Real Wedding: Kirk & Emily – Photography by Damien Milan

The engagement started when Kirk proposed in June 2017. We were supposed to get married in November that year, we had sent out the Save The Dates and booked the venue and photographer. However, I was auditioning for a musical at the time which would have fallen over the wedding date. The production team of the musical told me that they would not accept me if I did not move the wedding! We were thinking of moving back to Sydney from Melbourne anyway and decided to move the wedding to give themselves more time to settle and plan without undue stress. I didn’t end up doing the musical, but they ended up pushing the date back to March, and had time to settle into our place in Ashfield before planning the wedding. Luckily all the vendors were still available for the new wedding date in March 2018. It also meant that Kirk’s family from Malaysia and my theatre friends in Melbourne, London, LA and New York had more time to plan flights and holidays around the celebration.

Kirk proposed to me after 30 days of meeting each other on the streets of Surry Hills for the first time. A few weeks after we met, Kirk got a job in Melbourne. I encouraged him to take it because it was a dream opportunity. Kirk requested from his new job as part of his sign up, that they fly him back to Sydney to see his girlfriend after just one week! Kirk took me out for dinner at Automata in Chippendale. We had talked about the fact that neither of us were interested in getting married at all during the course of the 8 course feed. After the meal however, infront of a dirty garage door and after a wine paired degustation, we jokingly suggested that he should propose… He did. He got down on one knee after 1 month, and proposed to me behind my little Suzuki Swift. I said yes of course. There were no rings, no fanfare but 2 very well fed and love sick grown-ups. We got matching wedding bands made in Melbourne soon after and skipped the engagement ring all together.

Tell us about your special day, was there a specific theme or style? Tell us a little about the setting, the styling and some of your favourite details…

The vibe was rustic, chic. But it ended up being very simple and homely. Fairy lights for mood, homemade flower arrangements like someone brought in flowers from the garden and a rustic meal like your fab uncle with a fancy woodfire oven whipped up. It was homely, like we had everyone over for dinner and a boogie. Like an elaborate version of our regular weekends.

We played ChinChon on our first date for about 3.5 hours over coffee in Surry Hills. Emily found a great place in Spain where you could design your own Spanish playing cards which are slightly different to your average deck. We had them sitting in a basket by the cupcakes which were the second greatest detail. Homemade cupcakes from our cousins cake making business (see? homely right?). We had 3 flavours, Kirk picked red velvet, I picked Lemon and we picked together carrot cake because it was the cake Kirk made for our families when they met for the first time over dinner at ours.

We chose to do our flowers ourselves. My Aunt Caroline, sister Hayley and mother Angela woke early on the Friday morning at 4am to head to the flower markets. We didn’t have a theme but were aiming for natives. We picked the season’s flavour for the day then brought them back too our any apartment in Ashfield to arrange over the Greatest Hits of Paul Simon. Bless Kirk who had had a big night the night before and was blindly following the women around acting as their pack horse. Emily’s sister was particularly good at the arranging so she took the lead. By the end of the morning, even Kirk was picking out his favourite blooms for the mens corsages. He got so excited he made corsages for half the male guest contingency.

Tell us about your main outfits:

Emily : I didn’t know what I wanted at first. I’d never had plans of a big white wedding. I took my mum, Kirk’s mum and my sister (bridesmaid) to a few different places to try on a variety of styles on a weekend back from Melbourne. I then knew I wanted a low back, lace and SUPER simple. I actually found may dress online through Still White. I loved the fact that someone else had imbued the dress with a story before I put it on. I got it tailored and mum added some beautiful lace to make it longer and I was happy. I wanted to be able to move and dance in it, and not feel like an embellished cupcake.

What were some of the most memorable/unique moments from the day?

Kirk and I actually did our photos before the ceremony so that we could spend valuable time eating, drinking and taking with our guests who had travelled for the occasion. We didn’t want to be detached from the party by going away and coming back to sit at a table where you only talk to the people either side of you. It also meant that Kirk and I had our ‘moments’ before the chaos arrived. There were of course so many wonderful moments, but standing behind Kirk waiting for him to turn around and see me for the first time, out the front of the roller door we proposed in front of, was very special. Meanwhile, my family who were leaving the Old Clare where Emily got ready, around the corner from the “first sight” hooned past Kirk waiting alone, and screamed at him from their taxi on their way to prep the venue. If only to make him more nervous about joining the Cascarino family chaos, and to cheer him on I suppose.

We could not for the life of us think of a good wedding dance song. We LOVE Beauty and the Beast but we thought the theme song was too cheesy for grown-up wedding. We went through a suite of other songs that didn’t quite fit. Then 2 nights before the big day, we decided to just do it. We watched a Youtube video to learn a few cute steps, and danced in our living room to our favourite song. We went with cheese, and it was perfect.

Any advice for other couples planning to spend the rest of their lives together?

Keep it simple. Narrow your options down to 3 and pick the simplest one. And don’t skimp on the photographer. You aren’t going to catch everything, and a warm, genuine photographer will allow you to relive the day from everyone else’s perspective.

Photographer: Damien Milan Photography | Ceremony & Reception Location & Catering: Three Blue Ducks, Rosebery NSW | Celebrant: Karen Taylor | Entertainment: DJ James Mackkaren | Styling: Emily & family | Flora: Hayley Cascarino (family) | Cake: The Sweet Cake Collection | Bride’s Dress: Katie May | Groom’s suit:  Tailor made by Luxurious | Rings: Shaun McAlister | Bride’s shoes: Windsor Smith | Groom’s Shoes: Florsheim | Hair: Michelle’s Heirloom | Bridesmaid dresses: Sheike | Bridesmaid shoes: ASOS