On 20/08/2023 I got the absolute honour of marrying the love of my life. It was such a magical, dreamy day and I wish I could do it all over again. It’s true what people say, the day goes by SO quickly. I am so grateful that the day was filled with such special moments that I will hold in my heart forever.
This blog post is all about the vendors we chose for our big day and what I thought of them – an honest review! All of these people helped make the day as perfect as I had imagined. If you’re planning on getting married in Hong Kong then this post could be useful for you. Or, if you just fancy a lil’ nosey, then I hope you enjoy!
First off, as I’m a total control freak (side-eye) I made the decision to not hire a wedding planner or coordinator. Crazy, I know…especially since I had 6 months to plan the whole thing! But I really wanted to do all of the planning myself and I am so proud that every last detail was completely down to me. I actually enjoyed the process, and although very stressful at times, it was a very special project indeed. However, one wedding to plan was enough for me so it’s safe to say I won’t be taking up a career in wedding planning, that’s for sure!
Venues
I had always dreamed of getting married in a beautiful, white church and this was my main priority. We had our wedding ceremony at Bethanie Chapel and we were lucky that they had availability on the date we chose. Our engagement was only 8 months and usually you have to book way in advance. But my angels were definitely blessing me there!
We had our Chinese tea ceremony and reception at Ovolo Southside hotel. It was great because we could make use of their indoor lounge, outdoor terrace and gorgeous rooftop. We also got ready at this hotel and stayed there the night before and night of. The hotel suites were amazing! I really recommend this hotel, even just for a little staycation.
Civil celebrant
The civil celebrant we chose for our wedding was absolutely amazing. Amy is such a helpful, lovely, caring and sweet civil celebrant. It was important for us to get a bilingual celebrant since our wedding was held in Cantonese and English. Amy translated everything beautifully and ensured all of the guests understood our vows.
She helped with all the documents, vows, scripts, MC’ing, and calming our nerves too. I would recommend her to ALL couples getting married in Hong Kong. She does very personal ceremonies and takes the time to get to know the couple so she can tell your story properly. She also donates some of the fee to a chosen charity of the couples choice. Having Amy do our ceremony was my favourite decision of our wedding (big statement right!) – and oh so very true.
Photographers
As someone who studied Photography at University, I had pretty high expectations for a Photographer (and that’s why we hired three lol.) They all exceeded my expectations completely! These guys were absolutely FANTASTIC at capturing our day. We got thousands and thousands of beautiful photos (with such a fast turnaround too!) and they were also just nice guys in general. Please check them out and show them some support because they deserve it.
Videographers
Another favourite part of our wedding was the video team. Filming Art Production were just incredible. They had so many different parts to film since we had a mixture of Western and Chinese traditions throughout the day so I really did feel sorry for them having to edit through all of the footage. The video they gave us after was just beautiful. I can’t watch it without crying. I really cannot thank these guys enough.
Wedding cake
Taylor Made Cake did an amazing job to make such a delicious and pretty cake. We loved it so much (and so did the guests!) We went for a three tiered, chocolate flavoured cake. It was absolutely delicious. I wish ordering wedding cakes to eat was just a normal every day thing because I honestly would haha. (At this point in the night I was tipsy, rushing to dance, and had smudged mascara from crying…so excuse my face in the photo)
Wedding dress
Where do I even start with wedding dress shopping in Hong Kong? As a UK size 12 I usually don’t have too much of an issue finding clothes to wear. However, wedding dress shopping was a totally different story.
I cried after nearly every wedding dress appointment I had at SEVERAL different shops. I don’t know how it is for other countries, but what I know mostly about UK is that wedding dress shopping is such a beautiful and fun experience. You can take your time, try on as many dresses as you want, take photos, drink champagne etc etc.
In Hong Kong?…not a chance.
Most shops I went to tried to rush me, oversell packages I didn’t need, pressure me into paying a deposit to confirm their service, NO photo taking allowed at all, no special service to make you feel special, and most of all, didn’t have my size. I was lucky if I could try on more than one dress at each store. Most Asian ladies are a lot slimmer with smaller chests, so of course the shops in Hong Kong only cater for this. My large chest and curvier body was alien to them! (Or at least they made me feel that way.)
However, all of these issues stopped when I found Perfection Gown. The staff were really lovely, they let me take photos so I could share with my family who were back in the UK since they couldn’t be there in person. They also respected my choices, didn’t try to pressure me and found me a dress that I felt special in. I am so thankful to them…the only shop I didn’t cry over! Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Chinese QUA dress
We also did a traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony on our big day. This was an important part to make sure we got a good balance of our different cultures and backgrounds. I chose a ‘King’ QUA from Koon Nam Wah. The ladies at the Wan Chai branch were soooo sweet and really took care of me (even with a language barrier.) They made me feel so so beautiful. I absolutely loved wearing the traditional Chinese clothing.
Wedding rings
For our wedding rings, we chose Vinci Jewellery. We came across their business at a Wedding Expo and we were drawn to them because of their excellent service. They were so professional and helpful. My husband was very picky about his ring and Vinci Jewellery helped us to customise our chosen rings to suit us better. We could also personalise them with text inside which made them really unique. So so special. I really recommend Vinci Jewellery for anyone choosing their wedding rings.
Lion dance
I absolutely LOVE Lion dances. I’ve always been so fascinated by them. We were very excited to have Kwok’s Kung Fu & Dragon Lion Dance Team perform at our reception. It was such a fun surprise for our guests and this was such an enjoyable moment. They were awesome! Such a talented team.
Bridesmaids Dresses
I let my bridesmaids choose their own style of dress and then I ordered them in a Sage Green colour. Some shops we used were Birdy Grey and LuLus. They all looked so beautiful in their dresses and I loved that they all had different styles. We also got the groomsmen’s bow ties from Birdy Grey too. Birdy Grey is such a lovely website for wedding clothes and accessories.
Hair & Makeup
Hair and makeup was another difficult thing for me to find in Hong Kong as a Westerner. I tried a few different makeup artists but the Asian makeup style didn’t suit me very well. They didn’t offer me enough coverage.
I came across Jenny D MUA, and after I did my trial with her, I was super happy! She also worked with a lady to do hair too. I could only have time to do hair and makeup once in the early morning. As we had Chinese tea ceremony, church ceremony, dinner, reception and then after party…it was a lot of events for me to go through without a refresh. The makeup stayed very well and I really liked the natural look I had for my big day. Jenny also does makeup for other events too so I’d definitely use her again in the future whenever I need professional makeup for an event.
So there we have it, the incredible vendors we used for our Hong Kong wedding. I am so thankful to every single one of them!
You might have noticed I didn’t talk about my flowers. Although the flowers were very pretty, I do not recommend the vendor I used for various reasons. These were things such as late turnaround, pushy service, and the fact the florist stayed during my whole ceremony uninvited and started trying to make executive decisions about our ceremony, telling everyone she was my acting coordinator (Like, what?!) It was a wild situation! I’m not going to name the vendor but if you want to avoid this company then feel free to message me privately.
I am so thankful to all of the vendors who made our special day even better than we could have imagined.
All the photos in this post were taken by the photographers I listed. All credit goes to them.
20/08/2023…the best day of my life.
If you enjoyed this blog post, please check out my previous post here.