January 2, 2019

Il Mercato Wedding | Madeline + Huw

How did you and Huw meet?
Huw and I met in Sydney, Australia while I was doing a study abroad semester during college. Huw had just moved to Sydney from Melbourne for work and his brother was visiting so they decided to have a big night out at a club called ivy. I was there with a couple of girlfriends – we were standing near the bar when one of my friends suddenly turns around and asks Huw and his brother, Owain, if they are twins. I was mortified because, in my opinion, they didn’t look one bit alike! I thought my friend must have had a few too many drinks because surely these two weren’t even related. However, Huw and Owain played along for a while saying that they were indeed twins (no doubt they were loving the attention) but I wasn’t falling for their shenanigans, so I just kind of started ignoring them but continued to accept their offers to refill our glasses of what we then thought was Veuve, but Huw later admitted was actually some cheap house brand of sparkling wine. Huw was very persistent in trying to capture my attention and even attempted to steal a kiss that night, so I finally gave him my phone number and he asked me out on a proper date shortly after.

How did he propose?
Huw and I had been together for a little over three years and had been on a number of overseas adventures together, including moving to Singapore earlier that year, so I didn’t think much of our trip to the UK at Christmas. The plan was to visit London for a couple of days before meeting up with his family to celebrate in the Yorkshire Dales, about a three hour train ride north of London, followed by a week of skiing in Livigno, Italy. We landed on the morning of December 22nd and had plans to see Aladdin that evening, so when we went out sightseeing in the afternoon Huw told me to get dressed to go dinner and the show as we wouldn’t be coming back to the hotel. Our first stop would be the London Tower Bridge! We walked toward the bridge past the cutest little Christmas market where I kept attempting to stop to browse or order a mulled wine, but Huw was insistent we keep walking. It was a little muddy and he insisted we stand on this grassy patch in order to have the best view of the bridge. I was, to be honest, getting a little confused because he was so concerned about where to stand and I had on my favorite boots and didn’t know why on earth we hadn’t started taking some pictures! I made him take a selfie with me and as I am checking it to make sure it is up to par he is getting down on one knee. I turned around and wasn’t sure if he was tying his shoe or if he tripped over himself so I began to ask him what was wrong when he opened the ring box and asked me to marry him! It was really perfect and unexpected! I am sure I was a hard person to surprise, but he did a great job! I noticed from the corner of my eye that someone kept snapping photos of us so I asked if he knew the person when he told me that yes, he had hired the photographer to capture the moment, which is why he was so particular about the exact spot. Apparently the photographer was standing in a specific spot waving his hands around to get Huw’s attention and tell him where to stand… I was oblivious to it all!

What are the most memorable moments from your wedding day?
Walking down the aisle is kind of an obvious one! Since Huw and I hadn’t seen each other yet I was pretty excited to see him standing up there looking all dapper.
However, one of the other most memorable moments was our first dance. I was SO nervous, you wouldn’t believe. Huw and I thought it would be a great idea to take dance lessons, but when we started we didn’t realize that a work trip would come up for him and leave us apart for a whole month before the wedding. The week leading up to the wedding I was freaking out because we hadn’t practiced our dance in about five weeks. A couple of days before we managed to spend about an hour practicing, but I was convinced the dance was going to be a disaster. On the night, we practiced the steps quickly in the little room they had us in right before they announced us at the reception and ended up nailing every move out on the dance floor! There was one tiny hiccup though… I didn’t even think about the fact that the band would be doing their own rendition of the song, so we finished our dance way before the music stopped. We just stood there laughing and smiling at each other for a few moments before recovering with some good ol’ school day slow dance moves until the song ended. It may not have gone exactly the way I planned, but in that moment I knew we will always be a team and make the best of situations that don’t go exactly as planned.

I asked Huw this question as well without telling him my own opinion first and he said dancing on the stage with all of our friends and family dancing along and singing Proud Mary! I have to admit, that was pretty amazing as well 🙂

Color palette
I never really picked a color palette before I started selecting things I like, but it ended up being neutrals and gold with lots of green thrown in from the greenery, which I wanted more of than flowers.

Cake flavors
My cake was almond with almond buttercream and Huw’s cake was two layers of chocolate with chocolate buttercream and two layers of lemon and elderflower with lemon buttercream. After the royal wedding earlier this year, Huw (channeling his British roots) declared he would like the same flavor cake as Meghan and Harry! I think he was joking (maybe not) but I still asked the bakery if they could do some layers in that flavor so he could really feel royal 😉

First dance song
At Last by Etta James

Where did your guests travel from to attend your wedding day?
We had guests from across the US, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, India, and United Kingdom.