout out to:
Ivan (ITZ Studios)
Ivan did our livestreaming and our pre wedding photography. He was so easy to work with and always put 100% into everything he was doing! The livestreaming was so important to us, especially with so many close family members and friends overseas who were unable to attend our special day. He made sure that everything was smooth and high definition and everyone back home was able to view our wedding and witness our wedding!
Silas Chau (Silas Chau Photography)
We first met Silas at a friend’s wedding and we were amazed by his work and straightaway wanted to get him as our wedding photographer. So we booked him 1.5 YEARS before our wedding (yes, that's how sure we were haha!). And as expected, throughout the whole process, Silas was always quick to respond and so easy to talk to and ask questions! On the day itself, Silas and Kelly were AMAZING, they were able to blend in with the crowd taking photos for us, making it very easy going and casual to make the atmosphere light and fun, and at the end, giving us a beautiful collage of the day's events with a beautiful same day edit which we were all so amazed by! Silas is definitely the go to photographer, totally worth it for all the memories down the years and we absolutely love our photos!
Andy Yang (Andy Yang Films)
Andy was so great to work with and so easy to get along with! For a very long time, Cassandra knew she wanted him as our wedding videographer when we got married because of his style of videography. He also did a same day edit for us (a video of the whole day, shown during the reception) and everyone absolutely loved it! Not a lot of vendors out there do same day edits so this was a big surprise to most people at the reception and gives a very different touch compared to other weddings we usually go to!
[You can watch Cassandra & Thomas' same day edit wedding video here!]
Makeup by Elly Liana
Elly was so amazing to work with! Cassandra first knew about her through another friend’s wedding as well and fell in love with the makeup style that she does. As there was Cassandra and 4 bridesmaids for hair and makeup to be completed by 8am, Elly arrived at 3:30am to start the day! We absolutely loved the 100% commitment, attentiveness and effort she put into every hair and makeup she was doing, whether it’d be for the bridesmaids or the bride! She made Cassandra look so beautiful that day, and as Cassandra usually doesn’t wear makeup, she constantly made sure Cassandra’s (really sensitive) eyes were feeling okay with the makeup.
Cassandra & Thomas' Wedding Vendors:
Venue: Crown Hotel Melbourne
Photography: Silas Chau Photography
Videography: Andy Yang Films
Live Streaming & Pre-Wedding Shoot: ITZstudios
Makeup & Hair: Makeup by Elly Liana
Florals: English Rose
Event Equipment Hire: Melbourne Event Florals
Welcome Sign: Mazii Collection
Audiovisuals: Encore Events Technologies
Photobooth: Jimbo’s Amazing Photobooth
Take a look at some more Real Wedding features, or alternatively you can start planning your own wedding using the ABIA Wedding Directory to find trustworthy vendors in Australia.
